News Currents
EUROPESevere fighting continued in Yugoslavia over the weekend. Federal forces and Serbian guerrillas stepped up their four-day offensive, pounding the strategic towns of Karlovac and Duga Resa in a bid to seal off southern Croatia from the rest of the republic. Croatian President Franjo Tudjman issued a call to arms for his whole republic. Federal power was shattered in the country after Serbia and three pro-Serbian members adopted special powers last week to make decisions for the eight-man presidency, even if their four rivals, led by Croatia, did not appear. US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington denounces "a clear attempt by Serbia and Montenegro to seize control" of the Yugoslav government by extra-constitutional means and use of force.... The Soviet Union became an associate member of the International Monetary Fund Saturday under an agreement that will allow it to receive technical help and advice from the lending body but no cash.... Moscow has started auctioning off retail proper ties to private entrepreneurs looking for space to expand their businesses.... A former Soviet secret policeman has broken a 50-year silence to describe in detail to Soviet investigators how thousands of Polish officers were massacred on direct orders from Stalin in 1940 in Katyn forest, the Observer newspaper said in London.
MIDDLE EAST About 50 chemical-weapons experts, the biggest United Nations inspection team to visit Iraq so far under the terms of the Gulf war cease-fire, left Bahrain for Baghdad yesterday for a one-month stay.... German archaeologists have stumbled upon a previously undiscovered pyramid at the ancient southern Egyptian city of Luxor, the al-Ahram newspaper said yesterday.
UNITED STATES The US Justice Department has obtained a confidential witness list compiled by former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega's defense lawyers, triggering an internal federal investigation into how it happened.... Representatives of Indian tribes from Mexico, the US, and Canada gathered in Los Angeles Saturday to launch a campaign to protest the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's discovery of America.
ASIA AND AFRICA The Association of Tennis Professionals ended its ban on tournaments in South Africa and will sponsor two events in Johannesburg next month.... South Africa intends to use Taiwan as a springboard into the Far East market, Taiwan's Economics Vice Minister Chiang Pin-kung said.... Commonwealth finance ministers meeting in Kuala Lumpur this week will urge rich nations to cancel some debt of the world's poorest countries. They will consider a British proposal to cancel two-thirds of the debt of the world's p oorest nations and reschedule the rest over up to 25 years instead of 14.
