News Currents
EUROPE
Britain said yesterday a UN report has concluded that Libya had failed to comply with demands over two airline bombings and that Britain, the US, and France were now considering new measures against Tripoli. Libya reportedly offered the US a deal late Tuesday in handing over agents accused in one of the bombings, but diplomats said that Tripoli's position was still confusing.... Czechoslovakia will hold a general election on June 5 and 6 that is expected to be dominated by the issue of whether the countr y will split. As well as electing deputies to the 300-seat Assembly, voters will choose members of the Czech and Slovak National Councils, regional parliaments.... Britain Wednesday unveiled a giant submarine to carry new US-supplied Trident missiles, asserting that the end of the cold war will not halt a bid to upgrade its nuclear arsenal.... Germany gave a warm welcome yesterday to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who arrived in Bonn on an eight-day private visit, his first trip abroad since he resigned.... An explosion deep in a Turkish coal mine yesterday killed at least 78 miners; about 460 are missing and feared dead. MIDDLE EAST
An administrative court yesterday dissolved the Islamic Salvation Front, Algeria's largest political opposition group, according to judicial sources.... Victims of War Inc., a US private charity group, opened an office in Baghdad yesterday with special permission from the Iraqi government to distribute aid directly to victims of the Persian Gulf war. It joins the much bigger and more established Catholic Relief Services and the Quaker organization. But unlike them, it can deal directly with the people, s aid its president, an Iraqi-born American. UNITED STATES
All 10 members of Washington State's congressional delegation Tuesday appealed for Major League Baseball to approve a $100 million cash bid for the Seattle Mariners by a group led by Nintendo Company's founder. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Pakistan burned the world's biggest drug seizure yesterday, setting ablaze heroin and hashish worth more than $400 million, all seized in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The two nations together are the second-largest source of heroin in the world.... US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Solomon arrived in Hanoi yesterday to discuss Americans missing from the Vietnam War and Vietnam's own humanitarian needs.... Japan is concerned a draft of the Russian constitution requiring a national referendum before ter ritory can change hands will create a new obstacle to ending a bitter dispute over four islands off the northern tip of Japan.... Matsushita Electric Industrial Company and supermarket-chain-operator Seiyu Ltd. said yesterday they have launched a joint venture in Tokyo to import and market products made by US outfitter L.L. Bean Inc.
