News Currents

UNITED STATES

An Australian-based syndicate that recently won a record Virginia Lottery jackpot of $27 million has targeted US lotteries since 1989, the Virginian-Pilot and the Ledger-Star reported Saturday. Agents for the International Lotto Fund had visited or contacted officials in cities from Miami to Montreal and Boston to Phoenix in an attempt to identify and capture a multimillion-dollar jackpot by buying all the number combinations in a lottery. EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST

German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher said yesterday that the UN Security Council should take tougher measures against Iraq to ensure it retains no weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, Iraqi troops have launched a new offensive against Shiite dissidents in southern Iraq, the Iranian news agency said yesterday.... Relief workers said yesterday the earthquake in eastern Turkey on Friday caused over 320 known deaths and that up to 150 people were still missing.... The fate of food credits worth $1.5 billion to the republics of the former Soviet Union, but in limbo for six months, will top the agenda of a meeting of European Community finance ministers today. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

China pledged yesterday to abolish a key import barrier, its "adjustment tax," but said tariffs for automobiles and some other heavily taxed goods would rise sharply. The reform appeared to be part of the government's bid to rejoin the world trade-regulating General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.... Pakistan and India held a high-level meeting yesterday to consider an Indian proposal for talks on nuclear non-proliferation, a spokesman for the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said.