News Currents

UNITED STATES

Democratic front-runner Bill Clinton took a strong lead over Jerry Brown in the first round of Virginia's presidential caucuses, while President Bush played golf, as the race for the White House dawdled along. The second round of Virginia's Democratic caucuses is next Monday.... American Telephone & Telegraph and Lockheed Corporation linked up yesterday in a venture that will allow drivers to pay tolls with a credit card, get up-to-the-minute traffic information, read electronic maps and summon emergency

help - all while speeding down the nation's highways. The two industrial giants say the market for so-called Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems will amount to $200 billion over the next 20 years in the United States. They are already bidding on a number of state toll-booth contracts.... Nearly 7,000 union workers went on strike at 67 Kroger stores early yesterday morning after overwhelmingly rejecting a contract offer from the nation's largest supermarket chain.... The National Hockey League strike ended Sunday as games were played in several US and Canadian cities. EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA

Opposition leader Neil Kinnock resigned as head of his Labour Party after it lost a fourth successive British election.... The region's strongest earthquake in more than 200 years shook western Germany and parts of Belgium and the Netherlands early yesterday.... Nelson Mandela said yesterday that he and his wife Winnie have agreed to separate (story, Page 5).... Six Korean women forced to work as sex slaves for Japan's Imperial Army in World War II filed a suit against the Japanese government in Tokyo ye sterday.... Some 400 Cambodian boat people held near Sydney have appealed to authorities to allow them to settle in Australia. MIDDLE EAST

Israel said yesterday it has established diplomatic ties with the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. Israel's Ambassador to Russia, Aryeh Levin, set up the ties with the largely Muslim country during a visit to Alma-Ata April 10, giving Israel ties with Russia, the three Baltic states, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan.... Seven UN inspectors left Manama, Bahrain, for Iraq yesterday to monitor the destruction of more machinery and buildings in four Iraqi plants us ed to produce ballistic missiles with a range of more than 150 kilometers. LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Haiti's provisional president, Joseph Nerette, Sunday blasted foreign countries for interfering in Haiti's internal affairs and rejected the Organization of American States-brokered agreement aimed at ending Haiti's political crisis.... President Alberto Fujimori of Peru said Sunday night his de facto government would hold a plebiscite "within six months" as a first step to returning the country to constitutional rule.