News Currents

UNITED STATES

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D) of Illinois was accused by a House post office official of improperly exchanging postage vouchers for thousands of dollars in cash. Prosecutors are still trying to determine if he used the money for personal expenses.... New claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell 4,000 for the week ending May 16 to a seasonally adjusted 403,000, the lowest in more than seven months.... UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said that talks on

the disputed Western Sahara would begin shortly in New York.... Ross Perot lengthened his shadow over the November presidential election Wednesday as his supporters got his name on Texas and Florida ballots. ECONOMY AND BUSINESS

British Prime Minister John Major yesterday ruled out any rescue package for Olympia and York Developments, which filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday for its Canary Wharf project in London's Docklands. The Canadian firm is also a troubled property holder in New York.... Bankrupt Australian Alan Bond was convicted of dishonesty yesterday for soliciting a rescue bid for a collapsed finance company, hiding a fee arrangement for his firm. ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE

Bulgaria has asked Ukraine to help trace an Estonian-registered ship loaded with toxic lead and arsenic waste it suspects may have been dumped into the Black Sea.... An American Telephone and Telegraph subsidiary in Largo, Fla., says it had developed technology that may revolutionize communications by giving copper wires virtually the same transmission capacity as fiber-optic cables.