News Currents

JUSTICE

The US Supreme Court June 8 took the following actions: Postponed deciding, probably until 1993, whether federal courts and law enforcement agents can stop anti-abortion protesters from blocking access to abortion clinics. The case will be reargued in the fall.... Agreed to decide whether employers may contribute property rather than cash to meet their funding obligations for pension plans covering 40 million American workers.... Said states may ban write-in voting in elections, a ruling that could hampe r some protest candidacies.... Limited the government's ability to regulate some pistols that can be converted into short-barreled rifles.... Agreed to consider killing a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia by Scott Nelson of Raleigh, N.C., who said Saudi police tortured him. The court said it will decide whether a 1976 US law permits such lawsuits against foreign governments.... Agreed to resolve a Texas death-penalty dispute that could affect dozens of death-row inmates in that state. EUROPE

In a meeting between British and Libyan officials on June 9, Libya gave Britain information on its links with the Irish Republican Army. A Libyan official implied the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 was discussed. ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE

Sales of timber from some of Oregon's old-growth forests could be on hold for a year after a judge ordered the US Bureau of Land Management to study the effect of logging on the northern spotted owl.... Hewlett-Packard has unveiled the world's smallest disk drive, a matchbox-size device that can supply 14,389 typed pages worth of memory to machines such as handheld computers and mobile phones.