News Currents

EUROPE

Italy's one-month-old government, battling Mafia killings and economic turmoil, won a confidence vote on an emergency financial policy in Parliament yesterday. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Continued pessimism about Japan's economy sent the Nikkei stock average down 330.69 points yesterday. It closed at 15,095.95 points, its lowest level this year. UNITED STATES

In Detroit, an Arab-American who blamed a 1991 fire at his Dairy Queen on hatred whipped up by the Gulf war was charged Tuesday with setting the blaze himself.... Labor Secretary Lynn Martin Tuesday urged Congress to enact the Bush administration's proposed reform of the government pension insurance program before it becomes the next "savings-and-loan disaster." She said the program, which insures the defined benefit pension system, has suffered back-to-back annual losses of $1 billion.... Warner Bros. R ecords will pull "Cop Killer" from Ice-T's "Body Count" album at his request and he will give the song away as a single instead, the musician said Tuesday.... Striking drivers exulted Tuesday when Pittsburgh's two daily newspapers suspended publication again rather than try for a third day to use nonunion replacement delivery drivers. LATIN AMERICA

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who dissolved Congress in April, Tuesday announced plans to hold an election in November for an assembly whose members would be banned from political office for 10 years. They were greeted by renewed opposition demands for a return to constitutional government.