News Currents
UNITED STATES
The State Department has removed the flag of Yugoslavia from its lobby and replaced it with the flags of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia. These three new nations, formerly Yugoslav republics, accepted US terms for diplomatic relations.... Senate majority leader George Mitchell is leading a mission Aug. 17-21 to Eastern and Central Europe that will stop in the former Yugoslavian republic of Croatia. Mitchell said he wants to see how much force is needed to get relief into the area. ECONOMY AND BUSINESS
Wang Laboratories Inc., a pioneer among makers of word-processing equipment, filed Aug. 18 for bankruptcy protection. The company faltered as personal computers displaced its products.... Housing starts fell 2.8 percent in July, despite the lowest mortgage rates in nearly two decades, the Commerce Department said Aug. 18.... Phar-Mor Inc. drugstores filed Aug. 17 for bankruptcy protection and sued its former auditor Coopers & Lybrand, accusing it of failing to uncover an alleged fraud that the retailer s ays cost it $350 million. JUSTICE
In Ohio, a federal appeals court Aug. 17 ordered an investigation into whether the government withheld information in the 1985 extradition trial of John Demjanjuk. It rejected a government argument over the extradition that led to Demjanjuk's conviction in Israel as a Nazi death-camp guard.... A Federal appeals court ruled Aug. 17 that Soldier of Fortune magazine can't use the First Amendment to escape responsibility for an personal advertisement by a mercenary for hire that led to a contract killing. It
upheld a $4.37 million verdict against the publication.
