News In Brief

Senate majority leader Robert Dole and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole, posed for photographs Tuesday with China's powerful leader Deng Xiaoping. Senator Dole, who has toured Asia with six other senators to open up markets for US goods, is wrapping up his trip in the vast, gradually opening market of China, where Deng has instituted broad economic reforms.

India closes Pakistan border to head off Sikh attacks

India's border with Pakistan was sealed and security forces were put on high alert in northern Punjab state yesterdaytue to head off Sikh extremist attacks before next month's state elections. Meanwhile, Tamil guerrilla supporters in India threatened a rail blockade and mass rallies over the expulsion of two separatist leaders from India last Saturday. Tamils in Sri Lanka also called for protests.

Afghanistan and Pakistan resume war-solution talks

Afghanistan and Pakistan resumed UN-sponsored talks yesterdaytue, which seek a peaceful solution to the six-year Afghan guerrilla war and withdrawal of some 115,000 Soviet troops backing the Marxist government in Kabul. Meanwhile, Western diplomats report that casualties from a Soviet campaign to relieve a besieged garrison in Afghanistan are heavy.

In New Dehli, a Thai International Airlines spokesman said the Soviet Union abruptly closed its airspace near Afghanistan yesterdaytue, forcing a Thai airliner, which was almost over the Afghan capital Kabul, to return to New Dehli.

Crocker Bank penalized $2.25 million for violations

The Treasury Department announced yesterdaytue that Crocker National Bank of San Francisco, the nation's 11th largest bank, has agreed to pay penalties of $2.25 million for failing to report almost $4 billion in cash transactions. The fine is the largest levied against a financial institution for violations under the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires that cash transactions over $10,000 be reported.

Palestinian wounded in checkpoint incident

Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank shot and wounded a Palestinian who refused to submit to an identity check today, state radio said. The incident in Arab Kalkilya coincided with an intensive search for guerrillas who killed an Israeli civilian and wounded another in two shootings on Saturday. Meanwhile, the military spokesman's office announced that Israel will free about 100 Lebanese prisoners from a military prison today wed and will return them to Lebanon. The prisoners are among those whose freedom was demanded by Shiite Muslim hijackers of an TWA jetliner on June 14.

Muslim gunmen kidnap 6 Christians in west Beirut

Muslim gunmen yesterdaytue kidnapped six Christians near Beirut Airport in the fourth such abduction in Muslim-controlled west Beirut this month, an official of Lebanon's Middle East Airlines said. The official, who asked not to be named, said he believed the kidnapping was linked to the abduction in east Beirut yesterday of a Muslim taxi driver.

Albanian chief rejects ties with East or West

In what Albanian diplomats described as a major policy statement, Albania's Communist Party chief said Monday that the country will not shed its Stalinist isolation under his leadership and rejected all ties, ``whatever they may be,'' with America or the Soviet Union. Ramiz Alia also said Albania will remain financially independent, will seek no foreign loans, and he announced a campaign to improve the quality of consumer goods.

Sarney realigns top economic posts in Brazil

Brazilian President Jos'e Sarney yesterdaytue named Dilson Funaro, president of the National Bank of Development to replace Finance Minister Franciso Dornelles, who resigned Monday. Central Bank President Antonio Carlos Lemgruber resigned Monday as well. Mr. Funaro was president of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development and He served as finance secretary and planning secretary for his home state of Sao Paulo.

Bomb guerrillas say stolen ID gained entry to US base

The left-wing Red Army Faction guerrilla group said it killed a US soldier for his identity card in order to plant the bomb that killed two Americans at a US Air Force base earlier this month. The state prosecutor's office said it believed the claim, made in a letter signed by the RAF and received by a newspaper yesterdaytue, to be genuine.

Chicago judge sentenced for corruption conviction

Judge Richard LeFevour was sentenced yesterdaytue to 12 years in prison for 59 counts of mail fraud, racketeering, and income-tax violations. Convicted last month, he is the highest-ranking judge charged in the federal Operation Greylord investigation of corruption in the Cook County courts.

Discovery astronauts save satellite snagged in cargo bay

Space shuttle Discovery was launched yesterdaytue through a hole in the clouds, and within hours overcame a major problem by using the ship's robot arm to nudge a sun shield that had snagged on a $60 million Australian communications satellite in the cargo bay. The satellite was launched yesterday instead of today, to prevent damage to its electronics from the sun.

Florida lifts ban on fruit shipments as medflies vanish

The state Agriculture Commissioner yesterdaytue said a program to rid Florida of the Mediterranean fruit fly has succeeded, and a quarantine on shipments of fruit from the previously infested area has been lifted.

Three Dutch balloonists rescued after 4 hours

Henk Brink, his wife, Evelyn, and copilot Evert Louwman were safe on a rescue ship yesterday after they ditched their balloon in the mid-Atlantic when it sprang a leak. They were taken aboard the Panamanian container ship Ever Greet after about four hours adrift in the balloon's buoyant capsule.

CorrectionCorrection for 8/27/85

The map on Page 3 of Tuesday's edition should have included Colombia and North Yemen among the countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty of 1970.