News Currents
MIDDLE EAST Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel long ago complied with UN Resolution 242 by quitting the Sinai Peninsula as part of its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. The disputed resolution calls for Israel to leave Arab lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war and is now widely accepted as meaning a pullout from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.... Britain's Sky News reported Wednesday that Yasser Arafat's political adviser, Bassam Abu Sharif, would announce Thursday that t he PLO will dropp its long-standing demand to be treated as an equal partner in talks with Israel. The report came after US Secretary of State James Baker III met Palestinians in Jerusalem during a two-day visit to Israel. Baker moved on to Syria on Wednesday after telling the Israelis to show flexibility to match new thinking among Arab states. The heart of the talks is to get Israel to give back occupied lands in exchange for peace agreements with Arab nations.
UNITED STATES
President Bush on Wednesday flew to Ottawa to hear Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's plan to limit the global arms trade. Then Bush was to go to Martinique in the Caribbean to meet French President Fran,cois Mitterrand and British Prime Minister John Major to discuss his vision for a ``new world order'' following the end of the Gulf war.... A citywide movement is growing in Los Angeles to force Police Chief Daryl Gates to step down in response to the March 3 videotaped police beating of Rodney King.... The US is resuming diplomatic relations with Albania for the first time in five decades. The two countries will sign a memorandum of understanding in Washington tomorrow.
EUROPE
A Soviet-US summit meeting between Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Bush, postponed from February, could take place in May, the official Tass news agency said Wednesday.... OPEC oil ministers ended talks in Geneva Tuesday with a decision to trim less than 1 million barrels off daily output, now estimated at 23 million barrels a day, in a bid to increase oil prices.... In Yugoslavia, tens of thousands of anticommunist demonst rators celebrated apparent victory in Belgrade in efforts to have five bosses of Serbia's Communist-run media ousted. The army was considering strong security measures.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Indian President Ramaswamy Venkataraman Wednesday ordered general elections in the world's most populous democracy, ending a week of political chaos. He directed that a new parliament meet on or before June 5, setting the scene for a May election.... Japan's former finance minister, Michio Watanabe, said Wednesday he had won tacit approval from Southeast Asian leaders for Japan to commit military personnel to future UN peacekeeping operations.