News Currents

UNITED STATESIran-contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh has vowed to investigate the roles of other top intelligence and Reagan administration officials in the scandal after CIA officer Alan Fiers, the former chief of the CIA's Central American task force, agreed to cooperate under a plea deal. Fiers pleaded guilty Tuesday in US District Court in Washington to two misdemeanor charges of withholding information from Congress. He promised to tell prosecutors all he knows about how the Reagan White House funneled ill egal aid to the Nicaraguan contras earned by selling arms to Iran. He also admitted that on two occasions, Lt. Col. Oliver North had told him that profits were being diverted from arms sales to Iran to help the contras. Fiers said he informed three of his CIA superiors, identifying Clair George, who is now retired, and two others whose names were not released because they are still working at the agency. Walsh said Fiers is helping in the investigation into whether aides to then-Vice President Bush and CIA officials had lied when denying knowledge of the diversion of funds.... The independent panel investigating the Los Angeles Police Department after the Rodney King beating found evidence of racism and brutality within the force and recommended in a report that both Chief Daryl Gates and the civilian Police Commission be replaced.... Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas said he "benefited greatly" from the civil rights movement and retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall, the court's first black whom he is nomi nated to replace. Thomas also credited the Urban League and the NAACP for a role in his rise from poverty in the then-segregated South. He made the remarks Tuesday during a meeting with Sen. Strom Thurmond (R) of South Carolina.

EUROPE An influential group of Soviet academicians and industrial managers have thrown their weight behind the new Democratic Reform Movement, led by former Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and other top liberals. The newspaper Izvestia Tuesday published a statement signed by 32 managers and parliamentarians - including influential Communist Party members - saying only political stability and market reforms could halt the Soviet Union's slide toward chaos.

AFRICA South Africa was readmitted Tuesday to the Olympic organization, 21 years after being expelled for its racist apartheid policy. The move, announced by the International Olympic Committee, means South Africa will be eligible to compete at the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France, and the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain.

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC Australia is unlikely to lift trade sanctions against South Africa before the end of the year despite moves by the US, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans said yesterday.