News Currents

EUROPE AND AFRICA

The German magazine Stern, citing sources in the German intelligence service BND, said that Iran had obtained two nuclear warheads from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.... Pro-reform forces in South Africa made a last-minute appeal to whites yesterday to vote "yes" for nonracial democracy today or plunge the country into a race war. President Frederik W. de Klerk's final message before the referendum - that rejection of his reforms would lead to chaos - has been echoed by business leaders, churc hes, and newspapers. ECONOMY AND BUSINESS

Chrysler Corporation's board yesterday said it would bring General Motors executive Robert J. Eaton into the company soon as an eventual replacement for Lee Iacocca as chairman. Eaton heads GM's highly profitable European operation.... The industrial base of the United States has been revolutionized over the past decade, laying the basis for the nation to reclaim its competitive edge, the chairman of the US Export-Import Bank, John Macomber, said in Tokyo yesterday. He also said he expected linking of U S foreign aid to specific private-sector development projects to be eliminated.... Japanese electronics manufacturer Sanyo Electric Company said it has developed the world's first superconducting transistor, with the potential of massive increases in speed for integrated circuits. It will be five years before engineering samples using the transistor appear, with products not expected on the market until the next century.... The Philippines will reject an Austrian company's proposal to ship toxic waste to th e country to help finance a $300 million incinerator project. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Senior leader Deng Xiaoping's renewed call for capitalist reforms in China gained a chorus of support yesterday from long-dormant liberal economists, whose views were distributed by the state-run China News Service. "Some prestigious economists put their heads together and concluded that reform cannot go smoothly without removing leftist ideological obstacles," the agency said.... Thai jet fighters were ordered yesterday to attack any Burmese aircraft that crossed into Thai airspace in pursuit of Karen e thnic guerrillas. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh left yesterday for Washington to seek US help in resolving the problem of thousands of Muslim refugees arriving in Bangladesh from neighboring Burma.... The largest peacekeeping operation in United Nations history officially got under way in Cambodia yesterday following arrival of UN dignitaries and personnel over the weekend.... Church leaders admitted that some clergymen sexually abused women but rejected claims in an Australian Broadca sting Corporation program that about 3,000 Australian clergymen were guilty of such behavior.... India and the US are to hold joint naval exercises as "part of defense cooperation between the two countries" sources in New Delhi said.