News Currents

MIDDLE EAST

Israel began releasing 600 Palestinian prisoners yesterday to coincide with Middle East peace talks in Washington, the Army said.... Lebanese Prime Minister Rashid al-Solh narrowly escaped defeat in parliamentary elections in which pro-Syrian candidates have won the lion's share of seats. The polls are being boycotted by Christians who see them as a ploy by Damascus to strengthen its grip on the country.... More Jews from the former Soviet Union are settling in the United States and Germany than in Israe l for lack of work. EUROPE

The Yugoslav economy recorded a month-to-month rise in inflation of 42.4 percent in August.... United Nations officials said heavy fighting in Sarajevo has forced them to delay sending an aid convoy to the eastern Bosnian city of Gorazde, where Serbs are said to have lifted a five-month siege.... A first group of five French warplanes will leave for the Gulf today to help enforce a no-fly zone over southern Iraq.... Russia is prepared to withdraw all its 130,000 troops from the three Baltic states next y ear, a Foreign Ministry official said. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Relief workers partly restored electricity and water supplies in Guam yesterday after Typhoon Omar ravaged the US-administered Pacific island. Omar pummeled the island of 140,000 people last Friday with winds gusting up to 150 m.p.h., destroying about 2,000 homes and damaging more than 2,000 others.... Japan's second-largest carmaker, Nissan, plans to reduce its work force by 4,000 people over the next three years through natural retirement and reduced recruitment, a Nissan spokesman said on Monday.