News Currents

UNITED STATES

General Motors Corporation and the United Auto Workers settled a week-old strike at a body-parts plant over the weekend. In the agreement, about 140 new positions will be created through increased production and 240 jobs that GM sought to eliminate will be kept.... In Detroit, teachers-union leaders and school-board officials discussed pay raises in court-ordered talks aimed at ending a week-old strike. Teachers seek an 8 percent increase; the school district offers only a 3 percent bonus for attending s taff development workshops. EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

Tajik President Rakhmon Nabiyev resigned yesterday. Nabiyev's resignation followed his capture, along with his cabinet ministers, at the airport outside Dushanbe, Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported.... In Italy, authorities Sunday arrested reputed Mafia boss Giuseppe Madonia, suspected of being one of the men who ordered the killings of anti-Mafia crusaders Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Japan will not pledge new aid to Russia during President Boris Yeltsin's visit to Japan next week, policymakers said yesterday. Tokyo wants first to resolve the dispute over four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan.... China yesterday blasted President Bush's decision to sell F-16 jets to Taiwan and rejected the explanations of a US special envoy .... In India's violence-wracked Punjab state, candidates supporting Sikh separatists swept past the governing Congress Party Sunday in early returns in the f irst municipal elections in 13 years. Sikhs have long claimed persecution by authorities.