News Currents

UNITED STATES

The Pentagon objected to President Bush's "weak" response to Saddam Hussein as Iraq massed troops on Kuwait's border, former Defense Department official Henry Rowen told the New York Times Sunday.... The government may sue Trans World Airlines owner Carl Icahn to cover more than $1 billion in pensions owed to retired TWA employees.... Parkfield, Calif., was on alert yesterday after five tremors hit there. Federal geologists say there is a 10-percent chance a 5.5 to 6 quake on the Richter scale will occu r in two days. Meanwhile, California's Office of Emergency Services lacks the planning, training, and equipment to cope with a really big quake, reports Sunday's Orange County Register.... Yesterday, the Metrolink commuter rail service began in southern California. Service will be expanded by mid-1994.... Striking workers at San Diego's National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. returned to work yesterday for 10 weeks. Talks continue. ASIA AND EUROPE

South Korean legislator Son Sae Il yesterday demanded a probe into the 1983 downing of a South Korean airliner, citing alleged US reports that there may have been survivors.... Mudflows caused by Typhoon Colleen threatened three towns near Philippine volcano Mt. Pinatubo yesterday. Low-lying areas of Manila were flooded, washing away shanties and stranding thousands of workers. Schools were closed.... Hundreds of refugees fled to Thailand from Burma after the Burmese Army attacked a rebel base opposite T hailand's Tak Province Sunday.... The Irish Republican Army said yesterday it had bombed the London home of former Northern Ireland Secretary of State Lord Prior Sunday.