News In Brief

Pro-government forces in Chad launched a counteroffensive against Libyan troops and their rebel allies in the northern Tibesti region, killing 400 Libyan forces and taking one besieged town, Chad Radio announced Sunday. US officials said that several thousand Libyan soldiers attacked Chad on Saturday. Libyan soldiers and Chadian rebels are fighting against forces loyal to Goukouni Oueddei, a former Chadian rebel whose troops turned against Libya in late October and joined the government of the landlocked African nation.

Front-line states pledge to resist South Africa

President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia opened a summit meeting of southern Africa's front-line states yesterday by pledging support for the governments of Angola and Mozambique, hard-pressed by right-wing rebels. Mr. Kaunda added that the South African government was determined in its destabilization activities in southern Africa but could be defeated through the prudent use of the front-line states' meager resources. Zambian officials said the summit will discuss possible sanctions against South Africa and the campaign to persuade Western countries to apply their own economic measures.

Pakistani Cabinet resigns as rioting continues

Ethnic rioting in Karachi, Pakistan, has plunged the nation's military-led government into a political crisis with the resignation of the entire Cabinet of Prime Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo. Although a government statement announcing the resignation of the Cabinet Saturday did not directly say the riots prompted the move, it did say the ministers quit after debating the situation to allow Mr. Junejo to form a new Cabinet to deal with the country's problems.

Thousands of troops continued to patrol most of Karachi, and officials said 120 people were arrested Friday and Saturday. Police have arrested 1,027 people since Dec. 14, when riots involving Pushtu-speaking Pathans and Urdu-speaking Mohajirs began.

Reagan calls for more MX, Midgetman missiles

President Reagan, moving to expand modernization of the US nuclear arsenal, decided Friday to step up work on a small, single-warhead missile and also buy 50 more giant MX missiles to be placed on railroad cars and shuttled from base to base in times of crisis. A written White House statement said the small missile, nicknamed the Midgetman, would be mounted on mobile launchers. Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles May, a top official in the modernization program, told reporters that the dministration intended to ask Congress for another 50 of the MX missiles and up to 500 of the Midgetman weapons.

The two missile programs, if approved by Congress, could cost as much as $65 billion and would signal a marked shift in the United States' policy of nuclear deterrence.

AT&T, IBM to reduce work force by 37,000

Two giants of American high technology, AT&T and IBM, have announced plans to slim down in the face of slack business, reducing their work forces by a total of more than 37,000 employees. American Telephone & Telegraph Company said Thursday it would cut up to 27,400 jobs through layoffs, attrition, and other unspecified means. International Business Machines announced that more than 10,000 US employees had accepted early retirement incentives.

Consumer prices up .3%; yearly inflation at 1.3%

Consumer prices rose a modest 0.3 percent in November, with increases in food and automobile costs offsetting lower energy prices, the government reported Friday. With 11 months now in for 1986, analysts said it appears that inflation for the full year will finish at - or be slightly under - 1.3 percent, which would be the lowest annual rate in 22 years. That low figure is due almost entirely to the plunge in world oil prices early this year.

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