News Currents

EUROPEThe collapsed Bank of Credit and Commerce International was banker to the world's most-wanted guerrilla, Abu Nidal, and was used to channel millions of dollars for his organization, the Sunday Times said. British intelligence warned the Bank of England of the link more than a year ago, the paper said. In New York, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau has accused the federal government of covering up its involvement in the banking scandal, Time magazine reported Saturday. The magazine quotes Morg enthau as saying his two-year investigation into Pakistan's Bank of Credit and Commerce International was stymied by Justice Department officials who told witnesses not to cooperate with him.... In a joint news conference with Turkish President Turgut Ozal Saturday, President Bush backed Ozal's offer to hold four-way Cyprus talks between Turkey, Greece, and Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders to break the deadlock over the divided island.... Britain's ruling Conservatives have slashed the opposition Labour Pa rty's opinion-poll lead to just 3 percentage points with the help of last week's Group of Seven summit, according to a Harris poll published Saturday. The poll put the Labour Party ahead with 42 percent of the vote, while the Conservatives had 39 percent, up 4 points from a similar survey in June.... Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin Saturday banned Communist Party organizations in the Russian Republic's government bodies and institutions and in all enterprises. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC The crew of a Greek oil tanker that broke open in rough seas was airlifted from the vessel yesterday as it leaked crude off Australia's west coast.... The death toll from monsoon floods sweeping Bangladesh rose to nearly 120 yesterday. At least a million people were reported to have been made homeless by floods.... A group of Burmese student dissidents staged a brief protest Saturday in front of the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok to mark the second anniversary of the detention of opposition leader Aung San S uu Kyi.... A suspect accused of involvement in the May assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi escaped from police custody and was later found hanged, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN A popular Peruvian TV program, "En Persona," which had disclosed a military directive that said "the best subversive is a dead subversive," was canceled last Thursday due to apparent pressure by the armed forces, the show's producer, Cesar Hildebrandt, said. The show reported that the directive was issued last month on special intelligence operations against leftist guerrillas.... Attackers firing submachine guns shot dead reputed Colombian death squad leader Henry Perez and six others during a religiou s procession in a northern Colombian town Saturday, police sources said.