News Currents

UNITED STATESPresident Bush is considering a one-time, election-year tax rebate of up to $300 for each taxpayer next year. The White House, reacting to polls showing a severe drop in the president's approval rating, has abandoned its usual rosy outlook for a recovery and acknowledged that much has to be done to turn the economy around. Bush was in Texas yesterday to sign the $151 billion job-creating transportation bill.... A federal appeals court has given the federal government approval to resume forced repatriatio n of Haitian refugees. But a federal judge in Miami ordered no Haitians be returned until a Friday hearing to determine whether the government is following its guidelines in determining which refugees should be allowed into the US.... Groups representing US and Canadian airports met in Denver Tuesday and said they believed officials could reach agreement by next summer on allowing carriers of both countries easier access to airports in each other's country. The groups said current restraints are costing cit ies on both sides of the border more than $9 billion a year in lost economic activity and more than 200,000 jobs.... Gov. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, a presidential contender, called Tuesday night for free air time to offset rogue fund-raising appeals that former California Gov. Jerry Brown slipped into the first televised debate of the 1992 campaign.... The Incredible Hulk and Spiderman will deliver the good news to stockholders - Marvel Entertainment Group is bringing in big revenues. Marvel, which recent ly went public and publishes comics starring the superheroes, has published its first quarterly earnings report in comic book form. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC The eldest daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos returned from exile yesterday to complete a Christmas family reunion, while the government worked for a post-holiday family trial.... China announced yesterday the inauguration of its first commercial nuclear power station, in Qinshan.... President Roh Tae-woo declared yesterday that South Korea was free of nuclear weapons and urged North Korea to join in making the peninsula a nuclear-free zone.... The speaker of Iran's parliament, Mehdi Karrubi, ended an official visit to China yesterday with a blast at the US, accusing it of trying to dominate the world with its "new world order" and brazenly interfering in other countries' affairs.

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Activists from Asia, Europe, and the Americas plan to walk from Panama to Washington to protest the 500th anniversary of the Spanish colonization of Latin America. The march will start Friday, on the second anniversary of the US invasion of Panama, and end in the US capital on Columbus Day, Oct. 12, 1992.... Guerrillas killed a Peruvian Air Force general and two civilians Tuesday after ambushing the jeep they were riding in. Suspected Shining Path guerrillas have killed several active or retired officers of the armed forces or police in recent months.