News Currents

MIDDLE EAST

Two German hostages, the last Westerners held in Lebanon, will be released today, the Tehran Times reported.... Libya's rubber-stamp legislature Saturday opened a crucial session on whether to hand over to the West two suspects in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.... An official Libyan newspaper Saturday again called for Libya to reduce economic links with Arab states and align itself with the West. EUROPE

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said on Saturday he and Chilean President Patricio Aylwin discussed the return to Germany and prosecution of former communist leader Erich Honecker.... Fifty percent of Italians favor reintroducing the death penalty, and more than two-thirds believe the criminal justice system is too weak to combat organized crime, according to a poll released Saturday.... Police intervened Saturday to keep Jewish demonstrators from clashing with neo-Nazis meeting in Rome.... The German far- right Republican Party, which registered surprising gains in a recent state election, on Saturday reelected a former Nazi SS soldier as its leader.... Two hundred English soccer fans, attending the European soccer championship, rioted on Malmo, Sweden, a Swedish police spokesman said.... In Bucharest, demonstrators Saturday demanded the resignation of Romanian President Ion Iliescu. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

A bill to send Japanese troops overseas for the first time since 1945 is expected to win final approval in the lower house of parliament by Tuesday, parliamentary sources said Sunday.... Two South Korean firms have been given permission to open offices in Shanghai for the first time, South Korean news reports said Sunday.