News Currents
EUROPE Russian leader Boris Yeltsin travels to Siberia Monday in an apparent bid to throw a lifeline to the Soviet economy and increase his own authority by persuading striking coal miners to return to work. Yeltsin, anxious to quash speculation that he might have bowed to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev by signing a joint declaration last week, was due to hold talks with miners in Novokuznetsk.... Pr esident Gorbachev has hinted strongly that he is willing to work with the opposition noncommunist political groupings emerging in the Soviet Union. He told the Communist hierarchy that their guaranteed monopoly on political power had already ended in March 1990 when the Congress of People's Deputies changed the Constitution's Article 6.... Sweden's Uppsala University said on Monday it monitored an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale on the border between the Soviet republic of Armenia and Turkey.... It was not the riot many conservative Britons had feared - barely 100 well-dressed blacks clapped for a Sunday sermon in London by fiery New York preacher Al Sharpton, in which he urged them to ``stand up for what is right.'' Sharpton's visit had aroused so much anxiety in Britain that the Monday Club, a right-wing pressure group of the ruling C onservative Party, asked the government to bar Sharpton from the country.
UNITED STATES
Serious crime rose 1 percent in 1990, but violent incidents - murder and robbery - increased by 10 percent, the FBI reported.... Working around the clock, the shuttle Discovery's crew struggled to fix two balky data recorders Monday amid a full slate of ``star wars'' experiments to learn how to detect enemy missiles in space. If troubleshooting efforts fail, data from at least two of the experiments could be lost. But officials said instruments making up the shuttle's major payloads were working properly and that they were pleased with the progress of the mission.
ECONOMY AND BUSINESS
In a carefully worded communiqu'e that had something for everyone, the Group of Seven industrial nations agreed Sunday in Washington on a common goal of lower interest rates, but did not signal when or how. Part of their joint statement said: ``Ministers and governors emphasized the importance of ... lower real interest rates and a sustained global economic recovery with price stability.'' The G-7 reference to lower interest rates was a c oncession to the US, while emphasis on wringing inflation out of the world economy reflects a concern of both Germany and Japan.... The Group of 24, representing developing countries in international monetary and financial negotiations, also met over the weekend in Washington, to prepare for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank's committees spring sessions to be held Tuesday. Their financial experts said that the deceleration of gro wth in the world economy and the scarcity of funds available to end poverty and promote development are hurting third-world countries.
