News Currents
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC The National Assembly of Afghanistan has endorsed a UN framework for finding a political settlement to the Afghan war, the official Bakhtar news agency said yesterday.... The ashes of assassinated Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi started a mournful final journey yesterday to the confluence of sacred rivers and an ancient Hindu rite thought to free his soul.... The crash of a Vienna-bound Austrian jetliner near Bangkok M DNMmay have been the result of a terrorist act that targeted the wrong flight, an executive for the airline said yesterday. Lauda Air Flight NG004, with 213 passengers and 10 crew, crashed soon after takeoff in a ``fountain of flame'' and there was no evidence of survivors aboard the Boeing 767-300ER, authorities said.... South Korean President Roh Tae-woo appointed four new Cabinet members yesterday in a partial administration reorganization designed to end month-long politic al tumult over a college student's death at police hands.... Key speakers at a UN disarmament conference in Kyoto called yesterday for a trade registry of weapons sales as a means of improving surveillance of the international arms trade.
MIDDLE EAST
Iran opened a international oil conference yesterday in Isfahan, Iran, with a call for cooperation between oil producers and consumers to minimize price volatility and promote economic stability.... Kuwait's rulers have ordered a crackdown on armed vigilantes and pledged to stop human rights violations which have dismayed Western allies who restored them to power in the Gulf war.... An Iraqi opposition leader in Beirut said Sa ddam Hussein has massed thousands of troops around the large marshy region of southern Iraq, possibly to massacre Shiite rebels and their families hiding in the swamps.
UNITED STATES
A Shell Oil Company subsidiary wants to drill an exploratory well on Miccosukee Indian land in the Everglades, a prospect that is agreeable to the Indians, appalling to environmentalists, and worrisome to officials who guard the water supply in crowded south Florida. The drilling site is west of Fort Lauderdale in Broward County on land held in trust by the federal government as a reservation for the Miccosukee Indians. The state has no jurisdiction on the reservation.... New York Gov. Mario Cuomo said he would accept a two-way agreement by lawmakers on the budget as soon as possible to avert financial chaos in New York City. But he also warned Sunday he would use his line-item veto power to exclude any additional spending he doesn't agree with.... Car dealers in three Southern states sued a Toyota wholesaler, Jim Moran, charging that he and his companies threatened to cut their supplies of cars unl ess they contributed to political campaigns.... Rick Mears outdueled Michael Andretti at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday in the closing 12 laps to win his fourth Indy, matching A. J. Foyt and Al Unser as the lone four-time winners.
