News Currents

UNITED STATES President Bush is said to be near a decision to grant an additional $1.5 billion in food assistance to the Soviet Union, though haggling over arms control has probably dashed his hopes of a summit this month in Moscow. A summit date late in July is under discussion.... The Bush administration has begun pressing Pakistan to halt its budding nuclear-weapons program in return for assurances of renewed foreign assistance, US officials say. The economic and military aid was suspended by Congress last October .

... The Supreme Court June 10 let stand a decision that states cannot ban the importation of hazardous waste from other states for disposal at landfills within their borders. The court also agreed to decide the constitutionality of a municipal "hate crime" law that bans the display of certain symbols, including a Nazi swastika or a burning cross. At issue is a St. Paul, Minn., city law prohibiting bias-motivated disorderly conduct.... The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted 534-51 June 1

0 to reject a report that called for toleration of premarital sex and homosexuality, and instead called for a letter to local churches affirming the sanctity of marriage. The assembly also affirmed past church statements that homosexuality "is not God's wish for humanity."

EUROPE

Former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze launched an outspoken appeal in a lecture in Vienna for a new broad-based democratic party in his country to champion faster economic and social reform. He called June 10 for democratic forces throughout the Soviet Union to forge ranks in parallel to the ruling Communist Party.... Polish President Lech Walesa demanded June 11 that parliament should give the government special powers for one year to issue economic decrees in order to speed up reforms....

Oil drillers, deer hunters, and polar station workers in the Soviet Arctic started the voting June 11 in the first popular election in 1,000 years of Russian history to choose a president of the Soviet republic of Russia.... Germany registered its first trade deficit in 10 years in April with a gap of 1.4 billion German marks ($825 million).

OTHER WORLD NEWS

Iraqi troops loyal to President Saddam Hussein launched an offensive June 10 against Shiite Muslim rebels taking refuge in the marshes of southern Iraq, sparking fear of a massacre, Iranian news reports and Shiite spokesmen said.... Pressure was building inside a Philippine volcano under a growing dome of red hot magma June 11, threatening an anticipated second, more powerful eruption that could shower Clark Air Base in a hail of rock and ash. The base has already been evacuated.... Japanese are perturb e

d by an academic report allegedly commissioned by the US CIA that describes Japan as an amoral nation out to dominate the world through its economic powers. A copy of the draft report was obtained by a newspaper in Rochester, N.Y., and was widely reported on in Japan.

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