News Currents

MIDDLE EAST AND GULF

Iraq reportedly executed at least 80 Army officers accused of participating in a plot to overthrow President Saddam Hussein, Iran's state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency said Jan. 7. Quoting a source close to the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an Iraqi opposition organization, the agency said the Iraqi authorities also executed 76 people charged with taking part in anti-Saddam demonstrations in the holy city of Karbala.... The Palestine Liberation Organization yesterday welcomed t he UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's decision to expel 12 Palestinians from the occupied territories.... Iran sent its first convoy of relief supplies to the blockaded Nakhichevan region of Azerbaijan Jan. 7. Nakhichevan is hemmed in by Iran, Turkey, and Armenia and is separate from the main body of Azerbaijan. Muslim Azerbaijan and Christian-dominated Armenia are fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory. UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA

A retired KGB official has said he may disclose details of a meeting he and two other Soviet Embassy officials had in Mexico City with Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy's accused assassin. Oleg Nechiporenko, in an interview in Moscow Jan. 6 with NBC's "Today" show, said details of the conversation on Sept. 27, 1963, seven weeks before Kennedy's assassination, were his "commercial secret." ... El Salvador government negotiators and rebel leaders began their final round of talks Jan. 6, meeting separate ly with UN mediators to set a timetable for their peace accord and a scenario for when and how the guerrillas will demobilize.... New York Gov. Mario Cuomo ended speculation Jan. 6 that his presidential aspirations could be revived and told the state Democrats not to draft him as a favorite son candidate in the state's April 7 presidential primary.... Americans are continuing to kill one another at record rates because of drugs and easy access to guns, according to a US Senate report.... Federal health offi cials have asked for a temporary moratorium on the sale and implanting of breast-enlarging silicone sacs - until a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel of outside experts can review new safety data on the controversial medical devices. EUROPE

Britain may send more troops back to Northern Ireland after the IRA devastated Belfast city center in a car bomb blitz.... The European, a weekly newspaper launched by the late Robert Maxwell, has been bought by the Barclay brothers, the British owners of a shipping and hotel empire.... NATO said Jan. 7 it had arranged for a relief "squadron" of military aircraft to fly aid to the former Soviet Union, the first time the Western alliance has taken on a humanitarian mission.... State plumbers, carpenters, and other workers at Windsor Castle have lost their jobs to a private firm offering to maintain the historic royal residence more cheaply and efficiently.