News Currents

MIDDLE EAST

Foreign Minister David Levy dropped his threat to quit Israel's government yesterday, blunting a crisis in the ruling Likud Party.... The exiled Iranian opposition group Mujahideen Khalq said its antiaircraft batteries shot down one of a dozen Iranian warplanes yesterday as they bombed one of its bases inside Iraq.... Libya's Rabta plant, which was believed to have been abandoned three years ago, is again producing chemical weapons, the Sunday Times reported in London yesterday. UNITED STATES

Jurors in Miami will continue deliberating drug charges against Manuel Noriega today after the former Panamanian dictator successfully pleaded with a judge Saturday to deny a last-minute prosecution request that would have deleted from the original indictment a reference to one alleged drug bribe that the prosecution did not attempt to prove during the trial.... The New York Times and the Daily News endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton yesterday. The New York Post had previously endors ed the Arkansas governor. EUROPE

The European Community Saturday approved entry of the Portuguese escudo into its system of semi-fixed currency exchange rates after unexpectedly difficult debate. Greece is now the only EC state whose currency is not in the system.... The German Athletics Federation legal commission yesterday lifted a four-year ban on double world sprint champion Katrin Krabbe and three teammates for manipulating drug tests in South Africa. But an International Amateur Athletic Federation spokeswoman had already said in London the IAAF would still enforce the ban.