News Currents

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said Friday an agreement to set up a council to run war-torn Afghanistan until an interim government can be appointed.... Chinese authorities have blocked a TV film about life in Beijing from getting its debut at the Hong Kong Film Festival.... Saudi Arabian Prince Khaled Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz said his country will increase aid for Burmese Muslim refugees now sheltered in southeastern Bangladesh after fleeing from reported atrocities in their homeland.... Au stralian Prime Minister Paul Keating ruled out policy changes in Canberra yesterday after his Labor Party lost the seat held by his predecessor Bob Hawke in the electorate of Wills, but Keating indicated further interest rate cuts. EUROPE

Military leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States have told the Western Alliance that they would seek peaceful solutions to their internal crises.... Russia's supreme legislature, the Congress of People's Deputies, Saturday voted to strip Boris Yeltsin by July of his direct control of the government by taking away his authority to appoint ministers. UNITED STATES

Fugitive banker Joseph Mollicone Jr. surrendered to Rhode Island's attorney general early yesterday to face charges he embezzled more than $13 million and helped trigger Rhode Island's 1991 banking crisis.... Caterpillar and the United Auto Workers union have agreed to resume labor negotiations.... Former Panamanian leader Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega has been found guilty of eight counts of cocaine trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering.