News Currents

UNITED STATES

In Los Angeles Tuesday, voters approved reforming the police department. Passage of Charter Amendment F will limit the tenure of future chiefs and would give the mayor power to fire the chief. Also, 27 of 31 participating California counties, most in the north, voted yes on an advisory proposal to split northern California from southern California to form a 51st state. San Jose voters defeated a measure to raise utility taxes to finance a stadium to move baseball's San Francisco Giants to San Jose. ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

An expected crackdown by the Indian government after the country's worst financial scandal may hit foreign banks' operations and delay their expansion plans, R. Sankaran, Managing Director of Indian Global Financial Trust, said yesterday. The RBI, India's central bank, said some 30 billion rupees ($1 billion) of bank funds had been channeled illegally into the Bombay stock market.... Yasser Arafat was back on his feet yesterday, two days after undergoing surgery, one of his physicians said.... China prai sed a decision by US President Bush to extend its preferential trade status for another year, calling it a wise act.... Taiwanese prosecutors yesterday dropped investigations into more than 250 opposition leaders and political activists facing possible sedition charges, a court spokesman said. AFRICA

Zambia's government announced Tuesday that it had dismissed Bank of Zambia Governor Jacques Bussieres and replaced him with Zambian economist Dominic Mulaisho.... Kenya's parliament has started debating new rules for elections in preparation for the first multi party polls in 26 years.