News Currents

MIDDLE EAST

Russian Jews in Israel, whose votes could tip the scale in the June election, formed a political party called "Da," or Yes, yesterday to press for jobs and money for immigrants.... Two Libyans accused of the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Scotland are eager to go on public trial to be given the chance to prove their innocence, a British lawyer who interviewed the suspects said yesterday.

UNITED STATES

The cause of Richard Truly's resignation as administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is seen by some as a clash over goals with Vice President Dan Quayle's National Space Council. Truly guided NASA's probe of the Challenger disaster and stayed to head the agency.... Sales at the retail level were broadly higher in January, the Commerce Department said yesterday, as demand for goods strengthened.... The Ford Motor Company yesterday reported a loss of $476 million for the fourth q uarter in 1991, bringing its total loss for all of 1991 to $2.3 billion.

EUROPE

Serbia and Montenegro have agreed on a plan to create a new Yugoslavia. It will go before the two republics' parliaments for approval. Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina both have said they want no part of such a union.... The Republic of Georgia, which refused in December to join the Commonwealth of Independent States, will send observers to the organization's summit in Minsk today.... German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher said yesterday in Tokyo that he would like Russian President Boris Yeltsin

to be invited to the July economic summit of seven leading industrialized nations in Munich.