Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.inter From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: inter Thu, Feb 20 1992 Date: Thu, 20 Feb 92 06:16:57 EST Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: International News USA TODAY Update Feb. 20, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network RABIN TAKES PARTY FROM PERES: Yitzhak Rabin wrested the Labor party leadership from Shimon Peres on Wednesday, setting the stage for a general election in Israel that could alter the shape of the nation's Mideast peace policy. Rabin received just over the 40% needed for an outright victory. Peres had 34.5% of the vote. ISRAEL FIGHTS WITH HEZBOLLAH: Hezbollah guerrillas fired salvos of rockets into Israel Wednesday. Israel replied with artillery and air strikes. The fighting followed Israel's assassination Sunday of Hezbollah leader Abbas Musawi. RIVALS FIGHT IN COMMONWEALTH: More than 20 people were reported killed Wednesday in Nagorno-Karabakh in fresh violence between rival Armenians and Azeris that underscored the grim legacy of the new Commonwealth of Independent States. Also: Russian officials painted a grim picture of millions of citizens thrust into poverty by government "shock therapy." Unemployment could reach eight million by the end of 1992. WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS VOTE: South Africa President F.W. de Klerk's ruling National Party suffered an embarrassing defeat Wednesday in a by-election considered a gauge of white minority support for his efforts to share power with the nation's black majority. The whites-only election in the Transvaal Province marked the second major defeat in three months for the party in a parliamentary by-election. ARISTIDE IN WASHINGTON: Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resumes talks in Washington this weekend with Haitian parliamentarians and politicians in the first move in more than six weeks to solve the Caribbean nation's political crisis. The State Department charged that growing drug traffic through Haiti is "potentially more worrisome" than the political and refugee crisis. NORIEGA LAWYERS SKIRT BUSH: Gen. Manuel Noriega's defense lawyers Wednesday passed up perhaps their best chance to embarrass President George Bush. Retired admiral Daniel Murphy, former chief of staff to then-vice president Bush in the early 1980s and the day's key witness, wasn't questioned about his ex-boss's controversial relationship with Noriega. USA WARNS LIBYA: The U.N. Security Council Wednesday warned Iraq not to continue hindering U.N. nuclear, chemical and ballistic weapons inspections or face "serious consequences." In a presidential statement, the council also demanded "unconditional acceptance" of U.N. weapons inspections and monitoring. IRA FUGITIVE DEPORTED: Fugitive Joseph Doherty, 36, convicted in the IRA killing of a British soldier in Northern Ireland, was secretly deported to Britain Wednesday. Doherty, in 1981, escaped from a British prison where he was serving a life term. He hid in New York, where he tended bar until the FBI arrested him in 1983. The Supreme Court has ruled that he couldn't seek political asylum. OLD SKULL FOUND IN KENYA: A three-inch piece of skull bone from Kenya has been identified as being 2.4 million years old, making it the oldest known fossil from the direct lineage of man, say researchers in Thursday's scientific journal Nature. "This is the first tangible evidence of our own genus prior to 2 million years ago," says co-author Steven Ward, an Ohio paleoanthropologist. RUSSIA AIDS IN MIA SEARCH; The Pentagon said Wednesday that for the first time, U.S. teams are simultaneously in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to resolve the status of missing U.S. servicemen. Russians will join U.S. investigators to help look for clues beginning Feb. 27. DOW JONES OPENS ON UPSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Thursday at 3230.32, after closing up 5.59 Wednesday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 225.85, up 0.20. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 407.46, down 1.74. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 622.41, down 4.00. DOLLAR OPENS MOSTLY UP: The dollar opens mixed on foreign markets Thursday. It opens at 0.5701 British pounds, up from 0.5639; 5.6006 French francs, up from 5.5221; 128.10 Japanese yen, up from 128.08; and 1.6430 German marks, down from 1.6470. (As of 3 p.m. Wednesday. Source: First American Bank of New York.) International News Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. 08:0002200000D0220 ISSU- R H Environment;-Scouts;-Children......... A D0220 This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM