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 Wed, Feb 26 1992 Date: Wed, 26 Feb 92 06:30:01 EST Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: International News USA TODAY Update Feb. 26, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network MANDELA ATTACKS VOTE: African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela declared Tuesday that should South African white supremacists return to power, they would have to throw him back in jail, where he spent 27 years for anti-apartheid activities. His organization has attacked a March 17 whites-only referendum on political reform as racist, preferring to quicken the pace of democracy talks. INSTABILITY IN RUSSIA A THREAT: CIA Director Robert Gates on Tuesday ranked instability in the former Soviet Union as the top threat to U.S. foreign interests. For now, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the leaders of the three other republics where long-range nuclear weapons are deployed can retain their unified control over the arms. "But the military is being subjected to unprecedented stresses, he added. TRUCE OVER REGION REACHED: Azerbaijan and Armenia Tuesday agreed to a truce in Nagorno-Karabakh to help Iran's effort to mediate in the fighting over the enclave, said Tehran Radio, reporting on talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati and Azeri leaders in Baku. USA TO SELL SAUDI ARABIA ARMS: The Bush administration has told Congress it plans to sell Saudi Arabia 72 jet fighters - F-15E and F-15H Eagles - worth $5 billion, The Associated Press reported Tuesday. AP said the administration also told Congress it may sell TOW anti-tank missiles to Saudi Arabia and a half-dozen Patriot air defense batteries to Kuwait. VIOLENCE PRECEDES YUGOSLAV VOTE: The government of Bosnia-Herzegovina called for police action after violence erupted before the republic's referendum this weekend on independence from Yugoslavia. Thirteen people were killed Monday. LATIN LEADERS MEET ON DRUGS: Two years after their first summit in Cartagena, Colombia, foreign leaders join President Bush Wednesday in San Antonio to discuss ways of improving cooperation in the drug war. The two-day summit brings Bush together with leaders of Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela. IMELDA MARCOS PLANS BURIAL: Former first lady Imelda Marcos made plans for the burial of her husband in his northern stronghold after accepting government conditions for interment in the Philippines. President Corazon Aquino, who succeeded Marcos in the 1986 uprising that toppled his 20-year administration, said the body could only be returned to Ilocos Norte province, not the capital Manila. ARISTIDE NOT RETURNING TO POWER: Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide hasn't achieved the political compromise that would return him to power, despite earlier claims a deal had been struck. Aristide and Haitian Prime Minister-designate Rene Theodore said Tuesday they won't meet for another month. Both men agreed to talk by telephone every two weeks. HONDURAS BANANAS PROBED: Honduras is to investigate trade union claims that chemicals used by two U.S. banana companies, Standard Fruit Company and Tela Railroad Company, caused death, cancer and sterility among some Honduran workers, the labor ministry said Wednesday. The companies deny the charges. U.S. companies employ 15,000 people in cultivating bananas, the main Honduran export. RESTORATION ON EASTER ISLAND: A Japanese team is to restore giant stone statues on Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean in a $775,000 project that includes cranes needed to restore monolithic stone statues in human form that have fallen to the ground. The stones, carved from volcanic stone and weighing up to 50 tons, are believed to have been erected between A.D. 1000 and 1600. DOW JONES OPENS ON DOWNSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Wednesday at 3257.83, after closing down 24.59 Tuesday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 226.68, down 0.94. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 409.78, down 2.02. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 621.40, down 3.53. DOLLAR OPENS MOSTLY UP: The dollar opens mixed on foreign markets Wednesday. It opens at 0.5742 British pounds, up from 0.5727; 5.6178 French francs, down from 5.6235; 129.82 Japanese yen, up from 129.25; and 1.6565 German marks, up from 1.6530. (As of 3 p.m. Tuesday. 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. 08:0002260000D0226 ISSU- R H Israel;-Movies;-Border................ A D0226 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