Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: AROUND THE WORLD=France Seeks Talks On Farm Trade Deal< Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 04:42:49 EST Message-ID: <46.1992Nov24.044249@AmeriCast.com> Lines: 76 AROUND THE WORLD=France Seeks Talks On Farm Trade Deal< PARIS - French Agriculture Minister Jean-Pierre Soisson said his government would ask for a special meeting of EC foreign and farm ministers, probably next week, to discuss last week's trade agreement between the European Community and United States. France opposes the pact, which cuts state subsidies to farmers in Europe and hits French farmers, a politically powerful group, especially hard. Farmers burned tires in front of a Paris Coca- Cola factory to symbolize their anger at the United States in having forced the accord. "We want to show the government this is the start of a very long series of demonstrations which, if nothing happens, will be more and more violent," said a leader of local farmers. In hopes that the pact will facilitate quick progress in world trade talks, the chief of the Geneva-based General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Arthur Dunkel, summoned the steering committee of the long-running Uruguay Round of talks for a Thursday meeting to relaunch negotiations.< Hanoi Urged to Free Detainees< HANOI - Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who is expected to urge President Bush to ease Washington's trade embargo against Hanoi, has pressed Vietnamese President Le Duc Anh to free four prom- inent political detainees. Sources close to Kerry's delegation, which ended a five-day visit to Vietnam Saturday, said Kerry had urged Anh in a closed-door meeting in Hanoi last Wednesday to release the four, who include Father Chan Tin, a Catholic priest in his seventies. The other detainees are Nguyen Ngoc Lan, a Catholic intellectual; Do Ngoc Long, a Buddhist businessman and banker; and Doan Thanh Liem, a lawyer. A bipartisan group of 22 U.S. senators urged Vietnamese leaders to release Liem and Long in a letter sent last June.< Iran Commissions Submarine< NICOSIA, Cyprus - Iran commissioned the first submarine belonging to a Persian Gulf nation, part of a military buildup intended to make itself the region's dominant power. Tehran Radio, monitored in Nicosia, said the Russian-built sub was named Taregh, after a famous Muslim warrior, at a ceremony at the Bandar Abbas naval base in the southern gulf. Rear Adm. Ab- bas Mohtaj, the deputy commander of the navy, was quoted as say- ing that Iran "gives itself the right to acquire equipment that raises and strengthens its defensive base." The Taregh was the first of two submarines to be delivered by Russia under a $750 million deal, over U.S. objections. The second sub is under construction and Tehran has an option for a third.< U.N. Under Gun in Somalia< NAIROBI, Kenya - Scores of Somali gunmen attacked a famine relief plane and threatened to kill a group of U.N. officials unless they handed over cash and valuables, said a journalist traveling on the plane. Indian journalist P.V. Vivekanand said the latest incident of lawlessness sweeping Somalia took place in the south- ern port of Kismaayo. He said none of the eight people was harmed. The gunmen escaped with about $5,000 worth of goods. The plane had arrived from the Somali capital Mogadishu and was bound for the capital of neighboring Kenya, Nairobi - the base for operations to save up to 2 million Somalis from starving. 02:35 11-24C9999----- Copyright 1992, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar- chived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor- poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)