News Currents

DEFENSE The Pentagon Wednesday announced that MX missiles would be stored at military installations in Wyoming, Lousiana, Texas, Washington, North Dakota, Arkansas, and Michigan. The multiple-warhead intercontinental missiles would be moved on trains during times of crisis. Congressional auditors said Wednesday that the closing or scaling down of 40 military bases would save $170 million less than estimated by a government commission. The Washington Post said yesterday that a plane that crashed in southern Angola, killing at least four Americans, belonged to the CIA and carried arms for US-backed insurgents.

ECONOMY AND BUSINESS

Three public-interest groups Wednesday urged President Bush to dismiss savings and loan regulator M. Danny Wall, who has been criticized for mishandling the savings and loan crisis. Comptroller General Charles Bowsher told a Senate panel Wednesday that the government's poor financial management may cost taxpayers up to $150 billion beyond the costs of the S&L bailout and the HUD scandal. The American Public Transit Association is calling for a 7-cent-a-gallon hike in gasoline taxes to raise money to repair highway infrastructure and reduce traffic congestion.

MIDDLE EAST

In Lebanon, Syrian forces carried ammunition to forward positions facing Christian Gen. Michel Aoun's troops. General Aoun told Monitor contributor Jim Muir he would not give up an inch and would fight to the death if attacked. Leaders of the Palestinian intifadah yesterday called a three-day strike near Jerusalem in memory of two brothers killed by Israeli soldiers. The men had attacked Israeli vehicles with stones.

EUROPE

In West Germany, Alfred Herrhausen, head of the country's largest bank, was killed in a bomb attack on his car yesterday. Authorities suspect the radical Red Army Faction is responsible. The ruling political alliance in Yugoslavia's Serbian republic called for severing all ties with the Slovenian republic Wednesday in a dispute over Slovenia's support of ethnic Albanians in Serbia's Kosovo province (see page 3). US Secretary of Agriculture Clayton Yeutter arrived in Warsaw Wednesday to discuss US economic assistance to the new Solidarity government. Romanian Olympic star Nadia Comaneci may ask for asylum in Austria, Hungarian officials said Wednesday.

LATIN AMERICA

In El Salvador, US officials chartered a jet to evacuate Americans after rebel attacks Wednesday in a wealthy San Salvador suburb destroyed a US official's home. The leftist rebels said they had orders not to harm Americans. In Colombia, US aviation and bomb experts are assisting the investigation of an explosion that destroyed an Avianca Airlines jet, killing 107 people. Meanwhile, two members of the leftist Patriotic Union Party were murdered in continuing political violence.