News Currents

CRISIS IN THE GULF US Defense Secretary Richard Cheney Wednesday called for an additional 72,500 US military reservists to support the growing American force in the Gulf. The move raises to 125,000 the number of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps reservists who can be called to active duty. The US currently has over 230,000 troops in the Gulf region and plans to send at least another 150,000 in the coming months.... The first US chemical warfare-protected M1A1 tanks sent to Saudi Arabia rumbled ashore Wednesday.... President Bush Wednesday calmed congressional unrest by saying war is not imminent. His assurances prompted Democrats to say there was no need to call the House and Senate into emergency session.... Italian Foreign Minister Giannia De Michelis warned that military action to force Iraq out of Kuwait could radicalize North African Arabs and threaten Italy's security, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

EUROPE AND SOVIET UNION

During the upcoming Paris summit of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, US President Bush and Soviet President Gorbachev will sign three agreements designed to officially end the cold war.... The Soviet Union sought and won 11th-hour changes to a massive conventional arms treaty that allows more Soviet tanks to be stored in a military district bordering the Black Sea. The CFE treaty is to be signed next week in Paris.... Soviet President Gorbachev faces a harsh winter of discontent over food shortages and industrial chaos. Gorbachev Wednesday agreed to an emergency economic debate in parliament.... President Ion Iliescu yesterday appealed for national unity as Romanians prepared for a day of protests against the ruling National Salvation Front. Unions have called for anti-government protests across the country to mark the anniversary of a 1987 anti-communist labor revolt in Brasov.

UNITED STATES

Striking workers of the New York Daily News got a boost Wednesday from AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland, who called on union workers nationwide to aid the embattled union.... US and British scientists triggered a nuclear weapon beneath the Nevada desert Wednesday in a test delayed by technical problems and protesting environmentalists.... Federal banking regulators Wednesday filed claims of $6.8 billion against former Wall Street giant Drexel Burnham Lambert. The regulators said Drexel, which has gone into bankruptcy, plundered savings and loans by brokering high-risk junk bonds.... UAL Corporation Wednesday signed a definitive agreement to buy Pan Am's core London routes.

LOOKING AHEAD

Monday: Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, in Paris.... Tuesday: World Championship Duck Calling Contest, in Stuttgart, Ark.... Thursday: National Day of Thanksgiving in the United States.