News Currents
MIDDLE EAST AND GULF Israel's Security Cabinet Sunday ordered tough new measures aimed at halting a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians. Israel Radio said ministers voted to expel Arabs deemed to have encouraged attacks, demolish their homes, and further restrict entry into Israel of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.... Ehud Barak, a former commando, became chief of staff of the Israeli Army Monday, replacing Dan Shomron, who held the post for four years. During Shomron's term, the A rmy was widely criticized abroad for its tough response to the Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule. Barak, one of Israel's most decorated soldiers, reportedly took part in undercover missions inside Arab countries, including the 1988 raid on a Tunis suburb to kill the PLO's military chief, Khalil al-Wazir, known as Abu Jihad.... The International Committee of the Red Cross told Israel it is not abiding by the Geneva conventions in their treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.... Western correspondents, taken to Kirkuk by Iraqi officials Monday, found the city damaged, largely deserted, and in the hands of the Iraqis. Saddam Hussein's forces have also largely suppressed revolt in southern Iraq.
UNITED STATES
Senate majority leader George Mitchell said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he favors a tax cut this year to lower the tax burden on middle-class Americans, but he said he would not be a presidential candidate in 1992.... Peace activist Philip Berrigan and four others were arrested Sunday after they poured a blood-like substance on a warship under construction at the Bath, Maine, Iron Works.... The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet's Buddhists and the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, called Sund ay for an end to arms production and for the creation of an international peacekeeping force to combat aggression throughout the world. He spoke in Houston.... Riverboat gambling became legal Monday in Iowa with Howard Keel, star of the 1951 musical "Showboat," throwing the first dice aboard the Diamond Lady in Bettendorf.
EUROPE
Millions in the southern republic of Georgia voted in an independence referendum Sunday that could deal a fresh blow to the Kremlin's efforts to hold the Soviet Union together. Final results are expected Monday evening. Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia predicted an overwhelming backing for independence from the poll, declared illegal by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.... Gorbachev and his ruling Communist colleagues launched a bitter assault on the radical opposition over the weekend, accusing their opponents of driving for power at all costs. He also told Army commanders Saturday the Communist Party must be kept in the armed forces to keep them strong. He flatly refused liberal demands to depoliticize the Army.
