News In Brief

The Reagan administration filed a friend-of-the-court brief yesterday asking the US Supreme Court to overturn its 1973 ruling legalizing abortion. The brief, filed by the Justice Department in connection with two pending appeals, contends that the court's decision in Roe v. Wade infringes on a legitimate state interest in controlling abortions.

Oral arguments in the cases are not expected before December.

Shultz tells New Zealand US may review ANZUS ties

US Secretary of State George P. Shultz put New Zealand on notice Monday that America might have to review its obligations under the ANZUS military alliance if New Zealand enacts laws banning nuclear ships from its ports. Because of the dispute, New Zealand did not attend the annual meeting of the alliance, which links it with the United States and Australia.

Mr. Shultz did not discuss possible US countermeasures.

Work begun in Philadelphia to replace MOVE-area units

Ground was broken Monday for construction to replace row houses destroyed during police efforts to evict members of the radical group MOVE. Fifty-three homes were destroyed and eight were heavily damaged in the fire, which started after police dropped a bomb to break up a bunker atop the fortified MOVE headquarters.

Officials have said 11 MOVE members died in the blaze -- seven adults and four children.

3 new industry ministers named in Soviet shake-up

The Soviet government named three new industry ministers Monday, apparently the latest move to improve industrial efficiency. Tass news agency reported the government installed Sergei Voyenushkin as minister of construction materials, Arkady Shchepetilnikov as minister of industrial construction, and Vladimir Klyuyev as light industry minister.

Resignation over soccer riot shakes Belgium's Cabinet

Deputy Premier Jean Gol resigned Monday to protest Interior Minister Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb's refusal to step down after the Brussels soccer stadium riot in which 38 people were killed. The surprise move put in question the future of Prime Minister Wilfried Martens's four-party coalition government, raising the possibility that other member's of Mr. Gol's Conservative Party could leave their Cabinet positions in sympathy with him.

Viets want Kampuchea talks but not on ASEAN's terms

Vietnam said Monday it wanted early talks on the Kampuchean conflict, but not on the terms proposed last week by the Association of Southeast East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The Vietnamese Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan said the statement issued by ASEAN in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last week calling on Hanoi to withdraw its troops from Cambodia failed to guarantee the elimination of the Khmer Rouge as a political and military force.

The statement also failed to condemn Thailand, which it accused of providing sanctuaries for Cambodian guerrillas, Nhan Dan said.

Sudan drafts charter giving military the legislative reins

Sudan's caretaker government has drafted a provisional constitution which gives the military leaders ultimate legislative power, Egypt's Middle East News Agency said Monday. The new constitution would make the government's powers subject to endorsement by the military junta of Gen. Abdel-Rahman Swaraddahab. The general led the April 6 coup. Over the weekend, Sudan's Prime Minister Gazouli Dafallah told the Saudi Gazette he doubts the ruling military council will turn over power to an elected civilian government as promised.

Gunmen in Lima, Peru, fire at American Embassy

Gunmen firing submachine guns from a car attacked the US Embassy, causing damage to the building's windows but no injuries, a US Embassy spokesman said Monday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but left-wing guerrillas have attacked both the US Embassy and the US ambassador's home three times since 1982.

Over the weekend, in Ayacucho, a province 350 miles southeast of Peru, Maoist Shining Path guerrillas brutally murdered the province's deputy mayor.

Ayacucho is a stronghold of the Shining Path movement. Its five-year-old campaign to establish a Marxist state has claimed more than 5,000 lives.

Suicide bomber explodes car at Lebanese `security zone'

A suicide bomber exploded his car at the entrance to Israel's ``security zone'' in southern Lebanon Monday, killing nine people, an Israeli military source said. The source said two soldiers of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia were killed in the blast. The other victims were Lebanese civilians.

IBM records 12.9% drop in profits in 2nd quarter

International Business Machines, the world's largest computer company, said Monday its profit fell 12.9 percent in the second quarter of the year from a year earlier. IBM cited a sluggish economy, a slowdown in shipments, and a strong dollar for the decline in the April-June period. It marked an 18 percent drop in earnings in the first three months of the year, the first such reverse since the final quarter of 1981.

Five accused of plotting to send arms gear to Iran

Five members of an alleged smuggling ring have been arrested on charges they plotted to ship radar and other sophisticated military hardware to Iran, federal authorities said Monday. None of the defendants were identified, but two are believed to have ties to the US Navy, according to published reports.

The men included three from San Diego, a Filipino businessman, and an Iranian.

Noncommunist creditors sign new debt schedule for Poles

The Paris Club of noncommunist creditor nations signed a long-delayed agreement with Poland Monday to reschedule $12 billion of government-guaranteed debts, the French Finance Ministry said Monday. The deal covers interest and principal due from 1982 to 1984. It was agreed on last January, but signing was delayed as Poland demanded immediate promises of new credits to meet the revised payments schedule.

Zimbabwean premier ousts a key white from Cabinet

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Robert Mugabe dismissed the most prominent white member of his Cabinet, Agriculture Minister Denis Norman, but retained all his other senior ministers in a post-election shuffle. Mr. Mugabe said he decided not to reappoint Mr. Norman because Zimbabwe's 100,000 whites backed former rebel leader Ian Smith in their separate poll two weeks ago.

Kuwaiti official asks for help outside OPEC to firm pricees

Kuwait's oil minister, Sheikh Ali Khalifa Al-Sabah, saying that a dramatic drop in oil prices would be harmful to Western economies, appealed Sunday for cooperation from non-OPEC oil producers to help stabilize the market. Sheikh Al-Sabah, whose comments were made in an interview on the British television program ``Face the Press,'' said non-OPEC producers were ``bidding on the fact that OPEC would continue to restrain output while they produced as much.''

US envoy to Thailand named for Indian post

President Reagan Monday nominated John Gunther Dean, a career Foreign Service officer, as US ambassador to India. If confirmed by the Senate, he would succeed Harry Barnes. Mr. Dean has been ambassador to Thailand since 1981.

In yesterday's paper, the ``News in Brief'' item on changes in Zimbabwean Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's Cabinet incorrectly designated Ian Smith as a former rebel leader. Mr. Smith was the prime minister under the formerly white-dominated government of Rhodesia, from 1964 to 1979.