News Currents

NATURE Rescuers in Oakland, Calif., Saturday found a longshoreman alive in the wreckage of his car, which had been crushed in the collapse of Interstate 880 during Tuesday's earthquake. (More California quake coverage, pages 7, 9.) In China, authorities are delivering emergency food and clothing to thousands left homeless following earthquakes Wendnesday in northern Shanxi Province. More than 50,000 are without housing in the cold autumn weather. Typhoon Elsie was headed for Hainan Island south of China after hitting the northern Philippines, killing 17 people and sending 300,000 to government shelters.

ABORTION

As he had pledged, President Bush Saturday vetoed legislation that would have provided federal funding for poor women to have abortions in cases of rape or incest. Congressional Democratic leaders doubt they have the votes to override the veto. The Pennsylvania General Assembly is expected to approve a measure Tuesday that would ban abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy, except to save the life of the mother. In Michigan, the Republican-controlled Senate is expected to approve a bill Wednesday requiring parental or judicial consent to abortions in the case of girls under age 18. Gov. James Blanchard (D) has vowed to veto the proposal. Both issues will come before the US Supreme Court in this session.

MIDEAST

Lebanese Christian lawmakers have agreed to share power with rival Muslims, sources at a Lebanese parliament conference in Saudi Arabia told the Associated Press Saturday. The plan would also call for Syria to relocate some of its troops now in Beirut. But Reuters reported that Christian leader Michel Aoun has rejected the proposals as a trap aimed at perpetuating Syrian control of Lebanon. In southern Lebanon, a United Nations spokesman denied reports of fighting between Norwegian peacekeeping troops and Israeli-backed militiamen. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip held a general strike Saturday, and 11 Arabs were wounded in clashes with Israeli troops. Arab leaders are planning a summit meeting Wednesday in Bagdad, Iraq, to discuss Egyptian and US peace efforts in the Middle East.

SOVIET UNION

Ethnic troubles continued as thousands of people rallied in Kazakhstan Saturday to protest nuclear testing there. Elsewhere in Central Asia, the premier of Uzbekistan was replaced by a younger Communist Party official. The Uzbek parliament passed a language law last week that failed to satisfy Uzbek nationalists, who have been demonstrating against it. In the Ukraine, a leader of last summer's Donetsk coal strikes was found dead last week, and a Soviet newspaper says miners are concerned he is the victim of a ``revenge killing.'' Soviet economic growth was 2.4 percent in the first nine months of 1989, compared to 4.7 percent in the same period last year, officials said.