News Currents

EUROPE An agreement on resolving the remaining disputes over the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty was worked out by Secretary of State James Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh at a meeting in Lisbon over the weekend. Baker said the US and the Soviet Union now will ``turn our attention to the remaining issues in the Strategic Arms Treaty.'' When that is agreed to, a date can be set for a summit between President Bush and Soviet Presid ent Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow - possibly by the end of June. The agreement may be one sign of Moscow's desperate need for the West's economic aid.... Jacques Attali, president of the newly created European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has invited Gorbachev for talks at the London-based bank in July. The invitation is likely to fuel speculation that Gorbachev may attend a July 15-17 summit of the world's seven leading industrial democracies.... France's ``global disarmament'' plan to be unveiled soon is expected to include French readiness to adhere to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Le Monde newspaper reported. Up to now France and China had been the only countries that officially have nuclear weapons and do not adhere to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

MIDDLE EAST

Israel has dispatched troop and equipment reinforcements to the frontier ``security zone'' in southern Lebanon, the official Lebanese National News Agency reported, citing fears that Israel wants to ``upset the increasing rapprochement between Beirut and Damascus.'' ... Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his military leaders requested additional fighter planes and helicopters during talks with visiting Defense Secretary Richard Cheney over th e weekend, US officials in Cairo said.... Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is poised to launch an assault against Shiite Muslim refugees in the southern part of the country, exile opposition groups in London again warned.... Iraqi authorities are trying to buy vegetables worth $15 million from Jordan for sale at government stores, the semi-official Iraqi newspaper Babil said yesterday. The deal would be one of the first for food imports by the Iraqi state since the UN sanctions committee gave countries the freedom to release Iraqi assets to buy food, medicines, and other essentials.

UNITED STATES

All cable TV companies across the country, and their customers, await a Florida judge's ruling on whether a cable company can bill consumers for a movie channel they didn't ask for but failed specifically to reject before a date designated by the cable company. Such negative option marketing is being studied by 20 other states.... The US government's main forecasting gauge for the US economy rose during April for a third straight month, the Commerce Depart ment said. The gains were spread across a broad range of economic activity.

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