News Currents
ECONOMY AND BUSINESSAbu Dhabi, the largest emirate of the United Arab Emirates, may face huge costs to prevent depositor panic following the shutdown of Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA amid allegations of global fraud, Persian Gulf bankers say. Luxembourg-based BCCI, which controls about $20 billion worldwide, is 77 percent owned by Abu Dhabi interests, mainly by the family of Abu Dhabi's ruler and president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahayan. The Bank of England led a coordinated st rike by world financial authorities Friday to freeze the assets of BCCI. MIDDLE EAST The Palestine Liberation Organization surrendered its heavy and medium weapons to the Lebanese Army Saturday. Palestinian sources said Yassar Arafat cabled his followers in Lebanon early Saturday, instructing them to cooperate. Lebanon pledged to grant 300,000 Palestinian refugees more freedom to work and live in the country.
UNITED STATES The investigation of police brutality remains high on the list of priorities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the agency's chief told an NAACP convention in Houston Saturday. Director William Sessions said 50 percent of all FBI civil rights investigations involve police brutality and that he hoped the use of videotapes to document police brutality cases continues. Sessions acknowledged that the number of black special agents is still too low.... Former CIA official Alan Fiers is considering a poss ible plea bargain with prosecutors investigating attempts to cover up the Iran-contra scandal, the Washington Post reported yesterday. Prosecutors were said to be offering a deal to the ex-chief of the CIA's Central American task force. If Fiers accepted, he reportedly would be compelled to testify about his own role and also what he knows of the involvement of other CIA and administration officials.
OTHER WORLD NEWS Ethiopians probing human rights abuses committed during the 14-year rule of Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam are trying to determine the fate of two prominent intellectuals who disappeared after being arrested a decade ago. Dr. Mengesha Gebre-Hiwot, a prominent educator, was arrested in 1979, and Baalu Girma, an American-trained journalist and author, disappeared after publishing a book criticizing the Mengistu regime in 1981.... The Pan-American flame, which will burn in Havana during the Aug. 2-1 8 Pan-American Games, arrived by air Saturday in eastern Cuba from where it will begin a 1,240-mile journey around the Caribbean island in the hands of relay runners.... The US is looking at the possibility of moving Clark Air Base from the Philippines because of damage from erupting Mt. Pinatubo, US Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D) of Colorado was quoted as saying yesterday in the Stars and Stripes.
