EVENTS

U.S., CUBA CONTINUE TO DISAGREE After four days of talks, US and Cuban diplomats have made no apparent progress in negotiating a settlement to end the flood of refugees fleeing Cuba by sea. More talks were scheduled for Sept. 6. Cuba earlier proposed increasing legal immigration to the United States to at least 100,000 people a year, an option quickly shot down by a US State Department official. The US had offered to take in more Cubans, perhaps up to 20,000 a year, in exchange for President Castro's promise to stop them from fleeing to the US. More than 30,000 Cubans have set sail for Florida on rafts and boats this year, most of them in the past month. The US is holding more than 22,000 rafters at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. Australian unrest

Government leaders warned against a possible backlash against Asian immigrants Sept. 6 as police sought the killers of a politician who had crusaded against Asian gang violence. New South Wales state legislator John Newman was murdered Sept. 5 outside his home in Cabramatta, a Sydney suburb heavily populated by Southeast Asian immigrants.

Tiffany theft

Two masked gunmen bound four guards at Tiffany & Co. with duct tape, snatched about $1.25 million worth of jewelry, and disappeared into the darkness. It was the costliest theft ever in Tiffany's 157-year history. Police were investigating whether the Sept. 4 robbery was an inside job. Display cases were rifled; the safe was untouched.

Lesotho tensions ease

Landlocked Lesotho breathed easier Sept. 6 after its powerful neighbors lifted a threat to impose sanctions to back the restoration of the elected government ousted last month.

Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe pronounced themselves satisfied with moves being taken by King Letsie, who toppled Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle's government, in reinstating him. But the beleaguered king faced new pressure, this time from Lesotho's influential pro-democracy group, which gave him a Sept. 7 deadline to act or face mass revolt. Rwanda zone breached

Tutsi-led troops of the rebel-installed government moved Sept. 6 into UN-controlled southwestern Rwanda, where hundreds of thousands of Hutus have fled for fear of revenge attacks.

As many as 150 soldiers of the new government reportedly moved into the protection zone set up by French troops, who withdrew last month.

The move contradicts earlier government statements that its first personnel in the region would be civilians. The only civilian officials there so far are four customs agents on the Rwanda-Zaire border.

Lake Baikal cleanup

Russia and Germany have signed an agreement for a nearly $500,000 preservation project for Lake Baikal in central Siberia, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Sept. 6.

Baikal, the world's deepest lake and the home to some 2,000 plants and animals found nowhere else in the world, is threatened by sewage and industrial wastes from the nearby city of Ulan-Ude and air pollution from the cities around Irkutsk.

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