Contact Info for THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER:
lmgentry@ocr1.freedom.com;;;wilde@ocr1.freedom.com

Drug find: Italian customs police discovered 17 tons of
marijuana hidden in a ship that had arrived in Genoa from
Guatemala, it was announced Thursday.

Senate backsdesignation of Mexico as drugwar ally
The Senate, after intense negotiations with the White
House, voted Thursday to accept President Clinton's
designation of Mexico as a U.S. ally in efforts to combat
illegal drugs. The measure, approved 945, decries both
countries' losses to narcotics traffickers and demands
progress on both sides, with Clinton required to make
another assessment Sept. 1.

The action means that Congress did not follow through on
earlier threats to overturn Clinton's 3weekold finding
that Mexico is a committed soldier in the war against
drugs. NEWS 25 ELSEWHERE IN THE REGION REBELS SEEK
HELP: Rebels holding 72 hostages in the Japanese
ambassador's residence have summoned 60 fighters from
Peru's central jungle to Lima to help in case of a
government raid, a newspaper reported Thursday. Meanwhile,
Cuba confirmed Thursday that it had accepted a Japanese
request to grant asylum to the rebels.

CLASH OVER CRASH: Cuba's foreign minister called his
counterpart in Spain a "liar, blackmailer and meddler"
Thursday for criticizing Cuba's treatment of a tourist
involved in a traffic collision. Foreign Minister Roberto
Robaina was responding to a warning by Spanish Foreign
Minister Abel Matutes that Spain might urge its citizens
not to vacation in Cuba. The Spanish tourist apparently
can't leave the island due to pending legal action.

NORIEGA DEAL? Former Panamanian dictator Manuel
Noriega says federal prosecutors offered him a lighter
sentence if he implicated Fidel Castro in drug smuggling, a
charge the prosecutors denied Thursday. Noriega made the
statement in a prison interview that aired Wednesday on
CBS' Spanishlanguage network Telenoticias.