Bush for open govt in Kuwait: President George Bush Is talking political reform with the newly reatored emir of Kuwait. officials aay In l*lamorada.

Kuwaiti officials and western diplomats said Bush. In a tetter, urged the emir to allow a more pluralistic system. On Tuesday. White House spokesman Steve Hart would confirm onto that Bush and the emir. Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed. exchanged correspondence.

Hart said the US position is 'obviously were for democracy.'

As to whether the president was calling for the emir's ruling family to open up the government. Hart said. "Of course we'd prefer change but the pace of it Is for-the Kuwaitis themselves to decide.'

Bush was on a vacation tn Florida.

72 anti-socialists jailed in China:

China has sentenced at least 72 people for trying to overthrow Socialism during the 1989 pro-democracy movement and more dissidents remain to be tried, a senior judicial official said Tuesday In Beijing, reports AFP.

Duanmu Zheng. Vice President of the Supreme People s Court, said a number of cases related to the 1989 unrest remained to be heard.

T do not know the exact number, but I would Imagine 1t Is a very small figure,' he told Agence France-Presse.

15,000 Indonesians blacklisted: » least 15.000 Indonesians. Including some former Cabinet Ministers, are banned from travelling abroad but quite why Is a secret, the respected Tempo Weekly Magazine reported Tuesday tn Jakarta, reports Reuter.

The reasons are a state secret and cannot be disclosed.' it director General of Immigration Ronny Slkap Slnuraya assaying

Bans can be imposed by the Justice Ministry, the Attorney General's office. the Intelligence Agency Bakin and the Supreme Court.

35 newsmen flee Iraq • Thirty-five foreign correspondents fled to Turkey from war-torn Iraq, some swimming across a fast-flowing river on the border under fire from Turkish border troops, reporters said Tuesday in Ankara, reports AP.

Turkey's semi official Anatolia News Agency quoted some of the reporters as saying that one unidentified journalist had died and two were injured In clashes between rebel and government forces. The report could not be confirmed.

Austrian journalist Alex Mokry. who was among those arriving, told The Associated Press that he heard that a reporter was killed but 1 am not tn a position to confirm if.

Mokry said he was In a group of Journalists who entered Iraq from Syria and spent 11 days covering the fighting between Iraqi Kurds and Saddam Hussein's troops.

Gorbachev meets Nixon ! President Mikhail S Gorbachev met with former US President Richard M. Nixon on Tuesday and assured him he is still the same 'old Gorbachev.' indicating he is not abandoning the reform process, reports AP from Moscow.

Presidential spokesman Vitaly Ignatenko the two discussed whether there had been a reversal of Soviet reforms. The spokesman offered no details of the discussion

However, the official Tass news agency said Gorbachev told Nixon : The United State* can be sure that they are dealing with the old Gorbachev "

11,000 AIDS cases reported • More than 11.000 new cases of AIDS were reported to the World Health Organization during March. Increasing the global total to 345.533 reported from 16 2 countries since the start of records. AP reports from Geneva.

Updates from the United States. Brazil, and Ivory Coast accounted for most of the increase, according to the monthly Wl IO survey.

The United States listed 6.515 new cases during March. Washington ha* notified the health agency of 167.803 cases of the deadly disease since 1981.

Brazil reported 1.466 new victims during the three month* ending Dec. 29. raising Its total to 16.015. Ivory Coast listed 1.444 cases during the two months ending March I for an overall 6.836.

200,000 Iraqis seek UN help z Turkey said more than 200.000 people fleeing Iraq were tn danger of death near its frontier and called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to help them. Reuter reports from Ankara.

The National Security Council has setablished that over 200.000 mostly women and children, are facing danger of death near our borders." the council, headed by President Turgut Ozal. said in a statement released after a two-hour meeting

Karens' bases bombed :

out bombing raid* and ground attacks against ethnic Karen rebel positions in southeastern Burma near Thailand Tuesday, that border police said In Bangkok, reports AFP

Border police officers reached by telephone tn Thailand's northwestern take province said the bombing raids started late Saturday over at least two bases of the Karen National Union (KNU) some five kilometers (three miles) Inside firms'* Karen Mate.

They said they were trying to confirm reports from their own intelligence sources that the planes were Yugoslavian

made jets.