Economic Cooperation Organization

Iran, Turkey and Pakistan have revived the moribund Regional Cooperation for Development pact, Tehran radio said. The organization has been inactive since Iran suspended its membership after its revolution six years ago. At the time, Iran denounced the pact--considered to be the non-military arm of the defunct Central Treaty Organization--as an imperialist body. The broadcast said the three countries will rename their alliance the Economic Cooperation Organization.

Six locations popular as tax havens with Americans and Europeans have promised to end within five years the practices that gave them that reputation.

Five former Soviet republics and Afghanistan joined Iran, Pakistan and Turkey on Saturday to create a huge Muslim economic bloc linking Europe and Asia. "Today the aspirations of 300 million people who share a common heritage and culture have been realized," Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said after the signing ceremony.

Five former Soviet republics and Afghanistan joined Iran, Pakistan and Turkey on Saturday to create a huge Muslim economic bloc linking Europe and Asia. "Today the aspirations of 300 million people who share a common heritage and culture have been realized," Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said after the signing ceremony.

Six locations popular as tax havens with Americans and Europeans have promised to end within five years the practices that gave them that reputation.

The "three Chinas"--China, Hong Kong and Taiwan--will join the 12 other member nations of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organization when they begin work here today on additional cooperative projects designed to bring the region together economically. The three-day meeting marks the first time that all three nations have joined an international economic organization. APEC was established in 1989 under the leadership of Australia with strong U.S. backing. Secretary of State James A.

Suspected Taliban rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at a checkpoint manned by Afghan soldiers in a remote southwestern region, killing eight troops in a nighttime attack, the area's governor said today. The attackers were riding in three station wagons when they were stopped at the checkpoint. They initially pretended to be ordinary travelers, but jumped out of the cars and opened fire when troops approached, Nimruz Gov. Abdul Karim Baravi said.

Officials from 21 nations are trekking to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to spend the next 10 days sorting out regional economic policies and priorities. This year's meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organization, known as APEC, occurs as the region struggles to recover from the economic tidal wave that leveled South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and other Asian nations.

Its Composition In some ways, Asia's newest region is anything but new. With languages and peoples that span borders, the area taps into longstanding cultural and historic connections, even some old empires. Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kirghiz and Turkmens all speak a Turkic-based language, a holdover from the days of Turkestan, an empire first molded in medieval days by Genghis Khan and Tamerlane.

So was it a meeting? A summit? A forum? A group? Just what is this Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC for short? "Four adjectives in search of a noun," said Gareth Evans, Australian minister for foreign affairs. * Call it what you will, it was the most important international gathering on the West Coast since the United Nations was organized in San Francisco in 1945.

Iran, Turkey and Pakistan have announced a plan to launch a satellite to boost communications among the three countries, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency said in a report received in Nicosia, Cyprus. The satellite will be launched under the auspices of the Economic Cooperation Organization, formed by the three countries in 1964 to coordinate joint economic activities, said IRNA.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III announced Sunday that he will visit China later this month, effectively ending one of the last of the American sanctions imposed after the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators at Tian An Men Square in 1989. Baker told a press conference marking the end of the Middle East peace conference that China, with almost one-quarter of the world's people, is too big for the United States to continue to ignore, regardless of its dismal human rights record.