PLUS NEWS

BUSH STILL BALKING: Leaders of Baltic nationalist groups urgedPresident Bush today to honor Lithuania's declaration of independencefrom the Soviet Union, but to no avail. "We are disappointed with theofficial policy of the United States by not extending recognition,"said Anthony Mazeika of the Baltic American Freedom League. Even so,league members said they were pleased to get an audience with Bush,after being turned down earlier, to present their case for PresidentVytautas Landsbergis' government. "Our policy, we believe, is thecorrect one, and it does not involve recognition," White House presssecretary Marlin Fitzwater said. But he said Bush "was impressedwith the strength and depth" of the visitors' convictions. MOTHER TERESA RESIGNS: Pope John Paul II has accepted theresignation of Mother Teresa as head of the religious order shefounded to care for the sick and poor in Calcutta, India. MonsignorPiero Piero Pannachini announced today that Mother Teresa, 79, whowon the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her charity work, is steppingdown for health reasons and is happy to turn over the job to "youngerhands." She was hospitalized last year with a heart ailment, andsurgeons implanted a pacemaker on Dec. 1. A new leader of theMissionaries of Charity order will be elected in Calcutta on Sept. 8. DePAUL TUITION PROTEST: Hundreds of DePaul University studentswalked out of classes and onto picket lines today to protest tuitionincreases of 25 percent over the last two years. They carried signsreading "Even St. Paul couldn't afford this place" and "If I wantedto pay Notre Dame tuition, I'd have gone there." The walkout lastedabout an hour and blocked traffic on Fullerton Avenue in front of theschool's North Side campus. CAPTURES `UN-ISLAMIC': An Iranian newspaper that often reflects theopinions of President Hashemi Rafsanjani said in an editorial todaythat the release of three Western hostages in Lebanon should be aprelude to freedom for all of them because keeping people captivecontradicts Islamic teachings. It was the third time recently thatthe Tehran Times had expressed this stand. Rafsanjani and othermoderates see a mass release as a way of improving ties with theWest. But hard-liners, who apparently hold greater sway over thoseholding the hostages, consider their method a way to confront theWest. Frenchwoman Jacqueline Valente, 32; Belgian FernandHoutekins, 43, and their daughter, Sophie-Liberte, 2, were freedTuesday by the Palestinian group led by Abu Nidal and flew to Paris. SUIT HITS PATERNITY LAW: A woman who claims that Cook County State'sAttorney Cecil A. Partee is the father of her disabled, 21-year-olddaughter sued in U.S. District Court today to overturn the state'spaternity law. Marsha Thomas said a section barring suits on behalfof illegitimate children after age 20 is unconstitutional. Thomasseeks to establish Partee as the father of her daughter, Jacqueline,and to recover thousands of dollars in child support and medicalbills from him. CONTRA BREAKUP SET: United Nations peacekeeping troops are inHonduras to begin disbanding the contra rebels, but Nicaragua'srulers warned of possible new fighting. About 170 paratroopersarrived Tuesday as part of a 700-member Venezuelan force. The UNteam will supervise the demobilization in Honduras, where the contrashave bases, and the destruction of their U.S.-supplied arms, startingnext week. The Sandinista news media expressed pessimism about thedisarmament accord today. They called it a ploy to gain time beforeVioleta Barrios de Chamorro is installed as president April 25."Unless this situation is resolved in the briefest term . . . all theefforts for peace and reconciliation could . . . revert into a freshoutbreak of the war," said the party newspaper Barricada.