World Notes

The push to end 15 years of savage civil war took a step forward last week as the Angolan government agreed in principle to a peace plan that includes a cease-fire with its longtime enemy, the U.S.-backed rebel group UNITA. The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola says it too is "in broad agreement" with the plan, which links the cease-fire to a political settlement between the rival factions.

The proposal, hammered out in Lisbon by the U.S., the Soviet Union and Portugal, reflects a concerted effort by the superpowers to find a solution to the regional dispute, which has cost an estimated 200,000 lives. The agreement is expected to be signed in Lisbon as early as February, when a date for ending the war will be set. It also calls for the introduction of a new constitution supporting multiparty democracy and the integration of the Angolan army and UNITA into a single, nonideological force.