weather TODAY: 40% chance of afternoon snow; high upper 30s FRIDAY: 50% chance of mixed precipitation; high near 40 (S> 100th Year of Editorial Freedom BMH Est. 1893 Volume 101, Issue 3 THURSDAY IN THE NEWS Top stones from state, nation and world Mulroney relinquishes Canadian leadership OTTAWA Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, battered by the lowest popularity ratings in Canadian polling history, called it quits Wednesday, ending months of speculation about his future. Dogged by a three-year recession, unable to unite the country’s bicker ing provinces or solve its French- English divisions, Mulroney bowed to the inevitable but went out insisting that he could have won again. But the man who has governed Canada since 1984 acknowledged that he would not be given that chance. “The time has come for me to step aside,” Mulroney said, accompanied by his wife Mila and two of his four children. “I’ve done my very best for my country and my party, and I look forward to the enthusiasm and renewal only new leadership brings.” The Quebec lawyer who led his Progressive Conservative party for 10 years said he would remain in office until it selected anew leader. Cuba holds first direct elections since 1959 SANTIAGO, Cuba Cuba on Wednesday held its first direct elections for parliament since the 1959 Communist revolution, but only candidates supporting the party line were permitted to run. Candidates were selected by labor and social groups affiliated with the Communist Party and were approved by city assemblies. President Fidel Castro, himself a candidate, was greeted by thousands of cheering Cubans at the Manuel Isla Perez elementary school, where he voted. In a rare and free-wheeling news conference with reporters from more than a dozen nations, he said the elections would “change the course of the country, of the revolution.” But the only apparent opposition came from several anti-Castro radio stations in Miami, heard easily on the island, which urged Cubans to cast blank ballots or avoid the polls. North Korea working toward nuclear bomb WASHINGTON North Korea has produced enough material for at least one nuclear weapon, the new director of the CIA said Wednesday in the first official public estimate of that nation’s highly secretive nuclear program. R. James Woolsey said North Korea refused to open its nuclear program for inspections, produces weapons-grade material, has devel oped a missile with up to 1,000- kilometer range and is willing to sell weapons to anyone with cash, putting it “almost in a class by itself in the proliferation world.” Most East Europeans distrust democracy LONDON Most east Europeans are deeply disillusioned with democ racy and half believe they were better off under communism, according to an 18-country survey released Wednesday. Among Russians, who were generally the most pessimistic of the 18,700 people polled between Oct. 30 and Nov. 17, one-third expect the nation to revert to dictatorship. Lithuanians were the happiest of those surveyed by the Gallup organization. “This survey is an indication in real terms that some of these countries are going to go toward a dictatorship,” said Gallup managing director Gordon Heald. “That doesn’t necessarily mean a reversal back to communism,” he said. libertarian challenge against state delayed GREENSBORO North Carolina and the state chapter of the Libertar ian Party agreed Wednesday to delay a challenge of a law that calls for officials to drop the organization as a recognized political party, attorneys said Wednesday. The State Elections Board could have moved to decertify the organiza tion as early as Wednesday 9O days after the board certified the results of last November’s election. “The board has agreed to not take any steps to take Libertarian voters off the rolls until the case can be heard on its merits,” said Special Deputy Attorney General Charles M. Hensey, the elections board’s chief legal counsel. —The Associated Press _ THURSDAY FEBRUAKt 25,1993