LEBANON Pipe Down In the Back

Could Lebanon actually be nearing a peace accord? Under the auspices of the Arab League, Lebanon's parliament last week agreed on the outlines of a new national charter revising the distribution of political power, the issue at the root of the country's 14-year-old civil war. The plan, worked out in the Saudi city of Taif, won the endorsement of 58 of the 62 legislators present. Whereas Christians previously held 54 of parliament's 99 seats, an enlarged, 108-member legislature would be evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.

General Michel Aoun, the Lebanese Christian leader, rejected the agreement promptly because it provides no timetable for the withdrawal of occupying Syrian forces. Also opposed were militia commanders of Lebanon's large Shi`ite Muslim community, who want to abolish rather than readjust sectarian quotas. Yet the latest eight-month round of fighting has wearied most of the beleaguered country, and there were some signs that both Aoun and Shi`ite leaders would eventually be persuaded to fall into line.

LIBYA After All This Time, Scruples

In terms of shock value, asserting that Libya has supported the cause of international terrorism ranks right up there with calling the Pope Catholic. Except in this case, the asserter was Colonel Muammar Gaddafi himself. To hear the Libyan leader tell it, in an interview with the Egyptian weekly al-Musawwar, he went to the aid of unspecified terrorist groups in the conviction that they were practicing revolutionary violence for the Arab cause, which is good stuff. Imagine Gaddafi's horror, then, when he discovered that his hijacking, trigger-happy clients actually meant to exercise "terrorism for the sake of terrorism." That is a no-no. Avowed the newly scrupulous Gaddafi: "We have withdrawn our support to such groups."

BRITAIN Killed with Faint Praise

Her praise was terminally faint. During a question period in Parliament last week, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher expressed confidence in Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, who was feuding with her chief economic adviser, Sir Alan Walters. But her endorsement was embarrassingly tepid. Lawson, 57, promptly resigned. His successor: Foreign Minister John Major, 46, who headed the Foreign Office for less than four months but served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury for two years. Rumor has it that he is Thatcher's new favorite to be her successor. Major's replacement: Home Secretary Douglas Hurd, 59, who presumably brings to his new job a mastery of foreign intrigue. In his spare time Hurd has written nine mystery thrillers since 1967.

SOUTH AFRICA An A-Bomb For Pretoria?

For years it has been an open secret that Israel and South Africa share information on military technology. In 1987 the Israeli Cabinet banned "new" defense contracts with Pretoria. But the "old" ones appear to have included missile development.

Last week U.S. officials confirmed that the launching of a booster rocket July 5 at South Africa's De Hoop testing range was the successful first firing of a new long-distance missile developed with Israeli help. The missile has a 900-mile range, similar to that of Israel's nuclear-capable Shavit.

South Africa and Israel denied all the charges. Officials in Jerusalem claimed that Washington leaked the story as punishment for Israel's foot dragging in the stalled peace process. There could be another explanation. The U.S. is currently debating whether to let Jerusalem purchase U.S.-built supercomputers for Technion, an Israeli scientific institute. The application is opposed by the Defense Department and the CIA on the grounds that Technion scientists participate in Israel's sub-rosa nuclear and missile programs.

NORTH KOREA ...And One For Kim?

More nuclear proliferation to worry the West: the prospect of the unpredictable Kim Il Sung with an A-bomb. Fears that North Korea might build one have escalated recently since U.S. spy satellites detected construction of what may be a nuclear reprocessing plant in Yongbyon, 56 miles north of the capital, Pyongyang. Such a unit would enable North Korea to produce plutonium, the raw ingredient for nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang has signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, but so far Kim's government has refused to fulfill its obligation to allow inspections. Washington has repeatedly asked Moscow to use its relationship with Kim to bring him around; U.S. officials say the Soviets promise to keep pushing Pyongyang to comply but reportedly add that their influence over the eccentric Kim is strictly limited.