The World : U.S. Tries New Mideast Bid

Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy, who has been accompanying Vice President George Bush on his Mideast tour, is now on his own mission in the region. The State Department said Murphy’s trip is strictly exploratory, but Bush, in a Bahrain news conference, termed it a new initiative aimed at reviving the stalled Mideast peace process. “We just have to keep pushing any way we can,” Bush said. Murphy, originally scheduled to travel on to Oman and Yemen with Bush, stopped instead in Cairo and then proceeded to Israel. He told reporters in Cairo that the United States is looking for ways to revive the stalled Mideast negotiations.