FIRST OFF . . .

The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition has arranged with Soviet officials to stage an international telethon that will aid earthquake-devastated Armenia. “We’ve signed an agreement between the Rainbow Coalition, the minister of culture, the minister of radio and television to have an international telethon on June 10,” Jackson said. The program would link Armenia, Moscow and “perhaps Britain, and America to raise resources to build churches, houses, hospitals and schools.” Jackson, who returned recently from a six-day visit to the Soviet Union, said he found conditions in Armenia in the wake of the Dec. 7 quake “really incomprehensible.” What is needed right now “is prefabricated housing. And, just as many people have sent trees to Israel as a concrete way of making a statement, people or groups may want to send prefabricated housing to Armenia. Or they may want to send direct contributions to the church.” The Rainbow Coalition is Jackson’s national political group, so-called because its aim is to encompass people of every race.