The U.S. relaxed technology-export controls.

The Commerce Department amended its rules to liberalize controls on 94 categories of computerized instruments, including spectrometers, electronic stethoscopes and laboratory thermometers. U.S. producers had sought the changes because department rules issued last December appeared to apply to a number of products that previously had been exempt from the controls. The department also loosened exports of most commercially available software to non-Communist countries and China.