Moscow Savors Pie That Came In From the Cold War

--”It’s fresh, it’s fast, it’s free delivery,” read an English sign on the 36-foot-long van offering the first American-style pizza in Moscow. A crowd gathered in a bitter wind and snow flurries around the van in the Lenin Hills as the joint venture between a New Jersey firm and the Moscow city government was declared officially open. “Very tasty,” said a Russian customer as American television crews zoomed in on her. “We thought this was a great opportunity. We thought we’d get the Yankee spirit and come here and open this,” said Shelley Zeiger, of Trenton, N.J., who along with Louis Piacone from Piscataway, N.J., represent USSO-Food International Inc., American partners in the enterprise.

--It was no sale as the PTL ministry tried to auction the home used by former leaders Jim and Tammy Bakker. There were no bidders for the Tega Cay, S.C., mansion, which was valued at about $1 million. The ministry accepted bids on five of nine properties it was trying to auction, raising about $596,500, only a fraction of the $4 million that ministry officials had hoped to collect. “That home has a great deal of emotional value to us,” said Bakker, reached at his home in Palm Springs. “It was our home for eight years and we raised our children there. . . . “ he said. “We’d like to buy it but we just don’t have the money to do that at all.” The 9,300-square-foot house used by Bakker and his wife before he resigned a year ago amid a sex scandal boasts three kitchens, four bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms. Auctioneer Rodney L. Robinson opened the sale of the house by asking for $900,000. He stopped the auction when his asking price fell to $500,000 without any takers.

--A Conservative Party leader criticized Britain’s Prince Charles’ outspokenness on social issues, such as conditions of the poor and jobless, and architecture. Norman Tebbit, a potential successor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said the prince sympathizes with the jobless because “in a way he’s got no job.” Tebbit made the remarks during a British Broadcasting Corp. documentary called “Charles, Prince of Conscience.” Charles’ stands on stimulating inner cities have reportedly differed from the government’s and irritated Thatcher. Opposition Labor Party politicians criticized Tebbit’s remarks as “foolish,” saying they indicated Thatcher’s government was trying to stifle criticism.