The World - News from Jan. 16, 1989

The Spanish Communist Party has agreed to merge with a small splinter group in an effort to mend divisions that have dogged the far left since a rout in the 1982 general elections. At the end of its Congress of Communist Unity, the party approved a document to combine with the Communist Party of the Spanish People. Another splinter party--led by veteran Santiago Carillo, who headed the Spanish Communist Party in its heyday in the late 1970s--remains independent. The Spanish Communist Party has seen its share of the vote cut by half since it emerged as a popular force a decade ago.