Checking Out the Library: When Raisa Gorbachev...

Checking Out the Library: When Raisa Gorbachev accompanies her husband to Washington next week for the arms control summit, the Soviet First Lady plans to stop at the Library of Congress to open an exhibit of rare Russian books and manuscripts. Gorbachev also may examine the rest of the library’s collection of Soviet materials, including a dissertation on rural sociology written by Raisa Maximovna. Gorbachev wrote that paper in the 1950s to receive her doctorate from Moscow University.

Plans Mapped: Susannah Batko-Yovino, 11, won the National Geography Bee championship in Washington Thursday. The sixth-grader from Altoona, Pa., was asked: “Mt. Erebus is a volcano on which continent?” Antarctica, she replied to win the prize. “I think that more girls should get involved in this kind of stuff rather than in majorettes and cheerleading,” she said.

Closing the Book: A lawsuit that questioned the accuracy of a Greta Garbo biography was settled out of court in New York, both sides said Wednesday. The dust jacket of “Greta: Her Story,” says the book is an “based on a long and intimate friendship” with the author, the late Antoni Gronowicz. Garbo’s niece, Grey Reisfield, filed the suit. Terms of the settlement were not released. Garbo died last month at age 84.

Show Goes On: Protesters carried out a demonstration against Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), although the conservative lawmaker canceled his appearance at a dinner in Charlotte, N.C. About 200 supporters of the environment, legal abortion, homosexual rights and the arts staged a noisy protest Wednesday night outside an office building. Helms said pressing business in Washington altered his schedule.