OTHER NEWS - Dec. 1, 1995

Lazard Freres, beset by fines, scandals and shrinking margins, said it will cease underwriting and trading municipal bonds. . . . Mexican financial authorities said they would take over the running of the country’s fourth-largest bank, Inverlat, in what would be the largest intervention to date in Mexico’s crisis-torn banking sector. . . . Australia’s Broken Hill Proprietary Co. said it agreed to buy Magma Copper Co., one of the largest U.S. copper producers, for a total of $2.4 billion, including debt. . . . The United States and the European Union reached agreement on tariff reductions due on American products, averting threatened U.S. trade sanctions against the 15-nation trading bloc. . . . Colgate-Palmolive said it is assigning all of its media billings, worth well over $500 million, to Young & Rubicam, in a major realignment.