World Notes

THE PHILIPPINES Under the Weather

For years there have been whispers that President Ferdinand Marcos is suffering from a degenerative kidney disease that requires him to undergo regular dialysis. Although Marcos, 68, has put in some taxing days on the stump, his campaigning for the Feb. 7 election, in which he is being challenged by Corazon Aquino, 52, has revived the rumors about his health. He has canceled a number of public appearances, blaming "unpredictable weather." Then on Friday, before a speech in Pangasinan province, Marcos' left hand began to bleed, and he had to be treated onstage by a doctor and nurse. On Saturday in Calapan, Marcos wore a large bandage on his left hand and adhesive strips on his right. He insisted that the bleeding had come from being scratched by overeager supporters trying to shake his hands.

As if that were not trouble enough, Marcos' campaign plane nearly collided on Saturday with an air force plane carrying some of his security guards that was about to land at the opposite end of came same airstrip. Flying in clear skies, the two craft came within 3,000 ft. of each other before the military plane veered out of the way, almost hitting a grove of palm trees. DISASTERS A Bad Start for 1986

Part of the adventure for tourists who visit the ancient Mayan city of Tikal is in getting there. The site's famous ruins are buried deep in the Guatemalan jungle, and the 40-min. flight from Guatemala City affords sightseers spectacular views of the lush terrain. But last Saturday morning that journey ended in tragedy as a twin-engine Caravelle operated by the private carrier Aerovias crashed on its way to the airport at Santa Elena, 37 miles south of Tikal. Early reports put the number killed at 90, including six Americans. Some of the passengers had apparently traveled to Guatemala for the swearing-in of President Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo, the country's first civilian leader in 16 years.

The accident, the first major crash in 1986, increased the concern about air safety aroused by the series of catastrophes that made 1985 the deadliest in the history of civil aviation. The number of people killed in accidents in 1985 was nearly 2,000, far above the previous record of 1,229 in 1974. Aerovias officials had rented the jet to handle increased demand for trips to Tikal. Air-traffic controllers at Santa Elena said the pilot gave no indications that his plane was in trouble before it went down. SOVIET UNION A New Dimension in Sea Power

The flattop is 1,000 ft. long and weighs 65,000 tons, a monster by Soviet standards but considerably smaller than the U.S.S. Eisenhower (1,092 ft., 94,000 tons). Even so, the nuclear-powered vessel launched last month at the Nikolayev Shipyard on the Black Sea is a notable Soviet innovation: the country's first conventional aircraft carrier. The ship sports both an angled flight deck for fixed-wing aircraft, as on all U.S. carriers, and a ski-jump ramp, similar to those on British carriers, for launching short-takeoff aircraft. Existing Soviet carrier-type vessels, like the 37,000-ton Minsk, are equipped only for short-takeoff planes and for helicopters. Revealing the Soviet launching last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said that the carrier eventually will enable the Soviets "to engage in conflict and aggression much farther from their shores."

But not right away. Preparing the carrier for combat will take four more years, while a second Soviet carrier being built at the Black Sea shipyard will not be launched until 1989. Thus, for the moment, the flattop score remains firmly in favor of the U.S., which currently has 13 of the vessels on operational status. ISRAEL Warming Up the Cold Peace

Prime Minister Shimon Peres has been hampered in his efforts to improve relations with Egypt by a minor but irritating border dispute. At issue is a 250-acre stretch of coastline along the Gulf of Aqaba named Taba, claimed by both countries on the basis of old survey maps. The Israelis completed their withdrawal from the rest of the occupied Sinai in 1982 under the terms of their peace treaty with Egypt. But they retained Taba, and in fact built a resort hotel on it. Peres has been ready to agree to an Egyptian demand for international arbitration as a means of warming up the "cold peace" with Cairo. He has been held back by the Likud bloc, his Labor Party's right-wing partners in the ruling coalition.

Last week the Prime Minister won over the Likud ministers by implicitly threatening to resign and thus bring down the government. His secret weapon: the Likud's knowledge that it must not cause too much trouble between now and October, when Peres is due to exchange jobs with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, the Likud leader. Later in the week Peres scored a victory of another kind: the establishment of diplomatic relations with Spain for the first time. CANADA Markets on the Mind

It was a whirlwind week of diplomacy for Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. Before meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze in Tokyo, he spent three days in Canada, ostensibly exploring how the two countries could work together to promote world trade. But there was another purpose for the visit. Nakasone wanted assurances that forthcoming U.S.-Canadian talks aimed at negotiating a free-trade agreement would not cut Japan off from its Canadian markets.

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney promised that any agreement reached with the U.S. would be made within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and thus would not have an adverse effect on Canada's other trading partners. Later, Nakasone, speaking in both French and English before the Canadian Parliament, decried what he saw as a rising tide of protectionism. Likening international free trade to "a fragile porcelain doll," the Prime Minister went so far as to concede that Japan should be more open to imports. Officials of both countries later revealed that Tokyo had agreed to work toward the elimination of import tariffs on Canadian computer parts and semiconductors.