World Notes SOVIET UNION

The spirit of glasnost is infusing the Soviet press, and its new, muckraking style of journalism already has some officials up a tree. When the weekly Literaturnaya Gazeta published a report last year that meat producers were breaking the law by putting protein additives and other impurities in their sausage, the paper was promptly sued by a group of Moscow meatpackers, who demanded a retraction.

LitGaz not only stood by the story but also took its case directly to a jury of sausage savants at the Fauna Cat Lovers Club in Dzerzhinsky, where the editors conducted a random taste test with some finicky felines. Last week, in an article titled "May the Cats Judge Us," the paper reported the results of its poll: out of 30 cats, only a two-month-old kitten named Mura would deign to dine on the suspect sausage. Asked the Gazeta: "All kitties, like Mura, must loyally love sausage. That's the way it's always been since man thought up sausage. But why, the devil take them, won't they eat it? And why do we continue to eat it?"