EVENTS

CLINTON RAPS HAITIAN EXPULSIONS President Clinton said July 12 that Haiti's expulsion of a UN-led human rights mission was a desperate act that validated his decision to consider military force ``to bring an end to this.'' Mr. Clinton told a news conference in Berlin on the last day of his week-long trip to Europe that he hoped the order by Haiti's military rulers would stiffen international resolve to tighten economic sanctions on the Carribean nation. In Washington, Richard Lugar of Indiana, the second-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the expulsion order was ``outrageous'' but that an invasion would be a serious mistake. At least 2,000 United States Marines have been dispatched to waters off Haiti, ostensibly in place should Americans living there need protection. Tensions escalated when Haiti's leaders July 11 ordered all 100 members of a joint UN and Organization of American States mission to leave by July 13. Wholesale prices steady

US wholesale prices held steady in June after declining for two straight months as food prices remained flat and energy costs rose moderately, the government said July 12. The Labor Department also reported that its Producer Price Index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach the consumer, rose just 1.6 percent at an annual rate for the first half of this year. Wholesale prices for the past 12 months have remained unchanged. UAL employee buyout

Shareholders of United Airlines parent UAL Corporation have approved the proposed buyout of the nation's No. 2 airline, chairman Stephen Wolf said July 12, making it the country's largest employee-owned company. Under the employee buyout, UAL workers will receive an initial stake of 55 percent of the company in return for about $5 billion in wage and work-rule concessions. But dissidents remained among the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Air Line Pilots Association. Newborn newt on Columbia

The bugs, fish, and amphibians aboard Columbia were in good shape July 12, with a newborn newt joining the already-crowded manifest. The freshly hatched newt was discovered by astronaut Donald Thomas when he checked on 144 fertilized eggs in the space shuttle's laboratory. The Japanese experiment to see how newts react when they are away from Earth's gravity is one of more than 80 studies going on during the two-week mission.