News In Brief

The US

Rep. Mel Reynolds was convicted Tuesday on all counts of having sex with an underage campaign worker and of trying to sabotage the investigation into the case. According to jurors, taped phone conversations between Reynolds, a former Rhodes scholar, and teenager Beverly Heard convinced them of his guilt. The decision does not automatically remove the Chicago Democrat from office. The House ethics committee will now open its own probe.

First Lady Hillary Clinton may get a reprieve in her tough decision on whether to attend the Beijing women's conference. The White House said Tuesday it has word that China plans to put American rights activist Harry Wu on trial in the next few days. A quick result could bring his release by the Aug. 30 meeting.

Two women want to step into Shannon Faulkner's boots. But Faulkner's lawyers refused to identify them until their names are added to the gender-discrimination suit against The Citadel, a state-funded military school. The move was expected today or Friday. The lawyers also planned to try to broaden the suit to include all female would-be Citadel applicants by making it a class-action suit. The Citadel derided the lawyers' plan, citing the court's decision that Faulkner deserved ''special, conditional relief.''

As expected, the Federal Reserve Board did not lower interest rates Tuesday. Wall Street took the news in stride, but many in the manufacturing industry criticized the move, saying they need lower interest rates to pull out of a long-term slump.

Americans support President Clinton's efforts to discourage teenage smoking but reject limits on cigarette marketing. An Associated Press poll found that 73 percent support making tobacco companies pay for anti-teen smoking campaigns. But 58 percent of them opposed banning tobacco ads on T-shirts or at sporting events. (Stories, Pages 8 and 13.)

''The vision hasn't come yet,'' said Malcolm Forbes Jr. of his decision on whether to seek the White House in 1996. The publishing mogul says he sees ''a void and a vacuum'' in the GOP presidential field but won't decide whether to run until this fall.

Detective Mark Fuhrman bragged about a ''kill party'' with other policemen to celebrate a police shooting, according to the Los Angeles Times, which quoted videotaped interviews. ''It's like the end of a football game. You just won the championship. You're powerful,'' the Times quoted Fuhrman as saying. Judge Lance Ito has delayed a ruling on whether the Simpson jury will see the tapes.

California State Assemblyman Mike Machado, a Democrat, easily defeated a GOP attempt to oust him Tuesday. Machado survived the recall vote, but three months ago Assemblyman Paul Horcher did not. Recalls are increasingly being used in California and elsewhere. While some see them as a tools for promoting greater accountability, others say they are used for political intimidation. (Story, Page 3.)

Calvin Klein ads that depict teens in underwear in a tacky suburban basement are setting off a raucous reaction. Some New Yorkers decried their appearance on city buses last week. Calling them ''child pornography,'' the American Family Association, a conservative Christian group, threatened Tuesday to boycott Calvin Klein retailers. Klein says it is ''stunned'' that considers them pornographic.

The Golden-cheeked Warbler and three other birds would be better protected by removing them from the endangered species list, a group of 15 conservative lawmakers told the Interior Department Tuesday. They say the Endangered Species Act, which is up for renewal this year, goads landowners into quick development to beat the onset of strict regulations, therefore destroying the species' habitat. Environmentalists disagree, saying the lawmakers are trying to limit wildlife protection.

The World

A major humanitarian crisis is developing as Zairean troops expel tens of thousands of Hutu Rwandan refugees from the country, the US and UN say. The US State Department accused Zaire of violating international law, and the UN sent its high commissioner for refugees to the country. Zairean officials said yesterday that national security is driving the expulsions. UN officials said Tuesday an estimated 13,000 refugees were expelled to Rwanda and Burundi since Saturday. Some 85,000 refugees have fled camps to hide in Zaire's hills, and food shortages are imminent.

Iraq should be awarded for its ''180-degree'' change in policy on weapons disclosure, Rolf Ekeus, the UN official in charge of eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, said yesterday. The Gulf war cease-fire resolutions should be honored, and the date for lifting the ban on Iraqi oil sales be advanced, he said. Meanwhile, the Iraqi government denied claims by Iraqi defectors that President Hussein had new plans to invade Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. A 1,400-strong group of US troops started arriving in Kuwait yesterday for war exercises aimed at deterring an Iraqi confrontation. (Story, Page 1.)

French UN peacekeepers fired their heaviest weaponry yet on Serb rebels outside Sarajevo Tuesday night in retaliation for a Serb assault on Egyptian peacekeepers, they said. Tuesday's casualty figures for the Sarajevo area were the highest in weeks. In a report yesterday, the UN's former chief human rights investigator demanded that Bosnian Serb leaders immediately account for Muslim men missing after the Serb seizure of Srebrenica. Tadeusz Mazowieck said the Red Cross has received up to 10,000 tracing requests for those missing after Srebrenica's fall.

US envoy Dennis Ross pushed for an accord on wider Palestinian self-rule in talks with Israeli and PLO negotiators, which resumed yesterday. Israel also reopened its border with the Gaza Strip yesterday. And an intelligence official told an Israeli newspaper that Hamas is planning more attacks in the run-up to the signing of a final accord.

Family size is shrinking worldwide because women in most countries want fewer children, according to a study to be presented at the Aug. 30 UN conference on women in China. Average family size dropped from six to three children in the past 25 years in many Asian and Latin American countries, it said.

The head of one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels is negotiating the terms of his surrender with the government. Juan Garcia Abrego is demanding that he not be extradited to the US to face trafficking charges, the New York Times and Dallas Morning News said.

An ethnic group virtually shut down Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, yesterday with a strike to protest alleged police brutality. The two-day strike, called by the largest faction of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, follows a recent police crackdown on ethnic activists in Karachi.

The Khmer Rouge can be prosecuted for genocide, an international conference on genocide in Cambodia concluded yesterday. The conference also charged the Khmer Rouge with crimes against humanity and war crimes against Vietnam.

President Lee Teng-hui said yesterday he intends to run for a second term in Taiwan's first direct presidential elections, raising the spectre of a party split . Some National Party members say he's been in power too long.

Indian officials expressed hope of a release after successfully persuading Kashmiri rebels to send recent photos and audio tapes of four Western captives.

Etcetera

Queen Elizabeth will save taxpayers' money by using a commercial flight for the first time when she visits New Zealand later this year, according to the Daily Mirror. She usually flies on special royal flights. The first-class section of a 747 would be revamped for the trip.

Two South African women, whose babies were accidentally switched at birth, are suing authorities for thousands of dollars. But they want to keep their nonbiological sons. Both women say they have formed deep bonds with the boys. The switch occurred in 1989.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who died in Chicago Monday, won the Nobel Prize for a theory he developed as a teenager that led to today's conception of blacks holes. He was a member of the University of Chicago faculty.

Top 10 Video Rentals

1. ''Star Trek Generations,'' (Paramount)

2. ''Dumb and Dumber,'' (New Line)

3. ''Disclosure,'' (Warner)

4. ''Boys on the Side,'' (Warner)

5. ''The Brady Bunch Movie,'' (Paramount)

6. ''Nell,'' (Fox)

7. ''Just Cause,'' (Warner)

8. ''I.Q.,'' (Paramount)

9. ''Houseguest,'' (Hollywood Pictures)

10. ''Murder in the First,'' (Warner)

- Billboard Publications Inc.

'' You're basically buying about $20,000 worth of software for $40.''

- Microsoft spokeswoman Christin Santucci, on the multitude of black-market copies of Windows 95 now available that were made from pre-release versions of the operating-system software.