News In Brief
THE US
Findings from the Whitewater Committee's year-long investigation are to be made public tomorrow. They conclude that Hillary Rodham Clinton likely had a role in limiting the inquiry into White House Lawyer Vincent Foster's death to hide potentially embarrassing information, The Washington Post reported. The document are to be released one day after the start of a new Little Rock trial where President Clinton has again been asked to testify.
The FBI gathered evidence at the Jordan, Mont., ranch that housed the "freemen" for 81 days. Fourteen of 16 antigovernment group members who surrendered are jailed in Billings. Seven of the members are charged with involvement in a $1.8 million check fraud scheme allegedly run from the ranch. Two are also charged with threatening to kidnap and murder a federal judge. Seven others are accused of assisting federal fugitives to avoid arrest.
The House passed a $254.3 billion Pentagon spending bill for fiscal 1997. And the Senate approved a $1.62 trillion Republican spending plan.
Presidential hopeful Bob Dole is gaining on President Clinton in the race for the presidency, a new round of polls shows. A Time-CNN survey shows Clinton with a 6 percent lead, which narrows the gap by 16 points from a similar survey a month earlier. A US News and World Report survey found the presidential candidates 13 points apart. In a separate poll by the same magazine, 67 percent of those surveyed said a political leader could have substantial "personal character" flaws but still govern effectively.
The mother of a white man being held in the burning of a predominantly black church in Enid, Okla., said her son was mentally retarded and incapable of committing such an act alone. She said he couldn't have made the incendiary device used to ignite the building without assistance. Police say they don't think the fire was racially motivated.
Theodore Kaczynski is expected to be indicted tomorrow in the Unabomber case in Sacramento, Calif., a federal source said. Two people were killed there by package bombs blamed on the Unabomber.
The Senate opened debate on the long-delayed confirmation of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to a third four-year term. A vote is scheduled for Thursday. The nomination had been blocked by Sen. Tom Harkin (D) of Iowa, who believes the Fed has been unnecessarily dampening economic growth.
The level of harm caused by female genital mutilation "can constitute persecution," the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled upon granting asylum to a Fauziya Kasinga of Togo. The precedent-setting decision went beyond the recommendations of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Kasinga said she feared the traditional practice if sent back to her homeland.
A San Francisco appeals court followed a Clinton administration lead and axed timber sales in areas of the Pacific Northwest where the threatened Marbled murrelet live. The ruling is expected to save about 4,000 acres of ancient Douglas firs and Western hemlocks in coastal Oregon and Washington.
A majority of Arizonans believe Gov. Fife Symington should resign following his indictment on criminal charges, according to a poll by The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette. Nearly six out of 10 Arizonans surveyed said he should step down. Symington claims he innocent of the 23-count federal grand jury indictment, which includes fraud and attempted extortion.
An estimated 40,000 people flocked to the American Booksellers Association convention in Chicago. Attendees considered trends in religious publishing and how to best use the World Wide Web to market and sell books. Ross Perot and Sen. Paul Simon (D) of Illinois used the show to launch "The Dollar Crisis: A Blueprint to Help Rebuild the American Dream," which highlights problems with current US economic policies.
THE WORLD
The US and China worked against the clock on the final day of talks aimed at averting a trade war over copyright piracy. A compromise deal appeared to be emerging less than 24 hours before today's deadline, a source said. But "substantial additional progress is going to have to be made," acting US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky said. The US has threatened to impose punitive tariffs on about $2 billion in Chinese goods, and China said it will retaliate in kind.
Turnout was lower than expected, as Russians voted in crucial presidential elections in what is widely perceived to be a contest between President Yeltsin and Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. Preliminary results are expected tonight, but analysts anticipate a run-off between the two men in July.
Security video cameras taped the bomb-laden van that exploded at a Manchester, England, shopping center, injuring more than 200 people, British authorities said. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, but authorities say the size of the explosion and warnings they received beforehand point to the IRA.
UN weapons inspectors left Iraq for Bahrain one day after ending their vigil outside a military base suspected of holding illegal weapons material - one of five sites to which the inspectors have been denied access. Also, the head of the UN Special Commission plans to travel to Baghdad this week to demand the inspectors be allowed into all sites.
The US and North Korea will begin a joint excavation in July to search for the remains of US soldiers killed in the Korean War, Pyongyang said. The recovery is a key US demand to improving relations with North Korea.
The search was called off for survivors of a Cypriot-registered cargo ship that sank after colliding with a freighter in thick fog off the coast of South Korea. All 26 crew members were presumed drowned.
Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli policeman and wounded his wife in the West Bank, Israeli authorities said. In south Lebanon, an Israeli soldier was killed during a Hizbullah guerrilla attack on a pro-Israeli convoy.
Bosnian Croats appointed a new prime minister for their separatist "republic," which was supposedly dissolved under the Dayton accord, snubbing moves to strengthen Bosnia's fragile Muslim-Croat Federation.
Yasuo Hamanaka, the Japanese copper trader who cost Sumitomo Corp. the world's biggest loss in a financial market, may have done up to $20 billion annually in unauthorized deals. Copper traders braced for a hectic day, as Sumitomo, the world's largest copper company prepared to extricate itself from the trading positions into which Hamanaka had locked them. His deals are expected to cost the company at least $1.8 billion at current copper prices.
Burundian troops massacred at least 71 Hutu civilians in central Burundi Thursday, foreign workers said. More than 150,000 people have died since 1993 in the Tutsi-dominated Army's war against Hutus.
Bangladesh's Awami League seems likely to form the country's next government. The liberal party, which came in first in last week's elections, received support from the third-ranked Jatiya Party, giving it the allegiance of more than half of the 300-seat parliament.
Torrential rains in southern India killed more than 100 people in the last three days and rendered hundreds more homeless. More than 180 fishermen were also reported missing. A cyclone was expected to hit last night, threatening more destruction.
It was a desperate act of desperate people."
- British Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Cairns on Saturday's bombing of a Manchester shopping center.
ETCETERAS
Ella Fitzgerald, America's "first lady of song," died Saturday. During her 60-year career, Fitzgerald recorded 250 albums and won 13 Grammy awards. The jazz great perfected a style that came to be known as scat singing - wordless improvisation that gives the effect of an instrumental soloist.
Students at Chicago's Northwestern University deserve more than A's on a class project. Asked to look at a real-life crime and see if the right people were punished, they tackled the case of three men convicted of a 1978 double murder. The men were set free after the students persuaded prosecutors to do DNA tests, which indicated innocence. They also obtained murder confessions from two other men.
A new presidential candidate hit the campaign trail: Louis LePooch, an English bulldog, is campaigning to raise money for the Jefferson County, Wisc., Humane Society. Supporters can join the "Hydrant Party" for $10. Bumper stickers, T-shirts, and mugs of the presidential hopeful are also available.
Members of the Tall Trees Club think they've found a redwood for the record books in California's Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Members estimate the tree is 370 feet tall. But precise measurements can't be made without climbing the redwood, which is against park regulations.
THE DAY'S LIST
1996 All-America City And Community Awards
Ten communities are honored annually by the National Civic League for addressing problems such as racial and ethnic discord, crime, joblessness, and neighborhood blight.
Fosston, Minn.
Greater New Orleans, La.
Westminster, Calif.
Quincy, Fla.
Hays, Kan.
Holland, Mich.
Greater Buffalo, N.Y.
Hartsville, S. C.
McAllen, Texas
Roanoke, Va.
- Associated Press
