News In Brief
THE US
The Democratic National Committee reversed course and released a makeshift preelection financial report to the Federal Election Commission. Democrats promised to file a more complete report by Friday.
Republican Party chairman Haley Barbour said he would seek a court injunction to halt DNC spending until Democrats file a full contributions report. And five Republican lawmakers asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel to investigate allegations Democrats accepted improper donations from foreigners.
President Clinton plans to spend twice as much as Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole in the last week of the campaign, White House aides said. As of Oct. 16, the last filing deadline, Clinton had more than $34 million in campaign funds, compared with Dole's $19.2 million.
Clinton campaigned in the Midwest, Dole in the South. The President was scheduled for visits to Ohio and Pennsylvania. Dole was scheduled for campaign stops in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Florida.
The nation's output of goods and services rose 2.2 percent in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported. It was the smallest advance so far this year, following a 4.7 percent advance in the spring. Dole seized on the report to attack Clinton's economic record.
The FBI is investigating the way agents questioned Atlanta security guard Richard Jewell, the agency said. And Director Louis J. Freeh also announced he opened an inquiry on Aug. 1 into whether FBI agents had leaked Jewell's name as a suspect.
A senior FBI official pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. E. Michael Kehoe admitted destroying a report criticizing the FBI handling of its 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The wife and son of white separatist Randall Weaver were killed during the nine-day standoff.
The CIA plans to increase its use of covert action against suspected terrorist groups, agency officials said. The announcement comes after the mysterious destruction of TWA Flight 800 and recent attacks on US servicemen in Saudi Arabia.
US military aid to Colombia is being misused and should be suspended, Amnesty International said. The human rights group said the aid, sent to fight drug traffickers, is channeled to units responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians.
The Rose law firm agreed to a $300,000 settlement from Webb Hubbell. Hubbell, along with Hillary Rodham Clinton, is a former partner at the Little Rock, Ark., firm. He is serving a 21-month prison term for overbilling the office and its clients.
Clinton declared parts of New Hampshire a major disaster area. This makes federal funds available to areas flooded in last week's rainstorm.
More than 7,000 General Motors workers walked off the job at Indiana and Wisconsin plants that supply key auto parts. The action came as talks between GM and the United Auto Workers continued in Detroit.
McDonnell Douglas may have violated customs laws when it sold machinery to China that was later diverted to military use, The New York Times said. The report concerns a federal grand jury investigation of a $1.6 billion Chinese order for 40 planes - half built in California, half in China.
As many as 1,300 people with criminal records may have become naturalized citizens over the past year, the Immigration and Naturalization Service acknowledged. The agency was responding to Republican charges that 50,000 people with criminal records were naturalized to boost the turnout of Democratic voters.
THE WORLD
After a secret trial lasting four hours, Chinese dissident Wang Dan was convicted of plotting to overthrow the Beijing government. Wang was sentenced to a prison term of 11 years. His family said it would appeal the conviction. Wang came to prominence after helping to lead the 1989 Tienanmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations.
Under heavy security precautions, India's federal police indicted former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao for bribery on top of the forgery charges he already faces. Rao is accused of conspiring to pay members of parliament $100,000 in 1993 to support him in a no-confidence vote. He left office in May amid allegations of corruption, despite being credited for modernizing the Indian economy. Rao denies any wrongdoing.
Rwandan leaders warned that their country was edging toward war with neighboring Zaire. Vice President Paul Kagame said shelling by Zairean troops had hit an army barracks, wounding some of his soldiers. A Rwandan colonel said he had sent commandos into Zaire to retaliate for the shelling. Fighting between the two countries is an outgrowth of ethnic clashes in eastern Zaire that have emptied refugee camps and forced the evacuation of foreign aid workers.
A former South African security police colonel drew two concurrent life sentences in prison for apartheid-related crimes. Eugene de Kock is the highest-ranking official convicted so far in the country's ongoing campaign to sort through its racially troubled past. He admitted his role in various bombings and other attacks against apartheid opponents.
A plea bargain by Cal cocaine cartel leader Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela must now be studied by a federal court in Colombia. Rodriguez agreed to pay a $105-million fine and plead guilty to 19 crimes, among them setting up phony companies to finance election campaigns. The fine is believed to be the largest in Colombian history. He has been indicted for drug trafficking in the US, but did not agree to plead guilty to the same charge in Colombia.
Three players from Cuba's world championship baseball team were suspended for life for "selling their dignity without respect for the revolution." German Mesa, Orlando Hernandez, and Alberto Hernandez were accused of helping fellow players to defect to the US, where they signed professional contracts. Cuban-American scout Juan Ignacio Hernandez Nodar was arrested at a youth-baseball tournament on the same charge.
Rival Iraqi Kurdish factions began peace talks in neighboring Turkey, under US sponsorship. But leaders Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan sent representatives rather than attend themselves. US envoy Robert Pelletreau brokered a cease-fire between the two groups last week.
A second day of fighting in Somalia resulted in heavy casualties as rival clansmen captured an airstrip from the forces of Hussein Aideed. The clash occurred 30 miles from the capital, Mogadishu. Witnesses said more than 70 people were killed or wounded.
Two more bombs exploded in the nightly campaign against French rule on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. A 200-pound device destroyed the state telephone company offices in the port of Ajaccio. Another explosion heavily damaged a police villa in Sainte-Lucie de Porto Vecchio. No one was injured. Police arrested six people for suspected involvement in the Ajaccio incident. The island has been shaken by such attacks since Premier Alain Jupp ordered a crackdown against Corsican militants Oct. 5.
ETCETERAS
''The student movement was such a big thing that nobody can forget it.
Just because we don't talk about it openly doesn't mean we don't care."
-- A Chinese citizen, on the sentencing of dissident and former student leader Wang Dan to 11 years in prison.
Despite a brief wrong turn into oncoming traffic, Honda's "Dream" car won the fourth World Solar Challenge race. The $7.9 million vehicle, covered with silicon cells, completed the 1,870-mile course across Australia in 33-1/2 hours at an average speed of 89.7 m.p.h. Honda broke its own record for the race by more than two hours.
Britain's top literary award - and the $32,000 prize and surging book sales that go with it - belongs to Graham Swift. The London novelist edged 149 competitors for the 1996 Booker Prize. His novel, "Last Orders," tells of four people who meet to fulfill a friend's dying wish.
Travel agents say next year's No. 1 vacation destination appears to be Hong Kong. Flights to - and hotel space in - the British colony are almost booked solid for the summer, even though some hotels are requiring a five-night minimum stay at up to $3,200 a night. Hong Kong reverts to Chinese government control July 1, and the curious want to be there as close as possible to the historic event.
THE DAY'S LIST
Best-Selling Calendars of 1996: Do You Own One?
Angels
Anne Geddes childrens' photos
Dilbert: Ask Me How My Day Went
Disney Days
Gary Larson's "Far Side"
Friends
Georgia O'Keeffe paintings
Goosebumps
Life's Little Instruction Calendar
The Muppets
Rottweilers
Winnie-the-Pooh
- Calendar industry distributors and publishers
