News In Brief

Nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee will have to remain in jail, without bail, pending his trial next year, a federal judge ruled after a three-day hearing in Albuquerque, N.M. Lee, who worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory until fired in March, is charged with downloading vast amounts of data containing nuclear secrets. The court ruled that there were no means of restricting Lee's actions outside of jail that would allow the release of someone posing a potential threat to national security. US District Judge James Parker indicated, however, that he would reconsider Lee's request, pending the outcome of a possible lie-detector test.

Presidential candidates Bill Bradley and John McCain posted strong end-of-year fund-raising results. Bradley, the former Democratic senator from New Jersey, has now raised between $27 million and $28 million for the year, virtually the same as Vice President Al Gore, The Washington Post reported. As a fund-raiser, Bradley has outpaced Vice President Al Gore in each of the past two quarters.

Senator McCain (R) of Arizona raised $6.1 million over the last three months, doubling his total for the previous quarter.

Previously undisclosed FBI interviews in the 1993 Branch Davidian case reveal that agency negotiators believe talks were prematurely abandoned in favor of aggressive, paramilitary measures against the group's compound near Waco, Texas. Group leader David Koresh and about 80 of his followers died in an inferno that engulfed the compound after government tanks rolled in. More people could have been coaxed out of the compound before the blaze, according a negotiator's comments in a Justice Department negotiator obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

The 1997 deportation of a former Nazi concentration camp guard from the US to Romania was upheld by a federal appeals court in Philadelphia. Nikolaus Schiffer, a retired banker, regained his US citizenship in 1958, but was stripped of it 1993 and deported after learning he had never properly disclosed his role in World War II.

Seventy percent of the wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 990 has now been recovered - including an engine that had long remained on the ocean floor off Rhode Island, the National Transportation Safety Board reported. Investigators have reached no conclusion on what caused the Oct. 31 crash.

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said he won't endorse Pat Buchanan, even if he wins next year's Reform Party presidential nomination. Ventura, the party's highest elected official, told USA Today that the Reform Party needs a centrist - not a right-wing - candidate.

American Airline maintenance workers, who recently participated in a disruptive work slowdown in Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth, were barred from organizing job actions through Jan. 13 by a federal judge. The slowdown caused the delay or cancellation of more than150 flights at the carrier's two largest hubs. At issue is the eligibility of union members for a pay premium. Union officials said the court's restraining order would be obeyed.

The Algerian national arrested Dec. 14 near Port Angeles, Wash., allegedly tried to smuggle one of the world's most powerful explosives. The information was contained in court documents released in Seattle. Meanwhile, in Fresno, Calif., authorities vowed to step up security precautions after the theft of 200 pounds of explosives from a police bunker.

(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society