News In Brief
The US
Secretary of State Warren Christopher, known for his quiet persuasion, was expected to officially submit his resignation. Christopher's successes include: freezing North Korea's nuclear weapons program, ending the war in Bosnia, and encouraging Israel and the PLO to reach interim agreements. Also likely to depart the Clinton administration: Defense Secretary William Perry, Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, chief of staff Leon Panetta, senior adviser George Stephanopoulos, Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, and Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros.
New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato called off a Senate probe into the Whitewater affair, saying it should be left to the special prosector. The decision likely was influenced by the elections: President Clinton received 59 percent of the vote in New York. The Senate panel spent some $1.3 million in its Whitewater investigations.
The Dow Jones industrial average skyrocketed 96 points Wednesday to a record high of 6177 in response to election results. The one-day gain was the largest since March 18 and the sixth-biggest in history. Investors believe government spending will remain in check with a Democrat in the White House and Republicans controlling Congress. Meanwhile, workplace productivity crept forward during the July-Sept. quarter a mere 0.2 percent, posting less than half the gain of the previous three months.
Responding to the threat of a boycott led by religious and business leaders in San Diego, Texaco's chairman publicly apologized for racist remarks made by several top executives. Peter Bijur asked consumers not to turn their backs on Texaco, and said he suspended two of the executives. He confirmed that the oil giant received subpoenas from a federal grand jury investigating whether executives illegally destroyed documents on minority hiring.
Boston College suspended 13 members of its football team for gambling, two of whom bet against their own team. It is the largest number of athletes known to have been implicated from one team. The athletes bet a reported $25 to $1,000 on college and professional football, and baseball games, including this year's World Series.
Three members of the 112th Georgia Militia were convicted in Macon, Ga., of conspiracy for stockpiling pipe bombs. They planned to use pipe bombs at the Atlanta Olympics and in terrorist attacks on the federal government, prosecutors said.
Investigators in the downing of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island, N.Y., dredged up hundreds of pounds of plane parts from the ocean floor. The pieces were taken to a hangar where investigators are reassembling the plane. Also, investigators in the crash of a Valujet plane in the Florida Everglades planned to preform a mock test by recreating a blaze with the use of oxygen canisters in an attempt to zero in on the cause of the crash.
The CIA filed documents in a San Diego district court stating it has not uncovered ties between itself and Nicaraguan drug dealers or others who allegedly operated a cocaine ring in California in the 1980s. The report was filed in response to a San Jose Mercury News report detailing how two Nicaraguan drug dealers who sold cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs led a CIA-backed anticommunist commando group. The CIA inspector general is investigating allegations the CIA was involved in introducing crack cocaine into the US.
Mario Savio, a radical who became a symbol of the 1960s free-speech movement, died. He rose to fame as the movement's voice at the Berkeley campus of the University of California in 1964, when he stood on a police car following the arrest of a student for political activity. Savio recently led a drive against Proposition 209, the California ballot measure to end state affirmative action programs.
The World
Tutsi rebels fighting in eastern Zaire rejected proposals for a US or European role in peacekeeping efforts. A rebel leader said only African troops should take part in a multinational force to aid and protect refugees from the war. The assembling of an intervention force was aproved by Zairean President Mobutu, who is on a retreat in France. In Johannesburg, a Zairean official said South African President Nelson Mandela would intervene in the crisis at Mobutu's request. Meanwhile, in Brussels, European Union leaders discussed ways to provide the refugees with food aid.
Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto easily won reelection by a vote of both houses of parliament. His return to power was expected after his Liberal Democratic Party captured the most seats in parliamentary elections Oct. 20. But analysts say the coalition government he leads may be too weak to achieve an ambitious program of reforms promised during the election campaign.
Yasser Arafat appealed to US President Clinton for help in moving peace talks with Israel forward. The Palestine Authority president complained of Israeli attempts to "distort, delay, and procrastinate" in negotiations over the redeployment of troops from the West Bank city of Hebron. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said agreement could be reached quickly "with good will from the Palestinian side."
Marchers celebrating the 79th anniversary of the Russian Revolution were denied permission to cross Red Square in Moscow. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, addressing a mainly elderly crowd before the march, said the 23-hour transfer of presidential powers during Boris Yeltsin's heart surgery earlier in the week had made Russia an international laughing stock. Yeltsin, meanwhile, issued a call for national unity, saying: "We have one future. And we are all from the same past."
Bosnian Serbs are not disarming at the same pace as their Muslim and Croat neighbors, a senior European negotiator said. Vigleik Eide of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe cited "serious discrepancies" between what Serb forces claim to have done in reducingweapons stockpiles and what expert analysts are later able to confirm. The ethnic groups in the Bosnian conflict agreed June 14 to make significant arms cuts by year's end.
Serbian officials in Belgrade denied reports that the country's government-run arms industry was illegally shipping weapons to Libya. The New York Times said a senior European military official claimed the two countries "have a long history" of arms deals and that such activity has picked up since fighting ended between Serbs and Muslims in Bosnia. UN sanctions forbid Libya from importing arms.
Voters in Slovenia, the first and most prosperous of the former Yugoslav republics to gain independence, go to the polls Sunday. They are widely expected to return a center-leftcoalition headed by Liberal Democrat Janez Drnovsek to power. Drnovsek, a former Communist, favors Slovenian membership in NATO and the European Union.
India's government moved thousands of people to shelters and organized relief efforts after a violent storm lashed the state of Andhra Pradesh. Its 93 m.p.h. winds and heavy rains were blamed for more than 100 deaths. Vast areas of rice paddy and thousands of houses were also destroyed or damaged.
Etceteras
"A boycott will send a clear message: You engage in an act of extremism ...
at your economic peril, which sadly is the only threat some people fear."
- George Mitrovich of the San Diego Coalition for Equality, on boycotting Texaco for racist remarks by company executives.
Had enough of the macarena fad? Then imagine how radio listeners in Walla Walla, Wash., must feel. Station KUJ made its debut by playing "Macarena" for 36 continuous hours. Now the kickoff is over, station officials say they will play a mix of other contemporary tunes and hits from the '80s.
A British watchdog group invested $132,000 - twice the value of a house north of London - in a bid to force replacement of its front door, and failed. English Heritage argued the fake-mahogany portal should come off the hinges in favor of a wooden one because it threatened the architectural fabric of the village of Wirksworth. The High Court ruled the homeowner had an open-and-shut case and rejected the campaign.
Andrea Barrett took the fiction prize at the National Book Awards in New York for her short-story collection, "Ship Fever and Other Stories." James Carroll won for nonfiction with his first attempt at the genre, "An American Requiem." Hayden Carruth won the poetry prize. And the first National Book Award given for children's literature went to Victor Martinez's "Parrot in the Oven."
The Day's List
Cities Competing to Host 2004 Olympic Games
Eleven cities are being considered by the International Olympic Committee's evaluation group for the 2004 Summer Games. The final choice will be announced in September 1997.
1. Athens
2. Buenos Aires
3. Cape Town
4. Istanbul
5. Lille, France
6. Rio de Janeiro
7. Rome
8. San Juan, Puerto Rico
9. Seville. Spain
10. Stockholm
11. St. Petersburg, Russia
- Associated Press
