News In Brief

THAT WASN'T PART OF THE PLAN

A certain Russian fugitive, who was trying to cross at a Ukrainian-Slovak checkpoint, may have thought he had the perfect disguise. After all, reported the Ukrainian newspaper Den, he even went to the trouble of having a surgeon glue on artificial ears. Well, sort of. The surgeon used a cheap, inferior adhesive, the paper said. When he was trying to get across the border with somebody else's passport, the ears popped off. Presumably, the fugitive's next destination wasn't exactly his choice.

VOTE FOR MOSBAUGH

It's almost too much: Don and Ron Mosbaugh, identical twins, both won their respective primary elections to face off this fall for the office of coroner in Jasper County, Mo. If that's not enough, their initials also match their party affiliations. Ron is a Republican and Don is a Democrat.

Fifteen people receive presidential freedom award

The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the US, was awarded to the following people last week:

James Edward Burke: former chairman of Johnson & Johnson

Late Sen. John Chafee (R) of Rhode Island

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark

Retired Adm. William Crowe

Marian Wright Edelman: children's advocate

John Kenneth Galbraith: economist

Monsignor George Higgins: labor activist

The Rev. Jesse Jackson: civil rights activist

Mildred Jeffrey: labor activist

Dr. Mathilde Krim: founder of the AIDS Medical Foundation

Former Sen. George McGovern (D) of South Dakota

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D) of New York

Cruz Reynoso: judge and human rights activist

The Rev. Gardner Taylor: preacher and civil rights activist

Simon Wiesenthal: has fought Nazism and anti-Semitism

- The Associated Press

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society