EVENTS
BUDGET MAY FACE PROBLEMS IN SENATE The House of Representatives is poised to pass a complex bill implementing President Clinton's economic plan, but the measure faces a tough fight in the Senate, where Republicans call it long on taxes and short on spending cuts. In addition, a package of "new investment" spending on education, roads, and other projects requested by Mr. Clinton faces opposition in both chambers because lawmakers will have to cut existing programs to fund the requests. Senate rules do not allow a filibuster of the overall tax
and spending bill. But the Democratic margin on the Senate Finance Committee is a narrow 11 to 9, and the energy, or Btu, tax is not embraced by all Democrats on the committee. US policy on Bosnia
Clinton says his threat of military force to halt the war in the former Yugoslavia "is still on the table" despite opposition from European allies. But he emphasized the United States would not act alone. Clinton said Friday he would "keep pushing in the right direction" with a dual policy for the arming of Bosnian Muslims and limited bombing of Serb artillery. "It has not been rejected out of hand," he said. US weighs nuclear test ban
President Clinton's top aides are wrestling with the question of whether to resume nuclear weapons tests when a nine-month moratorium expires July 1. Key administration officials who attended a White House meeting Friday failed to reach agreement on whether Clinton should allow renewed tests after the end of the moratorium ordered by Congress last year. They also failed to reach a consensus on whether Clinton should permit testing beyond 1996, the date when Congress bans US testing unless another country
conducts such a test. Approval of Clinton falls
Several recent national surveys have shown a drop in Clinton's public support and rising anxiety about his proposed tax increases. A USA Today-CNN-Gallup poll released Friday, for example, put Clinton's approval rating at 45 percent, down 10 percentage points from his 100-day rating less than three weeks ago. But the president says his administration won't fall victim to worrying about sagging approval ratings and that there's an easy explanation for the decline: "I'm trying to do hard things." German strike may be over
The board of the German metalworkers union on Saturday approved a wage pact designed to end a strike and prevent an all-out labor battle that could have further damaged Germany's recession-battered economy. Rank-and-file union members will vote on the deal today and Tuesday, and if 25 percent of them approve the pact, metalworkers and steelworkers in eastern Germany will return to their jobs on Wednesday. Afghan fighting continues
Government jets bombed positions of renegade guerrillas in the southwestern suburbs of Kabul yesterday as fierce fighting continued in the Afghan capital. The palace, headquarters of the defense ministry, was captured by maverick guerrilla groups after heavy combat erupted Wednesday. Since then, the International Committee of the Red Cross said 2,500 people have been treated in Kabul's shell-damaged hospitals and more than 500 killed. After the standoff in France
Six toddlers freed after 46 hours as hostages at a nursery school spent Sunday in quiet seclusion with their families, while a portrait emerged of their slain captor as a quiet man dogged by failure in love and business. The ordeal, which ended Saturday, in the affluent Paris suburb of Neuilly-Sur-Seine shocked the nation. Newspapers mused whether France was becoming like the US, which the French view as a nation of excessive violence. Royal transcript a hoax?
After days of frothing in London's newspapers over an alleged transcript of Prince Charles arguing with Princess Diana, two Sunday newspapers said it's a fake. The Sunday Times quoted an unidentified official at the palace as saying: "It is completely made up. It's laughable. But the prince is very angry at being a pawn in a tabloid circulation war."
