EVENTS
POPE SPEAKS TO YOUTH MEETING Hundreds of thousands of people thronged a state park yesterday to hear Pope John Paul II deliver a Sunday morning Mass at a world youth meeting in Colorado. During an evening prayer vigil and Mass on Saturday, the pope used some of the strongest rhetoric of his 15-year papacy on abortion and birth control before an estimated 250,000 people at Cherry Creek State Park. A crowd that swelled to 60,000 people walked 14 miles to get there. At least 5,500 people sought medical help for dehydration after waiting l ong hours in 80-degree heat, authorities said. The pope also denounced sexual abuse by US priests. He acknowledged victims' suffering while saying the primary response is prayer. L.A. beating
A Los Angeles police officer convicted of violating a black motorist's civil rights in a beating repeatedly struck another handcuffed man five months earlier, the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers reported yesterday.
Officer Laurence Powell's supervisor in both instances was Sgt. Stacey Koon, who was later convicted with Powell of violating King's civil rights. Powell and Koon were each sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in the King case. They are appealing. Jordan murder
Larry Martin Demery, 18, of Roland, N.C., and Daniel Andre Green, 18, of Lumberton, N.C., each were charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of armed robbery, and one count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery in the murder of basketball star Michael Jordan's father, James Jordan.
The senior Jordan apparently was killed by robbers when he pulled off the road to rest, says Capt. Art Binder, chief of detectives for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department. They were being held without bond. Deportees to return
The nearly 400 Palestinians deported by Israel almost eight months ago announced yesterday they had accepted the Jewish state's offer to let them return in two stages. The return of the deportees would remove a major stumbling block in Middle East peace talks.
Israel offered Thursday to allow the return of 192 of the 396 deportees to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip at an unspecified date in September. The rest will be repatriated in December. Disputed ship
A cargo ship at the center of a Sino-US dispute over allegations of Chinese trade in chemical weapons materials will anchor off Oman pending negotiations to allow it to dock, officials said Saturday.
The US claims the Yinhe is attempting to transport banned chemical weapons ingredients to Iran. Beijing says the containers contain only paper goods, hardware, and machine parts.
Meanwhile, Iran announced it was launching its third submarine. BCCI verdict
A jury acquitted Washington lawyer Robert Altman Saturday of a multimillion-dollar fraud that prosecutors say allowed the outlaw Bank of Credit and Commerce International to take over First American Bankshares Inc. of Washington. Jurors found Mr. Altman innocent of four counts of engaging in a scheme to defraud bank regulators and of submitting false records to regulators. New president of Paraguay
Paraguay's first freely elected president, who took office yesterday, says he expects little trouble from a military used to wielding power since the birth of the nation, despite observers' doubts.
Juan Carlos Wasmosy, a construction tycoon who champions market economics, became the 44th president since Paraguayan independence in 1811. Deal on Ukraine nukes
Russia's foreign minister says Russia and Ukraine have an agreement on the dismantling of Soviet nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
It is unclear from Andrei Kozyrev's statement how many of the 1,600 nuclear warheads are included in the agreement. But Kozyrev labels it a "major breakthrough."
Ukraine's parliament last month formally claimed ownership of the weapons, to the dismay of both Russia and the West.
Kozyrev spoke during an unofficial visit to Sweden.
