EVENTS
US TRADE DEFICIT JUMPS IN OCTOBER America's trade deficit jumped to $10.14 billion in October as the country drew in a record level of imports and suffered the worst deficit with Japan in history. October's overall imbalance was the second highest monthly deficit in goods and services on record. So far this year, the United States has been running a trade deficit in goods alone of $150.2 billion at an annual rate, the worst performance since a record high of $152.1 billion set in 1987. Intel to replace chip
Intel Corporation reversed itself Dec. 20 and said it will replace flawed Pentium microchips for anyone free of charge, no questions asked. The chip can botch some division calculations. The company had previously required that owners show why they needed to have the Pentium replaced.
Shots fired near White House
Police fired at least two shots outside the White House Dec. 20 and a man who witnesses said was brandishing a large knife was taken to the hospital, officials said. President Clinton was in the Oval Office at the time and was informed. Pennsylvania Avenue, which runs in front of the White House, was closed off. It was the third shooting incident at the White House in two months.
Court weighs refugee rights
Two lawsuits before a federal appeals court in Atlanta could determine whether thousands of Cubans and Haitians living in US refugee camps have constitutional rights such as access to lawyers. Attorneys who sued to block the repatriation of Cubans argued Dec. 19 that the refugees, because they were picked up at sea by the US government and were being held on US military bases, have constitutional rights. Czechs seize uranium
Tests on almost 6.6 pounds of uranium seized by Czech police have confirmed that it is nuclear weapons grade, the Interior Ministry said Dec. 20. The ministry said Czech police had seized what they believed was weapons-grade uranium and they detained three people including a local nuclear physicist.
Russian oil output drops
Russian crude oil output fell 11 percent in 1994 compared with last year, and authorities predicted it would drop an additional 6 percent next year, the Interfax news agency reported Dec. 20.
Cleaner car for Northeast
Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner announced the approval Dec. 19 of a petition of 12 Northeastern states and the District of Columbia to adopt in the region the ``California Low Emission Vehicle'' program, minus its electric-vehicle mandate. Subject to final approval by each state, the plan calls for the sale starting in 1999 of a car 70 percent cleaner than those on the road today.
The EPA will continue working toward a national clean-car plan to supplant the Northeastern-state program.
