News In Brief

The US

Both Houses are expected to vote on whether and to what degree they should back President Clinton's US troop deployment plan. Regardless of the vote, Clinton says he has the authority to go ahead with the deployment. (Story, Page 1.)

A $135 billion windfall has blown new options into the laps of Washington budget-cutters. While Democrats eyeballed Medicare, agriculture, education, and other programs, Republicans said they would work on a new proposal. But the money will be available only over the next five years, said Senate Budget Chairman Domenici. Congressional Budget Office analysts said the increase over earlier projections is due to corporate income tax.

Oklahoma Democrat Rep. Bill Brewster joined Republican Jack Fields of Texas in saying he would not run for reelection to the House in 1996. And New Jersey's Robert Torricelli said he would run for the Senate. So far, 18 House Democrats have said they will not seek reelection; five have switched to the GOP; and four others have resigned or quit. (See list, at right.)

At a Washington news conference with Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Peres refused to give Syrian President Hafez Assad what he wants: a public statement that Israel will give up the Golan Heights. Earlier, Clinton talked with Assad by phone and said he is sending Secretary of State Christopher to the region to try to reopen Syria-Israeli talks.

Rep. Edith Greene Waldholtz in a 4-1/2-hour press conference blamed her personal and campaign financial tangles on her estranged husband. The story she told was one of love betrayed by a con-man. She is expected to testify before a federal grand jury tomorrow.

Striking Boeing Company workers plan to vote today on a proposed contract union leaders are recommending they accept. The contract includes stronger language on subcontracting work now done by union members and offers employees financial incentives to switch to a more restrictive health-insurance program. A proposal last month was rejected by the workers on strike for more than two months.

In a battle to gain access to Whitewater notes taken at a key White House meeting, Republicans were threatening a court battle if Clinton disregarded a subpoena deadline yesterday. Clinton says the notes are covered by attorney-client privileges.

Wholesale prices shot up 0.5 percent in November, the largest rise in 11 months, as food and motor-vehicle costs soared. Energy prices fell for the sixth straight month. Meanwhile, the US trade deficit narrowed to $39.48 billion in the summer.

Former NAACP head Benjamin Chavis is calling for congressional inquiry into racism in the military after three white soldiers were charged in the slaying of a black couple. The three were looking for blacks to harass, police in Fayetteville, N.C. said. The Army is conducting an investigation at Fort Bragg, where the men were stationed.

A Pentacostal pastor and his wife were acquitted of charges that they held orgies with children in their church. Pastor Robert Roberson and his wife, Connie, said the charges were in retaliation for their criticism of methods and motives of a larger investigation of what authorities say are two child-sex rings in the Wenatchee, Wash., area.

A White House plan would require TV broadcasters to convert to new digital technology sooner than expected and would also help Americans buy devices allowing them to keep using existing TV sets. Broadcasters would have to switch from the current analog signal to a digital transmission by 2002. Digital sets will initially cost about $10,000 when introduced in 1997. Converters will cost $100.

The World

Bosnian Serbs released two French pilots shot down over Bosnia during an Aug. 30 NATO mission, French authorities said. France credited the personal intervention of Russian President Yeltsin and the support of the US, Britain, and Germany in winning release of the pilots. French authorities came under heavy fire from the pilots' families, who publicly criticized the government for planning to proceed with signing the peace accord tomorrow before the pilots were free. Serbs voted (above) in a referendum on Sarajevo's status in the Dayton peace accord.

Canada's Parliament recognized Quebec as a ''distinct society,'' but separatist Bloc Quebecois and their opponents, the Reform Party, voiced displeasure at the measure. And London, Ontario, saw its biggest-ever strike - a protest against Premier Mike Harris's budget-slashing, pro-business policies. ''Mike, you have awakened the giant,'' labor leader Gord Wilson said.

Foreign reporters or diplomats are unlikely to have access to Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng's trial for sedition. Passes for the trial have all been distributed, a court spokesman said, and none have been given to foreign media or embassies. Earlier, the court said the politically sensitive trial was open to the public. (Story, Page 7.)

A UN tribunal charged eight people with genocide and crimes against humanity for their role in the mass slaughter of thousands in Rwanda. Names of the accused were not released lest they escape arrest, a spokesman for the tribunal said. In the 1994 genocide, mobs of the Hutu majority, led by soldiers, killed up to half-a-million minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.

Some 48 hours ahead of schedule, Israel pulled out of the West Bank town of Nablus. Palestinians celebrated by singing their once-outlawed national anthem, ''Biladi'' [My Country]. And, in Hebron, Palestinians threw two hand grenades at an Israeli Army checkpoint. There were no injuries.

Former futures trader Nick Leeson, whose gambles helped bring down Barings bank with debts of $1.4 billion, appealed a jail sentence for cheating. Under Singapore law, a court can increase a sentence on appeal and has done so in the past.

Rail workers, teachers, postmen, and others marched side by side in Paris in the biggest demonstration in the three-week-old strike. Unions said there were 200,000 marchers calling on the retreating government to scrap its welfare-reform plans; police counted 50,000. Also, a small bomb exploded outside the Bastia office of a powerful Communist-led union. No injuries were reported.

''We must safeguard democracy,'' South Korean President Kim Young Sam said, promising to root out corruption. His first public statement on massive scandals involving two former presidents, it was released on the 16th anniversary of the 1979 coup staged by his predecessors.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, on his first-ever visit to Japan, will discuss his country's transition to a market economy with Japanese Premier Tomiichi Murayama, a Japanese spokesman said. The biggest issue hampering ties between Tokyo and Havana is Cuba's outstanding debt of $2 billion to Japan, the official said.

In fresh violence, six people were killed in Karachi, Islamabad and 3,000 people turned out to mourn the murdered relatives of ethnic party leader Altaf Hussain, police and said. Mourners accused the Pakistani government for the deaths. The government has denied any part in the killings.

The UN is concerned over a big arms buildup in Cyprus, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said. He recommended a six-month renewal of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. The force has been on the island since 1964 to help keep peace between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.

Etcetera

A huge sinkhole has swallowed a three-story luxury home in an exclusive San Francisco neighborhood. Torrential rains caused a sewer line to rupture, which gouged out a sinkhole 100 feet wide and 60 feet deep. A neighbor's garage, a large palm, and a chunk of street also were ingested. Two more homes were tilting on the brink of the gaping crater.

The outlook for America's poor is bleak and growing worse, despite two years of economic recovery, according to Catholic Charities USA. As the nation's largest private human-service network, it served more than 11.1 million people in 1994. And in an economically strong year, when the numbers should have declined, they actually increased by a half million over 1993.

More Vacancy Signs Posted In the House

The following representatives have said they will not seek reelection to the House in 1996. (See also US In Brief.)

Ala.: Tom Bevill (D)

Ark.: Ray Thornton (D)

Calif.: Anthony Beilenson (D), Carlos Moorhead (R)

Colo.: Patricia Schroeder (D), Wayne Allard (R)*

Fla.: Harry Johnston (D), Pete Peterson (D)

Ill.: Cardiss Collins (D), Dick Durbin (D)*

Ind.: Andy Jacobs (D)*

Kan.: Jan Meyers (R)

Md.: Kwesi Mfume (D)

Mass.: Gerry Studds (D)

Miss.: Sonny Montgomery (D), Mel Hancock (R)

Nev.: Barbara Vucanovich (R)

N.J.: Robert Torricelli (D)*, N.J.: Dick Zimmer (R)*

Okla.: Bill Brewster (D)

S.D.: Tim Johnson (D)*

R.I.: Jack Reed (D)*

Texas: John Bryant (D)*, Jim Chapman (D)*, Ronald Coleman (D), Charlie Wilson (D), Jack Fields (R)

Wisc.: Steve Gunderson (R)

* Running for the Senate

Resignations:

Calif.: Norm Mineta (D)

Ill.: Mel Reynolds (D)

- AP

'' There are mountains of snow and a sunny sky. Forget about your chores, forget about your job. Go skiing and have hot cocoa at the end of the day.''

- Bo DeJenka, skiing along a snow-clogged street in Buffalo, N.Y., after a 39-inch record storm.