News In Brief
The US
President Clinton was expected to look beyond the budget debate in tonight's State of the Union address. But the issue looms as the temporary spending bills that keep the government operating are set to expire Friday. Senate budget chairman Domenici repeated the GOP's pledge not to cause another shutdown. Also, no network has as yet accepted Senator Dole and Speaker Gingrich's unprecedented request for a prime-time slot tomorrow instead of tonight to respond to the State of the Union. (Story, Page 1.)
As snow-flooded rivers receded in Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, and New York, residents returned home to begin the cleanup. And a hero's story emerged: As Pennsylvania's Juniata River rose to dangerous levels last week, jet ski racer and Penn State freshman Eric Malone began a one-man rescue operation. He used his mini water craft to pluck three people from a mobile home roof and one teenage girl from a bush. But he was unable to save one flood victim.
The Supreme Court blocked California Gov. Pete Wilson's challenge to the ''motor voter'' law. Wilson argued the law puts an unfair cost burden on states. The law has added more than 5 million people to voter rolls. Also, on the 23rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the court strengthened its landmark decision by blocking Pennsylvania's bid to set strict reporting rules for all Medicaid-funded abortions sought by women who are victims of rape or incest or whose life is endangered by giving birth. (Related story, Page 3.)
Feb. 15 looms as an important deadline in the Clinton-GOP budget wrangling. That's the date that Treasury Secretary Rubin may not be able to borrow any more to stave off a US debt default. Standard & Poor's - the bond rating firm - says US Treasury securities' status as the world's least-risky investment could falter. House majority leader Armey has said he will trigger the crisis unless Clinton allows more of the GOP agenda to pass. The White House says Armey's remarks ''jeopardize the economic security'' of the US in the world.
The up-close picture of Jupiter provided by the Galileo probe is changing scientists' understanding of how Jupiter was formed. They had expected to find vast amounts of water. Instead, they discovered that the atmosphere is almost as dry as the Sun's. The probe found stronger winds and less helium than has been postulated. Also, it didn't find expected lightning.
Goldman, Sachs, & Co. - Wall Street's last major partnership - won't issue a public sale of stock. The firm's 172 partners decided against going public, even though it keeps their fortunes closely tied to financial markets. A public offering would have brought a large influx of capital but lessened the partners' strong control of the firm.
Coast Guard ships are scooping up some of the 800,000 gallons of heating oil that has leaked from a barge stranded on Rhode Island's coast (above). The environmental damage is becoming clear: A 105-square-mile area is off limits to fishing boats, and thousands of oil-soaked lobsters have washed up on a nearby beach. Crews hoped to have the barge refloated by late yesterday.
Death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal was awarded a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Goddard College in Vermont. He did about half of the course-work via mail from prison. Jamal, who was convicted in the 1981 shooting death of a Philadelphia policeman, was granted an indefinite stay of execution and is awaiting a second trial.
UtiliCorp United Inc. and Kansas City Power & Light Co. said today they have signed an agreement to merge in a stock deal valued at $3 billion. Combined, the two Kansas City-based energy utilities would have about 2.2 million customers and $6.4 billion in assets. Consolidation is an industry trend as utilities position themselves for a more-competitive, less-regulated market.
The World
Clear evidence of mass executions in Srebrenica exists, US human rights envoy John Shattuck told Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Shattuck visited suspected mass graves sites in the Glogova area. The graves will be exhumed this spring, he said. And Bosnia's ruling party (SDA) chose Hasan Muratovic to replace Haris Silajdzic as prime minister, ending a long-running feud. (Story, Page 6.)
Yasser Arafat won the Palestinian presidential elections with 88.1 percent of the vote. And former US President Carter, who led a 40-member observer team, said election irregularities were not on a scale that would have altered the outcome. Separately, Israeli Premier Peres dismissed speculation that he intends to call elections before Oct. 29.
President Yeltsin is likely to seek reelection in Russia's June presidential elections, a Russian news agency reported. A final announcement is expected mid-February. Also, Chechen rebels offered to swap 29 power plant workers they seized last week in the Chechen capital of Grozny, for about 30 guerrillas reportedly captured by Russians during the assault on Pervomaiskoye.
Costas Simitis, an economics professor, was sworn in as premier of Greece to replace Andreas Papandreou. He pledged to shrink a bloated welfare system and implement strict economic stabilization plans to bring Greece in line with the rest of the EU by the year 2000. Simitis retained some Papandreou loyalists in his 40-member Cabinet.
Tanzania turned back 17,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees fleeing ethnic violence in Burundi, the Red Cross said. Last week, Burundi's Tutsi-dominated Army raided a Hutu village and forced the residents to leave the country, said refugees who made it across the Tanzanian border. Tanzania already hosts some 700,000 Rwandan refugees.
Japan's new Premier, Ryutaro Hashimoto, promised to reduce the US military presence in Okinawa. During his parliamentary speech, he did not unveil any specific economic policy, but promised a full recovery by the end of 1996.
EU politicians began pushing the single-currency Euro as a way out of Europe's current economic slump. In Brussels, EU officials laid out the blueprint of a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign to convince the 370 million EU citizens that dropping national currencies for the Euro will bring prosperity.
Nuclear weapon stockpiles provide no military advantage to the countries that have them, former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said. Beginning today, McNamara and 17 others - scientists, Nobel Prize winners, and retired statesmen - will hold a series of meetings as members of the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. They plan to submit a report to the Australian government and the UN.
Two more senior Indian politicians resigned after being linked to an $18 million bribery scandal. The number of senior politicians implicated - nine so far - sets the incident apart from other corruption scandals in Indian history, analysts said. Indian politicians have rarely been charged with corruption, although it is widely believed to be extensive.
Indonesia will continue searching until Friday for survivors of a ferry that sank off the island of Sumatra. At least 150 people are missing.
Etceteras
The needle-nosed supersonic Concorde marked its 20th anniversary Sunday. Traveling at twice the speed of sound, the luxury jet flew 53,943 passengers on its Paris-New York route in 1995. The Concorde cost $7 billion to build and gets more expensive to fly as it grows older. Only 16 of the jets were built. Two have already been retired. But the rest of the fleet is designed to fly until 2015.
Asia's largest railway station has opened in Beijing. The $720 million project took 20,000 workers three years to build. The terminal in China's capital city covers 5.5 million square feet.
Golden Globe Winners
MOTION PICTURES
Drama: ''Sense and Sensibility''
Musical or comedy: ''Babe''
Actor, drama: Nicolas Cage, ''Leaving Las Vegas''
Actress, drama: Sharon Stone, ''Casino''
Actor, musical or comedy: John Travolta, ''Get Shorty''
Actress, musical or comedy: Nicole Kidman, ''To Die For''
Foreign language film: ''Les Miserables''
Director: Mel Gibson, '' Braveheart''
TELEVISION
Series: ''Party of Five''
Actor, drama: Jimmy Smits, ''NYPD Blue''
Actress, drama: Jane Seymour, ''Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman''
Series, musical or comedy: ''Cybill''
Actor, musical or comedy: Kelsey Grammer, ''Frasier''
Actress, musical or comedy: Cybill Shepherd, ''Cybill''
CECIL B. DEMILLE AWARD FOR CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Sean Connery
- Hollywood Foreign Press Association/Associated Press
'' Learn from your mistakes. I agree with that. The problem is there is no learning curve on nuclear mistakes. If you make one mistake, you are going to destroy nations.''
- Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, at an antinuclear conference, on the possibility of nuclear catastrophe.
