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THE US
Federal agents defused a live bomb in the cabin of Theodore Kaczynski, suspected of being the elusive Unabomber. Kaczynski faces one unrelated charge of possessing bomb components and is being held in a Helena, Mont., jail without bail. If charged with the bombings, he could face the death penalty. Officials say a typewriter that appears to be the one used by the Unabomber was found in Kaczynski's cabin. Also found were carved wooden boxes resembling those used in some of the bombs. David Kaczynski, who led authorities to his brother, was set to hold a news conference today in Washington.
Senator Dole asked four Senate committees to investigate reports that President Clinton secretly approved of 1994 Iranian arms shipments to Bosnian Muslims. Dole wants the Intelligence, Judiciary, Foreign Relations, and Armed Services committees to investigate whether any laws were broken. Dole was a vocal opponent of the arms embargo. The White House says it respected the letter of the law.
Mary Lowe Good, undersecretary of commerce, will lead the department temporarily until Clinton names a successor to Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. Brown and 32 other Americans were on a visit to the Balkans when their Air Force plane crashed into a Croatian hillside. The US Air Force is investigating the cause of the crash, but the plane lacked a flight recorder, complicating the task. Officials say radio beacons used to guide planes into Cilipi airport are outdated.The president led a memorial service at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, saying the crash victims "carried with them America's spirit ... what Abraham Lincoln called the last best hope of earth."
About 6,000 demonstrators crowded Los Angeles streets, protesting last week's beating of two illegal immigrants by two Riverside County deputies. The immigrants' lawyers are seeking $10 million from the County. Separately, a stolen truck crammed with illegal immigrants overturned in a gully in Temecula, Calif., while being followed by the Border Patrol. Seven men were killed and 18 injured. And illegal immigrants have admitted to borrowing or renting children to take advantage of a US policy against incarcerating families caught crossing the border, the Immigration and Naturalization Service reported.
Openly homosexual individuals can be banned from the military, a federal appeals court found in the first ruling on a challenge to Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. It ruled against former Lt. Paul Thomasson, who claims his dismissal from the Navy violates free-speech rights.
Mediators met twice with a contingent from the militant freemen group, who are locked in a 14-day standoff with federal agents. The US attorney for Montana says her hopes for a peaceful surrender have grown stronger. On Friday night woman and her daughter were allowed to leave the Jordan, Mont., compound, where the freemen have been holed up. Her husband remained behind.
NBC does not have to supply outtakes of interviews, a federal appeals court ruled, overturning a lower court order. The court ruled that outtakes were protected by New York's "shield law," protecting journalists' newsgathering process.
The State Department agreed to pay almost $4 million to settle a race discrimination lawsuit and $2 million to cover plaintiffs' legal fees. The settlement applies to all African-American employees in the foreign service since 1984. The department denies it discriminated against employees.
Consumer installment debt jumped 13.9 percent in February, the steepest increase in eight months. The $12 billion increase and increasing delinquency rates are causing concerns about the pace of consumer spending. And the Labor Department said payroll jobs increased by 140,000 last month.
A judge refused two motions for a mistrial in the penalty phase of the Menendez brothers' retrial. Testimony was set to resume today. A jury is weighing the death penalty for the brothers, who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989.
THE WORLD
North Korea sent some 180 heavily armed troops into the buffer zone with South Korea, its third violation in as many days of a 43-year-old armistice. The accord permits only 35 military police from each side in the Joint Security Area at any time. Meanwhile, South Korea put its military on its highest state of alert in 15 years, but UN forces guarding the frontier said there was no immediate cause for alarm.
Russian forces and Chechen rebels reportedly fought for control of Goiskoye and two other villages in Chechyna. The clashes came a day after President Yeltsin said he sent a telegram to separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev announcing an end to the Russian offensive. It was the first time Yeltsin addressed Dudayev directly.
The Israeli Army confirmed it seized telephone records of journalists suspected of receiving classified information from high-ranking military officers. The Army claimed it had court orders to obtain records from cellular phone companies in its investigation of leaks among its senior officers.
Bosnian Serbs will not be invited to a conference on reconstruction aid to be held in Brussels later this week, said Carl Bildt, the top civilian administrator of the Bosnian peace agreement. Bildt said Bosnian Serbs have not met their obligation under the Dayton accord to release all prisoners of war. Earlier, Bosnian Croats freed 28 prisoners, and the Bosnian Muslim government released 18.
Bangladesh Justice A.K.M. Sadeque, the country's chief election commissioner, resigned. Opposition leaders have accused him of being partisan in the Feb. 15 national elections. Meanwhile, officials hinted that new elections are likely to be held mid-June. Last month, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia resigned and was replaced by a non-party caretaker government.
The Philippines is the world's second biggest source of marijuana, after Mexico. The Philippines produces about $1.4 billion worth of the narcotic each year, a Manila lawmaker said. The Asian country can impose the death penalty on drug peddlers caught carrying over 26 oz of the narcotic.
A series of bombs rocked a shopping arcade in Manama, Bahrain's capital. No injuries were reported from the blasts. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Since 1994, opposition leaders of the majority Shiite Muslim community have been pressing the Sunni-dominated government for the restoration of a parliament suspended in 1975.
If elected to power later this month, India's leading opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said it would continue recent economic reforms. It also said it would not support a test ban treaty, unless nuclear powers pledge to eliminate their existing stockpiles.
Rioting inmates in Argentina are still holding hostages and showing no signs of ending the one-week revolt at provincial prisons, despite a reported agreement with authorities. An estimated 5,600 prisoners revolted at six prisons, seizing 27 hostages and demanding better treatment and quicker trials. At least two inmates have been killed.
Fighting spread in Monrovia, Liberia's capital, sparked by efforts to arrest a deposed warlord Roosevelt Johnson on murder charges. The clashes caused thousands of civilians to flee their homes.
A UN team investigating Nigeria's human rights situation has reportedly won permission to meet jailed dissident Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of Nigeria's aborted 1993 presidential election.
ETCETERAS
Sometimes it takes a terrible tragedy to illustrate a basic truth. In a democracy, government is not them versus us; we are all 'us,' we are all in it together." - President Clinton, in a speech about the recent deaths of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 32 other Americans.
Fireworks boomed, bands paraded, and the Olympic flame blazed at the marble stadium in Athens where the Olympics were reborn 100 years ago. More than 30,000 people braved unusually cold weather to join the reenactment of the 1896 Games. Afterward, runners set out to carry the torch to Atlanta.
Comet Hyakutake has given scientists the kind of problem they love. Astronomers detected X-rays as the comet passed near Earth last month. X-rays have never been found in a comet. A NASA astronomer says scientists have their work cut out explaining the data.
Best Housing Markets
Below are the 15 most affordable US housing markets in the fourth quarter of 1995. The number is the percentage of homes sold in an area that were within reach of the median income household.
1. Lima, Ohio 86.2%
2. Elkhart, Ind. 85.3
3. Baton Rouge, La. 84.7
4. Kansas City 83.4
5. Melbourne, Fla. 83.1
6. Fort Wayne, Ind. 82.5
6. (tie) Champaign, Ill. 82.5
8. Binghamton, NY 82.0
9. Albany, N.Y. 81.8
10. Vineland, N.J. 81.7
10. (tie) Pensacola, Fla. 81.7
12. Mansfield, Ohio 81.6
13. Springfield, Ill. 80.8
14. Jackson, Miss. 80.7
15. Nashua, N.H. 80.4
- National Association for Home Builders/AP
