News In Brief

BRUSHING UP OUR ENGLISH

Feeling overwhelmed by all the new words and technical terms being coined these days? The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary are too, as they take their 120-year-old product online for an update and its first complete revision. As a result, they've made an appeal for people to submit new words and phrases - with evidence of publication - via their Web site, www.oed.com.

CORRECTION

Apparently there's been a reprieve for the print version of the Encyclopedia Britannica. An item in this space July 29 quoted an official of the company as saying a decision had been made to jettison the print version in favor of Britannica's multimedia CD-ROM product. But early this week, a press release announced new plans for the largest printed encyclopedia in the firm's 231-year history - a 40-volume set. Asked about the confusion, Britannica spokesman Tom Panelas referred to the earlier wire-service report as "an error."

British minister will become 10th NATO chief since 1952

At this writing, no firm date had been set for British Defense Secretary George Robertson to succeed Spain's Javier Solana as NATO secretary-general. Robertson was a fairly late candidate for the post. Once Solana was chosen to be European Union high representative for foreign and security affairs, speculation centered on German Defense Minister Rudolf Scarping. But Chancellor Gerhard Schrder insisted he remain in domestic politics. The men who've served as NATO secretary-general:

Lord Ismay (Britain) 1952-57

Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium) 1957-61

Dirk Stikker (Netherlands) 1961-64

Manlio Brosio (Italy) 1964-71

Joseph Luns (Netherlands) 1971-84

Lord Carrington (Britain) 1984-88

Manfred Wrner (Germany) 1988-94

Willy Claes (Belgium) 1994-95

Javier Solana (Spain) 1995-99

- Reuters

(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society