News In Brief
THE DAY'S LIST
Look Who's Talking
It's the Democrats' turn to wow voters. Party officials announced some speakers in their lineup for the Democratic National Convention, which begins Aug. 26 in Chicago. Alma Brown, widow of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, was named honorary chairwoman.
President Bill Clinton
Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh, keynote speaker
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Tipper Gore
Actor Christopher Reeve
Sarah Brady, leader of a handgun control advocacy group and wife of James Brady
Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley
Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer
-- Associated Press
THE US
President Clinton expects to add his "John Hancock" to several bills this week: minimum wage today, health care tomorrow, and welfare Friday. Analysts say he's likely to rankle the GOP by taking credit for the legislation in splashy signing ceremonies.
Ross Perot accepted the Reform Party nomination and told CNN he plans to accept $30 million in federal campaign funds. The federal dollars would limit him to spending $50,000 of his own money. He spent nearly $60 million of his own funds in his first presidential bid in 1992.
A federal judge postponed until November sentencing for James McDougal on fraud charges. Independent counsel Kenneth Starr's team has been negotiating with Clinton's former business partner in the failed Whitewater land deal. Former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and Susan McDougal, who were to be sentenced yesterday and today, said they have no intention of trying to cut a deal with the investigators.
Clinton planned to hang sheet rock in the Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Fruitland, Tenn. It's one of two burned churches the president planned to visit in Tennessee with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice President Gore, and Tipper Gore. Earlier, he dismissed Republican attacks on his character and strongly defended his wife as a woman of "style, class, caring, and love." "I don't want this campaign to be fought out on insults," he said in a CBS interview.
A Federal Reserve committee is unlikely to raise interest rates during a scheduled meeting today, most economists believe. Despite a growth surge in the second quarter, the economy is still giving off mixed signals and no clear sign of inflation heating up, they say.
Bob Dole's running mate, Jack Kemp, took the podium in Pittsburgh to make the campaign's first substantive remarks on abortion since before the GOP convention. "I can't imagine our nation being that city on a hill if we continue to allow the partial-birth abortion tragedy to continue in America," he told the crowd after attending a Roman Catholic mass with Dole. Both candidates had hoped to deliver the message earlier to 10,000 people at a football stadium in Buffalo, N.Y. but scheduling precluded formal remarks there, communications director James Buckley said.
Some 15 military investigators camped near the wreckage of the White House support plane that crashed in the Grand Tetons and received supplies from a helicopter. Little was left of the C-130, which crashed into a moutainside after reporting mechanical difficulties shortly after takeoff from Jackson Hole, Wyo. Air Force officials scheduled a tentative meeting to release information about a possible cause of the crash.
Officials evacuated about 1,000 tourists from Mesa Verde National Park in Cortez, Colo., as a wildfire burned 400 acres and threatened the park's visitor center and museum. The blaze was one of dozens in at least five Western states that have burned more than 300,000 acres.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the Democratic Party has become "a kind of anti-Newt party" during the presidential campaign. A new ad paid for by the Democrats links him with Dole and accuses them of slashing health care, education, and student loans. Speaking on CNN, Gingrich denied he has sought to cut Medicare programs, maintaining the GOP aims to reduce the rate of increase in spending.
A Massachusetts woman who committed suicide last week in Michigan in the presence of Dr. Jack Kevorkian suffered from no physical disease but was very overweight, a coroner concluded. The doctor has been prosecuted in five deaths but has never been convicted.
Children made up 48 percent of the chronically poor in 1992 and 1993, living in families that stayed below the poverty line in every month of those years, the Census Bureau reported. The report also found that two-parent families were more likely to be above the poverty line.
THE WORLD
Violence erupted in the Chechen capital, Grozny, on the third day of a shaky cease-fire as negotiators continued with peace efforts there and in Moscow. Both rebels and Russian troops accused each other of violating the cease-fire, and heavy casualties were reported. The Russian command said it could use force to rescue its men trapped in Grozny.
Lebanon's pro-government candidates seemed headed for victory in the first round of parliamentary elections. Only two opposition members had a chance of winning any of the 35 seats. The Mount Lebanon area is mostly Christian, and analysts thought the opposition, which claims the pro-Syrian government has given away Lebanon's sovereignty, would have its strongest showing there.
Gunmen fired on Haiti's National Palace in Port-au-Prince and attacked a nearby police station, UN peacekeepers reported. Police and UN soldiers returned fire. There were no casualties, and the UN says everything is under control. The attack seems to be an attempt to destabilize President Rene Preval's government, analysts say.
South Korea will use firearms, if necessary, to break up protests by students at Seoul's Yonsei University, the national police chief warned. About 1,000 students are holed up in a science building, refusing to surrender unless they are granted amnesty for their role in last week's violent protests calling for reunification with North Korea. More than 700 policemen were injured by students wielding gasoline bombs and iron pipes.
Jordan's pro-Iraqi Baath party denied allegations that it was involved in this weekend's riots - the worst since 1989 - over a government decision to more than double bread prices. Both King Hussein and Prime Minister Abdul-Karim al-Kabariti have alleged Iraqi involvement in the riots, but al-Kabariti conceded the government must tackle poverty, which critics have blamed for fueling the unrest.
Some 25,000 rioters storm-ed Australia's parliament in Canberra protesting planned budget cuts, to be released today, in the worst rioting in the capital in 20 years. About 1,000 rioters smashed their way into Parliament House and clashed with police. To reduce the deficit, the government plans to slash spending for Aborigines and increase tuition at state-run universities. Thousands of public workers are expected to lose their jobs.
Philippine President Fidel Ramos and Muslim chief Nur Misuari declared that a war that has killed 120,000 Filipinos is over. The two men, meeting for the first time in 10 years, embraced in a muddy schoolyard in Malabang. The meeting was meant to finalize a peace plan, which includes establishing a peace and development council with Misuari as its head on the southern island of Mindanao. The council is seen as a prelude to an expanded, Muslim-led autonomous region in 14 provinces in the south.
Muslim militants attacked two buses in Algeria, killing at least 63 people, the Al-Hayat newspaper reported. They singled out passengers from the town of Batna. The newspaper said it was the first time civilians were killed because they live in a certain town, and speculated the attack was designed to stir up trouble among Algeria's tribes.
Cuba demanded the return of 11 refugees who were found shipwrecked near Miami last week. The US repatriated 16 of the refugees last week, but decided to allow 11 to remain in the US. Last May, President Clinton agreed to send back illegal refugees, and Cuba agreed not to take action against them.
A Russian cargo plane bound for Malta crashed while trying to make an emergency landing in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, killing all 12 aboard. The pilot reported the "total failure" of his systems, Belgrade independent radio said.
ETCETERA
"Jack told me he had a career that left him battered, bruised, down on the ground, and out of breath. And I said, 'Jack, enough about politics, let's talk about football.' "
-- Republican candidate Bob Dole in a speech in Buffalo, N.Y., joking about running mate Jack Kemp's football career.
Charlie Heath is a can-do kind of guy. The Groveland, Calif., resident has picked up $23,000 worth of old cans over the last five years - earning him the moniker Charlie the Can Man. Heath is scrounging for his favorite charity: a new library and museum for Groveland.
The New York Times is looking for a few good slogans for its Web site. It's asking readers to summarize, in 10 words or less, the news mission of The New York Times on the Web. The contest coincides with the 100th anniversary of its famous print slogan, "All the News That's Fit to Print."
In an experiment reminiscent of "Jurassic Park," Japanese researchers plan to journey to Siberia to try to collect ancient woolly mammoth DNA. They hope to combine it with elephant sperm to recreate the prehistoric pachyderm. There's no scientific precedent for the project, and other experts are skeptical it could work. Finding preserved DNA - let alone using it for breeding - is extremely difficult.
Paging Captain Ahab: Finnish police plan to harpoon runaway drivers. When chasing fleeing vehicles, police would fire a steel harpoon into the trunk of the car and then put on their brakes, forcing the car to halt.