News Currents

UNITED STATESSurgeon General Antonia Novello is escalating her campaign against teenage consumption of beer, wine, and liquor, calling on the industry to voluntarily change its advertising practices or face stronger action.... Anita Hill, the Oklahoma professor who accused US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearing was named Nov. 4 one of America's 10 special women of 1991 by Glamour magazine.... A 15-member Soviet delegation arrived in Utah Nov. 4 to inspect missile components covered by the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.... The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Nov. 4 it will investigate banks in several cities that may be discriminating against minority home buyers. A recent study by the Federal Reserve said even blacks with high incomes were rejected for loans more than twice as often as whites.

JUSTICE The United States Supreme Court, continuing to give the military broad immunity from legal liability, let stand Nov. 4 the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the mother of a Navy recruit who died when he was forcibly held under water by his Navy instructors until he turned blue.... The court refused to overturn an Illinois court decision that a single mother can be denied custody of her son in part because she is lesbian and her relatives are more economically secure, even though she has not been deemed an unfit parent.... The court also allowed the convicted killer of a prison guard to be granted a new trial because the courtroom where he was found guilty was packed with uniformed corrections officers.... And the court, refusing to overturn a state appeals court, let stand a 12-year-old San Francisco law that essentially requires some hotel owners to house the homeless. The ordinance designates hotel rooms that were occupied by the same person for 31 days or more as of Sept. 23, 1979, as "residential," thus barring nightly rental of the rooms.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS Serbia Nov. 5 rejected for the third time a European Community peace plan to transform Yugoslavia into a loose grouping of its six republics, diplomatic sources in The Hague said.... A Cambodian woman announced in Bangkok Nov. 5 the formation of a new political party, charging that "terrorist tactics" by the Phnom Penh government prevented her from making the announcement in the nation's capital. Vanna Om Strinko, a naturalized American citizen and human rights campaigner, said the harassment she faced b oded ill for efforts to return the country to democracy under a UN peace plan.... Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos was fingerprinted Nov. 5 after surrendering to a Manila judge following a government order for her arrest on tax fraud charges. "It's a sad day" Marcos told court officials, holding up her inky fingers. She was released on bail of $2,700.