EVENTS

UN FINDS NO SCUDS IN IRAQ A United Nations weapons inspection team did not find any hidden Scud missiles or other prohibited arms during a monthlong sweep of Iraq, the team leader said yesterday. US and other Western intelligence reports have contended Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has hidden more than 200 Scud missiles and other weapons from UN inspectors. But team leader Nikita Smidovich, a Russian expert with the UN Special Commission, told reporters Sunday his team of 50 to 100 inspectors found no evidence of hidden missiles during a search he described as thorough. Iraq contends the missiles considered missing by the UN were fired in the early phase of its eight-year war with Iran or used in test firings. Mr. Smidovich said Iraq did not interfere with the latest inspections. Packwood debate today

US Senators prepared yesterday for an unusual session considering the efforts of one of their own to resist an Ethics Committee subpoena for his diaries. Sen. Bob Packwood (R) of Oregon is under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct involving about two dozen women.

In building its case, the ethics panel sought certain entries in the senator's diary. Now he is resisting a subpoena for his diaries, and today the full Senate will debate what to do. Two Frenchmen freed

Algerian security forces have freed two kidnapped Frenchmen in good health but are still searching for a woman seized with them one week ago, state television said yesterday. Jean-Claude and Michele Thevenot, a married couple, and Alain Freissier, were kidnapped in central Algiers Oct. 23. All worked for the French consulate-general. In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry confirmed that the two Frenchmen were released. Olivetti chief targeted

Setting their sights on one of Italy's most wealthy and powerful tycoons, anti-corruption investigators on Saturday ordered the head of the giant Olivetti corporation arrested.

The decision to issue the warrant for Carlo De Benedetti was one of the most stunning developments in the unfolding ``Clean Hands'' probes, which have drawn in thousands of people, including a former premier. Mr. De Benedetti who reportedly has said political kickbacks are the only way to survive in Italian business controls a corporate empire led by Olivetti, the Milan-based computer and office equipment maker. He will surrender Tuesday, the company said. New hotel sought...

The Hilton hotel chain says it has been asked by Palestinian investors to set up a hotel in Jericho where self-rule begins to take effect later this year. ``We have already been contacted by people who wish to put a hotel in Jericho,'' Ahmed al-Nahas, a vice president of Hilton International, said yesterday. ``[But] we want to see how things develop.'' ... As ancient fort is found

The Israeli government, meanwhile, yesterday reported evidence of some very old construction in central Israel. Officials the world's oldest known fortress a wall believed to date to 4000 B.C. has been uncovered near the central coastal town of Hadera, archaeologist Eli Yanai said in a statement from Israel's antiquities authority. Federico Fellini, director

Film director Federico Fellini, an icon of the international cinema whose 1960 classic ``La Dolce Vita'' defined an era in his native Italy, died yesterday. Fellini was a five-time Oscar winner whose career was synonymous with the flowering of Italy's post-war cinema. ``You know, the film critics named an adjective after me,'' Fellini said in an interview when he accepted an Academy Award for lifetime achievement. ``I really don't think I know what it means, but I guess it's an honor.'' River Phoenix, actor

River Phoenix, who won fame in ``Stand by Me'' and in the offbeat ``My Own Private Idaho,'' died after collapsing outside a Los Angeles nightclub early yesterday morning. Known for his style and dramatic intensity, Phoenix gained fame as a scruffy youth in Rob Reiner's 1986 hit ``Stand by Me.''