News In Brief

The US

The investigation into the bombing in Oklahoma City continued to focus on acquaintances of the one suspect , Timothy McVeigh, and on US paramilitary groups. An Army deserter who had served at Fort Riley, Kansas, with McVeigh was apprehended in California. In other developments, Mark Koernke, the founder of a militant anti-government group in Augusta, Mich. and a reputed associate of McVeigh's, was under investigation because of a fax he reportedly sent to Texas Congressman Stockman an hour before the bombing. The fax seemed to describe the federal building that was destroyed. Koernke has a national shortwave radio show that preaches the doctrines of paramilitary groups. Rescuers reached the area where a day care center was located. At press time, the death toll stood at 78; about 100 people were still missing. (Stories, Page 1)

President Clinton said he would seek additional wiretapping and surveillance powers to monitor paramilitary groups. Clinton's countermeasures would include legislation to establish a Domestic Counterterrorism Center to be headed by the FBI as well as legislation giving the FBI more authority to comb through hotel registers and to search phone logs. Clinton said he would direct all federal law-enforcement agencies to broaden their counterterrorism work. He warned against inflammatory rhetoric that divides Americans. Chief of Staff Panetta told CBS that there's a balance to strike between the needs of law enforcement and basic rights. He said Clinton's request for broad new powers was ''right on the mark.''

Federal agents were ready in early March to raid the New York office of Aum Shinri Kyo, the sect suspected in the March 20 nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway. A federal judge, however, would not issue a warrant. Time magazine said federal chemical weapons specialists intended to raid the office based on a tip from the Japanese government.

The Senate returned to work yesterday after a two-week recess. Senator Specter said the Senate would hear testimony this week from FBI Director Freeh on the Oklahoma City bombings. The intelligence committee will also begin confirmation hearings on Deputy Defense Secretary Deutch's nomination as director of the CIA.

Favored to beat out the eight other GOP presidential hopefuls in Iowa, Senator Dole has earned the nickname ''President of Iowa.'' Dole will ''walk away'' with the Feb. 12 Iowa caucuses if the trend continues, the head of Senator Specter's campaign said.

The Supreme Court rejected Dr. Kevorkian's contention that assisted suicide is a constitutional right in Michigan. The high court also let stand a Florida ruling making it harder for federal courts to change state judicial-election systems that dilute the political clout of racial minorities. The court let stand an environmental ruling that federal officials said could disrupt land-management efforts in nine Western states. It refused to hear a US Forest Service appeal challenging a federal-appeals court decision involving two federally owned forests in Oregon. And the maker of an anti-baldness product cited by the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising lost its appeal.

Baseball teams are slashing early-season ticket prices; kids will get in free at some ballparks; and cheap eats are on the menu -- all to entice fans to embrace the game again and forget the long strike. Opening games are slated to begin tonight, but ticket sales have been slow.

Microsoft and the Justice Department were back in court, trying to get a federal appeals court to overrule a federal judge's decision to reject a settlement between the software company and the government.

Niles DeGrate won $1.2 million in a four-year court suit in Los Angeles against Eaton Corp. The judge ruled Eaton fired DeGrate because he is black.

Almost one-fourth of all US children lived in fatherless families last year, four times the number in 1950, according to a study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The organization said lower wages and unemployment were partly to blame. (Story, Page 3.)

The World

Rwandan refugees fled by the thousands yesterday from a camp where at least 2,000 died in the country's latest burst of ethnic violence. An estimated 100,000 men, women, and children trudged toward the provincial capital of Butare. The EU said it would have to reappraise its policy on humanitarian aid to Rwanda. Britain, the third-largest provider of humanitarian aid to the country, took a cautious line on apportioning blame for the killings. Belgium condemned Rwandan troops for brutality, and France called for those responsible to be punished.

The Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal formally named Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic as a war-crimes suspect. Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serbian Army commander, and Mico Stanisic, former head of the Bosnian Serb Special Police, also were named. No charges have been filed against the three. Instead, the tribunal is asking the Bosnian government to give it jurisdiction in any cases involving them, which is considered the first step toward an indictment. Fighting flared in northern Bosnia amid diminishing expectations that a much-violated cease-fire, due to expire in a week, could be renewed.

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