News In Brief
THE US
President Clinton phoned Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker to express his sympathies after Tucker, James McDougal, and Susan McDougal were convicted of fraud. Tucker announced his resignation after the jury found him guilty on two of seven counts of fraud for his role in an alleged $3 million conspiracy to defraud two federally insured financial institutions. James McDougal was convicted on 18 of 19 counts, and his former wife of all four against her.
Kentucky deployed more than 60 National Guardsmen after 750 homes were destroyed and an undetermined number damaged by tornados that ripped through suburbs south of Louisville. No one was killed, but 45 people were injured. Tornados also touched down in Indiana and West Virginia. Missouri extended a month-old state of emergency after heavy rains dumped boulders onto streets and flooded farmland.
Bob Dole easily won the Republican primaries in Kentucky and Idaho. The primaries end next Tuesday with polls in New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, and Alabama. For every delegate Pat Buchanan has won, Dole has won 10.
Nigerian drug dealers allegedly recruited 21 US sailors based in Naples to smuggle cocaine and heroin into Italy from Turkey and other countries, The New York Times reported. The first 14 arrests were announced by US naval officials on May 16, the day chief of naval operations Adm. Jeremy Boorda committed suicide. The Times didn't specify when the seven other sailors were arrested. Naval investigators infiltrated the ring, which reportedly paid each sailor thousands of dollars to smuggle drug-filled bags.
Mutual fund investors added $26.35 billion to stock funds in April. It was the second largest contribution, after January. In the first four months of 1996, $99 billion was invested in stock funds. The record for a full year was $128 billion in 1995.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service added 185 agents and an array of equipment to deter illegal immigration along a 16-mile stretch of the US-Mexican border. The area with rough mountain terrain has been inundated by immigrant smugglers. The INS also said the FBI would join the operation.
Lawyers presented opening arguments in the New York trial of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, accused of a scheme to bomb as many as 11 US passenger jets in one day. Yousef, who is also accused of the World Trade Center bombing, topped the FBI's most-wanted list for two years before being captured in Pakistan in February.
Farmers used more pesticides than ever before in 1995, unpublished government data released by two environmental groups shows. Agriculture used 1.25 billion pounds of herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides in 1995. That's compared with 1.23 billion pounds in 1994, up 100 million pounds from 1993. The numbers contradict claims by the chemical industry and farm groups that they are cutting pesticide use, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the US Public Interest Research Group said. Industry groups said the numbers reflect more acreage planted to major crops.
The owner of a Florida apartment complex agreed to pay a record $427,000 to settle allegations that the complex refused to rent to blacks and families with children. It is the largest settlement so far of 33 lawsuits brought by the Justice Department's fair housing program.
Hats off - that's the new rule in San Francisco public schools if they bear cigarette logos. The school board voted 5 to 1 to bar students from wearing clothing or accessories with such logos. The ban intended to curb teenage smoking is similar to one on gang attire and clothing bearing racist remarks.
More research is needed to develop new contraceptives, an Institute of Medicine report says. More than 3 million unintended pregnancies occur in the US each year, and contraceptive failure is said to be the reason for half of the 1.3 million abortions in the US each year, the institute says, citing 1991 statistics.
THE WORLD
Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres was forced to cancel several election-day appearances because of threats of attacks from Jewish extremists. Also, a spokesman for Hamas, which has claimed responsibility for recent suicide attacks, agreed to halt attacks until after elections. A bombing could swing the vote against Peres, who was in a dead heat with Likud Party candidate Benjamin Netanyahu.
Northern Ireland votes today to choose representatives for June 10 peace talks. But Britain and Northern Ireland failed to resolve disagreements that could delay negotiations. Two key issues: How to proceed with disarming the IRA; and what role former US Sen. George Mitchell, primary author of a report on the IRA disarmament debate, should play in talks. The two countries are to meet again next week.
Bosnian Serbs are continuing the practice of "ethnic cleansing"- expelling dozens of families from the Teslic area, UN spokesman Kris Janowski said. The UN received reports of more than 100 people being forced to leave the area. Also, pressure mounted for Serbian President Milosevic to oust Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic. "The use of sanctions, the renewal of sanctions, and the use of force if necessary are ... on the table," US chief spokesman for Bosnia Richard Holbrooke said.
Residents of South Africa's Western Cape Province began voting in regional elections in what is seen as a crucial test for former President F. W. DeKlerk's National Party. An independent survey predicted the National Party would retain control of the regional government, but the African National Congress would make inroads in the National Party's stronghold of power.
Sudan systematically employs torture and harassment and condones kidnapping and slavery by allied militias in its quest to impose Islamic rule on its citizens, Human Rights Watch-Africa and Amnesty International said in two separate reports. Both groups also said the government indiscriminately bombed civilian areas in the rebellious south.
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed for $5.25 million in aid to North Korea to "stave off famine." The agency warned that, without immediate food assistance, the situation could deteriorate rapidly, resulting in widespread famine.
Albania's general election was tainted by serious irregularities and voter intimidation, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported. The OSCE stopped short of condemning the election as fraudulent, but its report supported allegations made by opposition parties that withdrew from Sunday's elections. The Socialists vowed to press for new elections, and opposition leaders called for peaceful rallies to take place over five days across Albania.
It isn't likely that all Chechen rebels will observe a cease-fire President Yeltsin hailed as the end of the war in the breakaway republic, Vyacheslav Mikhailov, a top Russian minister, said. No other progress was made to restore peace, and Mikhailov said he was skeptical of rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev's claim that he controls all the separatist forces scattered across the breakaway republic.
More than half the world's population will be crammed into cities by 2015, a UN population report said. And 3.2 billion of the world's 7 billion people will be in developing countries. The report was released in advance of today's UN Habitat Two conference in Istanbul, Turkey.
Two dissident groups petitioned the Chinese government for democratic reforms and an investigation into the 1989 Tianenman Square massacre, defying likely arrest. Similar petitions last year led to the imprisonment and interrogation of dissidents.
ETCETERAS
''That's exactly why there will be change, because all they have is guns."
-- Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, when asked how ordinary Burmese citizens, armed only with courage, can hope to defeat the military junta.
School Superintendent Corkin Cherubini of Georgia received the Profile in Courage award from Caroline Kennedy. The annual $25,000 award was inspired by a book by President Kennedy. Cherubini was honored for overturning a system that routed three-quarters of black students into remedial classes.
Wall Street traders paused nary a nanosecond when the Dow Jones industrial average turned 100. They were too busy to notice when General Electric chairman Jack Welch, whose firm is the only one remaining from the original 12 in 1896, rang the opening bell.
THE DAY'S LIST
SIgma Delta Chi Winners
Here are the 1995 winners of the Sigma Delta Chi awards for outstanding newspaper journalism.The Society of Professional Journalists has presented the awards annually since 1932.
1. Coverage of Bosnia, David Rhode of The Christian Science Monitor.
2. "Morning of Terror," staff of The Daily Oklahoman.
3. "Only Human," Deborah Blum of The Sacramento Bee.
4. "Fertility Fraud," Kim Christensen, Susan Kelleher, Michelle Nicolosi, David Parrish, Ernie Slone of The Orange County Register.
5. "The Canyon," Steven Almond of the Miami News Times.
6. "Justice in the Dark," Carolyn Lumsden of The Hartford Courant.
7. "Anoka's Connection to the Federal-Funding Pipeline," Sharon Schmickle, Mike Kaszuba of the Star Tribune.
Public Service Awards
1. Coverage of the tobacco industry, staff of The Wall Street Journal.
2. "This Land is My Land," Bryan Corliss, Donna Kemp, Becky Kramer of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.
-SPJ
