News In Brief

The US

Congressional leaders from both parties expressed support for prompt military action to force Iraqi compliance with UN weapons inspectors. Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," the House and Senate leaders were responding to a White House accusation that Iraq blatantly is disregarding the UN Security Council by turning away three American members of an inspection team early Sunday.

Chinese President Jiang Ze-min was to head home today after meetings with political and business leaders in Los Angeles. Earlier, he was heckled by about 5,000 protesters while speaking at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. He surprised the audience with a response to a question on why he won't have an open dialogue with the Chinese people by saying: "There are ... mistakes in our work."

China denounced the administration's appointment of a special coordinator for Tibet affairs as an "unacceptable" intervention in its internal affairs. Gregory Craig was appointed to the post to promote dialogue between the Beijing government and Dalai Lama and to help preserve Tibetan culture.

The trial of Oklahoma bombing suspect Terry Nichols was scheduled to begin today in a Denver courtroom. Nichols is charged with the same 11 counts of murder and conspiracy as his alleged partner, Timothy McVeigh.

Amtrak and its unionized track-maintenance workers reached agreement after marathon negotiations. The agreement between the passenger-rail service and Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees averted a strike that could have disrupted commuter services in the Northeast and on national routes.

Democratic donors forked over $50,000 each to spend the weekend hobnobbing with President Clinton and Vice President Gore on Florida's Amelia Island. The retreat was designed by the Democratic National Committee to help retire its $15 million debt from the 1996 elections. It was expected to raise about 2.5 million.

The Associated Press reported it had obtained internal documents offering a picture of closely coordinated secrecy by persons and groups helping GOP candidates in last year's election. Citing evidence uncovered by Senate investigators, it said political consultants, wealthy conservatives, and nonprofit, issue-oriented groups such as Americans for Tax Reform contributed time and millions of dollars to counter a similar - but public - effort on behalf of Democrats by the AFL-CIO. Senate hearings on campaign-finance abuse were suspended late last week by chairman Fred Thompson (R) of Tennessee.

Clinton canceled 10 projects totaling $20.2 million with his line-item veto authority. He struck down seven projects, involving $14 million, from an appropriations bill funding the Veterans Affairs Department and $6.2 million in funding for three projects in the Transportation Department appropriations measure. Using the new powers, he has eliminated more than $2 billion to date from appropriation bills.

A six-month extension was granted to Whitewater special investigator Kenneth Starr for his federal grand-jury probe into the Clintons' business dealings. In Little Rock, Ark., US district judge Susan Webber Wright gave the panel until May 7 to examine evidence uncovered in the investigation.

US participation in a multibillion-dollar rescue effort for Indonesia's troubled economy won the cautious support of key Republicans in Congress. The chairmen of both the Senate and House banking committees endorsed the administration's proposed $3 billion backup package, should $23 billion in support from the International Monetary Fund prove insufficient.

The World

Three Americans attempting to enter Iraq as part of a UN weapons-inspection team were "turned away" when their flight landed in Baghdad, diplomatic sources said. Inspectors from other nations were admitted. The incident was the second of its type in four days after Iraq announced last week it no longer would cooperate with Americans assigned to UN inspection teams. Noting that the US had not ruled out a military response, Kuwait joined other Arab states in the region in saying such action would be "unacceptable."

Iraq has secret stocks of a nerve gas that could kill millions of people, Britain's Observer newspaper quoted UN inspectors as saying. One UN team reportedly was on the verge of uncovering a nerve-gas agent known as VX when Iraq ordered American inspectors out of the country.

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