News In Brief
The US
Bell Atlantic reached a tentative accord with the Communications Workers of America to settle a strike by 73,000 telephone workers in 13 Eastern states and the District of Columbia. The union released a statement saying the deal would give its members greater access to jobs in company subsidiaries that develop new technologies.
British Petroleum said it had agreed to buy Amoco, the fifth-largest US oil company, for $48 billion in stock, which would be the largest industrial merger in history. The new company would be called BP Amoco. But in the US, BP gas stations would be renamed Amoco. The deal ranks as the fifth-largest among mergers of all types. It would make BP, already the third-largest oil company, a bigger rival to No. 1 Royal Dutch/Shell and Exxon Corp., the No. 2 oil firm.
The bodies of 11 of the 12 Americans killed in the bombing of the US Embassy in Kenya will arrive Thursday at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, where President Clinton will speak at a memorial service, the White House said. The 12th US victim, Jean Dalizu, was married to a Kenyan and was to be buried there. Meanwhile, the US offered a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those who bombed the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Clinton vowed to veto major GOP alternatives to his managed-health-care proposals. He also ordered managed-care firms insuring US workers to eliminate restrictions on what a doctor can tell patients about treatment options.
Productivity of US workers declined during the April-June quarter for the first time in more than three years, the Labor Department said. Productivity of nonfarm, nonsupervisory workers fell at a 0.2 percent annual rate. It increased at a 3.5 percent rate in the first quarter.
More Americans filed for US bankruptcy protection in the 12 months that ended June 30 than in any other one-year period, federal court officials reported. Federal bankruptcy filings rose to a record high 1.42 million in that period, spurred by a 9.2 percent increase in personal bankruptcies.
Two boys accused of gunning down four classmates and a teacher in a school ambush were to face trial on capital murder charges in Jonesboro, Ark. Mitchell Johnson, 14, and Andrew Golden, 12, are accused of setting off a fire alarm at the Westside Middle School March 24 and opening fire on those who filed out of the building.
An Alaska judge struck down a state law limiting political campaign donations, saying it violated constitutional rights of free speech. The law, which went into effect in 1997, limited individual political contributions to $500 per election for state-office campaigns. It barred donations from corporations and labor unions - as well as most out-of-state contributions. The Alaska Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the law in court, said the state should institute "meaningful reform" through public financing of campaigns.
Pastors who perform same-sex marriages can be charged with disobedience, the United Methodist Church's highest court ruled. The denomination's Judicial Council declared the church's Social Principles a law, not a guideline, as argued by the Rev. Jimmy Creech. He was acquitted by a church jury of disobedience charges after performing a wedding ceremony for two women in Omaha, Neb., last year.
