News In Brief

The US

After months of denial, President Clinton admitted in public - and in grand-jury testimony - that he had engaged in "a relationship ... that was not appropriate" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In a five-minute TV address following more than four hours of secret testimony, the president also acknowledged he had "misled people." But he denied committing perjury or asking others to lie - and he defiantly criticized the special prosecutor's four-year probe of his public and private life.

In polls taken after Clinton's TV appearance, the response was conciliatory. A CBS/New York Times survey taken just after the speech found 60 percent of respondents saying the matter should now be dropped. Sixty-nine percent in an ABC News poll said the probe of the president should end. In a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll, 72 percent said the country would be better off if the president stayed in office - and his job-approval rating held steady at 62 percent.

A request that Clinton postpone the swearing in of UN Ambassador Bill Richardson as energy secretary was withdrawn by a Senate committee chairman. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R) of Alaska, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said there was no evidence Richardson had misled his panel about a job he offered Monica Lewinsky - or that she was given "special treatment."

The US will not act alone to end fighting in the Serbian province of Kosovo, Defense Secretary William Cohen said. But he urged joint action by NATO to halt a clash between ethnic-Albanian rebels and Serb troops that has uprooted an estimated 200,000 people.

The consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent in July, following a 0.1 percent rise in June, the Labor Department said. Economists predicted the lack of price pressure would lead Federal Reserve policymakers meeting in Washington to again opt for no change in short-term interest rates.

The nation's trade deficit fell for the first time in five months in June, the Commerce Department said. It credited the decline to the Asian economic crisis, which made the cost of imported goods cheaper. The monthly shortfall between exports and imports decreased a steeper-than-expected 8.9 percent to $14.15 billion from a revised $15.54 billion in May.

Jury selection began in the murder trial of a former Ku Klux Klan leader accused of masterminding a firebomb attack that killed Mississippi civil-rights leader Vernon Dahmer 32 years ago. The trial in Hattiesburg, Miss., is the fifth for Sam Bowers, whose four previous trials in connection with the attack on Dahmer's home ended in deadlocked juries. Four other Klansmen were convicted.

The oceans are being "strip mined" by global fishing fleets far too big for the available catch, a report released by two environmental groups said. The World Wide Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Union said a previous estimate by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that fishing fleets are 30 percent larger than they should be had underestimated the problem. The overcapacity is actually 155 percent, the report said.

A federal judge ordered Chrysler Corp. to pay a record $800,000 for delaying the recall of 1995 Chrysler Cirrus and Dodge Stratus sedans to fix seat belts the government said were unsafe. The fine easily eclipsed a 1978 penalty of $405,000 against General Motors for leaky carburetors, a government spokesman said.

Northwest Airlines and its pilots union resumed negotiations to avert a threatened strike. Pilots have set an Aug. 29 deadline for reaching an accord with the fourth-largest US carrier. The airline has said it will not operate if pilots walk off the job. The talks were the first since July 9 on disputed issues of pay, job security, retirement, and work rules.

The World

Around the globe, there were mixed reactions to President Clinton's televised confession. Palestinians voiced concerns over the fate of the Mideast peace process. Iraq characterized the scandal as an Israeli plot to have Clinton replaced with a vice president who may be more pro-Israel.

Failing to persuade Iraq to resume cooperation with weapons inspectors, UN envoy Prakash Shah was due to end his week-long visit today. The Security Council announced its "full support" for arms inspectors who have been prevented since Aug. 5 from searching for new sites of weapons of mass destruction. Bill Richardson, US Ambassador to the UN, said the council had appealed to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan "to once again use his skills to deal with this problem." But a UN spokesman said Annan did not expect to take a personal role in the current standoff.

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