News In Brief

The US

The State Department warned of retaliation against Americans at home and abroad after President Clinton ordered cruise missiles attacks on six suspected terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical-weapons plant in Khartoum, Sudan. The president said the attacks were only the beginning of what could be a long campaign to combat terrorism. He banned financial transactions between US companies and Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, saying there was compelling evidence that his terrorist network was involved in coordinating the Aug. 7 bombings of two US embassies in East Africa and attacks on other US facilities.

Public-opinion polls showed broad support for the missile strikes - from 66 percent in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey to 80 percent in an ABC News poll. As security was tightened at airports, national monuments, and tourist attractions, a White House spokesman said it was too early to fully assess the extent of damage inflicted by the missiles, but that damage was believed to have been "moderate to severe."

Residents from Florida to the Carolinas braced for Hurricane Bonnie, whose fringes brushed the central Bahamas and Cuba yesterday. Forecasters said the giant storm could become a category-four hurricane, one of the most dangerous types with winds exceeding 130 m.p.h. Top winds were already exceeding 100 m.p.h. as the storm continued to gather strength. Meanwhile, tropical storm Charley moved from the Gulf of Mexico into southern Texas, causing some flooding and wind damage but bringing relief from a searing drought.

A federal mediator ordered U S West and its employees union to return to the bargaining table yesterday as the strike affecting the company's service in 13 states entered a second week. U S West, the nation's sixth-largest phone company, accused the Communications Workers of America of stalling and bargaining for just 65 minutes since talks resumed Thursday.

Holocaust victims sued a German conglomerate, claiming it helped Nazis produce gas used in death camps and assisted in processing gold taken from the teeth of Jews. The class-action lawsuit - filed in a Newark, N.J., court - seeks all of Degussa AG's assets. Degussa Corp., a subsidiary, is based in Ridgefield Park, N.J. The subsidiary's general counsel said the corporation was formed in 1973 and had "no connection" to European events of the 1930s and 1940s.

A published report challenged the belief that professional sports provide major financial benefits to cities that manage to lure or keep teams. In a report published by the University of California, Berkeley, researcher Jack Sylvan looked at sales figures for years before and after a team moved to or left one of seven California cities that had professional teams between 1972 and 1995. His analysis found no differences in retail or total taxable sales that could be clearly related to the teams' presence.

A former Ku Klux Klan leader was convicted of ordering a 1966 firebombing that killed civil-rights activist Vernon Dahmer. In Hattiesbury, Miss., a jury of six whites, five blacks, and one Asian found Samuel Bowers guilty of murder and arson in the slaying. For Bowers, it was a fifth trial for the crime. Four trials during the 1960s - at least two in front of all-white juries - ended in deadlock. Prosecutors said Dahmer was killed for helping fellow blacks register to vote. Above,

Ku Klux Klan death threats against a Louisiana Supreme Court candidate and one of his campaign supporters are being investigated as hate crimes, an FBI spokeswoman said. Democrat Bill Quigley, a teacher at Loyola University Law School who volunteers as a lawyer for the NAACP, received one threat. The other went to Ron Chisom, an African-American who works with a group that helps people to combat racism.

The World

Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired his four-month-old government, under attack for its handing of the the country's economic crisis. In a tersely worded announcement, Yeltsin said he fired Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko and was reappointing Viktor Chernomyrdin, who served as prime minister for five years until his dismissal in March.

Britain announced it had independent evidence showing that alleged terrorist-financier Osama bin Laden was behind the US Embassy bombings in East Africa. British Defense Secretary George Robinson said bin Laden was acquiring chemical and biological weapons and that Britain shared the Clinton administration's view that he was planning more attacks. UN officials were expected to consider today Sudan's request for an "urgent" Security Council meeting to condemn the attacks in Sudan and Afghanistan. Sudanese officials said the factory did not make chemical weapons, and a British engineer who had worked at the factory supported their claim.

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