News In Brief
The US
President Clinton observed Veterans Day by signing an increase in disability payments to veterans, extending priority health care to Gulf War veterans, and creating a system to help prevent future combat-related health problems. To do so, he ordered the creation of a new a military and veterans health-coordinating board to compile data on health risks and medical research associated with military deployment; distribute data on health risks; and improve health record-keeping in the military.
American children are working more and playing less, a new study found. The report, written by Sandra Hoefferth, a sociologist at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, says the average child's free time - hours left after eating, personal care, sleeping, and attending school - declined from 40 percent of the day in 1981 to 30 percent in 1997. For those under three, the average time spent weekly in day care or preschool expanded during the period from 11.5 hours to 20 hours.
The first big snowstorm of the season shut down highways, cut power to tens of thousands of people across the Plains and Midwest, and flattened homes with gusts up to 93 m.p.h. In South Dakota, snow forced the closing of all of I-29 and 400 miles of I-90. Power outages were reported from South Dakota and Nebraska into Illinois and Arkansas. The storm, which was blamed for four deaths, scattered thunderstorms from the Great Lakes across the Ohio and Mississippi valleys all the way to Texas.
A bill implementing an international accord to ban business-related bribery was signed into law by Clinton. The Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions is expected to take effect at year's end.
The productivity of US workers outside the farm sector jumped in the third quarter, the Labor Department said. Productivity - a major factor in efforts to improve living standards - rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.3 percent, after a meager 0.3 percent rise in the second quarter.
Four of 10 Americans used alternative therapies in 1997, a survey found. The new poll, conducted by David Eisenberg and colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, indicated visits to nontraditional providers of medicine and healing increased by 50 percent from 1990 to 1997. Their report on alternative therapies - ranging from herbal remedies and relaxation to spiritual healing and homeopathy - was published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.
US Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R) of Washington said she will challenge Rep. Dick Armey (R) of Texas for the post of House majority leader, becoming the first woman to pursue one of the top GOP jobs in Congress. Dunn is the second challenger to Armey. Oklahoma Rep. Steve Largent has already declared his candidacy following unexpected GOP setbacks in last week's elections.
CIA chief George Tenet threatened to resign if convicted spy Jonathan Jay Pollard was released as part of last month's Mideast peace deal, The New York Times reported. Citing administration officials, the Times said Tenet gave his warning to Clinton after learning that the Israeli prime minister had made Pollard's release a bargaining point in negotiations. The president denied the request to release Pollard, but said he'd review the case. Pollard is serving a life sentence for passing top-secret documents to Israel.
