News In Brief
President Clinton welcomed chinese Premier Zhu Rongji to the White House, praising his efforts to introduce economic reforms in China. Trade, Taiwan, and human-rights issues were said to be on the agenda. US officials said the two leaders were unlikely to reach full agreement on China's entry into the World Trade Organization - but would probably announce major progress in several areas and order more trade talks over the next several months.
A US intelligence report suggests China stole American military secrets in 1995 in an effort to improve its neutron-bomb technology, The New York Times reported. Information about the security leak was reportedly provided by a spy working for the US in China. The report calls into question administration claims that there is no evidence of Chinese nuclear espionage in the US during the '90s, the Times said. Meanwhile, the Energy Department suspended work on computers containing highly classified material at three US nuclear laboratories in an effort to improve security.
The State Department named nine Serb commanders it said could face war-crimes prosecution for atrocities committed in Kosovo. The warning came along with a report citing "indicators of genocide" gathered by a special US envoy. A spokesman said there was no specific evidence that soldiers had been ordered to commit crimes, but he noted that officers can be prosecuted for allowing crimes to occur or for not prosecuting those who commit them.
Jury deliberations were expected to begin in the trial of Susan McDougal in Little Rock, Ark. She is charged with obstruction of justice and contempt of court for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Clinton's involvement in the failed Whitewater real estate scheme. McDougal has already served 18 months in jail for contempt of court. In closing arguments, prosecutors tried to undermine defense efforts to put the tactics of independent counsel Kenneth Starr on trial - at least in the minds of jurors.
A new version of its Everglades restoration plan was unveiled by the Army Corps of Engineers. One of the world's largest and costliest nature-restoration projects, it is a blueprint for returning natural water flow to the threatened wetland while assuring drinking water for a south Florida population that may double to 12 million people by 2050. The revised plan would speed up restoration by about 20 percent. Environmentalists called it a step forward. It faces close scrutiny in Congress.
Navy aircraft bombed an Iraqi antiship missile site on the Al Faw Peninsula. US officials said the site posed "a direct threat" to US forces in the Persian Gulf.
Whether the attack was successful was not immediately clear.
Two Antarctic ice shelves are breaking up more quickly than predicted, indicating effects of global warming may be accelerating, scientists said. Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge published satellite images on the Internet showing the Larsen B and Wilkins ice shelves lost nearly 1,100 square miles over the past year. A University of Colorado scientist said that's "nearly as much activity in a single year as we've seen in 10 or 15 years" on average. The images are at www-nsidc.colorado.edu/NSIDC/ICESHELVES/lars-wilk- news.
