News In Brief

THE US

Calmer winds and waters in New York were expected to aid the investigation of TWA Flight 800, which crashed last week. Investigators are trying to locate the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that could offer information about the cause of the crash. Some 100 of 230 bodies have already been found. Investigators have not ruled out sabotage or mechanical failure. A piece of wreckage spotted by sonar protruding above the Atlantic floor could prove to be the most significant discovery yet.

The Senate plans to vote tomorrow on proposals by several Democrats who say the present Welfare reform bill is too harsh. An amendment to the GOP plan by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D) of California would allow continuation of Supplemental Security Income cash payments to immigrants already receiving them. The Senate rejected a Welfare reform measure earlier that would have allowed children to continue receiving some federal help after their parents are cut off. Earlier, the House passed a welfare bill that would put recipients to work and eliminate guaranteed benefits.

In other decisions on Capitol Hill: Both houses voted to create a blue-ribbon commission to investigate the growth of gambling in the US. The Senate passed a $245 billion defense-spending bill that allocates $10 billion more than Clinton requested. It passed legislation permanently normalizing trade relations between the US and Romania. And the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to delete a provision in a House-passed bill that would deny a 2.3 percent raise to lawmakers, federal judges, and senior Clinton administration officials.

The Clinton administration is considering ending a ban on high-tech weapons sales to Latin America, The New York Times reported. The ban on advanced warplanes was imposed in the 1970s. Chile wants to buy advanced fighters, but Argentina want the ban to continue, the report said.

Scientific advisors to the government recommended the French abortion drug RU-486 for FDA approval. They declared the drug safe and effective enough to become an alternative to surgical abortion.

President Clinton signed legislation for the creation of a children's park in the middle of Washington's Anacostia River. The new law transfers two manmade islands to the District of Columbia to be transformed into Children's Island, which will be part playground and part learning center. Clinton requested that development of the island not adversely impact the river.

Clinton's videotaped testimony aired in a Little Rock, Ark., courtroom, where two bankers are standing trial on Whitewater-related charges. He denied giving the bankers in-house positions in exchange for campaign contribution during his 1992 gubernatorial campaign.

A Chicago US district judge approved a $45 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit accusing Archer Daniels Midland Co. and two competitors or fixing prices for the animal feed supplement lysine. A Purdue University study estimated lysine buyers were cheated out of as much as $180 million because of price fixing.

Jurors in a Washington courtroom rejected an insanity plea and convicted Omar Mohammed Ali Rezaq, who admitted killing two passengers during the 1985 hijacking in the Mediterranean. Some 60 people died during the hijacking - most when Egyptian commandoes stormed the plane and an explosion occurred on a runway on the island of Malta.

A ten-year fight to save California's virgin redwoods may end in a land-swap deal between lumber companies and environmental officials. A new proposal calls for the federal government to receive the 3,000-acre Headwaters Forest near Eureka, Calif., and a buffer zone of 1,500 acres in exchange for public land in California or elsewhere. Another company would give up 3,300 acres of neighboring redwood forest and receive federal or state timberland in the Sierra Nevada.

THE WORLD

German mediators oversaw one of the biggest swaps between Israel and Hizbullah. Under a deal secretly negotiated over the last three months, the remains of two Israeli soldiers who died in captivity after their 1986 capture were flown to Israel. Israel handed over some 100 remains of Hizbullah guerrillas and 40 prisoners to Red Cross officials.

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic signed an agreement to resign as chairman of his SDS party and disappear from political life. Under the deal brokered by US mediator Richard Holbrooke, Karadzic's image and words are also banned from Serb media to minimize his influence on politics. But Karadzic could manipulate events behind the scenes as long as he remains free and has a telephone, experts say.

The Sri Lankan Navy landed reinforcements a mile away from the strategic Mullaitivu base, which Tamil rebels overran earlier, the Defense Ministry said. Casualties reports conflicted in one of the biggest battles in the 13-year-old civil war. If the rebels take total control of the base, it could weaken the government's control of Jaffna, analysts say. Jaffna is a former rebel stronghold the Army captured after a bitter battle in April.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin is in favor of a proposal for four-way talks on the divided Korean Peninsula, a South Korean newspaper reported. It was the first time Beijing publicly committed itself to participating in talks proposed by the US and South Korea, as a forum to replace the temporary armistice between the two Koreas with a permanent peace treaty.

Russian forces pounded a Chechen rebel base near the village of Shatoi. Analysts called the latest assault a new stage of an offensive against the rebels, which began after President Yeltsin was re-elected July 3. And Russia's lower house of parliament approved a resolution urging Yeltsin to end the fighting and restart peace talks. Yeltsin has ignored such pleas in the past.

Spanish explosives experts deactivated a bomb at a beach resort hotel in Tarragona, where 500 Dutch tourists were staying. The incident occurred less than 24 hours after a bomb injured 35 people - including 25 Britons - in a blast that rocked the packed departure lounge at the Reus airport. The bombings were attributed to Basque separatists waging attacks on Spain's tourism industry.

Three weeks of floods in Bangladesh killed 58 people and left nearly 2 million homeless. Government helicopters dropped food for thousands of marooned people, many of them perched on rooftops.

The UN refugee organization accused Tutsi authorities in Rwanda and Burundi of collusion in the forced expulsion of 3,400 Hutu refugees from camps in Burundi. The Hutus, many of whom took part in the 1994 massacre of up to one million Tutsis, say they will be in danger if they returned to Rwanda, which is now under Tutsi control.

The situation in the Korean Peninsula is high on the agenda of the Southeast Asian Nations ministerial meeting which starts tomorrow in Jakarta. The Forum is also expected to press India to sign a test ban treaty.

As voters cast their ballots to choose Sao Tome and Principe's president, observers forecast a tight race between incumbent Miguel Trovoada and former Marxist strongman Manuel Pinto da Costa. Neither candidate drew heavy crowds during second-round campaigning to woo the 47,000 registered voters.

ETCETERAS

"It's a great victory that should not be underestimated. [But] It's not good enough. ...We've got a long way to go."

-- Richard Goldstone, chief war crimes prosecutor, on Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic's resignation from political life.

The first boat powered by compressed natural gas was launched in Florida's Tampa Bay. The engine on the 23-foot catamaran burns about half the fuel for the same size engine in a gasoline outboard. And the fill up? A mere 42 cents a gallon. It's also quieter and puts out no smoke.

No perms allowed! A Tokyo court upheld Shutoku high school's ban on perms after a graduating senior was expelled before graduation for committing the unthinkable. Students must "maintain their hair in a manner high school students should," Judge Kazutomo Ijima ruled.

President Clinton, opening the Olympic Games, called America's Olympians "living examples of what dreamers can do." Among key achievements that day: Belgium's Fred Deburghgraeve broke the world record for the 100 meter breast stroke in the prelims with a 1:00.60 time.

THE DAY'S LIST

A Day at the Olympics

Sample cost per day for a family of four at the Atlanta Olympics. Total: $556.88

Room at suburban Holiday Inn: $119

Breakfast at McDonald's: $12.88

Parking at Olympic lot: $10

Four tickets to boxing at $48 each: $192

Four hot dogs at arena, $3 each: $12

Four sodas at arena, $2.75 each: $11

Four orders of french fries at arena, $3.25 each: $13

Four bottles of water at arena, $2.75 each: $11

Two T-shirts, $18 each: $36

Two caps, $15 each: $30

Four Olympic pins, $5 each: $20

Four frozen lemonades at Centennial Olympic Park, $3 each: $12

Admission to Coca-Cola Olympic City: $42

Dinner at Mick's, a moderately priced Atlanta restaurant: $36

-- Associated Press