News In Brief

THE US

Chicago lawyer Bill Daley and New Mexico Rep. Bill Richardson were named to President Clinton's second-term cabinet as commerce secretary and UN ambassador, respectively. The president said he had asked Janet Reno to stay on as attorney general and that she had accepted. He also said he wants Gene Sperling to replace Laura Tyson as chair of the National Economic Council and Charlene Barshefsky to become US trade representative. Barshefsky had been filling the post on a temporary basis. Clinton still has four cabinet posts to fill: energy, transportation, housing, and labor.

Aircraft industry giants Boeing and McDonnell Douglas announced a merger, forming the world's largest aerospace company. Two weeks ago, the companies said they were teaming up to build wide-body commercial airplanes. This followed a Pentagon decision that excluded McDonnell Douglas from competition to build a new joint-service fighter.

A freighter lost power and struck a crowded shopping mall in New Orleans Saturday. Rescue workers continued Sunday to search for victims. No deaths had been confirmed, but some children were reported missing. About 140 people were treated for injuries suffered in the crash or while trying to flee. The incident demolished part of a wharf supporting a tourist-oriented area of some 200 shops known as the Riverwalk.

Incumbent Teamsters Union president Ron Carey declared victory over James Hoffa in an election to decide who will lead the union. But Hoffa, son of legendary Teamster Jimmy Hoffa, challenged 41,000 ballots. The official count favored Carey by 17,000 votes.

Clinton said he wants to help in doubling the nation's adoption rate. He ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to find ways to increase adoptions, including financial incentives. US families currently adopt about 27,000 children a year. Also, the president said he would not phase out home-heating-oil assistance to the poor. Legislators of both parties had objected to a White House budget-office proposal to end the program.

The Agriculture Department ordered an early halt to the process of salvage logging in national forests. The action suspended an emergency salvage program passed by Congress last year. The president later said he regretted signing the measure, part of a larger budget bill. The emergency salvage program was scheduled to expire Dec. 31. The timber industry said it was necessary to reduce fires and improve forest health, but critics called it a means of easier access to trees.

A male cadet at The Citadel was suspended in connection with the alleged hazing of two female cadets. Officials are looking into reports that two weeks ago two women students at the Charleston, S.C., school were sprayed with a flammable liquid and their clothes set on fire. Meanwhile, the father of a female Citadel cadet told a Charleston newspaper that a male cadet had used a rifle butt to shove two freshmen women before striking them in the head. The military academy began admitting women in 1995.

Federal officials said fuel tanks in Boeing 747s pose such a safety threat that urgent design changes are necessary. The National Transportation Safety Board recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration take measures to protect fuel tanks from heat sources that can touch off the kind of explosion that occurred on TWA Flight 800. Safety officials cautioned that no conclusions have been reached about the cause of that particular incident, which killed 230 people.

The homeless in the US received about 14 times as much help in 1995 as in 1992, a Columbia University report said. The study focused cities.

The Deseret News announced the appointment of former Christian Science Monitor editor John Hughes to oversee its news and opinion pages. This marks the first time a non-Mormon has been named editor of the Salt Lake City, Utah, daily, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

THE WORLD

A Serbian court ordered the reinstatement of a local election victory by opponents of President Slobodan Milosevic. The original outcome in Nis, Serbia's second-largest city, was overturned by the election commission controlled by Milosevic. Critics saw Sunday's action as an attempt to defuse weeks of street protests against the president. But an estimated 100,000 demonstrators were in the streets of the capital for the 28th consecutive day.

Negotiators in Tokyo reached agreement on a deal to open Japan's $400 billion insurance market to increased international competition. The agreement - struck by acting US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and Japanese Finance Minister Hiroshi Mitsuzuka - deregulates the country's life-, casualty-, and property-insurance markets. The US had objected to an earlier insurance accord on grounds that only Japanese underwriters were benefitting from the way it was being implemented.

An estimated 1,200 refugees an hour were crossing the border from Tanzania into Rwanda, aid workers said. The Rwandans were ordered home by the Tanzanian government, and troops were assigned to ensure that they kept moving toward the border. Meanwhile, African presidents and prime ministers, led by South Africa's Nelson Mandela, were to meet in Nairobi today to discuss the widening refugee crisis in the region.

The Hamas Islamic movement in Gaza pledged a less confrontational approach to Israel, despite the stated positions of its leadership in exile. Officials said the new program advocates peaceful opposition to peace deals. Hamas has been linked to suicide bombings aimed at wrecking such agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

A mock election in Hong Kong repudiated last week's choice of Tung Chee Hwa as postcolonial leader. Almost 115,000 people signed a petition in favor of veteran Democratic Party politician Szeto Wah for the post. A party spokesman said the selection of Tung was undemocratic because it came from a committee handpicked by the Chinese government in Beijing.

A video made in North Korea last week shows soldiers clearing rocks and sand from rice fields damaged earlier this year by flooding in an urgent search for edible food. Missionary Kathi Zellweger of the relief agency Caritas said her footage indicates that the country's famine has reached "desperate" proportions.

Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin won passage of his 1997 budget from the country's opposition-dominated parliament. But to gain approval for his spending plan, Chernomyrdin had to pledge new subsidies despite a reported $8.4 billion in already unpaid wages. The document projects a two percent growth in the economy next year, which would be the country's first since economic reforms began in 1992.

Mortar shells fell on a crowded market in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing at least 42 people and wounding more than a hundred others. The attack followed some of the fiercest factional fighting in the divided capital in months. Somalia has had no functioning central government since 1991.

Under heavy military guard, voters in Gabon went to the polls to choose a new parliament. In the capital, Libreville, security forces caused long delays by refusing to release voting materials until they had orders to do so. The election was part of a deal negotiated in Paris to end political violence stemming from the disputed 1993 reelection of President Omar Bongo.

ETCETERAS

''No child should be trapped in the limbo of foster care, particularly when there are families with open arms, waiting."

-- President Clinton, announcing his administration's plans to help in doubling the annual US adoption rate.

If you can't find the hottest children's Christmas item - the $30 Tickle Me, Elmo doll - in the stores, try the charity auctions. Of course, that could cost you a bit more. Radio station KYGO in Denver raised $7,100 and WRMF in West Palm Beach, Fla, $3,500 when each put one of the dolls up for bids.

The only truly French restaurant in Paris is closing its doors. L'Auberge owners Michelle and Daniel Sineau had a devoted clientele. But they're retiring and haven't been able to find a buyer. L'Auberge, by the way, is a former Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise - in Paris, Ill.

When Doris Willis didn't return from an errand last week, family members reported her missing. Little did they know that the Tacoma, Wash., resident was in perhaps the safest place in town. She had been checking her deposit box at a Washington Mutual Bank branch and was inadvertently locked inside the vault for the night. No hard feelings, though. She'll keep her account there, and the bank plans to pay for a family reunion as an apology.

THE DAY'S LIST

Cities That Are Getting Tough With the Homeless

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty in Washington says a growing number of cities now ban panhandling and sleeping in public places. Those with citywide restrictions:

No-begging ordinances

Buffalo, N.Y.

Fort Worth, Texas

Jacksonville, Fl.

Miami

Milwaukee

Minneapolis

Oklahoma City

San Francisco

Toledo, Ohio

Virginia Beach, Va.

Sleeping bans

Boston

Dallas

Jacksonville

Miami

New Orleans

Virginia Beach

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