News Digest June 27-July 3

By Ginia Bellafante, Tom Curry, Christopher John Farley, Richard Lacayo, Alexandra Lange, Michael D. Lemonick, Michael Quinn, Sidney Urquhart

NATION

Attack on Iraq

President Clinton's June 26 cruise-missile attack on Baghdad briefly boosted his popularity at home, but the effect soon faded, and a Washington Post survey last week showed that he has the highest disapproval rating of any post-World War II President at this point in his first term. And while U.S. officials (and Clinton most emphatically) claimed that the strike crippled Saddam Hussein's intelligence capabilities, three of the missiles went astray, killing eight innocent Iraqi civilians and wounding a dozen more.

The Sheik Is Taken

After a 20-hour standoff, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the radical Muslim cleric who federal authorities believe is connected to terrorists, left a mosque in Brooklyn, New York, and surrendered peaceably to immigration authorities. The Justice Department decided to detain Abdel Rahman after he tried to elude surveillance by federal agents.

House Votes No on Abortion

In an unexpected setback for pro-abortion-rights forces in Congress, the House voted 255 to 178 to maintain the Hyde amendment -- the 16-year-old ban on Medicaid funding of abortions for poor women, except when the mother's life is jeopardized and in cases of rape or incest. The Senate could still revise the language.

Racial Redistricting

In a 5-to-4 ruling that seriously challenges the common practice of drawing black-majority congressional districts as a means to implement the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court said the creation of one such district in North Carolina may have violated the constitutional rights of white voters.

White House Travel Mess

In a highly self-critical report on its bungled travel-office shake-up, the White House pointed the finger at itself for improperly dismissing seven staffers. Four Clinton staff members were publicly reprimanded, though none was fired.

A Compromise on Logging

No one was satisfied when President Clinton approved a plan to reduce logging by nearly two-thirds on federal lands -- and put habitats of the spotted owl off limits -- while providing more than $1 billion to retrain loggers and help tide over their communities. The timber industry attacked the compromise, saying it would devastate struggling businesses. And environmentalists complained it would permit cutting across large areas.

Atomic Tests Canceled

Choosing to avoid a fight with Democrats in Congress, the Clinton Administration scrapped a plan to conduct nine underground nuclear tests, extending its moratorium through September 1994 unless another nation starts testing first. The Pentagon and the State Department say a few tests are needed to ensure the safety of the U.S. arsenal.

AIDS Commission Wraps Up

The National Commission on AIDS completed four years of work with a bitter report charging that prejudice and political inertia have prevented the nation from making an adequate response to the epidemic. "I think a lot of people in America don't believe the roof is about to cave in on them," said one member.

Mississippi Flooding

Not in a generation has the upper Mississippi River flooded as badly as it did last week, destroying crops and bringing river traffic to a halt along a 500- mile stretch from St. Paul, Minnesota, to St. Louis, Missouri. With the water cresting more than 7 ft. above flood level in some places, the Governors of Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois sought federal disaster aid.

A Ruling on Baby Jessica

The Michigan Supreme Court overruled a lower court and gave a Michigan couple, Jan and Roberta DeBoer, until Aug. 2 to return Baby Jessica, the two-year-old girl they adopted at birth, to her biological parents, Daniel and Cara Schmidt, in Iowa. When Cara Schmidt, then a single mother, gave up the child in 1991, she knowingly named the wrong man as the father on adoption papers. After changing her mind about the adoption, she informed the real father and married him.

Ivan the Terrible?

U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Wiseman Jr. ruled that the U.S. government -- unintentionally -- withheld evidence that cast "substantial doubt" on whether John Demjanjuk, the retired autoworker who was extradited to Israel and sentenced to death, was once "Ivan the Terrible," a guard who executed Jews at Treblinka. But the court upheld his extradition anyway, saying there was good evidence he had indeed served at a Nazi SS training facility.

WORLD

A Plan for Haiti

After some 11th-hour diplomatic pressure, deposed Haitian President Jean- Bertrand Aristide, in New York City, said he would sign a U.N.-brokered plan to restore him to power. Haiti's military leader, Lieut. General Raoul Cedras, who participated in the coup that ousted Aristide in 1991, had accepted the plan earlier.

Somalia Ambushes

In a bloody replay of the June 5 attacks that killed 24 peacekeepers, Somali militiamen loyal to General Mohammed Farrah Aidid ambushed a U.N. search party on Friday, killing at least three Italian soldiers and wounding 21. Earlier in the week two Pakistanis were killed and two Americans and two Pakistanis wounded in encounters with Aidid's men.

Receding Concern for Bosnia

Citing a steep drop in donations and the ongoing problem of protecting convoys, the U.N.'s largest refugee-relief agency will halve its food distribution in Bosnia for the rest of the summer. In New York City, the Security Council defeated a resolution supported only by the U.S. and five nonaligned nations that would have lifted the arms embargo that hobbles the Bosnian Muslims. "The world community has abandoned all its principles, all its obligations," said a Bosnian official.

Middle East Talks

In an effort to accelerate the torpid pace of the Middle East peace talks, which have just concluded a 10th round, the U.S. has agreed to send a high- level State Department delegation to the area, perhaps to be followed by a visit by Secretary of State Warren Christopher later this year.

Nigeria's Military Protest

At least 30 army officers with the rank of colonel or above are asking for early retirement to protest the decision of General Ibrahim Babangida, the country's dictator, to annul the June 12 elections.

Chinese Greenspan Axed

What do you do when your banking system is overwhelmed by capitalist symptoms like cash shortages, a depreciating currency and rampant credit expansion? You blame your top banker. The designated scapegoat is Li Guixian, governor of the People's Bank of China. He will be replaced -- temporarily -- by Vice Premier Zhu Rongji, the man in charge of China's economy.

BUSINESS

Trouble for NAFTA

In a ruling that may kill chances for congressional passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S. District Judge Charles Richey ruled that the accord cannot be submitted to Congress until the government prepares an environmental impact statement on such matters as whether increased manufacturing on the U.S. border with Mexico might lead to increased pollution. The delay will give opponents more time to organize and push the controversial vote into a congressional election year. "My fear is that NAFTA is finished unless this ruling is overturned," fretted Missouri Senator John Danforth.

Another Day, Another Downer

Once again, it was a week of discouraging economic reports. The index of leading economic indicators fell 0.3% in May. In the same month new-home sales plunged to a 12-month low, despite the best mortgage rates in two decades. One possible reason: the index of consumer confidence sank to its gloomiest reading in eight months. Firms remained wary of hiring: only 13,000 net new jobs were added to payrolls in June, as the unemployment rate nosed up to 7%.

Denny's and Blacks

Faced with five suits charging Denny's with racial discrimination against black customers, the restaurant chain signed a sweeping agreement with the N.A.A.C.P. to increase by one-third the number of Denny's franchises owned by minorities and to increase purchases from minority suppliers.

German Greenspan Listens

The day after President Clinton publicly urged it to do so, Germany's Bundesbank cut key interest rates. That could help stimulate the inert German economy, a U.S. aim.

SCIENCE

Life Imitates Fiction

The fanciful premise of Jurassic Park -- that DNA could be recovered from fossils and cloned to create live dinosaurs -- has already turned into partial truth. Jack Horner, the paleontologist who advised Steven Spielberg on the movie, thinks he has found red blood cells in a chunk of Tyrannosaurus bone, and extractable DNA might be inside them. The cloning part is still fantasy, but the DNA could be used to test the theory that dinosaurs and birds are closely related.

MEDIA & THE ARTS

TV Violence

Under pressure from Congress, which had threatened to impose a ratings system like the one used for films, all four television networks agreed that this fall they will begin broadcasting a parental advisory before and during programs that contain unusual violence. The networks will decide what's unusual.

FCC Backs Murdoch

In its first waiver ever of a rule forbidding ownership of a newspaper and a TV station in the same market, the Federal Communications Commission gave Rupert Murdoch permission to buy New York City's Post even though he owns the city's Fox TV affiliate. Murdoch had threatened to shut down the tabloid paper, which he has been running provisionally for months.