News Digest September 19-27

By Christopher John Farley, Michael D. Lemonick, Erik Meers, Michael Quinn, Alain Sanders, Sophfronia Scott Gregory, Sidney Urquhart

NATION

Health Care: Taking It Public

President Clinton made a passionate appeal to a joint session of Congress last week as he laid the groundwork for rebuilding the nation's health-care system and guaranteeing coverage for every American. The President finessed the financing details but did say his plan would be funded in part by increased cigarette taxes and a surtax paid by self-insuring companies. Days earlier, Senator Daniel Moynihan, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, had labeled the Administration's hope of financing the plan mainly by means of Medicare and Medicaid cuts "a fantasy."

Death on the Rails

Amtrak's coast-to-coast Sunset Limited derailed last week while crossing a damaged bridge near Mobile, Alabama. The accident sent the engine and several cars hurtling into the Bayou Canot, trapping passengers in the water and an ensuing fire. Forty-seven died -- nearly equaling all the other deaths in Amtrak's 23-year history. The apparent cause: a barge struck the bridge minutes before the train came across.

Gephardt on NAFTA: No Go

Though he agreed to keep quiet two weeks ago when a trio of former Presidents declared their support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt was loud and clear last week when he announced his intention to vote against the pact. But NAFTA got a boost when a federal appeals court in Washington ruled that the White House could submit the pact to Congress without an environmental-impact statement, which might have taken a year to prepare.

Shali on Bosnia: Go

At his Senate confirmation hearings last week, General John Shalikashvili, nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave strong support for sending 50,000 American troops to help enforce a hypothetical Bosnian peace agreement -- a mission he estimated would cost $4 billion in the first year. The next day, Senate Armed Services chairman and chronic Clinton second- guesser Sam Nunn was skeptical, saying the Administration needed to establish specifically "what our goals are" in Bosnia and "how we get out if the parties begin fighting again."

A Military in Contempt?

U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter Jr., sitting in Los Angeles, wants to know why the Navy's ban on homosexuals is still in place eight months after he declared it unconstitutional. He has instructed Defense Secretary Les Aspin, along with the Secretary of the Navy and the commanding officer of a Bay Area naval air station, to explain themselves in a court hearing this week or be held in contempt.

Another Tailhook Pilot Flies

In heterocentric litigation, meanwhile, the Navy withdrew all charges against a pilot in one of the 120 sexual-harassment cases stemming from the infamous Tailhook Association convention two years ago. Prosecutors abandoned the case against Lieut. Cole Cowden after determining there wasn't sufficient evidence to go to court. The Navy has now dropped half of the Tailhook cases.

More Mister Moms

According to a report by the Population Reference Bureau, 1 in 5 preschoolers - now has a father as primary care giver, up from the 15% figure that was constant from 1965 until the late 1980s. One reason is that more fathers are working part time.

The Return of John Demjanjuk

Freed by Israel's highest court, retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk flew back to the U.S. seven years after his deportation. Angry groups, many including Holocaust survivors who still believe he is the death-camp guard "Ivan the Terrible," protested outside the Demjanjuk home in Cleveland. "He's not going to have a day of inner peace within himself," vowed demonstration leader Rabbi Avi Weiss.

WORLD

Whose Russia Is It, Anyway?

After 18 months of stalemate with his parliamentary opposition over economic reform and political power, Russian President Boris Yeltsin threw the game board into the air last week, dissolving parliament and calling for June presidential elections -- and December elections for a new parliament. An anti-Yeltsin majority refused to disband and named as acting President Vice President Alexander Rutskoi, a onetime Yeltsin supporter who is now an implacable antagonist. When the army, the Interior Ministry and the Clinton Administration pledged support for Yeltsin, at least 100 lawmakers barricaded themselves in the White House, Russia's parliament building -- the same place where Yeltsin stood firm two years ago in the face of an attempted coup by hard-liners. With hundreds of riot police ringing the building, Yeltsin confidently predicted that the holdouts were "on their last gasp."

Georgia Civil War

Rebels in the former Soviet Georgia have begun firing on civilian airliners as they enter and leave Sukhumi, capital of the breakaway Abkhazia region on the Black Sea. Two were shot out of the sky. A third was destroyed on an airport runway as refugees tried to board. Total deaths: 126 civilians. At week's end, the rebels had reached the city's center as civilians fled by sea.

Plus Ca Change in Poland

In the old days they were known as Communists, but the party that won Poland's parliamentary elections with more than 20% of the vote now goes by the more politically correct label "Democratic Left Alliance." The voters, fed up with the hardships of economic reform, gave second place to the formerly pro- Communist Polish Peasant Party, with 15%. The Alliance says it will continue the free-market reforms, but with "a human face."

South Africa's Walls Fall

In a move that gave blacks their first say in the nation's government, the South African Parliament approved the creation of a transitional executive council, to be composed of representatives from nearly all black and white parties, which will oversee the government until the first ever universal vote next April. That prompted African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, speaking at the U.N. one day later, to call for the lifting of all remaining economic sanctions against his country.

Copter Downed in Somalia

Three American soldiers died and two were injured when gunmen shot down a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter patrolling Mogadishu. It was the first successful attempt to bring down a helicopter since the multinational mission in Somalia began 10 months ago.

Knesset Okays Peace Pact

After three days of debate that was emotional even by the standards of Israeli politics, the parliament approved the Israel-P.L.O. peace accord by the comfortable spread of 61 to 50. That was made possible by eight abstentions -- including three opposition members who openly defied their own hard-line Likud Party, which is against the agreement.

BUSINESS

Passionate for Paramount

First came Viacom, owner of MTV and Nickelodeon, with an $8 billion offer for Paramount Communications. Then Hollywood executive turned home-shopping mogul Barry Diller offered Paramount stockholders $2 billion more. At week's end, Viacom was seeking a federal court order to block Diller and his partner, ubiquitous cable-TV mogul John Malone, from going forward with their deal.

Taking Over Travelers

In last week's other merger in the making, the financial-services company Primerica agreed to acquire a venerable insurance firm, the Travelers Corp., for $4.2 billion. The new giant, to be called the Travelers, will offer stock brokerage and consumer loans as well as insurance.

Slow Growth Gets Slower

With the U.S. economy wobbling, and Japan and Germany both in recession, the International Monetary Fund estimated that 1993 world economic growth will be just 1.1% -- way down from its May estimate of 1.7%.

SCIENCE

Making Food Safer

The government would have broader powers to remove dangerous pesticides from the marketplace under a law proposed by the EPA, the FDA and the Agriculture Department. In place of the current cost-benefit decision making, which emphasizes economic harm to food producers, the focus would shift to toxins' health perils for consumers.

Cosmic Mystery Solved?

Astronomers have found the first direct evidence of machos, or massive compact halo objects. A macho is a large planet or a small dim star, one of trillions that may be orbiting at the fringes of the Milky Way. What the astronomers actually noticed was the temporary brightening of a star in a nearby galaxy, apparently caused by a macho passing in front of it.

MEDIA & THE ARTS

N.E.A. Gets a B'way Trouper

It took just one hour for a star-struck Senate committee to approve the nomination of actress Jane Alexander as the new head of the National Endowment for the Arts. The Tony Award winner promised to listen to "the voices of those who are disturbed by art and the voices of the creative community."

A Treasure Repatriated

After more than two decades of diplomatic and legal wrangling over the acquisition of the 2,500-year-old antiquities, New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art revealed that it would return to the Turkish government the "Lydian Hoard," a fabulous collection of gold and silver objects that probably belonged to King Croesus, the metaphor-inspiring richest man of his time. Many had been stolen from tombs in Turkey shortly before the museum acquired them in the 1960s.

Prize on the Run

Author Salman Rushdie, under an Iranian Islamic death threat since 1989 for his "blasphemous" novel The Satanic Verses, received Britain's grandest literary award. Rushdie's 1981 novel, Midnight's Children, took the 25th anniversary "Booker of Booker" prize as the best of all previous winners.