That was then

After lambasting the Bush administration as too soft on China, President Bill Clinton on May 20 announced plans to unconditionally renew that regime's Most Favored Nation trade status. The decision also came despite ongoing arguments over intellectual property-rights infringements by China against American products. Meanwhile, a World Council of Churches report on May 22 noted that Christianity is growing "at breathtaking speed" in China, citing estimates of at least 10 million baptized Christians in the country.

Better late than never

Russian president Boris Yeltsin got two boosts in his efforts to seek re-election on June 16. On May 27 Mr. Yeltsin announced a major breakthrough in personal talks with Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, leading to a June 1 halt in fighting in Chechnya; Mr. Yeltsin called it "a historic moment" and was greeted days later during a personal visit to Chechnya with banners praising him. On May 23, Mr. Yeltsin received the endorsement of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who made the announcement in a Milwaukee, Wis., speech.

Israel, love it or leave it

With Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres's lead shrinking over conservative Benjamin Netanyahu, the two men debated on May 26 and Mr. Netanyahu gained an edge, prompting Leah Rabin, widow of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, to say three days later on Israeli television, "All I can do is look at where I keep my suitcases and feel like packing them and disappearing from here very quickly." Mrs. Rabin blames Mr. Netanyahu's hard-line rhetoric for encouraging animosity leading to her husband's assassination. Early ballot counts announced May 30 had Mr. Netanyahu leading Mr. Peres with 50.3 percent of the vote to 49.6 percent, leaving the vote to be decided by 100,000 absentee ballots of soldiers and other citizens yet to be tallied.

Me-tooism

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton revealed in an interview with Time magazine her desire for another child, and said that adoption was the first couple's most likely choice. Meanwhile, GOP officials pointed out the only adoption going on at the White House was the president's adoption of Republican campaign themes. The weekend before GOP candidate Bob Dole was slated to appear in Wisconsin to praise that state's welfare-reform effort, and just before congressional Republicans May 22 rolled out their new federal welfare bill, President Clinton, in a Saturday radio address, endorsed the Wisconsin concept. In Wisconsin May 21, Mr. Dole pointed out the president had vetoed two Republican welfare-reform bills: "We don't need four more years of broken promises." Days after Mr. Dole spoke favorably of local curfews in a law-and-order campaign speech, Mr. Clinton appeared May 30 before black church officials meeting in Louisiana and declared his support for curfews. Meanwhile, the church leaders, at the Women's International Conference of the Church of God in Christ, issued a statement praising the president for mustering the "moral courage" to support Republican legislation giving states the right to refuse recognition of another state's sanctioned homosexual "marriages." White House spokesman Mike McCurry said May 22 the president would sign the GOP legislation-the Defense of Marriage Act-if Congress sent it to him. Homosexual groups supportive of the president were divided, but the head of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund said he did not "expect [Mr. Clinton] to risk his presidency by vetoing" the bill. On May 30, a House subcommittee approved the legislation.

Up and down

Congress took a short break from active duty for the Memorial Day holiday, but not before voting to increase the minimum wage and cut the gasoline tax. After two days of debate, House Republicans May 23 bucked their leadership and gave Democrats a 281-144 victory to raise the minimum wage 90¢ per hour over two years. During the rancorous House session, members staved off Republican amendments to cushion the job losses the federally mandated wage hike likely will cause. Two days earlier, the House voted 301-108 to repeal President Clinton's 1993 gasoline tax hike. On the same day, the Energy Department forecast a 6¢ drop in average gasoline prices by July 4, due to announced Iraqi oil sales. Iraq on May 20 signed a food-for-oil deal with the United Nations in which Iraq will sell $2 billion in oil for food to aid its civilian population of 20 million. For six years Iraq has not been able to sell any oil worldwide. Also in Congress, the House Judiciary Committee wrapped up hearings into the rash of fires at black churches across the country. Testimony from black members of Congress before the panel May 21 centered on the alleged disparity of federal law enforcement resources. Congressmen pointed to the 100 FBI agents manning the long siege of the Freemen in Montana and the lack of comparable manpower to solve the string of likely arsons across the Southeast. On May 23, the committee chairman introduced legislation giving the government more power to track down and prosecute church arsonists.

Code blue

A new poll issued May 23 by the New England Journal of Medicine said that one in five critical-care nurses has helped a terminally ill patient die upon request by the patient or a family member. The revelation shocked the heads of the American Nurses Association and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, who called the study flawed.

Total depravity

Forty-six percent of Michigan fifth-graders and 55 percent of the state's eighth-graders have engaged in sex, according to a new survey released May 20 by a University of Michigan team of researchers. Results of the 228 students polled show sex is far more common among both age groups than alcohol or drug use. Study leader Cornelia P. Porter said the high rates of intercourse could likely be attributed in part to television exposure. "When I think of how much sexual behavior children see on television, I am not surprised [at the results]," she said. No surprises in West Hollywood, Calif., where the city council May 20 unanimously approved a law recognizing same-sex couples registered in other cities. The law is a national first. On May 24 in Los Angeles, a lesbian girl won the right to take her companion to her high school prom when her school caved in to legal threats. In Illinois and Michigan officials launched a preemptive strike against homosexual activists' legal threats. Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar on May 24 approved a measure making state law clearly prohibitive of same-sex marriage. In Michigan, the state Senate May 23 approved similar legislation.

Three for three

The Whitewater issue in Washington went from simmer to rolling boil May 28, when a Little Rock jury convicted President Clinton's friends and former business partners (l to r) James and Susan McDougal and current Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker on multiple felony counts, 24 in all, relating to fraudulently obtained loans. Mr. Clinton was the star witness for the defendants in the case; after the verdict, the president expressed sorrow for his felon friends, but challenged reporters to ask jurors whether they believed his testimony. Most of them heaped praise on Mr. Clinton's "credibility" in the trial and White House damage-control aides used their statements to great effect to spin media coverage. One juror's statement left out of press packets distributed to reporters was that of Janice Greer; she said, "I think he and his wife had just as much to do with it." Shortly after the Tuesday afternoon verdicts, Gov. Tucker announced his resignation from office to pursue his appeals full-time. Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister and leading Republican candidate to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat David Pryor, will take over the governor's mansion for the remaining 2-1/2 years of Mr. Tucker's term. Two days later, May 30, Mr. Huckabee announced he was abandoning the Senate bid: "This is no time for the captain to jump ship to another boat." In Washington, meanwhile, White House officials jumped ship on the issue of executive privilege in withholding Travelgate-related documents from Congress. On the day Congress was poised to vote contempt citations against three current and former White House aides for keeping evidence away from congressional investigators, officials turned over 1,000 pages of documents. The three aides-White House counsel Jack Quinn and ex-aides David Watkins and Matthew Moore-would have faced fines of up to $1,000 and jail time of up to one year. The May 30 contempt vote was delayed while the documents were being reviewed.

A speedy trial

After 10 years of marriage, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, officially were divorced on May 30 with no court hearing-allowable since the couple had been separated for two years.

Viva la difference

Bob Dole struggled mightily to emphasize the contrasts between his record and President Clinton's. In Philadelphia May 23, Mr. Dole blasted the president for pushing "the limits of decency too far" in vetoing legislation barring partial-birth abortions. On the campaign plane home, however, Mr. Dole muddled his message by complaining that abortion is too much a preoccupation with the press, telling reporters: "If war were declared tonight and I went on a talk show, the first question would be about abortion." The issue intensified in Mr. Dole's home state May 24, when Kansas Gov. Bill Graves appointed his pro-abortion lieutenant governor, Sheila Frahm, to fill Mr. Dole's Senate seat. She faces a primary challenge Aug. 6 from staunch pro-life freshman congressman Sam Brownback. Mr. Dole used Memorial Day activities to raise the military issue against Mr. Clinton. Leading up to that day to honor fallen war heroes, veterans' groups and House Republicans May 22 criticized a legal argument made by the president that his role as commander-in-chief should immunize him from a sexual harassment lawsuit because active-duty members of the military are similarly shielded. The Republican Party produced a television commercial ridiculing the argument; the commercial was never actually aired but got plenty of media attention. It showed Mr. Clinton golfing, jogging, duck hunting, and bike riding along with the caption, "Active duty?"

Twister

About 600 homes and businesses south of Louisville, Ky., were damaged or destroyed May 28 as a storm system spawned tornadoes with winds in excess of 150 mph. Police reported a few serious injuries but, surprisingly, no fatalities. The widespread damage included crumpled steel towers for high-power lines, upended tractor-trailers, and a whole row of houses with twisted garage doors and a crack in the middle of the houses. A 106-resident nursing home suffered only broken windows while across the street houses lost roofs and trees fell. Nurse Muriel Marcum said, "I'd say by the grace of God that's why we're all OK."

The last moments

The cockpit voice recorder of ValuJet Flight 592 was found May 26 and produced clues about the May 11 crash that killed 110 people. Investigators announced a fire occurred in the passenger cabin six minutes into the flight and moved into the cockpit. Under difficult weather and terrain conditions, specially clad divers had previously failed to find the recorder; a backhoe joined the effort days later. Meanwhile, federal officials announced May 23 plans to forbid airlines to transport oxygen canisters on flights.

North Korea, just leave it

A North Korean pilot flew his fighter jet across the border, defecting into South Korea and leaving behind a wife and two children. The announcement came on May 23, and it was the first such defection by a North Korean soldier in 13 years. The pilot, Li Chol-su, 30, said he could no longer live in the communist system. Just a few days later, the defector announced that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been planning a three-phase strike using about 270 planes to attack Seoul; he said hundreds of North Korean planes have been massed at the countries' borders to make war.

Easy come, easy go

Only a couple of weeks after assuming the reins of government in India for the first time ever by defeating the long-standing Congress Party, the minority Hindu Nationalist Party's first-ever Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, resigned on May 28 to avoid an inevitable parliamentary vote of no-confidence. H.D. Deve Gowda, leader of the United Front alliance-composed of leftists and centrists-was nominated to assume the presidency on June 1.

Turn out the lights

FBI agents were ready on May 30 to shut down electricity to the Montana ranch where the Freemen standoff moved into its 67th day. Generators were brought in during the week to allow agents to kill power at the ranch while continuing service to surrounding ranches. Meanwhile, a Bible scholar who was consulted during the Waco standoff attempted talks with the Freemen, who on May 28 had a rally of support staged by another minister, W.N. Ottwell of Enterprise, Texas, and a few others. After showing initial signs of hope, another futile meeting between Colorado State Sen. Charles Duke and a Freemen representative was held on May 21. On May 20, a bomb blew a two-foot-wide hole in the parking lot outside the Laredo, Texas, FBI office. A group called Organization 544 took responsibility for the explosion, but no motive was given. Federal agents on May 22 made the biggest weapons bust in U.S. history after a 16-month investigation. Two-thousand Chinese AK-47 automatic rifles were seized, weapons that are illegal in the United States.