Saudi bombing

In the most deadly attack against American interests in the Middle East in more than a decade, a truck bomb exploded June 25 at an air base in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S Air Force personnel and injuring 270. The blast left a crater 35 feet deep by 80 feet wide and tore the facade off an eight-story military residential building, leaving a structural shell eerily similar to Oklahoma City's bombed-out federal building. The attack occurred despite concerns that grew after a bomb attack on a U.S-Saudi military facility last November. The Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility June 19 for a bombing four days earlier that injured more than 200 people in Manchester, in the north of England. The organization said it was protesting the exclusion of Sinn Fein-the IRA's political wing-from talks on the future of Northern Ireland. Calling the fight against terrorism "our absolute priority," President Clinton and leaders of the world's top industrial nations agreed June 27 to set up a meeting of their top security officials. The action came on the opening day of the 22nd annual economic summit of the "G-7" nations in Lyon, France.

In case you didn't know

In the final days before the Russian presidential runoff election, incumbent Boris Yeltsin, facing a challenge from Communist Gennady Zyuganov, aired a series of TV ads reminding economically unhappy voters of the horrors of 70 years of Soviet communism. "Nobody thought ...that whole families would be executed and whole peoples destroyed," said one ad. The Yeltsin campaign was bolstered June 18 when nationalist hero Alexander Lebed, who finished third in the first round of balloting, agreed to become Mr. Yeltsin's national security chief. Said Gen. Lebed at a news conference: "I was facing two ideas-an old one that has shed lots of blood and the new one, which is being implemented very badly at the moment, but has a future. I have chosen the new idea."

Good Germans

Pope John Paul honored two anti-Nazi Catholic martyrs during his first trip to a reunified Germany, saying that "too few" Catholics had had the courage to defy the bloody reign of Adolf Hitler. While at an ecumenical prayer service in the homeland of Martin Luther, the pope also praised closer ties between Protestants and Catholics. But, according to a Reuters report, he said, "Fundamental problems about Luther's views on faith, scriptures, tradition and the church have not yet been sufficiently clarified." Luther was excommunicated by Rome in 1521 for condemning church corruption, rejecting papal authority, and preaching that salvation is by faith alone.

Washington storms

Powerful thunderstorms June 24 left 240,000 Washington-area residents temporarily without power, and a tornado touched down and damaged several homes in nearby Fairfax County, Va. No one was killed. Meanwhile, the political twister on Capitol Hill continues to kick up debris surrounding the White House personnel security office and administration officials responsible for the FBI file scandal. Additional information obtained by congressional investigators revealed that White House aides had pulled the confidential files of more than 700 Republican and Bush administration officials; early reports had put the number at just over 300. Amid a constant drumbeat of criticism, White House personnel security chief Craig Livingstone resigned June 26 under fire. Mr. Livingstone's announcement came prior to his testimony before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, in which he said he was "deeply sorry" for what he termed a "mistake." He got no sympathy from members of Congress-even Democrats. California Rep. Tom Lantos chewed out Mr. Livingstone and reminded him that former chief of naval operations Anthony Boorda, who had an "infinitely more distinguished public record than yours," killed himself over a lesser indiscretion. Attorney General Janet Reno June 20 turned over the probe of Filegate to Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who had earlier concluded he lacked the authority to look into the matter. Two days earlier she had ordered the FBI to conduct "a complete and thorough investigation," but reversed course in light of charges the executive branch lacked the ability to police itself. She agreed to seek expanded authority for Mr. Starr to investigate the non-Whitewater-related scandal.

Quid pro quo?

Kenneth Starr's legal team in Little Rock June 19 named senior White House aide Bruce Lindsey an unindicted co-conspirator in the bank fraud trial of Arkansas bankers Herby Branscum and Robert Hill. The two are on trial for allegedly conspiring to hide $30,000 in bank withdrawals from the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of Bill Clinton's 1992 gubernatorial reelection campaign; Mr. Lindsey was treasurer of the campaign and received the withdrawals. Mr. Branscum and Mr. Hill also stand accused of submitting false expense vouchers to the bank to reimburse their personal campaign contributions to retire Mr. Clinton's campaign debt. A $15,500 contribution allegedly was made by Mr. Hill during a meeting in which he asked Mr. Clinton to consider appointing colleague Mr. Branscum to the powerful Arkansas highway commission, a post the banker still holds. In Washington, the Senate Whitewater Committee June 18 filed a 768-page report sharply critical of White House officials for having "misused their public offices" to protect Mr. and Mrs. Clinton. The report is available on the World Wide Web (http://www.counsel.com). Before completing their work, members of the panel received a two-page affidavit June 17 from First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in which she disavows knowledge of her work on a 1986 Madison Savings and Loan-related real estate deal known as Castle Grande. The panel heard testimony from a former Madison officer that Mrs. Clinton, then a lawyer in Little Rock, "summarily dismissed" his concerns about whether Castle Grande transactions were improper. Federal regulators later found the deal to be a sham designed to conceal inflated real-estate commissions paid to a Madison executive.

Memory recovery

The first lady became the toast of comedians across the country when The Washington Post June 23 released excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward's new book that details Mrs. Clinton's imaginary "dialogues" with deceased former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Mohandas Gandhi. The conversations were led by New Age guru Jean Houston, who it turns out has also "advised" Republicans: Congressional Democrats June 27 released an invoice showing the Bush administration paid Ms. Houston $3,000 for a 45-minute training speech to Energy Department employees in 1992. But "Gurugate" earned Mrs. Clinton prominent headlines in USA Today two days in a row. On June 24, a first-page above-the-fold headline read, "Hillary, the spiritualists, and Eleanor ..." and was followed by a page-two story titled, "First lady's dialogues 'not seances'," quoting her spokesman's denial. A day-two story carried the headline, "First lady denies any hocus-pocus."

Supreme Court

A portion of Utah's law banning abortion after 20 weeks' gestation must be reconsidered by a lower federal court, which earlier had struck down the provision, the high court ruled 5-4 June 17. The justices also handed down a ruling hailed as advancing women's rights when it ordered the all-male Virginia Military Institute to admit women; the same day, June 24, the court agreed to delay consideration of Paula Jones's right to sue President Clinton for sexual harassment.

Before he kills again

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, recently acquitted for a third time on assisted suicide charges, helped three more people put an end to their earthly lives. All three died from inhaling carbon monoxide. After his May acquittal, the man known as "Dr. Death" vowed that nothing short of "being burned at the stake" would stop his assisted suicide crusade. Other doctors apparently want no part of that crusade. For the fourth time in two years, the nation's largest group of physicians rejected a proposal to rethink its opposition to doctor-assisted suicide. Meeting June 25 in Chicago, the American Medical Association's House of Delegates, in a virtually unanimous voice vote, turned down a resolution calling for the AMA to be neutral on the subject. "We are healers, first, last, and always," said one delegate. "We have no right to kill."

This one's for you

A California jury convicted Richard Allen Davis of the 1993 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas. Davis, who has spent most of his adult life behind bars, responded to the verdict by turning toward the courtroom camera and making an obscene gesture with each hand. New York's alleged "Zodiac killer" was charged June 21 with three counts of murder. Herbert Seda, 28, was arrested June 18 in Brooklyn after holding authorities at bay with gunfire for three hours. Police said Seda confessed to eight attacks between 1990 and 1993. .In the Unabomber case, Theodore Kaczynski pleaded not guilty June 25 to federal charges that he mailed and planted bombs that killed two people and injured two others.

Small comfort

The teen birth rate in the United States dropped for the third consecutive year, according to figures released June 24 by the National Center for Health Statistics. But the rate of 58.9 births per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19 is still higher than in the 1970s and '80s.

Loggerheads

Arab leaders held a summit of their own, days after tough-minded Benjamin Netanyahu assumed power as the newly elected prime minister of Israel. In a communique issued June 23, the leaders of 13 Arab states demanded removal of all Israeli settlements "in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the occupied Palestinian territories, especially Jerusalem." The Arab demand seems unlikely to be met. In guidelines for his new government issued June 17, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel will retain sovereignty over the Golan Heights and will not yield any control over Jerusalem. On June 27, a top Netanyahu aide met with PLO chief Yasser Arafat and asked him to help shut down terrorist groups that have attacked Israel.

Total depravity

In a case reminiscent of South Carolinian Susan Smith's 1994 drowning of her two toddler sons, a Texas woman was charged June 18 with stabbing to death her two sons, ages 6 and 5. Darlie Routier, 26, had claimed that an unidentified intruder had killed the two boys. Police say her story didn't match the evidence. In New York, a mother pleaded guilty to murder in the abuse death last November of her 6-year-old daughter. Awilda Lopez, 29, admitted that after months of physical abuse which left cuts and burns over her daughter Elisa's body, she hit the child on the head and knocked her against a concrete wall, killing her. Child welfare workers in Chicago found five children alone in an abandoned building. The mother of three of them has been charged with neglect.

Saudi bombing

In the most deadly attack against American interests in the Middle East in more than a decade, a truck bomb exploded June 25 at an air base in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S Air Force personnel and injuring 270. The blast left a crater 35 feet deep by 80 feet wide and tore the facade off an eight-story military residential building, leaving a structural shell eerily similar to Oklahoma City's bombed-out federal building. The attack occurred despite concerns that grew after a bomb attack on a U.S-Saudi military facility last November. The Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility June 19 for a bombing four days earlier that injured more than 200 people in Manchester, in the north of England. The organization said it was protesting the exclusion of Sinn Fein-the IRA's political wing-from talks on the future of Northern Ireland. Calling the fight against terrorism "our absolute priority," President Clinton and leaders of the world's top industrial nations agreed June 27 to set up a meeting of their top security officials. The action came on the opening day of the 22nd annual economic summit of the "G-7" nations in Lyon, France.

Church fires

The Senate June 26 and the House June 27 gave approval to legislation doubling federal jail time for convicted church arsonists; the bill also authorizes $10 million in government loan guarantees to help rebuild burned churches. On June 22, the House lost a veteran member, Bill Emerson, an eight-term congressman from Missouri who died of inoperable lung cancer. He was 58.

Church fires

The Senate June 26 and the House June 27 gave approval to legislation doubling federal jail time for convicted church arsonists; the bill also authorizes $10 million in government loan guarantees to help rebuild burned churches. On June 22, the House lost a veteran member, Bill Emerson, an eight-term congressman from Missouri who died of inoperable lung cancer. He was 58.

Cleared for grounding

Federal investigators, closing out their probe into the May crash of ValuJet Flight 592, said June 27 that evidence is stronger than ever that mislabeled oxygen canisters were a major factor in the on-board fire that led to the crash. None of the 144 canisters loaded in the forward cargo hold of the plane had safety caps to prevent accidental ignition. A final report on the Florida Everglades crash, which killed 110 people, is not expected until early next year. Under pressure from the Federal Aviation Administration, ValuJet agreed to suspend all flight operations effective June 18 because of what FAA administrator David Hinson called "deficiencies" and "shortcomings" in maintenance and quality control. ValuJet called the shutdown "grossly unfair" and said it hoped to be flying again by mid-July. Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo, the first to warn of safety problems at ValuJet, launched an attack on the agency's top brass. Appearing on ABC's Nightline June 24, on the eve of her testimony before a congressional panel, Ms. Schiavo called for Mr. Hinson's removal. She dubbed the FAA a "tombstone agency" because it acts only after a crash. The FAA stopped short of grounding Kiwi International Airlines, but forced the New Jersey-based airline to reduce its number of flights and its fleet size, claiming that more than ten percent of Kiwi pilots were not qualified to fly.