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In Florida, Paul Hill became the first person to be tried and found guilty under the new federal law protecting access to abortion clinics. Hill, who, witnesses say, shot and killed a doctor and his bodyguard outside a Pensacola clinic, could get a life sentence on this conviction; he also faces state capital-murder charges. Meanwhile, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a man picking up his wife from an abortion clinic was charged with attempted murder after allegedly scuffling with and firing a shot at an antiabortion demonstrator. The protester was unhurt.
America, the Poorer
The Census Bureau released a report showing that the number of Americans living under the poverty line last year -- defined as an income of $14,763 for a family of four -- climbed to more than 39 million, or 15% of the nation's population. Worse, median income continued to decline, while the inequality between high- and low-income families increased. Labor Secretary Robert Reich openly showed concern that the U.S. was in danger of becoming a "two-tiered society." There was a smidgen of good news at week's end: new figures showed an unemployment rate of 5.9% -- the lowest in four years.
The Simpson Case
Once again, O.J. Simpson's defense attorneys spent much of the week challenging the admissibility of key evidence seized by police, this time from Simpson's Ford Bronco. And once again, Judge Lance Ito ruled in favor of the prosecution. The judge also continued his attack on the press, scheduling a November hearing to determine whether or not to pull the plug on television cameras in the courtroom.
WORLD
Iraq: Deja Vu All Over Again?
Massed troops in southern Iraq fueled speculation that Saddam Hussein was preparing to reinvade Kuwait. The U.S. responded swiftly, ordering 4,000 Army troops from Georgia to Kuwait and dispatching the aircraft carrier George Washington to the Persian Gulf region. In London the British Defense Ministry announced that it was sending an extra frigate to patrol the waters off Kuwait. But the Baghdad government defended Iraq's right to move troops within its own borders, and there were no signs of panic in Kuwait.
Doomsday Cult
The charred bodies of 48 men, women and children -- members of a secretive religious sect known as the Order of the Solar Temple -- were discovered in two Swiss villages, a tragedy that included apparent suicides and what local authorities described as "collective murder" made to appear as mass suicide. In a fire-damaged farmhouse in Cheiry, a village north of Geneva, police discovered 23 dead men and women wearing ceremonial vestments. Fifty miles away, in Granges-sur-Salvan, investigators found 25 additional bodies in three burned-out chalets. Many had bullet wounds indicative of point-blank execution. Almost simultaneously, Canadian authorities reported the death of five more suspected cult members near Montreal. Police are searching for the cult's two leaders, Luc Jouret, a Belgian homeopath who emigrated to Switzerland via Canada, and Joseph di Mambro, a French Canadian.
Haiti: Preparing for Aristide