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Carns for the CIA President Clinton named retired Air Force General Michael Carns to head the CIA, which remains demoralized by the Aldrich Ames spy scandal. A decorated Vietnam War veteran and respected administrator, Carns was chosen in part because he is an outsider to the intelligence community. Initial reaction in Washington was positive. The Feds' Terrorism Cases In a surprise development at the terror-plot trial of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 other men in New York City, one of the key defendants in the case, Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali, changed his plea to guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. Stunned attorneys for the remaining defendants immediately asked for a mistrial, but the judge denied the request. In a separate but related development, Pakistani authorities captured one of the U.S.'s most wanted terrorist suspects, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, in Islamabad and returned him to the U.S. for trial. Prosecutors allege that Yousef was the mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, for which four other men have already been convicted. Yousef pleaded not guilty in New York City. Another Dropout Claiming he wanted to ``put our family first,'' former Vice President Dan Quayle announced he would not run for the presidency in 1996. Quayle reportedly faced bleak fund-raising prospects. The Simpson Case The prosecution moved on from the issue of O.J. Simpson's alleged spousal abuse to the actual crime of murder. Prosecutors sought to assemble a detailed chronology of the murder night with a parade of witnesses that included Mezzaluna restaurant employees and neighbors of Nicole Simpson. Also, the first police officer to arrive at the crime scene testified as to what he saw--accompanied by grisly photos. Earlier in the week, Judge Lance Ito excused one of the jurors and replaced her with an alternate because she had been treated by a doctor who is expected to testify for Simpson. Keeping the Skies Safe Hoping to improve airline safety in the wake of a series of recent crashes, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the airline industry agreed to collect and share flight-recorder data from routine flights to detect possible flaws or mistakes that might later lead to accidents. To reach the deal, the faa agreed not to use the information to punish pilots or carriers.
BUSINESS
New U.S.-China Trade Talks Anxious to avert an all-out trade war with the U.S., China agreed to resume discussions in Beijing this week on the piracy of U.S.-made goods, including movies, music and computer software. The overture, which did not mention any specific proposals, came less than a week after Washington slapped stiff tariffs on Chinese products worth more than $1 billion. The levies are due to take effect on Feb. 26.
THE ARTS & MEDIA
An Existentialist's War A long-lost notebook detailing French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre's army experiences during World War II was published in Paris. The work, titled Notebook from the Phony War, describes the renowned existentialist's boredom and exasperation with military life and contains affectionate references to ``my dear Beaver''--i.e., his mistress and close companion, the writer Simone de Beauvoir.