TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93TT0478> <title> Nov. 08, 1993: Chronicles </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993 Nov. 08, 1993 Cloning Humans </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> CHRONICLES, Page 17 THE WEEK:OCTOBER 24-30 </hdr> <body> NATION Finally--the Health Plan Five weeks after he described his health-care reforms in a nationally televised address to Congress, President Clinton delivered the ambitious, historic, universal proposal to Capitol Hill--all 1,342 pages of it. The President immediately declared himself open to compromise on almost any aspect of his package, except one: When legislation is passed, he declared, "we must have achieved comprehensive health-care security for all Americans." The Administration has pushed back the date of the plan's implementation to January 1998, and it has raised to 40% its estimate of the proportion of insured Americans who would have to pay higher insurance premiums. Packwood's Tangled Web In a bombshell speech on the Senate floor, Oregon Republican Bob Packwood declared that the ethics committee investigating him on charges of sexual misconduct should not subpoena his diaries--because that would raise serious privacy issues and because the diaries contain accounts of the amorous affairs of other members. In a blistering counterattack, the committee declared it needed the diaries to look into possible crimes unrelated to the harassment accusations. A flustered Senate considers whether to seek enforcement of the subpoena this week. California Burning Fed by gusty winds from the desert, a series of devastating fire storms--some of them suspected of having been started by arsonists--cut through the hills and canyons of Southern California, scorching more than 186,000 acres and ravaging about 700 buildings. President Clinton declared six counties disaster areas. Then the Cheering Stopped Celebrating the University of Wisconsin's first football victory over the University of Michigan in 12 years, 12,000 spectators out of a sellout 77,000 tried to pour onto the field and trampled 75 people, injuring seven critically. Said Wisconsin's security chief: "It was pent-up emotion, and it got out of control." Gays in the Military The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily limited the enforcement of a California federal judge's order banning discrimination against homosexuals in the military, while the ruling is being appealed. The action permits the Administration to put into force immediately the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy that gays find so objectionable. The Bombing Tapes The informer who helped uncover the alleged plot by radical Muslims to bomb New York City landmarks secretly recorded his conversations with the FBI. Transcripts of some of these tapes were distributed to defense lawyers, then promptly leaked to the press. The transcripts suggest that the fbi was told in advance of plans to bomb the World Trade Center. Defense lawyers hope to use the tapes to show that the government entrapped the defendants. Good News for Gun Control The Brady bill, the emotionally symbolic gun-control measure that would impose a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases, won easy approval from a House Judiciary subcommittee. The move clears the way for full committee approval, which is expected, and a vote on the House floor. Nuclear Pact with Ukraine Secretary of State Warren Christopher signed an agreement with Ukraine that will give the former Soviet republic at least $175 million to help pay for the dismantling of all its nuclear weapons. Christopher pledged an additional $155 million in economic aid, subject to congressional approval. The agreement beween Christopher and President Leonid Kravchuk must be ratified by Ukraine's parliament, a highly uncertain fate. WORLD Canadian Right Humbled In a stunning rejection of the governing Progressive Conservative Party, Canadian voters threw Prime Minister Kim Campbell from office and elected Jean Chretien as their next leader. Chretien's Liberal Party won 177 of 295 seats in the House of Commons, while the Progressive Conservatives lost 153 of their 155 seats, the worst defeat in Canadian history. Chretien quickly caused concern in Washington by declaring that he would demand changes in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Burundi Massacres Following a military coup in which Burundi's President was assassinated, tribal fighting has killed thousands. After the Oct. 21 slaying of President Melchior Ndadaye and four top aides, the army briefly seized power, but no group has taken firm control of the African country. Another Bosnian Atrocity When U.N. military officers reached the mountain village of Stupni Do, in central Bosnia, they found the bodies of more than 25 Muslims burned, machine-gunned and slashed by Croats. The discovery marked the first time during the Bosnian war that U.N. troops had reached such a site soon enough to determine exactly what had occurred. Somali Clans Battle Encouraged perhaps by the decision of the U.N. and the U.S. not to use military force to stop the fighting, rival clans waged gun battles all week in Mogadishu, killing at least 17 people. The shoot-outs among clans, the largest of which are led by General Mohammed Farrah Aidid and Mohammed Ali Mahdi, broke a seven-month cease-fire and stirred fears of a return to the civil war that raged from 1990 to 1992. Russia Allows Sale of Land President Boris Yeltsin wiped one of the last vestiges of communism from Russia's lawbooks with a decree allowing the purchase, sale, lease and exchange of land under terms that would be the freest in 70 years. Give and Take in Georgia With military help from neighboring countries, Georgian government regulars and rebel forces have each scored important victories against the other. Using Russian-supplied T-72 tanks and personnel, troops loyal to Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze drove the rebels into their last redoubt, in the western region of the republic. But with the help of reinforcements from Abkhazia, the separatists staged a powerful counteroffensive, recapturing an important town. Irish Killings--and Talks After a week of violence in Northern Ireland in which 24 people were killed, Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds invited his British counterpart, John Major, to discuss a new peace initiative. The two leaders offered terrorist groups a chance to participate in negotiations if they renounce violence. Parfum Methode Champenoise Celebrating athletes may shower it on themselves in victory, but Champagne is meant to be drunk, not worn, a French court ruled. Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who introduced his newest scent, Champagne, to Europe on Sept. 20, has no right to use the name of the wine in France and must pay the three champagne producers who filed suit a total of $8,600. BUSINESS Viacom Edge on Paramount Viacom raised its offer to $10 billion in its friendly attempt to merge with Paramount Communications and gained an advantage over rival QVC by making its tender two days ahead of QVC's $10.1 billion offer. Meanwhile, Paramount announced that it would join Chris-Craft Industries to launch a fifth national television network in January 1995. Motorola Chief to Kodak Photographic giant Eastman Kodak successfully wooed George Fisher, chairman of high-tech electronics firm Motorola, to become its new chairman and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Fisher had brilliantly positioned Motorola to compete in the new world of communications, and his move shocked the company's board and employees. Troubled Volkswagen In an effort to avoid laying off even more workers, Volkswagen's management board proposed a four-day workweek for its 108,000 workers at six western German factories--and a wage cut of 16% to 20%. Japan Opens a Market Under a U.S. threat to impose trade sanctions, Japan agreed to make its government-contract construction market more open to foreign firms by adopting a competitive bidding system and promising to crack down on corruption in the industry. In response, the U.S. postponed the deadline for proposed sanctions from Nov. 1 to Jan. 20. Looking Up The economy picked up during the summer, expanding at a 2.8% annual rate despite floods and droughts that cut agricultural output, the Commerce Department announced. Inflation sank to a 1.8% annual rate, the lowest since 1986. On the strength of that news and of strong corporate-earnings reports, the Dow Jones industrial average hit two record highs and briefly crossed the 3700 barrier. SCIENCE Human Embryos Cloned Researchers reported that for the first time they had cloned human embryos from single cells. Because the scientists worked with eggs that had been fertilized by more than one sperm, the duplicate embryos stopped developing after a week. The Dinosaurs' Last Gasp After analyzing ancient gas bubbles trapped in amber, geologists have identified a new culprit for the disappearance of the dinosaurs: bad air. The theorists calculate that the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere fell from 35% to 28% over the course of 500,000 years and suggest that the dinosaurs' respiratory systems were unable to adapt to the change. THE ARTS & MEDIA Words of Inspiration British poet Stephen Spender, 84, sued to block the publication of American writer David Leavitt's new novel, While England Sleeps, in Britain. Spender maintains that Leavitt, 32, based his work too closely on events described in Spender's 1948 autobiography, World Within World. Leonardo da Schnabel In an unlikely marriage of art aristocracy and trendiness, one of the world's oldest and richest dealers in Old Masters and Impressionists, Wildenstein & Co., paid an undisclosed amount for 49% of Pace Gallery, a leader in contemporary art. The combined business will be the world's largest art dealership. -- By Ginia Bellafante, Christine Gorman, Michael Quinn, Jeffery Rubin, Alain L. Sanders, Sidney Urquhart Clintonism: Trick or Treat? By MICHAEL DUFFY, in Washington Hillary Clinton may have suspected a ruse when aides hurried her out of the White House up to a conference on Capitol Hill last Tuesday afternoon only to find the room completely empty. Arriving back home minutes later, she received further evidence that something was afoot when her husband, dressed as James Madison, urged her into a costume suitable for Dolley. It was, after all, Mrs. Clinton's birthday. The night before he formally unveiled his health-care reform plan, the President pulled off what looked to some like the second biggest initiative of his presidency: a surprise party for his wife. Just when the Clinton White House seemed set to return to its truest, all-work-and-no-play self, more than 150 people waited in the dark as the perhaps not totally unprepared Mrs. Clinton descended the main staircase. Meeting her was a line of staff members dressed as Hillarys of one sort or another: Hillary at Wellesley, Hillary the lawyer, Hillary on her wedding day, Hillary on a bad-hair day, Hillary at the Inaugural. Every costume told a story. David Gergen disguised himself as Richard Nixon, his hands rising in the famous V-for-victory gesture. The much feared adviser and friend Susan Thomases was a Pilgrim. Affable communications director Mark Gearan became a gorilla, while mild-mannered personnel chief Bruce Lindsey wore a nun's habit. Pirate George Stephanopoulos huddled with media whiz Mandy Grunwald, who looked for all the world like a health security card. White House decorator Kaki Hockersmith, Scarlett O'Hara, had her dress made from fabric matching the curtains in the Lincoln Bedroom. For his costume, power lawyer Vernon Jordan adopted the uniform of power forward Michael Jordan; he could be seen talking to a helmeted Hope High School Bobcats quarterback who distinctly resembled Mack McLarty. Sandy Berger, the deputy National Security Adviser, turned up as Yasser Arafat, his wife as Yitzhak Rabin. Arkansas pals Diane and Jim Blair pretended to be James Carville and Mary Matalin. Webb Hubbell and his wife came as the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, and one guest, dressed as Lincoln, passed out little cards that read, "They have a nice bedroom in this house." Gladys Knight, the real Gladys Knight, sang Happy Birthday to the First Lady, and a three-person band from Memphis played jazz, blues and Motown in the East Room until well past midnight. Everyone danced. When one of the first on the floor turned out to be Hillary's mom, Dorothy Rodham (dressed as a mother superior), Dolley Madison exclaimed in mock horror, "That's my mother!" The Blue, Red and Green rooms were dark and forbidding, what with the stuffed ghosts and goblins guarding the French doors on Louis XIV chairs. As one servant who started with L.B.J. put it, "I've never seen anything like it." HEALTH REPORT THE GOOD NEWS -- Flu shots really are worth the fuss and bother. A three-year study of people ages 45 and older who live in the Canadian province of Manitoba found that without the vaccine, the number of hospital admissions for influenza and pneumonia would have been 40% higher. -- Ever since the AIDS virus was first isolated in 1983, scientists have been trying to determine which receptor on the surface of healthy immune cells is used by the virus to infect the cells. By blocking the receptor, researchers might be able to prevent the illness from taking hold. One such receptor, called CD4, has already been identified, and now biologists in France have reported evidence suggesting that they have found a second, CD26, which the virus must use in conjunction with the first. THE BAD NEWS -- Even though the Marlboro man has been off the air for years, more characters on television are smoking than ever before. According to a study of 158 prime-time comedies and dramas, nearly a fourth of the programs featured smoking, ashtrays or smoke-filled rooms. Public health officials fear that impressionable young viewers may emulate their video heroes' nicotine habits. -- Environmental and medical groups charge that federal air-pollution laws do not take into account the fact that children are more susceptible to air pollution than adults. Explanation: children spend more time out of doors, absorb more pollutants into their small bodies, and have more trouble expelling foreign particles from their less-developed lungs. Better Steve McQueen Than James Darren in Gidget The fashion world's newest paragon of cool seems to be Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair "Whoever's doing what they want is cool."--Sofia Coppola, actress, fashion-world hanger-on "I'm Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair."--Paul Cavaco, fashion director at Harper's Bazaar, explaining his haircut "Whether playing a high-class crook in The Thomas Crowm Affair or tooling around on a dirt bike, the cool-as-crushed-ice (Steve McQueen) knew how to wear clothes."--GQ, introduction to a story on McQueen-inspired attire CALLING GERGEN-SAN "Actually, the new palace will have only 62 rooms, and only 17 are for [the royal couple's] private use." -- MEMBER OF THE JAPANESE IMPERIAL HOUSEHOLD ANSWERING CRITICS WHO SAY THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS ARE SQUANDERING PUBLIC MONEY ON A NEW 100-ROOM PALACE INSIDE MOGADISHU No Satellites Necessary A postmortem of the Oct. 3 battle that left 18 U.S. Army Rangers dead and 75 wounded has revealed that General Mohammed Farrah Aidid's loyalists used an ancient method to warn their comrades of the Rangers' attack--they beat wooden sticks on drums, only in this case the drums were empty 50-gal. oil barrels. Followers of Aidid positioned at the Mogadishu airport began drumming when they saw the Rangers' helicopters take off, and as the message was heard, it was carried through the town by the same means. WINNERS & LOSERS WINNERS EDDIE VEDDER Pearl Jam's Vs. sets record: nearly 1 million sold in first week. SARAH BRADY Crucial House panel votes 10-3 for Brady gun-control bill. CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA N.F.L. grants city franchise, and Carolina Panthers get a home. LOSERS KIM CAMPBELL Canadian ex-leader's party had 155 seats; after vote it has two. BOB PACKWOOD He makes diary threat and then is accused of unspecified crimes. THE FBI Tapes suggest it was warned of and could have foiled WTC blast. NURSE--A SEDATIVE, QUICKLY! "It is my hunch that even as recently as 1992, if I had made an all-out effort, I could have won the presidency."--GEORGE MCGOVERN INFORMED SOURCES Ron Brown--Out of the Soup? Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown has been under investigation by the FBI for allegedly accepting a bribe from a Vietnamese businessman, and a federal grand jury in Florida has been considering the matter. Officials at the White House, however, are optimistic that Brown will not face any charges. The investigation is virtually complete, the officials say, and they are confident that Brown will be pleased with the results. Senator Rodham Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother Hugh, a Miami public defender, has never run for public office, but he may run for the U.S. Senate in 1994. After consulting Hillary, who was addressing the Florida Democrats' convention, Rodham assured state party officials that he had his sister's support. Palm Beach County Democratic leader Ted Brabham (who co-chaired the state's Clinton for President effort in 1992) then pledged $3,000 for a poll to test Hugh's appeal. Another Florida politico advised Hugh that he must prove his independence by differing with his sister about something. Hugh bravely chose NAFTA. You Can't Give Orders to Soldiers Who Don't Exist The Russian military will soon have more officers than enlistees. According to Pentagon sources, more than 40% of draftees refuse to serve. As a result, the Pentagon estimates, the armed forces will soon have about 630,000 officers but only 544,000 regular troops. In the U.S. there is one officer for every five enlistees. </body> </article> </text>