DETROIT -- General Motors Corp., taking the offensive to defend the safety of its older pickup trucks, planned a lawsuit Monday claiming NBC-TV rigged a demonstration crash that showed a truck exploding in flames. NBC acknowledged Sunday that consultants installed electrical 'igniters' under the pickups it tested for its report to make sure of a fire if gasoline leaked from the fuel tanks, but denied the demonstration was rigged.NEWLN:
ATHENS, Greece -- At least 132 people were killed when a Russian-made Tupolev jetliner on charter to Iran collided with a Sukhoi military aircraft near Tehran early Monday, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said. The collision occured shortly after the passenger plane took off from Tehran's Mehrabad airport, heading for the holy city of Mashad, some 475 miles to the east.NEWLN:
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton was preparing to propose Monday legislation that would raise the Environmental Protection Agency to Cabinet level. White House spokesman George Stephanopoulos said the president was to make a formal announcement in a 10-minute appearance and turn over the meeting to Vice President Al Gore to explain the details.NEWLN:
MANILA, Philippines -- Guardians of six abandoned children of American servicemen plan a class-action suit in California against the children's fathers, the U.S. Navy and a Philippine local government. The Rev. Shay Cullen, head of the Preda Foundation, said the issue is about 10,000 children abandoned by U.S. servicemen assigned to the Philippines over the past 30 years.NEWLN:
BEIJING -- A government magazine Monday blamed the United States for problems in U.S.-China relations and urged the Clinton administration to make a 'new good start' by easing human rights criticism and economic sanctions. A signed article in the state-run weekly 'Outlook' blamed U.S. policy after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown for the chill and pointed out that the two nations still share strategic interests in a changing world.NEWLN:
WASHINGTON -- Commerce Secretary Ron Brown says he failed to pay social security taxes on a worker in his home but was never asked about it during his confirmation hearing. Brown, a successful corporate attorney and chairman of the Democratic National Committee before being tapped as Commerce secretary, said he never employed an illegal alien, the issue that killed the attorney general prospects of corporate lawyer Zoe Baird and federal Judge Kimba Wood.NEWLN:
NEW YORK -- Arthur Ashe, who left behind a segregated home town that tried to keep him off its tennis courts, will lie in state at the Virginia capitol and be buried in his native Richmond -- ultimately honored as a sports and civil rights champion. The body of Ashe, who died at 49 from AIDS-related pneumonia, will be returned to Virginia to lie in state Tuesday from 5 to 9 p.m. EST.NEWLN:
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. -- A man smashed his station wagon through the gate at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant but apparently did no damage during four hours of wandering the site. State police identified the intruder as Pierce Nye, 31. No motive was released for the intrusion.NEWLN:
CLEVELAND -- A chemistry professor testified Sunday that a proposed incinerator along the Ohio River opposed by Vice President Al Gore and other environmentalists would probably disperse unburned chemicals into the air.John Houston Miller was testifying on behalf of Greenpeace, the environmental group that sued the Waste Technologies Industries incinerator.NEWLN:
ZAGREB, Croatia -- Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's nationalist party was leading comfortably in elections for parliament's upper house, according to preliminary results released Monday. About 75 percent of Croatia's 3.6 million eligible voters cast ballots Sunday for the 63- seat Chamber of Counties, most of them supporting Tudjman's ruling Croatian Democratic Union, known as HDZ.NEWLN:
VOLGOGRAD, Russia -- The great spear-wielding statue of Mother Russia that dominates the Volgograd skyline once pointed to a socialist future. Monday, it symbolized the hazy horizons of capitalism as Russia began selling off large state enterprises. The Volga River city, scene of the great Stalingrad battle that was a turning point in World War II, was chosen the site of another decisive event in Russian history -- the auction of big state industries.NEWLN:
Rain and some snow were due to pelt the western third of the country Monday, while the Northeast was to warm up after a weekend freeze. The National Weather Service said rain will fall in Oregon and California, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona and snow in the higher elevations. The rest of the country was expected to remain dry.NEWLN:
