THE WEEK
By KATHLEEN ADAMS, MELISSA AUGUST, LINA LOFARO, ALICE PARK, MICHAEL QUINN, JEFFERY C. RUBIN, ALAIN L. SANDERS, ANNEKE TRYZELAAR AND SIDNEY URQUHART
NATION
A Brawl in the House
It started out mildly enough, as Democratic Representative Carrie Meek of Florida delivered a routine denunciation of Speaker Newt Gingrich's lucrative book deal with a Rupert Murdoch- owned publishing house. But before Meek could reach the end of her short speech, the Republican-managed House ruled her out of order and voted to strike her remarks from the record. The parliamentary scrap immediately brought a phalanx of the people's Representatives to the floor to scream at one another, with Republicans denouncing the speech for lack of decorum and Democrats blasting the g.o.p.'s "totalitarianism." Later, in a bare-knuckles address at a Republican gathering, Gingrich personally took up the fight, calling the attacks on his book deal "disgusting" and taking broad swipes at Democrats, the press and-perhaps reflexively-Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In the Senate, "Byrdlock"
Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the Democrats' parliamentary ace and self-appointed guardian of the Senate's deliberative role, launched an all-out effort to slow down what he called the Republican "steamroller." Byrd's filibuster-like maneuvers reduced to a snail's pace the Senate's debate of a bill that would restrict the ability of Congress to impose unfunded regulatory mandates on the states. His exploitation of an arcane rule regarding committee meeting times also forced the Judiciary Committee to halt-if for only one day-its consideration of a balanced-budget amendment. Majority leader Bob Dole was sufficiently ruffled to grumble about the Senate's "Byrdlock."
The Simpson Case
Just days before the opening of the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the former football star's high-powered legal defense suffered one of its most damaging defeats. Judge Lance Ito ruled that the prosecution could present in evidence the bulk of the materials it has gathered that might show Simpson was a violently jealous and abusive husband. The judge handed the defense one small win, though, allowing it to introduce some evidence regarding the alleged racist attitudes of a key detective. The mostly negative developments for the defense capped a week in which an embarrassing ego spat between two of its usually media-savvy lawyers, Robert Shapiro and F. Lee Bailey, became public.
Keep On Flying
Voting 6 to 2 in a case involving American Airlines, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that passengers may sue an airline for retroactively downgrading their frequent-flyer benefits. The Justices concluded that federal airline-regulation laws do not pre-empt such breach-of-contract suits in state courts.
The Farrakhan-Plot Case
Malcolm X's daughter Qubilah Shabazz pleaded not guilty to charges that she plotted to have Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan killed. Meanwhile, Farrakhan publicly echoed the claim of Shabazz's lawyers that the case was a setup by the government.
Union County Drownings
A sobbing Susan Smith, accused of drowning her two small boys in a car last October, appeared in court for her arraignment and learned that the prosecution would seek the death penalty. A South Carolina judge entered a not-guilty plea for her after the Union County mother declined to enter a plea of her own.
WORLD
A Brutal Shock for Japan
It was the country's worst earthquake in more than 70 years. The jolt that hit Kobe (pop. 1.5 million) just before dawn on Tuesday measured 7.2 on the Richter scale. The numbers alone told the chilling story: some 5,000 confirmed dead, 200 still missing, 25,000 injured, 300,000 homeless. As exhausted relief workers sifted through the rubble of what was once the country's second busiest port, survivors waited stoically in line for hours for a small bottle of water and a fist-size ball of rice. Offers of help came from all over the world, and as each day revealed new horrors, Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama said that even in a country with a long history of earthquakes, the Kobe tragedy was "a disaster that nobody could even imagine." At week's end criticism was mounting against government relief efforts that were deemed too little and too late.
Chechnya Enters New Phase
As Russian soldiers hoisted their flag over Chechnya's gutted presidential palace in Grozny, the republic's capital, Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared an end to the bloody six-week rebellion. "Don't worry. Everything will be settled soon on the Chechen issue," he said. "I am in strict control." Yeltsin ruled out direct peace talks with rebel leader Jokhar Dudayev, and battle-hardened Chechen fighters vowed to take their fight into the mountains south of Grozny-promising a long and fierce guerrilla war.
Moscow: "Butt Out!"
Meanwhile in Geneva, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev held lengthy, sometimes cool discussions about the Chechen war. "What we don't want to see is a Russia mired in a military quagmire," Christopher told reporters. "I reiterated to the Foreign Minister that the conflict must be brought to an end." For his part, Kozyrev insisted that the rebellion was a "purely domestic matter."
Bosnia: The Truce Unravels
The New Year's Day cease-fire, negotiated in part by former President Jimmy Carter, looked increasingly fragile. More than 400 explosions were reported near the northwestern Bosnian town of Velika Kladusa, where Croatian Serbs and rebel Muslims battled Bosnian government forces. In Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, Serb troops refused to allow the U.N. to de-ice the airport runway, and in Tuzla, in north-central Bosnia, 1,000 peacekeepers were blockaded without food or heat by the government.
Reforms for Mexico
President Ernesto Zedillo, just seven weeks in office, signed a pact with the main opposition parties to deliver reformed federal and state voting laws and to honor the results of all free and fair elections. According to opposition leaders, the signers agreed privately to hold new balloting in the unruly southern states of Tabasco and Chiapas, where widespread fraud was reported in last year's elections. In Washington the Clinton Administration's proposed $40 billion bailout of the weakened peso met with stiff opposition from Democrats.
BUSINESS
Oil Imports Hit Record High
Imports accounted for 50.4% of petroleum use in the U.S. last year, according to the American Petroleum Institute. This marks the first time that consumption of foreign oil has exceeded that of domestically produced oil. Imports reached 8.9 million bbl. per day, eclipsing by 109,000 bbl. per day the previous import record, set in 1977. Lobbyists are expected to use the statistics to pressure Congress to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
A New Cable Empire
Sweetened by a tax loophole for big companies selling media properties to minority owners, Viacom Inc., the entertainment giant, will sell its cable-TV unit to a partnership backed by Tele-Communications, Inc., the top U.S. cable operator. Price tag: $2.3 billion. The deal will create the country's largest minority-owned cable system.
SCIENCE
Stone Age Louvre
More than 300 paintings were discovered late last year in a cave near the town of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in southern France, the French government has revealed. Experts say the 20,000-year-old gallery may surpass the famous grottoes at Lascaux, France, and Altamira, Spain. The cavern was said to be perfectly intact, with animal bones, flint knives and even footprints preserved on the floor.
SPORT
Baseball's First Scab
A 35-year-old has-been who last pitched in the majors in 1991 agreed to become baseball's first "prominent" strikebreaker. Former Boston Red Sox righthander "Oil Can" Boyd, who threw five games for the Class A Sioux City Explorers last year before injuring his shoulder, said he would cross the picket lines in a bid to return to the Show: "If this is what it takes, then I'm going to do it."
-By Kathleen Adams, Melissa August, Lina Lofaro, Alice Park, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders, Anneke Tryzelaar and Sidney Urquhart