Around the worldPROGRESS? PLO and Israeli officials were tight-lipped about their talks Tuesday at a secret site in Paris, though they cited progress in meetings in Norway over the weekend. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen, a member of the PLO's Executive Committee, were to head their delegations, officials said, indicating the importance both sides gave to the talks.
ANGUISH: Pope John Paul said Tuesday he was anguished to tears by reports of sexual deviation by Roman Catholic priests. The pontiff, in a wide-ranging Christmas address to Vatican officials, spoke of a spread of "moral deviations of every kind" in the world. "Among those that are particularly painful are sexual (deviations) which sometimes have involved, I say it crying, members of the clergy."BAN: China is readying a law that would use abortions and sterilization to prevent people suffering from certain illnesses from having children, according to an official report. The draft law on eugenics before China's national legislature is designed "to avoid new births of inferior quality and heighten the standards of the whole population," the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.
Across the nation
SHOOTING: The bullet that killed a teenager in Lancaster, Calif., while he was shielding two girls from gunfire at a party was fired by his own half brother, police said. Eric Gunn, 21, was arrested late Monday and booked for investigation of murder and crack cocaine possession, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Robert Stoneman. Investigators believe the Gunn fired erratically in the crowded party because someone spilled beer on his shoes.
DEATH: Actor Moses Gunn, whose roles ranged from Shakespeare plays to situation comedies, has died from complications of asthma, his agent said Monday in Los Angeles. He was 64.
ERROR: The Army Corps of Engineers says failure of water treatment workers to respond quickly to signs of trouble caused a recent contaminated water alert in the Washington, D.C., area. Maj. Gen. Stanley Genega, director of civil works for the corps, told a House Public Works and Transportation Committee panel Monday that workers at the water plant waited two hours before treating water registering high levels of turbidity, or cloudiness.