Around the world
PUT UP OR QUIT: A leading Japanese newspaper called Sunday for Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa's resignation if he fails to pass legislation to help clean up corruption in politics by the end of the parliamentary session Jan. 29. The Mainichi Shimbun said in an editorial it accepted Hosokawa's apology for failing to enact the legislation by the end of his self-imposed deadline at the conclusion of 1993. "It may be argued that Hosokawa should properly resign with the rest of his Cabinet at this point for failing to meet his original commitment," the editorial said.LUKEWARM: Britons like the monarchy, but not enough to pay for it, according to a public opinion poll. A survey commissioned by The Observer newspaper found that 56 percent want to keep Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, compared to 28 percent who want an elected president and 13 percent who want the prime minister to double as head of state. But 73 percent said taxpayers should not pay for the monarchy.
BOMBED: Georgia's counterintelligence headquarters, in Tblisi, was damaged early Saturday by a bomb that shattered windows in nearby buildings and destroyed cars parked outside. Two people were wounded by the explosion in the building's courtyard, one severely, the Security Ministry said in a statement. It reported "serious" damage to the nine-story building and nearby headquarters of a military academy and state weather forecasting service.
Across the nationSHOOTING: Chicago police said two people were killed and three injured Friday night after a man entered a house during a Christmas Eve family gathering and opened fire. Thomas Melka, 23, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated battery with a handgun following the shooting on Chicago's northwest side. The shooting stunned the middle-class neighborhood unaccustomed to the violence commonplace in other parts of the city only a few miles away.
In Washington
WATER WOES: District of Columbia residents were asked to conserve water Saturday night after a break in a 48-inch water main that serves a third of the city. A 12-foot-high bubble of water roiled from the middle of a downtown intersection, flooding nearby streets. "This is a very serious water break and a very serious problem for the city," said Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly. "A lot of our pipes, a lot of our systems are very old. A lot of them were built at the turn of the century and before the turn of the century."