Around the world
RESIGNATION: Mahmud Darwish has given PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat his resignation and quit the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee, Palestinian sources said Friday. He quit in protest against the PLO's financial management and because he did not want to be associated with possible "dangerous" decisions made by the PLO.
RAID: Austrian security forces raided homes of suspected right-wing extremists across the country and charged 23 people with possessing neo-Nazi propaganda, government officials said Friday. Police accused the suspects of owning Nazi magazines, leaflets and propaganda stored on computer discs following the raid Thursday on 26 homes in Vienna and regions in north and south Austria, the Interior Ministry said.
SENT HOME: Mexico has sent home eight Cubans whose small shrimping boat shipwrecked off the Yucatan peninsula. Four men were killed in the accident and three others were missing and presumed dead. The Mexican Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued Thursday by the official Notimex news agency, said the shrimping boat Arnoldino foundered last Sunday off the Yucatan state of Quintana.
Across the nation
NEW TRIAL: Calling the verdict "palpably unjust," a Baltimore judge granted a new trial to two families who lost the first mini-trial to decide how much plaintiffs in the nation's biggest asbestos injury case will get in damages. A Baltimore Circuit Court jury ruled June 9 that Albert Kirby and William Eberwein had died of mesothelioma, a form of cancer linked to asbestos fibers. But the jury said products supplied by Porter Hayden Co. were not to blame. On Thursday, Circuit Judge Marshall A. Levin declared the verdicts "were against the weight of the evidence," and he granted a new trial.
SPILL CLEANUP: Exxon Corp. has paid $240 million into a trust fund to repair environmental damage from the Alaska oil spill, but little of the money has gone for restoration - and nearly $40 million went right back to Exxon, trust fund documents show. Of the $202 million spent by fund trustees during the first two years, less than a fourth went for restoration projects, mostly involving surveys, data-collection and trying to determine the extent of damage, a review by The Associated Press has found.
NOT GUILTY PLEAS: Three vacation commandos and their two trainers pleaded not guilty Friday to illegal gun charges following their arrest at a paramilitary training camp in western Massachusetts. When arrested by state Environmental Police Thursday, the five were found with what was described as a small arsenal of military weapons and ammunition. David Lee Fisk, 37, of Baton Rouge, La., and Jeffrey Thompson, 27, of Hartford, Conn., both trainers at the camp, entered innocent pleas.
In WashingtonOK: The Justice Department has given the go-ahead for The New York Times' $1.1 billion purchase of The Boston Globe, saying it will not adversely affect competition. The department had investigated the proposed deal for possible antitrust violations. The deal guarantees the Globe independence in news and management for at least five years.