Around the world
SOUTH AFRICA: Trading on the stock exchange stopped for 15 minutes Friday while Nelson Mandela assured shirt-sleeved stockbrokers that an African National Congress government would seek economic stability. Mandela's message came three days before an election expected to make him South Africa's first black president and propel the ANC, a liberation movement allied with the South African Communist Party, into government.RWANDA: Private aid groups reacted bitterly Friday to the U.N. decision to withdraw nearly all of its peacekeepers from Rwanda, saying the retreat will cause even worse suffering. The Organization of African Unity said the decision could be taken as "a sign of indifference or lack of sufficient concern" for Africans.
FLEET: Russia and Ukraine agreed Friday to turn over 80 percent of the prized Black Sea Fleet to Russia, but clashed anew over where the navies should be based. The future of the fleet has been a major source of tension between the two countries.
Across the nation
FILTHY LUCRE: Clock repairman Robert Laughery's money reeked of marijuana, and a whiff of it was enough evidence to investigate him on drug charges, an appeals court ruled in Ukiah, Calif. Laughery was convicted after a bank teller told police in 1992 about deposits containing $20 and $100 bills smelling of pot. The defense had appealed, arguing the stench wasn't enough to establish cause for a search of Laughery's home, where marijuana plants were found.
SETTLEMENT: Four men who were jailed after a mental patient described as a compulsive liar fingered them in nine murders at a Buddhist temple agreed to settle their false-arrest lawsuit for $2.8 million. Three of the men said they were coerced into confessing to the 1991 shooting deaths.
In Washington
MERCURY: Olin Corp. will pay the government $1 million to settle claims it allowed mercury emissions into the air and failed to ensure exposed employees were properly decontaminated.