United States Government

The Clinton administration has launched a concerted effort to track down and freeze the financial resources of Saudi multimillionaire Osama bin Laden, whose name did not appear on a Treasury Department list of terrorists targeted for asset seizure until after the Aug. 7 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government is responsible for the full cost of cleaning up the McColl Superfund site in what appears to be a major victory for oil companies who dumped toxic substances there during World War II. The decision came as officials are completing the mammoth cleanup of the Fullerton site, after years of legal battling between the government and oil companies over who should pay for the work. Judge Robert J. Kelleher ruled this week that Shell Oil Co.

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government is responsible for the full cost of cleaning up the McColl Superfund site in what appears to be a major victory for oil companies that dumped toxic substances there during World War II. The decision comes now that the mammoth cleanup of the Fullerton site is complete and after years of legal battling between the government and oil companies over who should pay for it. Judge Robert J. Kelleher ruled this week that Shell Oil Co.

Now that the United States and Osama bin Laden have publicly declared war on each other, the question becomes: What's next? The answer reflects the difficulty of dealing with the kind of low-intensity conflict that has redefined warfare in the post-Cold War world. The threat posed by Bin Laden, the millionaire Saudi dissident linked to the Aug.

All of a sudden, investing in the federal government doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Or, at least, investing in Uncle Sam's IOUs. With global stock markets in turmoil, individual investors who had shunned U.S. government bond mutual funds in recent years--pulling a net $13.1 billion out of these portfolios in 1996-97--have done an about-face in 1998. Through the end of June, investors plowed a net $622 million into government bond funds. They've been rewarded with average total returns of 3.

Clearing the way for more physicians to assist in suicides in Oregon and perhaps elsewhere, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno ruled Friday that federal drug agents may not interfere with doctors who help terminally ill patients commit suicide under a state law passed last year. In an opinion requested by members of Congress, Reno said that the federal Controlled Substances Act could not be used against Oregon doctors who prescribe medications to help patients take their own lives.

Oxford Health Plans Inc. said it stopped marketing and most enrollment in its Medicare plans following a federal review that criticized the company. The managed-care firm, which offers coverage to Medicare patients in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, said the action will let it improve its Medicare operations.

The U.S. Justice Department said the government's program to compensate Japanese Americans interned during World War II will end in six months and it is trying to find remaining claimants. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno urged potential claimants to file with the Justice Department's Office of Redress Administration by April 10. The program, which was created by the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, has paid out nearly $1.65 billion in reparations to 81,278 eligible claimants.

This sun-scraped scab of desert has been pounded by the worst mankind could hurl at it: four decades of nuclear explosions. Those trials are over now. But this echoing expanse remains the proving ground for audacious inventions. Only now it's not the government experimenting, it's private industry. Need to blow up a building to test a new anti-terrorism design? Do it at the Nevada Test Site. Need to set a chemical fire to try out a new foam flame retardant? Feel free, at the Nevada Test Site.

Federal agents raided two homes in Cloverdale, Calif., in their investigation of a hacker attack on a Pentagon computing system, a source said Thursday. No arrests have been made in connection with the searches about 80 miles north of San Francisco. The targets of the Wednesday night searches were juveniles, said a source familiar with the case. The source spoke on condition of anonymity.