Methodists' Rejection of Gay Unions Challenged
Minister Calls Rule Guideline, Not Law
    IRVING, Tex., Aug. 7—A Methodist minister who faced a church trial for marrying two lesbians argued before his church's highest judicial body today that a rule banning homosexual weddings should be viewed as a guideline for pastors, not a law.

Philadelphia Reporter Sues His Editor For Libel
By Howard Kurtz
    Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano sued his editor yesterday, a move so unusual that no one could think of a precedent.

CORRECTIONS
    In today's Real Estate section, which was printed in advance, a report on Long & Foster Real Estate Inc.'s recent commission increase misstated the transaction fee the firm charges home sellers to cover record-keeping expenses. The fee is $149.

Hawaiian Royalty
    Hawaiian Princess Owana Kaohelelani Salazar leads other Hawaiians in a native song during a ceremony in Statuary Hall at the Capitol as part of events to mark the 100th anniversary of the U.S. annexation of the islands. She is a niece, six generations removed, of King Kamehameha the Great, who was commemorated in the ceremony. Today, there will be a march to Lafayette Square for a Hawaiian Rights Movement rally.

Child Sex Abuse Case Shakes Tulsa
Dentist Is Sought After Photos Alert Staff to Alleged Molestations
By Lois Romano
    TULSA, Aug. 7—The first inkling that something was very wrong in Dennis C. Johnson's office came last fall when the dentist started locking the door to his treatment room and scheduling appointments with children when his assistants were off duty.

Returning Snippets of Conversation
Archives to Cut Private Talk Out of Nixon Tapes, Send to Estate
By George Lardner Jr.
    Bowing to court order, the National Archives will start on Monday the painstaking process of cutting up former President Richard M. Nixon's original White House tapes so that thousands of snippets of "private" conversations can be returned to his estate.

105th Congress Runs in Place In Pursuit of Campaign Goals
Statecraft's Compromises Give Way to Partisan Maneuvering
By Helen Dewar and Juliet Eilperin
    When the now-vacationing 105th Congress returns for a final flurry of work before the November elections, it is not likely to produce many notable laws. But it will generate plenty of noise: arguments over spending priorities, health care, tax cuts and campaign finance -- even dire threats of another government shutdown and recriminations over who's to blame.

WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
    Clinton Signs Bill for Workers Out-of-work Americans will be able to buy their own job training services under a "G.I. Bill" for workers that President Clinton signed yesterday.

Tobacco Bill Written Off in House
Industry Continues Advertising Campaign Against Legislation
By Juliet Eilperin and Saundra Torry
    Confident that there is no pressing political need to pass an anti-smoking bill this session, several key House Republicans indicated this week that the legislation was all but dead for the year.

FDA Advisers Back New Arthritis Drug
    The first new drug for rheumatoid arthritis in more than a decade won the backing of government advisers yesterday -- with a warning that it must be taken very carefully by women who have not yet gone through menopause.

Five Utah Girls Die While Playing in a Car Trunk
    WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, Aug. 7—Five young girls trapped while playing in the trunk of a car died of heat exposure today, police said.

Gore Visits Fla. to Patch Party Rift, Boost Gubernatorial Hopeful
By Terry M. Neal
    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Aug. 7—Vice President Gore ventured to Florida today in an effort to bring together squabbling factions of the Democratic Party and boost the election hopes of gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay.

Tenn. Democrats Pick Political Veteran
    NASHVILLE, Aug. 7—A 67-year-old political vagabond who has lost two races for governor and three for the Senate easily won Tennessee's Democratic gubernatorial primary.

NATION IN BRIEF
    Advocates, Staffer Criticize Prosecutor MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. -- Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga was criticized by advocates for sex crime victims and by a ranking staffer for saying a 17-year-old who impregnated his 12-year-old sister had taken part in "youthful sexual experimentation."

On the Eighth Day, Man Created Pandas
Chinese Begin Cloning To Try to Save Species
By Michael Laris
    BEIJING—Scientists at China's most respected research institute are attempting to clone a giant panda, making the cuddly black and white creatures the focus of a biting debate on the merits of cloning as a strategy for saving endangered species.

Rebels Take More Territory in Eastern and Western Congo
By Lynne Duke
    KINSHASA, Congo, Aug. 7—Anti-government forces seized more territory today in their bid to oust President Laurent Kabila, and Congolese troops scouring this capital city for Tutsi rebels forced their way into the U.S. Embassy compound Thursday night.

U.N. War Crimes Tribunal Limping Along
By Charles Trueheart
    THE HAGUE—Another war crimes trial came thudding to a halt last Saturday morning when Milan Kovacevic, a major Bosnian Serb genocide suspect accused of looking the other way as hundreds of Bosnian Muslims and Croats were butchered in death camps he commanded, died of a heart attack at the U.N. detention center just outside this Dutch capital.

WORLD In Brief
    ASIA China Aims to Thwart Flood Downstream BEIJING -- China began evacuating more than 300,000 people from along the raging Yangtze River, saying their land would be flooded intentionally in a desperate effort to save villages downstream.

U.S. Suspends Boeing-Ukraine Rocket Launch
By John Mintz
    After concluding that sensitive U.S. space information was improperly disclosed to Russian and Ukrainian engineers, the State Department suspended most work last month on an innovative project in which Boeing Co. plans to launch satellites aboard rockets lifting off from an ocean-going oil rig, according to industry and government officials.

Rescuers Ease Survivors' Fears
Volunteers Pry Apart Rubble
By Chege Mbitiru
    NAIROBI, Aug. 7—Trapped survivors cried out for help, and rescuers responded with calming phrases. Tall cranes wrestled with massive chunks of concrete, their delicate work lit by powerful searchlights. Sparks flew from blowtorches cutting twisted steel rods.

2 U.S. Victims in Nairobi Identified
Embassy Aide Arlene Kirk, Army Sgt. Kenneth R. Hobson
By Martin Weil and Cheryl W. Thompson
    One of the two people named as being among at least eight Americans killed in yesterday's bombing in Nairobi was Arlene Kirk, 50, who was on her first day back at the U.S. Embassy there after a six-week vacation in this country.

Compounds Can Never Be Fully Protected, Specialists Say
By Thomas W. Lippman
    The bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania fell into a long, bloody pattern of terrorist attacks on American diplomats and diplomatic installations that have led to increased security at U.S. facilities worldwide.

WHAT ON EARTH? A WEEKLY LOOK AT TRENDS, PEOPLE AND EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD
    Energetic Growth Energy use around the world has increased by one-third overall during the past 15 years, but it has more than doubled in many of the rapidly developing nations of Asia and Latin America. Nevertheless, rich industrialized nations continue to use nearly four times as much energy as low-income countries.

Chinese Investors Stage Protest
By Michael Laris
    BEIJING, Aug. 7—Hundreds of angry investors staged two bold demonstrations in the heart of China's capital today, demanding that government authorities reimburse millions of dollars they claim was swindled by officials from a futures trading house with government connections.

Colombian President Inaugurated
By Laura Brooks
    BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug. 7—Andres Pastrana, 44, was sworn in to a four-year term as president of Colombia today, inheriting a nation torn apart by a brutal paramilitary and guerrilla war, beset by economic problems and struggling to overcome its image as a pariah because of the violence, high-level corruption and vast trafficking in illegal drugs.

Indonesian General Apologizes
Defense Chief Seeks Pardon in Province, Site of Rights Abuses
By Cindy Shiner
    JAKARTA, Indonesia, Aug. 7—Indonesia's defense minister apologized today to the people of Aceh province for human rights abuses allegedly committed by the military, and he pledged to withdraw combat troops from the region in the latest step to rehabilitate the image of the armed forces.

Obuchi's Premier Speech
By Kevin Sullivan
    Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, left, and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi bow to parliament after the premier delivered his first major speech yesterday since taking office. Obuchi outlined plans for economic "revitalization," including tax cuts. The Clinton administration and international financial markets reacted coolly to Obuchi's remarks, which offered no new proposals to stimulate Japan's ailing economy.