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Hillary's Turn - The first lady may be through playing second fiddle to her husband. With the impeachment trial over, Hillary Rodham Clinton is being urged to consider a run for the Senate in New York in 2000. Democrats and Republicans alike predicted a terrific race if she steps in, especially if she's pitted against New York's Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a notoriously tough campaigner. Following a meeting with Mexico's President Ernesto Zedillo on Monday, President Clinton said his wife has made no decision. But he couldn't resist adding, "She would be great if she did it." [Wired News]
Hingis Whipped - Few tears were shed for Martina Hingis, who's quickly earning her spurs as the most disliked figure in professional tennis. The world's No. 1 woman player and top seed at Wimbledon was knocked out of the venerable tournament Tuesday by Jelena Dokic, a 16-year-old qualifier, in her opening round match. Hingis, who has taken flak for her outspoken remarks about lesbianism and the disrespect shown to Steffi Graf (who beat Hingis at the French Open), took her 6-2, 6-0 thrashing at the hands of Dokic in stride. Telling the press that she wasn't "that disappointed" to lose at Wimbledon, Hingis promptly took off on vacation. [Wired News]
Hit Parade - Mike Tyson, serving a year in the slammer for assault, is making a career change. Good thing, since his boxing career appears to be over. According to a report out of Britain, Iron Mike has cut a deal with hip-hop company Def Jam to create Tyson Records, a rap and R B label. And the ol' penitentiary pugilist has even signed some talent: Doni, a 16-year-old girl, and Centell, an 18-year-old singer described as a "crooner." Tyson Records' manager says that "Mike found Centell." Found him where? Making license plates? [Wired News]
Hitler's Art Show - Artwork collected by Adolf Hitler during his reign as F hrer of the Third Reich will go on display in Weimar, Germany, beginning Sunday. Hitler, who failed in his ambition to become an artist before turning to other pursuits, favored German "folk art," which celebrated such themes as the toiling peasant and idealized depictions of Teutonic home life. The organizers of the show, The Rise and Fall of the Modern, say that Hitler's taste is evidence of "the monstrous banality of National Socialist art production." Perhaps, but realistically, what else would you expect them to say? [Wired News]
Hoe Down - Tastelessness being a staple of American radio programming these days, it is perhaps no surprise that Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps, a couple of disc jockeys on Los Angeles radio station KLOS-FM, thought they were being clever with their "Black Hoe" promotion last year. Listeners of the "Mark Brian" show could win black, plastic gardening implements as gag prizes -- a black hoe, if you will -- but the double entendre was clear. Black groups reacted angrily and the promotion was dropped, but no apology from the station, or the parent company -- Walt Disney Co. -- was forthcoming. When civil rights groups assembled in LA on Tuesday to call for a boycott of Disney they got their apology, but the feeling is that it's too little, too late. And the boycott is going forward. [Wired News]
Hopping Mad - A judge has ruled that the Energizer battery folks -- whose drum-beating bunny just keeps going, and going, and going, can't use their pink rabbit to attack competitors' products. Gillette, which is behind Energizer's main competitor, Duracell, filed suit to deep-six the bunny's latest ad campaign, which implies that the Energizer battery is superior to anything Duracell makes. Despite tests that seem to back up the claim, a judge ruled for Gillette after concluding that the tests were unscientific. Energizer got a charge out of that, and an appeal is being considered. They just keep suing, and suing, and suing.... [Wired News]
Hot Pants - Women legislators, incensed at the overturning of a rape conviction by a court that ruled it is impossible to rape someone wearing jeans, wore the offending garment into the Italian parliament Thursday as part of an emphatic protest. Their anger was stirred after a court accepted the argument of Carmine Christiano, a 23-year-old driving instructor, who claimed that he couldn't have raped an 18-year-old girl because she was wearing jeans. He claimed the sex was consensual. The legislators, led by rightist deputy Alessandra Mussolini, threatened to continue their noisy protests until the Constitutional Court restored Christiano's original two-year, eight-month prison sentence. [Wired News]
Hot Seat - The Tokyo Fire Department has alerted the public to cast a backward glance when using the "Washlet" toilet. The high-tech toilet, which is used in nearly 40 percent of Japanese households, is apparently putting users in an uncomfortable position. Four fires in the past year have been traced back to the toilets, which boast heated seats, a dizzying array of buttons, and automated warm-water bidets. Fire Department officials say that worn-out wiring on older models is sparking the problem. [Wired News]
Hot Time in Beantown - "Sex" and "Boston" are not two words normally found in the same sentence, but there are at least eight Beantowners whose carnal meters are set higher than "tepid." On Friday, four couples checked into a downtown hotel (separate rooms) to go about the business of becoming the first parents of the new millennium. If one of them actually succeeds, they'll win a million bucks for their trouble, courtesy of WJMN. The radio station sponsored the copulation contest after reports that 9 April was the optimum day to conceive a baby likely to be born on 1 January 2000. Obstetricians dismiss it all as bunk, and you have to figure that the odds of one of these couples grabbing the brass ring are about the same as the Red Sox winning the World Series. [Wired News]
Hsing-Hsing Sick - Hsing-Hsing, one of two giant pandas presented to the United States by China during President Nixon's historic 1972 trip to Beijing, is suffering from kidney dysfunction that may be incurable, veterinarians at the National Zoo in Washington, DC say. Hsing-Hsing, who at 28 is very old for a panda, has had a number of health problems in recent years, including a cancerous testicle removed by surgery two years ago. His mate, Ling-Ling, died of heart failure in 1992. There are an estimated 1,000 giant pandas remaining in the wild in China. [Wired News]
Hussein 'Critical' - His second bone-marrow transplant a failure, a critically ill King Hussein of Jordan is returning home from the Mayo Clinic to undergo further treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. President Clinton, realizing that one of his strongest Mideast allies may be dying, praised Hussein at a Washington prayer breakfast Thursday, calling him a friend and "a champion of peace." Hussein received the transplant last week and underwent a round of chemotherapy after doctors found evidence that his lymphoma, discovered last year, had recurred. [Wired News]
Hussein Near Death - King Hussein, who has ruled Jordan since 1952, is on life support and near death after returning from the United States, where he was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. According to a Jordanian official, there is no hope -- the king is in a coma, his liver and kidneys have failed, and his brain is no longer functioning. He will probably be removed from life support sometime Friday. The important thing was getting him home alive. "He wants to die in his own country," the official said. Hussein is the longest-serving ruler in the Middle East. Under him, Jordan has been a model of stability in a strife-torn region. He has also been a key figure in Mideast negotiations. Hussein's son, Prince Hassan, is set to succeed him. [Wired News]
IE5 on the Way - The next major release of Microsoft Internet Explorer will be 18 March, Redmond said Monday. Consumers can obtain a CD-ROM of the software via snailmail, which Microsoft hopes will alleviate the expected excessive download demand. Users can order the CDs from the Internet Explorer Web site for US$6.95. The new browser will be available for all versions of Windows, plus the Sun Solaris and HP-UX operating systems. [Wired News]
IPO Body Slam - Maybe "Stone Cold" Steve Austin will be able to retire to the Caribbean with the stock options he'll be getting when the World Wrestling Federation goes public. The WWF, that cultural beacon for millions of Americans, filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday. The US$172 million that the WWF hopes to raise will be used for working capital (new, cool costumes and extra folding chairs?) and general corporate purposes. If the SEC gives its blessing, WWF stock will trade on the Nasdaq, for some reason. [Wired News]
Ignorance Isn't Bliss - Now and then, we throw up our hands. Like when David Howard, a white aide to Washington DC's black mayor, Anthony Williams, resigns for using the word "niggardly," which was promptly mistaken for a racial slur. And when the mayor, with barely a thought to what he's doing, accepts it. But then our faith is partially restored when Julian Bond, head of the NAACP, chides Williams and others for their ignorance. "You hate to think you have to censor your language to meet other people's lack of understanding," Bond told the Associated Press. "The whole episode speaks loudly as to where we are on issues of race." For the record, Webster's New World tells us that "niggardly" has its origins in old Norse and means "stingy," or "miserly." [Wired News]
Impeachment II - Bill Clinton is off the hook, but now it's Boris Yeltsin's turn to twist in the wind. A special panel returned guilty verdicts on five separate charges against the beleaguered Russian president Friday and will submit them to the State Duma later next week. The Communist-led panel, convened last summer to investigate the charges, found Yeltsin guilty of instigating the collapse of the Soviet Union, ruining the Red Army, using force against hard-line lawmakers, leading Russia to war in Chechnya, and -- most remarkable of all, considering the source -- committing genocide against the Russian people. The latter charge, especially, stirred an angry backlash against the Communists who, under Josef Stalin, were responsible for the deaths of millions of Russians during the 1930s and '40s. As in the United States, it takes a two-thirds majority vote of legislators to force Yeltsin from office. The possibility of an actual conviction is considered remote. [Wired News]
In 'n' Out - The families of the three US servicemen freed by Yugoslavia over the weekend were flown to Germany for a reunion on Monday. Vivian Ramirez noticed that her son looked thin, so she took along a bag of his favorite hamburgers. The soldiers were taken captive while patrolling the Yugoslav-Macedonian border. The Reverend Jesse Jackson arranged for their release and accompanied them to freedom. [Wired News]
India Rail Disaster - Hundreds of people are feared dead following the head-on collision early Monday of two trains in eastern India, according to the BBC. Early reports indicated that as many as 500 people were killed and another 1,000 injured in the crash, which may have occurred because of a signal failure. Officials dismissed the possibility that an explosion aboard one train may have triggered the accident, but a BBC report saying that one train was carrying explosives was not refuted. The accident occurred around 1:30 a.m. local time, on the line between New Delhi and Gauhati. [Wired News]
Intel Execs Slain - The two Americans among eight foreign tourists massacred at a game preserve in Uganda Monday were senior executives at Intel, the chipmaker confirmed Tuesday. Rob Haubner, 48, and his wife Susan Miller, 42, were hacked to death along with four Britons and two New Zealanders after being kidnapped by an armed band of guerrillas, identified as Rwandan Hutus. Haubner, Intel's global chief of customer support, and Miller, a senior trade show manager, worked at the company's Hillsboro, Oregon office. They were vacationing with two other Intel employees, who managed to escape. Their killers are believed to be remnants of the force responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that claimed an estimated 800,000 lives. [Wired News]
Iran Protests - In the largest anti-government protest since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, nearly 10,000 Iranians defied a ban against public demonstrations and marched to the gates of Tehran University on Tuesday. After their orders to disperse were ignored, police fired tear gas into the crowd and arrested scores of demonstrators, mostly students. Agitation began last week following the government's closing of a reformist newspaper that supports Iran's moderate president, Mohammed Khatami. [Wired News]
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