President Clinton concluded his summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and nearly everyone declared it a success. 1) The two leaders agreed to reduce nuclear-missile warheads. 2) Yeltsin acquiesced to NATO expansion to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. 3) Clinton accepted an expanded Russian role in the G-7. The half-cynical view is that Russia hasn't made its peace with NATO expansion, but is just too weak to stop it. The completely cynical view is that there is no reason the United States should care about this distinction. (For a primer on NATO expansion, see Slate's "The Gist.") (3/24) Webster Hubbell is back in the spotlight of the Democratic fund-raising scandal. The New York Times reported that a company owned by James Riady paid Hubbell about $100,000 within a week of Riady's having spent five days visiting the White House in 1994. The Washington Post reported that Riady had also met with Hubbell during that week. Hubbell supplants last week's scandal poster boy, Roger Tamraz, a Lebanese-American businessman and accused embezzler with past ties to BCCI. Tamraz got into four White House events after the Democratic National Committee enlisted the CIA to try to dissuade a national-security aide from keeping him out of the White House. (3/24) Other news on the scandal: 1) The New York Times reported that documents released by Harold Ickes show that the White House set explicit fund-raising targets for coffees with President Clinton. 2) The Washington Post reported that Americans of Indian and Pakistani descent waged a proxy battle over U.S. foreign policy by funneling campaign contributions to the 1996 South Dakota Senate race between incumbent Larry Pressler, R-India, and challenger Tim Johnson, D-Pakistan. 3) House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt is returning $22,000 in campaign donations, mostly from Lippo-connected contributors. (3/24) Republican fund-raising hypocrisy watch: 1) A former Washington lobbyist for Pakistan says Rep. Dan Burton , who is chairing the House investigation of the Democratic money scandal, threatened to deny him access to Burton's "friends or colleagues" last year because he failed to satisfy Burton's demand for $5,000 in campaign money. 2) The Washington Post reported that a Republican House committee counsel hit up investment firms for $100,000 contributions to the GOP shortly after working on financial-deregulation legislation. 3) Democrats released documents indicating that Republicans sold big political donors meals with the party's leaders in federal buildings in 1995. (3/19) Zairian president Mobutu Sese Seko returned home from France in a last-ditch attempt to salvage some part of the power he once held. Analysts see no real future for him: He is gradually dying of prostate cancer and has no leverage because his troops are getting whipped by rebels, who are expected to roll through the capital sometime soon. Instead of a military victory, Mobutu now seems to be angling for some kind of coalition government, playing off his chief political rival in the capital against the military leader of the rebel forces. The general consensus is that the rebel leader holds all the aces. (For a backgrounder on Zaire, see Slate's "The Gist.") (3/24) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat "gave a green light for attacks" to the Hamas fundamentalist group. Hamas took credit for a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv who killed three bystanders and wounded dozens more. The United States dampened criticism of Netanyahu's refusal to halt an inflammatory Jewish settlement in Arab East Jerusalem, and stepped up pressure on Arafat to crack down on Islamic extremists. (3/24) The American Cancer Society recommended annual mammograms for women in their 40s. This contradicts the National Cancer Institute advisory board's recent recommendation that the benefits to women in their 40s didn't necessarily justify the cost, and that these women should decide for themselves whether to undergo the test. The NCI, under heavy political pressure, is expected to reverse that recommendation this week. The prevailing wisdom now is that the "decide for yourself" advice was too confusing, and that women need to be told exactly what to do. (3/24) The FBI may soon get its hands on a suspect in the Saudi air-base bombing . Canadian authorities have detained a Saudi citizen suspected of driving either the truck or the getaway car used in the bombing, which killed 19 American soldiers and wounded 500 others. U.S. investigators believe the man, Hani Abdel Rahim Sayegh, is a Shiite Muslim possibly connected to the Iran-supported terrorist group Hezbollah, which they suspect is responsible for the bombing. American officials are trying to get Sayegh deported to the United States for questioning, thereby circumventing Saudi investigators who have frustrated the efforts of U.S. law-enforcement agents to investigate the bombing. (3/24) Update from the NCAA basketball tournament : The Final Four are set. Arizona is the spoiler, having ousted tournament favorite Kansas and the only remaining dark horse, Providence, which was led by the memorable point guard God Shammgod. Kentucky, the defending champion, has staggered through despite injuries that have reduced its roster to eight players. Minnesota is the outsider, getting its first Final Four berth ever after having been denied an invitation to the tournament last year. And North Carolina is the comeback team, redeeming itself after having lost its first three conference games this season. (3/24) The House passed the partial-birth-abortion ban , as expected. The vote was 295-136--better than a two-thirds majority--which means that opponents of the ban must once again depend on the Senate to sustain a presidential veto. Despite all the hoopla over a pro-choice advocate's confession that he had lied about the circumstances under which the procedure is generally used, only five lawmakers switched their votes from "no" to "yes." (See Slate's "Abortion Apostate" on the partial-birth abortion debate.) (3/21) The tobacco industry suffered a potentially catastrophic defection. The smallest of the major tobacco companies, the Liggett Group, agreed to a settlement with attorneys general from 22 states who had sued to recoup money spent on health care for smokers. The media focused on Liggett's admissions of the obvious--that cigarettes are addictive and cause cancer and heart disease--and its agreement to pay the states a quarter of its (relatively small) pretax profits for the next 25 years. The more important concessions, however, were 1) Liggett's admission that the industry had consciously marketed tobacco to minors (which will increase congressional support for stiff regulation of the industry) and 2) its release--temporarily blocked by a North Carolina court--of documents from strategy meetings among lawyers for the five biggest tobacco companies, which industry critics believe will prove a conspiracy of deceit. Also, the tobacco executives who told Congress they didn't consider nicotine addictive might now be prosecuted for fraud and perjury. As for Liggett's motive, industry and financial analysts speculated that Liggett's CEO hoped to make the marginally profitable company a more attractive merger partner by eliminating its exposure to possibly huge jury awards. (3/21) President Clinton nominated CIA Deputy Director George Tenet to become CIA director . Tenet replaces the previous nominee, Tony Lake, who withdrew earlier in the week. Lake's reasons: The Senate's demands for his FBI files, new questions about the CIA's role in the foreign-money scandal, and further unpleasant hearings on top of the pounding he's already taken. Lake said Washington had gone "haywire" and worn out his patience and dignity. Pundits noted the echoes of Vince Foster's suicide note, but weren't buying the martyrdom in Lake's case. Their reactions: 1) Lake had shown poor ethical judgment and would have been lousy at the CIA job anyway. 2) He's a wimp for succumbing to a couple of right-wing punks (Sens. Richard Shelby and James Inhofe). 3) His martyr pose is pretentious and self-serving. 4) Nominee-stoning is what the two-party system and separation of powers are for. 5) The Democrats are reaping what they sowed (after torturing Robert Bork, John Tower, and Clarence Thomas). 6) It's Clinton's fault for creating the foreign-money scandal and thereby bringing suspicion and scrutiny on everything Lake did. 7) Once again, Clinton failed to "go to the mat" for a nominee in trouble. 8) Labor Secretary-nominee Alexis Herman, who was closer to the fund-raising mess, will now be confirmed easily because the Senate is satisfied with having killed Lake. (3/21) ABC News president David Westin is the latest star in the network news soap opera . USA Today implied that Westin's predecessor, the legendary Roone Arledge, is being kicked upstairs because ABC is losing the ratings war to NBC. The rap on Westin is that he's a lawyer and corporate boss who has no news experience. The counter-arguments are: 1) neither did Arledge (he came from the sports division) and 2) Arledge will tutor Westin for a while. The substantive issue at stake is hard news vs. soft news: Each network is accusing the others of going soft in pursuit of ratings. Westin says he wants ABC to get back to hard news. Instead, the media are swarming over Westin's alleged relationship with ABC's PR chief, Sherrie Rollins, who not only was his direct subordinate but is still married to multiply disgraced political consultant Ed Rollins. (3/19) The World Health Organization announced that a new strategy for treating tuberculosis could save 10 million lives over the next decade. The treatment, known as DOTS, consists of four drugs taken daily under meticulous supervision. The organization's director calls it "the biggest health breakthrough of this decade." (3/19)