Across the Nation

Christopher to lead search for Gore VP

WASHINGTON - Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher will lead Al Gore's effort to select a running mate, Gore announced yesterday, launching a vice presidential sweepstakes that until now had been more of a political parlor game.

The job is a familiar one for Christopher, who did the same chore in 1992 for Bill Clinton in a process that ended with the Arkansas governor picking Gore to join him on the Democratic ticket.

Christopher later helped Clinton choose his first Cabinet, which included his own name as top diplomat.

He was secretary of state for four years to mixed reviews, with some criticizing a lack of progress in Middle East negotiations and his handling of Bosnia while others praised him for steady good judgment.

Now 74, Christopher is a lawyer in Los Angeles.

"I welcome his experience and judgment in this important effort," the vice president said in a statement.

His selection brings concreteness to a process that was the subject of speculation even before Gore and his Republican rival, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, wrapped up their parties' nominations on March 7.

Bush has other priorities - integrating his own campaign structure with the national Republican Party apparatus, for example - before he turns to establishing a vice presidential selection process, officials say.

Top officer accused of groping peer

WASHINGTON - A two-star general accused of groping a female peer later was nominated for the Army's No. 2 investigative post, defense officials acknowledged yesterday, raising questions about whether military leaders had dealt appropriately with the woman's explosive allegations.

Maj. Gen. Larry Smith, a decorated Vietnam veteran, was nominated to be the Army's deputy inspector general last Aug. 27, even though Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy had complained three years earlier that Smith had touched her inappropriately during a brief encounter in her Pentagon office.

In the inspector general post, Smith would oversee investigations of improper conduct, including sexual harassment. Kennedy, a military intelligence specialist and the Army's highest-ranking woman, raised the issue with at least one superior in 1996, then went to her superiors again informally last fall in hopes of quietly persuading them that Smith was not suited for the investigative post, several officers said.

Though she hoped to avoid a full-scale investigation, her allegations set off a formal inquiry by the Army inspector general. Smith, meanwhile, has been assigned temporary duty at the Army Materiel Command in Alexandria, Va.

Elian's father arrives in U.S. to claim boy

WASHINGTON - On U.S. soil, Juan Miguel Gonzalez said yesterday he was "truly impatient" to reclaim his son Elian, but his hopes for a quick transfer of custody were dashed when government negotiations with the 6-year-old Cuban boy's Miami relatives broke down.

The father declared his love for son Elian and chastised those who are trying "to obtain political advantage" from the custody battle over the shipwreck survivor. Gonzalez received immediate assurances that the U.S. government is eager to reunite him with his son. "It is simply the right thing to do," Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder said.