Across The Nation

BRIDGE ENGINEERS STUDY GAP WHERE GIRL, 2, FELL TO HER DEATH

SAN FRANCISCO - As Golden Gate Bridge engineers pondered ways of plugging a 9 1/2-inch gap that allowed a 2-year-old girl to fall 170 feet to her death this weekend, the girl's parents vowed yesterday to prevent such freak accidents from happening to other children.

The Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District began a probe to find whether bridge designers violated state codes by allowing such a wide opening next to a pedestrian walkway.

A "poorly designed" portion of the bridge caused Gauri Govil's fatal fall Sunday while the family was sightseeing on the historic landmark, her father, Anurag Govil, said at a news conference.

Bridge engineers met yesterday to discuss ways the gap - expanded by an unspecified amount during a 1986 bridge-widening project - between the road and the walkway could be closed, as well as to examine codes and determine whether the bridge design meets them.

Bridge chief engineer Merv Giacomini said the gap allows for bridge maintenance.

Bounty hunters accused in killings now tied to drugs

PHOENIX - A double killing blamed first on a mistake by bounty hunters seeking a bail jumper and later on robbery now is being linked with drugs, a newspaper reported today.

Christopher Foote and his girlfriend, Spring Wright, were killed Aug. 31 when five masked gunmen broke into their home and exchanged gunfire with Foote.

The gunmen claimed they were bounty hunters who went to the wrong house, but authorities later discounted the story and charged the men with murder.

The Arizona Republic, citing newly released police documents, reported that Foote had methamphetamine in his blood. Wright was drug-free, according to tests. The documents say that before the raid, one of the men charged in the killings had asked a friend to find a drug house that they could "hit up," the newspaper reported.

Relatives of Foote and Wright said the couple had been involved with drugs in the past but were trying to clean up.

$700 million in HUD grants to assist homeless people

Vice President Al Gore yesterday announced $700 million in grants to help communities provide shelter and services for homeless people.

The money will go "a long way towards helping homeless citizens move off the sidewalks and into jobs," he said.

The Housing and Urban Development grants total $25 million more than last year and are doled out in a competitive process based on community needs and the track records of the providers.

The money will support 1,400 projects, but it is enough to cover less than half of the $1.7 billion in requests for help nationwide.

HUD also announced that it had awarded $165 million yesterday for emergency shelter grants, in addition to the $700 million.

Monsanto seeks approval for new no-calorie sweetener

ST. LOUIS - Monsanto has taken the first step toward giving the public an artificial sweetener that is 8,000 times sweeter than sugar but has zero calories.

The St. Louis-based company said yesterday it has filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration for approval of a sweetener called neotame for tabletop use.

It was Monsanto that discovered aspartame, used in its NutraSweet brand of sweeteners. Aspartame is 200 to 400 times sweeter than sugar and has just a trace of calories. NutraSweet, launched in 1981, is the world's top-selling brand of artificial sweetener.

Marine-construction firms plead guilty to bid-rigging

WASHINGTON - Three international marine-construction companies have pleaded guilty to criminal bid-rigging charges and been fined $65 million.

The Justice Department said yesterday it was the second-largest criminal antitrust settlement in U.S. history.

Heeremak, a Dutch company; Dockwise, a Belgian firm; and Dockwise's U.S. subsidiary admitted to charges that they conspired with unidentified competitors to set prices to bid for contracts to build heavy-lift derrick barges and equipment to haul oil-drilling rigs.

Three current or former executives of the companies also pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the continuing investigation of bid-rigging in the industry, which had more than $200 million in revenues worldwide last year, the Justice Department said.