Chicago

Clinton discusses GOP foes

Former President Bill Clinton said Thursday that he didn’t set out “to settle a lot of scores” in his upcoming memoir, but he cast his Republican foes as instruments of the religious right.

“I don’t spare myself in this book,” said Clinton. “I take on a lot of water not just with the personal, but the political errors I’ve made.”

But he said his political enemies were governed less by honest disagreement than by religious fervor in launching investigations of his administration and his impeachment.

Former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr “really believed it was OK to apply a different set of rules to me and the people who knew me,” he said. “The Congress thought it was all right to apply a different set of rules than they did to Newt Gingrich.”

Thursday’s speech to BookExpo America offered a preview of Clinton’s 957-page memoir, “My Life,” which goes on sale June 22.

San Diego

Ford ordered to pay nearly $369 million in rollover case

A jury has ordered Ford Motor Co. to pay nearly $369 million to a woman paralyzed from the waist down in a rollover accident involving a Ford Explorer, the nation’s best-selling sport utility vehicle.

The jury Thursday ordered the No. 2 automaker to pay $246 million in punitive damages. It awarded more than $122.6 million in compensatory damages Tuesday.

The award is one of the biggest ever against the automaker and marked the first loss after 11 victories in rollover lawsuits involving the Ford Explorer.

Ford, based in Dearborn, Mich., says it will appeal.

The trial involved a January 2002 accident east of San Diego. Driver Benetta Buell-Wilson swerved to avoid a metal object and lost control of her 1997 Explorer, which rolled 4 1/2 times.

South Korea

Koreas agree on easing tensions at military talks

North and South Korea agreed Friday on measures to ease military tension along the Cold War’s last frontier, according to a joint statement released after all-night negotiations.

The military talks, which began a week ago in North Korea, were the first time that the generals from the former battlefield foes have met.

The two sides adopted a standard radio frequency and signaling system for their navies and agreed to exchange data on illegal fishing. They also decided to set up a hot line between the two sides to improve communication.

They will also end propaganda efforts along their border — via loudspeakers and billboards — by mid-August, the joint statement said.

However, there was no discussion of troop pullbacks from one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. The tank traps, gun emplacements and minefields remain in place.