Here is a summary of news from The Associated Press. Stories carried ``i'' or ``f'' category codes. Some of the items below have moved on this circuit in expanded form: LONDON AP The hospital where Gen. Augusto Pinochet has been under police guard says he no longer needs medical care dealing a blow to any plan by the former Chilean dictator to plead he is too ill to stand trial on charges of genocide and torture. Grovelands Priory a private hospital in north London issued a statement Monday urging Pinochet's family to quickly find the 83-year-old general somewhere else to stay saying he ``no longer requires the specialist medical and nursing care.'' The hospital's decision to evict Pinochet makes it difficult for Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw to cite ``compassionate grounds'' based on ill and frail health if he decides Dec. 11 to let Pinochet return home. A Spanish magistrate ordered his arrest on charges of murder torture and genocide. BRITAIN-PINOCHET MONTREAL AP Like ambivalent boxing judges Quebec voters gave their combative politicians a split decision: the pro-independence government gets another term in power but with support so tepid that a secession bid is unlikely any time soon. The separatist Parti Quebecois retained a large legislative majority in Monday's provincial election winning 75 of the 125 seats to earn a new term of up to five years. But the anti-separatist Quebec Liberal Party though winning only 48 seats received 44 percent of the popular vote to 43 percent for the Parti Quebecois. As a result the comments of Liberal leader Jean Charest sounded more buoyant than the victory speech of Premier Lucien Bouchard the separatist leader. ``The result tonight ... reflects the fact that the people of Quebec like the people of all Canada want this country of ours to work and be a success'' said Charest. CANADA-QUEBEC ELECTION WASHINGTON AP The House Judiciary Committee is opening a carefully scripted hearing into the consequences of perjury. But behind the scenes political fireworks are exploding over Republican efforts to expand the impeachment inquiry from President Bill Clinton's private life to his campaign fund raising. Committee Republicans sought on Monday to subpoena secret Justice Department and FBI memos urging Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the president's 1996 campaign. The decision opens up a new avenue of investigation for the impeachment panel just as the committee is pressing for a vote by Christmas on possible articles of impeachment against the president. US-CLINTON-IMPEACHMENT BEIJING AP In an apparent attempt to crush a budding opposition party Chinese police have detained two of China's most prominent dissidents and three other democracy campaigners a human rights group and relatives of those taken into custody said Tuesday. Police in two cities descended on the homes of Xu Wenli Qin Yongmin and other members of the China Democracy Party on Monday night and took them away relatives and the rights group said. Dissidents formed the would-be opposition group in June to challenge the ruling Communist Party's monopoly on power. Signaling the leadership's resolve to quash any challenges the party's No. 2 legislative chairman Li Peng was quoted Tuesday as saying that Western-style democracy was inappropriate for China and opposition groups would not be tolerated. CHINA-DISSIDENTS POTSDAM Germany AP Leaders of Germany and France agreed Tuesday to strengthen efforts to fight unemployment and boost the economy a well-placed source said reflecting a stronger emphasis on a left-leaning agenda for Europe. The source who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity was unclear about which common initiatives might be planned. The leaders were issuing a joint declaration later Tuesday after a two-day German-French summit hosted by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder his first since he and his Social Democrats won September elections in Germany. Both sides also agreed that cooperation among industrial nations to combat economically damaging turmoil in financial markets was a desirable goal the source said. GERMANY-FRANCE APW19981201.0190.txt.body.html APW19981201.0700.txt.body.html