Ugandan authorities are holding 20 people in connection with a plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, and the FBI was invited into the East African nation to help with the investigation, this according to a Ugandan government official. He said Ugandan intelligence officials had learned that the group that carried out the bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam also planned to attack the U.S. Embassy in Uganda. The Washington Post is also reporting that American intelligence officers helped thwart the plot, saying Ugandan authorities were aided by information from the CIA. Over the weekend, security officials said 18 people had been arrested in connection with plans to hit American and Ugandan targets in the country. It was not clear when the other two people were arrested.

Sources quoted in the Associated Press are saying lawyers for President Clinton and Paula Jones have been exploring the possibility of settling Jones’s dismissed sexual harassment lawsuit. The dismissal of the suit is set for arguments before an appeals court next month. One of the sources says the former Arkansas state employee offered to settle the case if the president would pay her legal fees. The source says Jones is no longer demanding a statement of apology from Clinton. Another source provides no details but confirms there have been recent contacts. The first source says the president is seriously considering the offer, though the size of the legal fees could be a stumbling block. The source says Jones’s attorneys have requested about $800,000 in legal fees. The settlement explorations began as Clinton faces a House impeachment inquiry stemming from his deposition in the Jones case.

The House Judiciary Committee is back behind closed doors today to decide what more of independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s evidence can be shown to the public. House Judiciary Committee Chair Henry Hyde has already said the panel will release 60,000 more pages of evidence next week. Republicans and Democrats may already agree on the Linda Tripp tapes, the 20 hours of taped phone calls Tripp made of her chats with Monica Lewinsky. Hyde says the committee will probably release edited transcripts because, Hyde says, the tapes include “information that could be embarrassing to innocent people.” And committee Democrat Barney Frank says Democrats won’t push for release of the actual tapes. The timetable set by Hyde calls for committee members to vote October 5 or 6 on whether to hold a formal impeachment inquiry. If members vote yes, the full House would likely vote a few days later, opening the possibility of impeachment hearings in November.

And this news from Cincinnati: The reporter at the center of The Cincinnati Enquirer’s dramatic apology and $10 million payment to Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty to two felony charges yesterday. Mike Gallagher, who had been accused of stealing Chiquita’s voicemail messages, pleaded guilty to unlawful interception of communications and unauthorized access to computer systems in a Hamilton County, Ohio, court. He faces up to two-and-a-half years in prison and a $7,500 fine. Gallagher is 40 years old. He has maintained his silence throughout the investigation. He says he had no comment when leaving the court yesterday. His attorney did not return a phone call to The Washington Post. The plea comes three months after the Enquirer published three front-page apologies to Chiquita and retracted an 18-page investigative report about the banana company’s business practices. The payment, which sources say may be closer to $15 million, was made to head off a pending lawsuit. The Enquirer also fired Gallagher, who has been named in a defamation suit by Chiquita.

A group of American activists has come to Iraq to deliver medicine, violating a travel ban on visits to the country under U.S.-U.N. sanctions. The Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness has been visiting Iraq for the last eight years. One of the group’s leaders said today the visit was in solidarity with Iraqi children and elderly suffering under the sanctions. Four members of the group arrived with medicine to be delivered to Basra in southern Iraq. It’s the 15th trip by Voices in the Wilderness since 1990.

The Indonesian military today denied rumors it’s beefing up its troops for an assault on rebels in East Timor, and said there had been no fighting in the country for months. Residents and church sources said the military had increased its presence in the eastern part of the territory in an apparent attempt to quell the Fretilin resistance movement.

The death toll from Hurricane Georges soared in the Dominican Republic, where rescue workers recovered scores of bodies from mud, waters and devastated buildings in remote areas of the country hit hardest by the storm. More than 200 people, possibly many more, died in the tempest that has ravaged the Caribbean since Monday and now threatens Florida.