Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : GOP Leaders Call for Brown Inquiry

House Republican leaders joined the call for appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown accepted $700,000 to help lift the U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam. The FBI and a federal grand jury in Miami are investigating the allegations. Brown has denied them and has said he expects to be “totally exonerated” by the probe. House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel, Republican Whip Newt Gingrich and three other Republican lawmakers asked Atty. Gen. Janet Reno in a letter to appoint a special prosecutor to study the allegations.