Turner Offers to Pay U.S. Dues Shortfall

CNN founder Ted Turner has offered to make up the $35-million difference between the dues that the United States owes to the United Nations for 2001 and the amount that Congress is willing to pay. Turner’s offer is intended to help Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, clinch a deal for a permanent reduction in the U.S. share of the U.N. budget and to bring an end to Washington’s chronic debts to the world body, U.S. officials and a Turner representative said.