PARIS - Photos taken minutes before Princess Diana's Mercedes crashed show her driver "dazzled" by a camera flash, a lawyer said Tuesday. Judicial sources said a new blood test confirmed the driver was legally drunk.

Traces of anti-depressants also were found in the driver's blood, Europe-1 radio said. The report could not be confirmed, although investigators said they had "not ruled out" looking for substances other than alcohol.

What responsibility driver Henri Paul may have had in the Aug. 31 crash that killed him, Diana and her beau Dodi Fayed is a key question in the investigation.

Paul was a security officer at the Ritz Hotel, owned by Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed. The Fayed family has defended the driver, blaming the crash on paparazzi chasing the car.



Sinn Fein ready to join peace talks

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Sinn Fein, the IRA ally that once embraced both the gun and the ballot box as agents of change, formally renounced violence Tuesday and took its place in talks on Northern IrelandŐs future.

Five party leaders of Northern Ireland's pro-British Protestant majority stayed away, underlining their skepticism of Sinn FeinŐs sincerity and of a process they think will weaken Northern Ireland's union with Britain.

The chairman of the talks, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, welcomed Sinn FeinŐs arrival and urged the Protestants not to boycott the negotiations.


NATIONAL

Female military cadet suspended

LEXINGTON, Va. - Just weeks after enrolling its first coed class, the Virginia Military Institute suspended a female cadet for a year for striking a male upperclassman.

The incident occurred after classes had begun, VMI said Tuesday. The military college would not release details of the offense or identify the young woman or the man she was convicted of hitting.

The student was suspended after her case was heard by the school's executive committee Monday and the penalty was approved by VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting.

"I hate to lose any of our cadets ... but our system does not tolerate any cadet striking another,'' Bunting said in a statement.

Asked if the woman was reacting to sexual harassment, VMI spokesman Mike Strickler said the circumstances were "nothing out of the ordinary.''

The cadet was one of the first 30 women to attend the 158-year-old college, which enrolled its first coed class last month after the Supreme Court ruled in 1996 that it could not be both state-supported and all-male.


Clinton may foot bill in Jones case

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - White House spokesman Mike McCurry said President Clinton might be paying his own legal bills in the Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against him after he leaves office.

A spokeswoman for State Farm Insurance Co. said the company has stopped paying Clinton's legal bills in the Jones suit. The action coincides with WrightŐs Aug. 23 decision to throw Jones' defamation claims against Clinton out of the lawsuit.

Mary Boone, a State Farm spokeswoman in Bloomington, Ill., said the companyŐs only involvement was the defamation charge.

In other case developments, a federal judge allowed Jones' lawyers withdraw , but ordered that the case stay on course for a trial next May.

"All deadlines shall remain in place," U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright said in a one-page order that let Joseph Cammarata and Gilbert Davis quit as Jones' lawyers.

New attorneys for Jones have yet to emerge.

The two lawyers said in papers filed Monday that they had "fundamental differences of opinion" with Jones about how the case should proceed.

Clinton's attorneys, led by Robert S. Bennett, said they were ready to move toward a trial.


Insult may cost college newspaper

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- A recent article in Virginia Tech's student newspaper described a prominent administrator as the "Director of Butt Licking" - a title that could cost the paper a small fortune.

A reporter initially interviewed Sharon Yeagle, assistant to the vice president of student affairs, in April 1996 for a story regarding the Virginia Governor's Fellows Program. In the Times' story her name and tittle appeared correctly; however, in a display quote she was referred to as the "Director of Butt Licking"  - a template used by the newspaper to determine space requirements until the correct title is entered.

Although the newspaper apologized publicly after the mistake, the Times did not print a retraction for nearly three months. As a result, Yeagle sued the newspaper for defamation, asking for $850,000.

Ray W. Grubbs, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge, dismissed Yeagle's original suit, filed in April 1996, in March on the grounds that an average person would not believe the title was truthful.

But the State Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear Yeagle's appeal. If Yeagle wins the appeal, the case returns to the circuit court for a jury trial.