Washington Outlook: CAPITAL WRAPUP

HELMS'S UNDIPLOMATIC MOVE

U.S. ambassadors from four Asian nations won't be in place to greet Bill Clinton at November's Asia-Pacific economic summit in Japan. Envoys to China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia are among 30 nominations Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) is blocking. Why? It's payback for Clinton opposing Helms's bill to kill the Arms Control & Disarmament Agency, Agency for International Development, and U.S. Information Agency.