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BOSTON — Jack Welch, the former chairman and CEO of General Electric Co., has donated $1 million for scholarships to help students at his alma mater. 

The money will go to Salem High School graduates attending the University of Massachusetts. 

UMass president William M. Bulger announced the John and Grace Welch Endowed Scholarships on Tuesday.  

The fund is named after the executive’s parents. 

“My years at Salem and at UMass were a very important part of my life, and I hope these scholarships will allow other young people from Salem to realize their dreams, just as UMass helped me realize mine,” Welch said. 

Welch is on a promotional tour for his memoir “Jack: Straight from the Gut,” and won’t be attending the event. He retired last September after 20 years as GE’s top executive. 

Welch graduated from Salem High in 1953, and from UMass four years later. 

The class of 2002 will be the first eligible for the scholarships.  

Each year one man and one woman will receive the scholarships. 

In 1997, Welch paid for lighting for the school’s football field. 

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ST. PAUL (AP) — Gov. Jesse Ventura, who has used his military record to deflect criticism and bash foes but has kept mostly mum on what he did during the Vietnam War, has disclosed for the first time that he did not see combat. 

“To the best of my knowledge, I was never fired upon,” Ventura said in an interview with the St. Paul Pioneer Press for an article published Monday about his years as a Navy SEAL in the 1970s. 

Ventura had suggested in an interview with the Star Tribune of Minneapolis last year that he had “hunted man,” but wouldn’t give details then or now. And he has steadfastly refused to disclose much about his two overseas deployments, which totaled 17 months, saying his commanding officer gave their unit strict orders never to talk about what they had seen or done. 

Ventura had never specifically claimed to have fought in Vietnam. 

Based at Subic Bay in the Philippines, when he was still known as James Janos, Ventura earned the Vietnam Service Medal. It was awarded to 3 million servicemen and servicewomen who were in Vietnam, in surrounding countries or on ships off the coast. 

While Ventura often brags about his SEAL background and some of his exploits while training in the Philippines as a member of Underwater Demolition Team 12, he refused to say what he did to earn his Vietnam Service Medal. 

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LONDON (AP) — Twin actresses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are stretching their multimedia tentacles across the Atlantic Ocean by launching their clothing line in Britain. 

The Mary-Kate and Ashley clothing already is a hit in the United States, where the 15-year-old girls rose to fame in the TV series “Full House,” which ran from 1987-95. Since then, they’ve built a multimillion-dollar empire that includes movies, TV shows, videos and books. 

The clothing will go on sale later this year at Asda, a subsidiary of U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart, which has an exclusive licensing deal with the twins. 

Robert Thorne, founder with the twins of Dualstar, the company that markets them, said Tuesday he expected the clothing line to take off rapidly among the tweens — girls between ages 8 and 12. 

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On the Net: 

http://www.marykateandashley.com 

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Actors Danny Glover and Felix Justice spoke the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and poet Langston Hughes in a free performance that packed Hancher Auditorium. 

“There is something about doing this that makes me feel like I’m a part of something much larger,” Glover, star of the “Lethal Weapon” movies and “The Color Purple,” said Monday night. 

“These are words we’re all capable of embracing,” he said. 

Justice said “An Evening with Martin and Langston” is an educational performance, and no one is more educated by the piece than they are. 

“There are nuggets in every performance,” he said. 

Glover drew criticism last fall for saying at an anti-death penalty rally that Osama bin Laden should be spared the death penalty if captured. 

He said he believes King, in statements about loving your enemy and putting the value of man before money, likely would have had much to say in the wake of Sept. 11.