(1682,2,'Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy is broke and will have to leave the luxurious suite he has occupied since fleeing here after a coup in neighboring Haiti unseated him Sept. 17, an official said Monday. Deputy Foreign Minister Fabio Herrera Cabral said Namphy was forced to leave Haiti so quickly _ only hours after the coup carried out by the Presidential Guard _ that he did not have time to bring money. Namphy\'s bills at the Dominican Concorde Hotel will be paid by the Dominican government but he will have to leave the hotel by week\'s end, the official said. In a televised interview, Herrera said Namphy has received some economic aid from a group of Haitian businessmen residing in the Dominican Republic and from Dominican friends. The deposed general is accompanied in exile by his wife, Gabrielle, and daughter, Melissa. Herrera denied that Namphy had made an official petition for permanent political asylum in the Dominican Republic, as was reported by a Foreign Ministry source last week. However, he admitted that Namphy has made it obvious he wants to stay in the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Herrera indicated that Namphy\'s presence in the Dominican Republic will not affect relations with Haiti. ``He (Namphy) says that he was never a politician, that he was a military man, that his military career is over now and that he is not interested in any political or military position,\'\' Herrera said, speaking about discussions he had with the former Haitian leader. ``It seems that Namphy never thought he would have to leave his country and ... because of the circumstances under which he had to do it he was unable to bring any money,\'\' Herrera said. The deputy foreign minister said Namphy\'s friends are searching for a modest but secure house for the deposed general and his family to move into by the end of this week. Herrera also denied rumors that Franck Romain, the ousted mayor of Port-au-Prince, left the Dominican Embassy in the Haitian capital. He said Romain, his wife, daughter and a group of about 10 other persons are still in the embassy waiting for the Haitian government to grant them safe conduct out of the country. Romain is the reputed leader of thugs known as Tonton Macoutes and is suspected of having ordered the attack at the St. Jean Bosco Church that left 13 persons dead and 77 wounded. The Sept. 11 massacre was mentioned by the soldiers who overthrew Namphy as one of the reasons for carrying out the coup. Namphy remains secluded in his hotel suite, refusing to speak with reporters. A waiter who is the only person authorized by security personnel to attend to Namphy\'s needs in the hotel said Namphy spends the day in white short pants, either reading or looking out the window of his suite. His wife and daughter also spend most of the time reading, said the waiter, who asked that his name not be used.\r\n');
INSERT INTO `corpora` VALUES (1683,2,'William H. Spoor, returning as chief executive officer of the Pillsbury Co., said Tuesday the company has no intention of selling its Burger King subsidiary despite the chain\'s flat performance in recent months. Spoor, named Monday to replace John M. Stafford as Pillsbury\'s chairman and chief executive officer, also announced several management changes at the Minneapolis-based parent company. On Wall Street, Pillsbury stock rose 25 cents a share to $37 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Burger King, which generates 40 percent of Pillsbury\'s sales, reportedly has seen its share of the hamburger chain market fall in recent months after rapid growth in the mid-1980s. Burger King\'s share fell to about 16.8 percent in early 1987 from a 1986 high of 17.4 percent, The Wall Street Journal reported in December. The company has said its average sales per store have been flat at about $1 million for the past two years. ``I want to say without qualification that Burger King is central to Pillsbury,\'\' Spoor said in a statement at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of Pillsbury\'s board of directors. ``That was true yesterday, it is true today, and it remains true for the company\'s strategic future,\'\' he said. Spoor\'s statement made no mention of Pillsbury\'s other restaurant businesses _ Steak & Ale, Godfather\'s and Bennigan\'s _ and a spokesman said neither he nor Stafford was available for comment Tuesday afternoon. Spoor had retired from Pillsbury in 1985, but remained on the company\'s board of directors. His return as CEO was announced Monday in a statement that gave no reasons for Stafford\'s resignation. ``I pledge to take whatever steps are necessary in the next three months so that we will enter fiscal 1989 with momentum and a solid portfolio of businesses capable of returning superior shareholder value,\'\' Spoor said in his statement. ``We have a clear strategy that will lead us successfully into the 1990s. fiscal 1988 is a disappointment in many ways, but our future is bright and fiscal 1989, which begins June 1, will be an excellent year and gratifying to our shareholders.\'\' Pillsbury in fiscal 1987 reported its first earnings decline in 16 years: $182 million, or $2.10 a share, down from $208 million, or $2.38 a share, in fiscal 1986. Stock analysts who were projecting fiscal 1988 earnings of about $2.80 a share were told by Stafford in February to lower the projections by about 30 cents a share, a Pillsbury spokesman said. Spoor on Tuesday announced four promotions in the top management of the company: _John L. Morrison, was elected a Pillsbury executive vice president and was named chairman, U.S. Foods. He was formerly a Pillsbury vice president and president, International Foods. _Thomas R. McBurney, executive vice president, was named chairman, International Foods. McBurney served previously as chairman, U.S. Foods. _Jerry W. Levin, executive vice president, corporate development and chairman of The Haagen-Dazs Co., was given the additional responsibility for Pillsbury\'s Industrial Foods Business. Industrial Foods was previously a part of U.S. Foods. _James R. Behnke, senior vice president for technology, was made responsible for Pillsbury\'s research and development activities worldwide.\r\n'),(1684,2,'You won\'t be through with taxes for the year even if you beat the midnight Monday deadline for filing your federal return. The average American will have to work through May 5 to satisfy the tax collectors. If that prediction by the Tax Foundation proves accurate, it will be the latest ``Tax Freedom Day\'\' on record and two days later than 1989. The reason is simple, the nonpartisan research organization said Sunday in announcing the mythical date: ``Tax increases will outpace the growth in individuals\' income during 1990.\'\' Tax Freedom Day is the foundation\'s estimate of how long it would take an average person to pay his or her state, federal and local taxes if all income went for taxes until they were all paid for the year 1990. The calculations assume that all taxes are paid by individuals, including those collected from corporations. Until this year, the latest date was May 4, 1981, before a big tax reduction took effect. The foundation said subsequent watering down of several deductions, increases in Social Security taxes and state and local taxes, and a gradual economic slowing will have wiped out that reduction. For the millions of couples and individuals still struggling with 1989 returns, the Internal Revenue Service announced that its toll-free telephone service would remain open late Monday night to answer technical tax questions. The Postal Service said most post offices in cities with at least 30,000 population planned to station clerks at curbside to receive returns. Neither the IRS nor the Postal Service estimated how many returns were likely to be filed Monday night. However, the IRS said it expects to receive about 23 million this week _ or one of every five that will be filed this year. About 6 million couples and individuals unable to file their returns on time were expected to receive a four-month extension by filing Form 4868 instead. The extension is automatic _ but only if Form 4868 is accompanied by a check for estimated taxes owed. Another 650,000 or so Americans abroad, including military personnel, qualified automatically for a two-month extension just by having their main business, home or duty station outside the United States and Puerto Rico. A number of people have tax years that ended on days other than Dec. 31, 1989, and thus have other filing deadlines. Still others will simply miss the filing deadline, do nothing about it and subject themselves to separate penalties for filing late and paying late. Taxpayers who file their returns with the IRS Service Center in Andover, Mass. _ residents of New England and most of upstate New York _ have until midnight Tuesday to file. That is because Monday is Patriots Day, a legal holiday, in Massachusetts. When all the returns are counted later this year, they are expected to total 111 million, an increase of about 1 million from 1989. About four of every five returns are qualifying for refunds, slightly above last year\'s figure. Refunds are averaging more than $850. If IRS estimates of how long it takes to prepare a return are correct, procrastinators should not wait too late Monday before beginning the task. The agency guesses the average person requires 2 hours and 32 minutes to learn about the law and Form 1040, another 3 hours 10 minutes to fill it out, and 35 minutes to copy, assemble and mail it. That adds up to 6 hours and 17 minutes _ not counting the 3 hours and 7 minutes of recordkeeping required. And that total does not include the time required to do a Schedule A for itemized deductions (1 hour and 47 minutes plus recordkeeping), a Schedule B for interest and dividends (44 minutes) or any other supplemental form. While the conservative Tax Foundation was highlighting the overall growth of taxes, the Democratic Study Group was marking the filing deadline by decrying a shift of tax burden away from the rich. The organization, which includes most liberal Democrats in the House, released an analysis indicating that since 1980, the total federal tax burden for the three-fifths of the population with low to middle incomes rose, the next highest 20 percent realized a net cut of only about $45 and ``the 1 percent of households with the very highest incomes ... (had taxes cut) by an average of more than $12,000.\'\'\r\n'),(1685,2,'A frail, repentant Roswell Gilbert regained his freedom Thursday after spending more than 5 years in prison for the 1985 ``mercy killing\'\' of his ailing wife. The 81-year-old Gilbert acknowledged publicly for the first time that he was wrong to kill his wife of 51 years, who suffered from Alzheimer\'s disease and osteoporosis. ``I shouldn\'t have killed my wife, now I know that,\'\' said Gilbert, whose case focused national attention on the killing of an ailing loved one. ``It\'s difficult to explain to anyone who hasn\'t been through this trauma, a mental trauma really,\'\' said Gilbert. He said his wife\'s illness ``created just a complete state of desperation in my mind ... it\'s a lousy excuse, but that\'s what it was.\'\' Gilbert shot his wife, Emily, twice with a 9mm Luger in March 1985 in their Fort Lauderdale apartment. He was serving a mandatory minimum prison term of 25 years on a murder conviction when he was granted clemency on humanitarian grounds Wednesday by Gov. Bob Martinez and the Florida Cabinet. Gilbert, who suffers from heart and lung disease, wants to regain some of the 40 pounds he lost in prison and ``recoup my health.\'\' He chuckled at reports that his death may be imminent. ``I\'m a tough old rooster ... don\'t believe it,\'\' said Gilbert, who said he would probably ignore his daughter\'s pleas to stop smoking. ``Daddy has very bad emphysema and one of the main things I\'m going to do is really insist he quit smoking,\'\' said daughter Martha ``Skipper\'\' Moran, the Gilberts\' only child. The retired engineer was examined in January and a medical report showed he suffered from heart and lung disease and was considered ``at high risk of death at any time,\'\' because of his age and physical condition. Gilbert, who left the North Florida Reception Center with a handful of possessions in a small brown paper bag, described prison as a ``human zoo.\'\' ``It\'s been plain awful for a freedom-loving person like myself,\'\' he said. Besides a hamburger, a shot of bourbon and a nice soft bed, Gilbert said he was looking forward to seeing his three grown grandchildren soon. ``I haven\'t had a good look at them for a long time,\'\' he said. He left the prison for a friend\'s home in an undisclosed location. His daughter said she expected him to resettle in Fort Lauderdale. The lawyer who prosecuted Gilbert at the murder trial, Kelly Hancock, said he was relieved that the state decided to free Gilbert. ``His health is deteriorated, and I think his release puts to an end a very, very tragic case _ a case that made us all more aware of the problems of the sick and the elderly have,\'\' said Hancock, who\'s now in private practice and publicly sought Gilbert\'s release in recent weeks. Actor Robert Young, who portrayed Gilbert in a 1987 television movie, ``Mercy or Murder?,\'\' also said he was elated with the news of Gilbert\'s clemency. ``That\'s sensational,\'\' said the 83-year-old Young, best known for his roles in the TV series ``Father Knows Best,\'\' and ``Marcus Welby, M.D.\'\' Although the two men never met, Young said he spoke with Gilbert many times by telephone. ``We had wonderful chats,\'\' said Young. ``There was no self-pity in him at all. It was a remarkable experience for me to play the role and get to know the man.\'\' Mrs. Moran, who lives in Baltimore, said she believes her mother would say: ``It\'s about time they let him out.\'\'\r\n'),(1686,2,'President Bush is expected to sign legislation that provides for trade sanctions against China, but allows the president to suspend them if he finds it is in the national interest. The Senate voted 98-0 late Tuesday for the measure, which was passed by the House in November before Congress\' two-month holiday break. Prompted by Beijing\'s crackdown last June on pro-democracy demonstrators, the sanctions are part of a $9.7 billion measure authorizing activities of the State Department for the 1990 and 1991 fiscal years. The legislation would suspend: _Financial underwriting through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for U.S. companies doing business in China; _Aid under the Trade and Development Program; _Issuing licenses for controlled munitions or crime control and detection equipment; _Export of U.S.-built satellites, certain bilateral nuclear cooperation and liberalization of multilateral export controls. Most of the sanctions reflect actions Bush himself had already taken in the wake of the bloody suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing on June 4, and their place in the bill is regarded as mostly symbolic. The administration already has begun to lift some of those sanctions, including the one barring export of satellites, citing improved conditions in China. The bill approved Tuesday would permit Bush to terminate any of the sanctions if significant political reform occurs in China or if Bush finds waiver of the sanctions is ``in the national interest\'\' of the United States. There was almost no debate on the bill, in contrast to the showdown last week over whether to uphold Bush\'s veto of a measure that would have protected Chinese students in the United States from deportation. The Senate narrowly upheld the veto after the White House waged an all-out campaign to pressure Republican senators to back the president. An administration official described the fight as ``not a battle over how to handle China, but a battle over who should be handling China.\'\' Democrats used the occasion to again accuse Bush of too-cozy relations with a regime that has done little to adhere to U.S. human rights standards. The largest amounts in the bill _ $3.3 billion this year and $3.7 billion next year _ are for the State Department, primarily for salaries and the expenses of running embassies and consulates around the world. Also included are about $2 billion over two years for the U.S. Information Agency and $600 million for the Board for International Broadcasting, which runs Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Not voting were Sens. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo.\r\n'),(1687,2,'President Roh Tae-woo will invite Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to visit South Korea when the two meet next week, newspapers said today. A North Korean official denounced the planned meeting. Several Seoul newspapers quoted high-ranking government sources as saying Gorbachev will be invited to visit Korea after his trip to Japan, planned for next April. The Roh-Gorbachev meeting Monday will be the first between leaders of the two countries, which have no diplomatic ties. The Soviet Union is a close ally of Seoul\'s rival, communist North Korea, to which it provides arms. North Korea\'s official news agency today quoted a Foreign Ministry official as denouncing the planned meeting between Roh and Gorbachev. ``If President Gorbachev has a meeting with Roh Tae-woo, which we do not think will take place, it will be a serious political issue,\'\' the official was quoted as saying. The report by the Korean Central News Agency was monitored in Tokyo. ``We consider that the president of the Soviet Union, an ally of ours, is quite able to analyze and judge what a serious political consequence will be entailed by his meeting with Roh Tae-woo, who is seeking only the split of Korea,\'\' the report said. The Korean Peninsula was divided into the communist North and capitalist South at the end of World War II in 1945. The two sides fought the Korean War in 1950-53. A South Korean official said today that the agenda for the Roh-Gorbachev talks will include the normalization of relations between Seoul and Moscow, economic cooperation and peace measures on the divided Korean peninsula. Kim Kim Chong-hwi, presidential assistant for foreign affairs, expressed optimism about the chances for formal relations. ``The meeting itself shows that the Soviet Union recognizes the Republic of (South) Korea,\'\' he was quoted as telling the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper. Dong-A Ilbo said Roh and Gorbachev are expected to agree on an early establishment of diplomatic ties, possibly before September. Seoul officials hope the Roh-Gorbachev meeting will help ease tension on the peninsula. They believe improved ties with the Soviet Union will result in better relations between the two Koreas.\r\n'),(1688,2,'Gov. Rose Mofford filed amended financial-disclosure forms Friday to cover transactions omitted from sworn documents she filed over the past 10 years, and she apologized for what she called an honest mistake. Mrs. Mofford\'s predecessor, Evan Mecham, who was impeached and removed by the Legislature earlier this year, is under criminal indictment on charges of omitting a $350,000 campaign loan from his disclosure forms. Questions about Mrs. Mofford\'s forms had been raised a week earlier by an Associated Press story detailing discrepancies between her filings and other state and county records, and Attorney General Bob Corbin began an investigation Monday. Failure to file a complete disclosure statement can be a felony or a misdemeanor under Arizona law. The amended forms covered land, loan and partnership transactions omitted from earlier forms filed by Mrs. Mofford. ``I now believe that these items should have been disclosed earlier,\'\' she said at a news conference. ``I made an honest mistake.\'\' As secretary of state for 10 years before becoming governor upon Mecham\'s impeachment, Mrs. Mofford was in charge of the office where disclosure forms are filed, and she said that aspect was especially embarrassing. ``I\'m very sorry,\'\' she said. ``I want to emphasize that it was never my intent to hide anything from anybody.\'\' Asked how her position differed from that of Mecham, who said he made ``an honest mistake\'\' in failing to list the $350,000 loan and had not meant to hide anything, Mrs. Mofford replied, ``Mine are very small amounts of money.\'\' As recently as Monday, Mrs. Mofford described reports about the undisclosed transactions as ``nitpicking.\'\' On Friday, however, she said was turning over 150 pages of documents about transactions to Corbin\'s office together with copies of her income tax returns. Mrs. Mofford declined to make her tax returns available to reporters but distributed some papers on all the properties, loans and partnerships the AP had cited. She also disclosed an interest in one additional partnership. ``On the investigation of the allegations against Rose Mofford, I have no comment because the matter is under investigation,\'\' Corbin said. Mrs. Mofford said she had decided not to list the items because her interest in them was linked to T.R. Mofford, whom she divorced in 1967 but with whom she remained on good terms with until his death from cancer in 1982. She said that her former husband had given her an interest in a number of properties before his death and that she had paid his hospital bills ``in excess of $30,000.\'\' ``I have never made any profit,\'\' she said. ``I was paying my husband\'s bills.\'\' Mrs. Mofford and her aides acknowledged, however, that she had not listed her former husband\'s gifts under a reporting section that requires disclosure of gifts above $500 or, alternatively, listed the money she advanced to his estate for hospital bills in a section covering amounts of more than $1,000 owed to or by the officeholder. ``Its a bad judgment call. I admit it. I\'m sorry. I hope that I haven\'t embarrassed the state,\'\' she said. Mecham did not immediately return messages left at his home and office. Nancy Puffer, founder of a group Mecham supporters known as Concerned Arizona Voters, said she saw little difference between Mrs. Mofford\'s problems and Mecham\'s, especially given Mrs. Mofford\'s 10 years as head of the office that administers disclosure laws. ``You would hope that she would know them backwards and forwards,\'\' Ms. Puffer said. ``If anyone is in a position to know them, it would be her.\'\' ``It leaves a little doubt in my mind if she can handle the office _ how well prepared she is,\'\' she added.\r\n'),(1689,2,'Pat Robertson has completed his journey from religious broadcaster to presidential candidate and back, returning to the Christian Broadcasting Network as co-host of ``The 700 Club.\'\' ``For better or worse, the health of this ministry depends on this program. It is our bread and butter,\'\' Robertson said Monday after the first broadcast of the revamped program, which included the introduction of a new co-host, Sheila Walsh, a gospel singer and songwriter from Scotland. Robertson, who founded CBN, left the network in 1986 to pursue his political goals. In 1987, when the Southern Baptist minister formally announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, he installed his son, Tim Robertson, as president of CBN and one of three hosts of the program. During that period, donations dwindled. CBN officials blamed the decline on scandals in other television ministries, changes in ``The 700 Club\'\' format and a poor economy in oil states where many CBN donors live. Robertson later said his absence was the reason for the drop. During that time, CBN laid off more than 1,000 employees _ about half its workforce _ and cut its operating budget by more than 40 percent. Ratings for ``The 700 Club\'\' also dropped, giving rise to the format unveiled Monday. Gone were the dramatic recreations of religious conversions and the public prayers for healing that marked the old program. Robertson said the new formula for the 90-minute program will be one-third news, one-third ministry and teaching and one-third lifestyle features. Robertson still plans to campaign for Vice President George Bush during the presidential election. ``When I leave that desk,\'\' he said, pointing to the studio desk from which he delivers the news and commentary segment of the program, ``I am no longer a newsman. When I\'m there, I will try to report the news fairly.\'\'\r\n'),(1690,2,'Stock prices fell on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, while the dollar edged up. The Nikkei Stock Average of 225 selected issues, a 80.06-point winner Friday, lost 130.24 points, or 0.46 percent, to close at 28,079.18. The dollar closed at 133.88 yen, up 0.48 yen from the last week\'s close after moving between 133.80 yen and 133.95 yen. Trading was moderate on the stock exchange\'s first section, with volume at 600 million shares. Exchange dealers said the yen-dollar rate was not likely to change much for the moment because if the U.S. currency touches the 134-yen level, investors are likely to sell the dollar.\r\n'),(1691,2,'Japan will continue as the No. 1 foreign customer of American farmers at least through the turn of the century, maintaining its lead over the European Community, according to Agriculture Department trade analysts. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Japan once again topped foreign buyers of U.S. agricultural products at an estimated $8.3 billion, compared with the EC\'s imports of $7 billion. Emiko Miyasaka of the department\'s Foreign Agricultural Service said she expects Japan to maintain its lead over the 12-nation EC ``at least in the 1990s.\'\' Miyasaka said Tuesday in a telephone interview that Japan\'s top ranking as a foreign buyer of agricultural products appears solid through the turn of the century despite the EC\'s plan to unify economically by the end of 1992. Beyond the 1990s, however, she said the situation is too uncertain for predictions at this time. Miyasaka was asked to elaborate on a report by her agency last week which said Japan ``is likely to be among the strongest export growth markets\'\' for U.S. farmers. ``This optimism is based on the expectation that Japan\'s economic growth, while slowing, is expected to be the strongest of all industrialized countries, fueling consumer demand,\'\' the report said. Further, there has been some liberalization of Japan\'s agricultural imports through the current Uruguay round of negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. ``Since 1964, when it emerged as Asia\'s first billion-dollar market for U.S. farm products, Japan has steadily expanded its agricultural imports,\'\' the report said. Japan moved in front of the EC as the top U.S. farm market in 1988. Bulk commodities such as corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, tobacco and logs are the big-ticket items, but Miyasaka and other analysts believe there are greater market opportunities for high-value products like beef, vegetables, citrus fruit, fruit juices and processed wood products. In 1988, the U.S.-Japan Beef Agreement opened the door to growing sales of beef - from a value of $556 million in 1987 to $1 billion last year. U.S. exports of fresh, frozen and prepared vegetables rose to $253 million by 1989, the report said. Sales of french fries, for example, rose to $79 million from $37 million in 1983. A thorn in this trade development has been Japan\'s rice policy, which effectively bars imports, part of a national policy to protect domestic growers. The United States has called on Japan during the GATT negotiations to ease the restrictions. Miyasaka noted that the U.S. position on Japanese rice is part of an overall bid under GATT to reduce trade restrictions all over the world. In any case, she said, whatever Japan does about its rice policy will not keep that country from continuing as the leading foreign market for American farmers. --- WASHINGTON (AP) - A plan calling for modest cuts in farm payments has been approved by the European Community, but U.S. farm organizations are watching closely to see what happens when it goes before international negotiators. ``It\'s a step,\'\' said Dave Lane of the American Farm Bureau Federation\'s Washington, D.C., office. ``But it\'ll still probably go right down to the wire.\'\' The Uruguay round of negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is scheduled to conclude Dec. 31 in Geneva. Late Tuesday, in Brussels, Belgium, the 12-nation EC endorsed a carefully worded proposal that sought to soothe fears of governments that their farmers would be hurt by reductions. At issue was a proposal to pare farm subsidies by 30 percent over 10 years, starting in 1986. Some reductions have already been made. The EC proposal, which had been due Oct. 15, will be submitted to the trade talks as the community\'s opening position in the final round of bargaining. Meanwhile, a coalition of 29 U.S. farm organizations and commodity groups on Tuesday released a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills and Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter declaring that no GATT agreement on agricultural trade would be preferable to one that ``papers over\'\' fundamental differences with the C. The American farm groups have bitterly attacked the EC\'s system of export subsidies and certain other practices that bear on world agricultural trade. ``As the deadline approaches without any encouraging sign from the EC that problems dealing with market access, export subsidies, and health and sanitary issues are truly negotiable, we are becoming increasingly concerned that a final agricultural package may be fabricated to once again paper over our differences,\'\' the groups said. The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Grange were joined by 27 commodity and agricultural trade associations representing a wide variety of products, including meat, soybeans, nuts, avocados, raisins, peaches, cattle, corn, pork, turkeys, wheat, and fresh fruit and vegetables. --- WASHINGTON (AP) - Milk production has been rising this year and so has the output of some major dairy products, according to a monthly report by the Agriculture Department. In September, butter production was estimated at 84.8 million pounds, up 4 percent from a year earlier. Total cheese output, excluding cottage cheese, was reported Tuesday at 477 million pounds, up 6 percent. Non-fat dry milk for human food was reported at 50.6 million pounds in September, up 13 percent from a year earlier. But ice cream production, at 62.9 million gallons, was down 1 percent from September 1989, the report said.\r\n'),(1692,2,'The Supreme Court today let stand a ruling that the at-large system used in Norfolk, Va., city council elections violates the rights of black voters. A federal appeals court panel last Aug. 18 ordered the city to switch to a single-district election system that will ``remedy the vote dilution arising out of the at-large election system.\'\' The Norfolk City Council has seven members, elected to staggered four-year terms. Elections for three or four of the council seats are held every two years. Candidates with the most votes citywide win, and do not need a majority of the votes cast. A group of black voters and the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sued in 1983, contending that the at-large system used since 1918 illegally blunted the political clout of black voters. Norfolk, one of Virginia\'s largest cities, is 35 percent black in population. Blacks also comprise 35 percent of the city\'s registered voters. The city council did not have a black member until 1968, and since then has had one black member most years. The NAACP and black voters who sued said if city council members were elected from seven single-member districts, black voters would be in the majority in three of the seven districts. The city\'s voting dispute reached the nation\'s highest court once before, and in 1986 was sent back to lower courts for more study. U.S. District Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. in Norfolk ruled in 1988 that the at-large election system did not violate the federal Voting Rights Act, but a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his ruling. The panel, by a 2-1 vote, said the at-large system gives black voters ``less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the electoral process and to elect representatives of their choice.\'\' The panel said those who sued ``do not seek proportional representation, and the act does not require it.\'\' But it said the lack of success blacks have had in winning more ``token representation\'\' on the city council show the existence of ``white bloc voting ... in Norfolk.\'\' The appeals court panel ordered Clarke to block all future at-large elections and to require the city to come up with a new election system in a ``reasonable, specified time\'\' to be reviewed under Voting Rights Act standards. ``If the city fails to enact a legal plan, (Clarke) should prepare a single-district plan for the conduct of future elections,\'\' the appeals court panel said. The full 4th Circuit court split 5-5 in refusing to review the three-judge panel\'s decision. The panel\'s decision was held in abeyance pending today\'s action by the Supreme Court. The panel\'s ruling that the city elections system must change now will take effect. In their appeal, city officials said the August decision forcing a change ``is nothing more than a decision to require ... proportional representation.\'\' ``If that ruling is correct,\'\' the appeal said, ``then all at-large election systems are imperiled.\'\' Asked for its views, the Bush administration told the court to reject the city\'s appeal. ``Although the court of appeals\' analysis is not without flaws, the court\'s errors ... either do not affect the outcome of the case orare too closely tied to its particular facts to be of general significance,\'\' Justice Department lawyers said. The case is Norfolk vs. Collins, 89-989.\r\n'),(1693,2,'A Greenpeace ship seized by the Soviets after it approached an Arctic nuclear test site was released Saturday and headed for Norway, a member of the environmental group said. None of the 42 activists detained were charged following more than five days at a naval base near the port of Murmansk, about 900 miles north of Moscow, Canadian activist Steve Shallhorn said by radiotelephone from the ship. The ship was expected to reach the Norwegian port of Kirkenes by early Sunday. Last Monday, the Soviet Coast Guard fired warning shots from deck-mounted machine guns before boarding the MV Greenpeace. Four environmentalists in a rubber raft had earlier managed to reach one of the Novaya Zemlya islands in the Barents Sea and collect radioactive soil and other samples, Shallhorn said. The ship was towed to the naval base, where it was held for violating Soviet territorial waters. Shallhorn said the four activists spent 10 hours on the island before being captured. Novaya Zemlya was a primary nuclear test site from 1958 to 1963. Environmental groups claim it was last used in 1988. ``They tried to hide samples in their packs, their pockets, even their socks, but the (Soviets) went through everything with a Geiger counter and found everything,\'\' Shallhorn said. He said the 35 Western and seven Soviet activists had been generally treated well during the detention, and were guarded by at least 13 armed men under KGB command. The Greenpeace was ordered to leave Soviet territorial waters following an investigation by the KGB security police and the Soviet Prosecutor\'s Office, the Soviet news agency Tass reported. The vessel was on a two-week anti-nuclear protest voyage along the Arctic coastline. On Wednesday, Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov said the Soviet Union agreed with the Greenpeace goal of ending nuclear weapons testing. But, he said, ``no matter what the mission or how noble the objectives may be, the laws of our country cannot be violated with impunity.\'\' According to Greenpeace officials in London, Novaya Zemlya was chosen for the protest because of fears it would again become a major test site after the closing down of the Soviet Union\'s main test range in the Kazakhstan republic in central Asia. The site is about 370 miles from Norway. Unconfirmed reports that nuclear tests would be resumed there prompted protests from Nordic governments.\r\n'),(1694,2,'The speaker of the Arizona House stripped two committee chairmen of their posts and threatened to resign Tuesday as she struggled for control of her rebellious Republican caucus. Speaker Jane Hull stripped Reps. Don Aldridge and Jim Skelly of their chairmanships, of the Public Institutions and Rural Development and House Judiciary committees, respectively, for voting against her. Mrs. Hull has clashed with conservative Republicans over a proposal to freeze the state\'s property tax rate and to pass along an income tax windfall to taxpayers. The proposal was offered by fellow Republican Margaret Updike, who said she wanted to ensure the Legislature didn\'t use the $170 million windfall or a property tax hike to balance a deficit budget. Majority Whip Chris Herstam tried to kill the proposal on a procedural motion. Ten Republicans joined Democrats in voting against him. But after Mrs. Hull threatened to replace any chairman who voted against Herstam, all Republicans except Aldridge and Skelly fell into line, giving Herstam a 32-25 margin. Rep. Brenda Burns sent Mrs. Hull a note during the debate, saying the conservatives would back down if she promised to allow a vote on Ms. Updike\'s proposal later. But Mrs. Hull refused to promise and tore up the note on the floor. She challenged the conservatives to try to remove her as speaker, and said she might resign. Later, after a three-hour closed caucus, Mrs. Hull said she had come ``pretty darned close\'\' to resigning, but decided against it ``because we were able to sit and rationally discuss the budget.\'\' House and Senate leaders have been trying for two weeks to drum up votes for a bipartisan budget and tax package, but conservative Republicans and a few Democrats in each chamber have balked. There has been talk of passing the $3.5 billion budget, which includes a deficit of about $400 million, without a tax package to fund it. Without specific legislation to the contrary, the windfall _ which has been passed on to taxpayers in past years _ would revert to the state, and the property-tax rate would be increased from its current 47 cents-per-$100 assessed valuation to whatever level would cover the deficit. Skelly, a 20-year veteran of the Legislature, is not seeking re-election and said losing his committee chairmanship was not significant because the session is almost over and no more committee meetings were scheduled. Aldridge said he was unwilling to give in to save his chairmanship. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Mark Killian, a leader of the conservative faction, said the conservatives still opposed the budget but recognized they could not block its passage. ``Some of us went and talked to the speaker and kind of put up the white flag,\'\' he said. ``There\'s another day and another war. Maybe we can do better next year.\'\'\r\n'),(1695,2,'A jury Saturday found John Zaccaro Jr. guilty of selling cocaine to an undercover officer two years ago, rejecting defense arguments that he was entrapped by a pretty state trooper. The jury deliberated for slightly more than two hours before finding the son of 1984 vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro guilty of selling one-quarter gram of the drug in February 1986, while he was a student at Middlebury College. Zaccaro, 24, sat impassively as the verdict was read, his parents and other family members behind him. He faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. A sentencing date was not immediately set. Outside the courthouse, Ferraro read a statement acknowledging that her son had done wrong in the case. But she also criticized Addison County State\'s Attorney John Quinn for ``prolonging the agony for two years\'\' regarding her son\'s fate. Ferraro promised to appeal the guilty verdict. She said she and her husband, John Zaccaro Sr., had tried to set up a plea agreement shortly after their son was arrested, but Quinn would not allow a plea bargain that would not include a felony conviction. ``We, as his parents would not allow him to plead guilty\'\' to a felony, she said. Ferraro said there were several drug cases recently in Vermont in which plea bargains were easily arranged and light sentences were given to defendants convicted of selling larger quantities of drugs. In her statement, Ferraro blamed the case on four people: her son; Quinn; former Middlebury police detective Sgt. David Wemette, who initiated the investigation after rumors circulated that Zaccaro had earned the campus nickname of ``the Pharmacist\'\'; and herself because of the pressure her 1984 candidacy put on her family. Ferraro refused to answer reporters\' questions as she and her family walked to their car and drove off. Quinn said the verdict ``sends a message that drug pushers will not be tolerated in Vermont. In my mind, it\'s been difficult dealing with the publicity in the case. I don\'t care who his parents are.\'\' The state\'s attorney has an unlisted home telephone number and could not be reached for further comment on the question of plea bargaining. The verdict came at the end of a six-day trial, more than half of which was taken up by jury selection. Zaccaro\'s defense attorney, Charles Tetzlaff, presented no witnesses, but told jurors in closing arguments that they should find his client innocent by reason of entrapment. In his instructions to the Vermont District Court jurors, Judge Francis McCaffrey said they could find Zaccaro innocent by means of entrapment if they believed he was induced to commit a crime he normally would not commit. Entrapment could not be used as a defense if the jury had considered the lesser charge of possession, the judge said. Tetzlaff said police acted improperly by sending an attractive female undercover agent to Zaccaro\'s apartment to buy cocaine. He asked the jury to send a message to police that society should not condone such activities. Quinn told jurors that the issue was whether Zaccaro sold cocaine to state trooper Laura Manning. ``Yes, she was deceptive. She\'s not going to the defendant\'s house dressed in a uniform. That would be ludicrous,\'\' Quinn said. ``I can\'t deny Laura Manning is attractive. I can\'t deny she\'s female. But I can deny she was bait.\'\' He described the deal as just another sale for Zaccaro. ``When he takes a packet off the tray, he opens it up, being the good merchant that he is ... looks at it, wraps it up\'\' and gives it to Manning, Quinn said. Earlier Saturday, the final prosecution witness, state police chemist Frank Durkee, testified that a packet of powder Zaccaro sold to Manning tested as cocaine. Tetzlaff, who rested his case soon after Durkee\'s testimony, had said in his opening statement: ``The defense will not dispute the allegation that he sold a regulated drug. This is a case of improper and overzealous police conduct.\'\' The attorney also said that Manning, an officer on her first undercover assignment, had brought up the subject of drugs, not Zaccaro. Manning testified Friday that she went to Zaccaro\'s apartment with instructions to buy one-quarter gram of cocaine. When asked what she said to Zaccaro, Manning responded, ``I said, `A couple of people told me that you could sell me some coke.\'\'\' ``And what did he say?\'\' Quinn asked. ``Sure,\'\' Manning quoted Zaccaro as responding. The judge banned the use of Manning\'s tape-recorded drug buy as evidence in the trial. He also refused to allow prosecutors to use items taken from Zaccaro\'s car, including documents described as drug records, $1,630 and eight grams of cocaine. The barring of the evidence in the car resulted in the dropping of a second charge against Zaccaro, possession with intent to sell. The defense also had raised the argument that Zaccaro was unfairly singled out because of the publicity surrounding his mother, but the Vermont Supreme Court refused to overturn the charges on that basis.\r\n'),(1696,2,'Belgium\'s national dish _ golden-brown fried potato sticks sprinkled with salt and covered under a blob of mayonnaise _ is getting healthier again. The consumer group Test-Achat said Wednesday new legal standards for frying fats, which came in the wake of a damning 1987 report on Belgium\'s unhealthy ``frites,\'\' have done the trick. ``The statistics indicate a considerable improvement over three years ago,\'\' Test-Achat said in its magazine.\r\n'),(1697,2,'A man who shot and killed a policeman trying to arrest him for a double murder said he held ``no grudges\'\' before being put to death in the electric chair in Arkansas\' first execution in 26 years. John Edward Swindler, 46, was pronounced dead at 9:05 p.m. Monday, three minutes after being given 2,300 volts of electricit in the big oak chair. Arkansas became the 14th state to carry out an execution and Swindler the 130th inmate put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 let states resume use of capital punishment. Swindler was condemned for the 1976 murder of Fort Smith policeman Randy Basnett, who was shot at a gas station while trying to arrest Swindler for two murders in South Carolina. Swindler was later convicted of those slayings as well. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution on Saturday. In final remarks dictated in his cell to Roman Catholic Monsignor John O\'Donnell, Swindler said: ``I have no animosity toward anyone. No grudges.\'\' ``I hope this brings to light the injustice of capital punishment and the need to abolish it,\'\' he said. Swindler\'s body was to be turned over to O\'Donnell for cremation. Swindler\'s family didn\'t want the body. ``He has professed that he believes in Satan, and I hope he gets to see him real soon,\'\' his brother, Robert E. Swindler of Lexington, S.C., said recently. The last person executed in Arkansas was Charles Franklin Fields, who was electrocuted in 1964 for rape. R. Gene Simmons, convicted of killing 16 people, including 14 family members, is scheduled to be die Monday by injection. Because Swindler was sentenced before Arkansas changed its method of execution from electrocution to injection, he was given a choice of either method. He left the choice up to authorities, who selected the method specified in his sentence. Shanon Howard, the daughter of Basnett\'s widow, Cindy, said after the execution, ``All I can say is justice has been done.\'\' ``This is Randy Basnett\'s day,\'\' said Randy Manus, who was selected as a witness to the execution. A handful of demonstrators for and against the death penalty gathered outside the prison as the execution approached, including several members of the Fort Smith Police Department, some in T-shirts decorated with a lightning bolt and the slogan ``Turn Out The Lights, The Party\'s Over _ John Swindler, 1990.\'\' Some of those opposed to the death penalty sang ``Amazing Grace.\'\' When told of Swindler\'s death, several police officers cheered, grinned, shook one another\'s hands. One broke into song. On Sunday, about 50 members of Amnesty International held a 26-minute vigil commemorating 26 years without an execution in the state. The human rights group implored Gov. Bill Clinton ``not to end the decency of the past 26 years by reinstituting this brutish form of violence.\'\'\r\n'),(1698,2,'A group of House staffers spent more than $28,000 going to Europe to plan a trip for lawmakers, but received a jolt just before their return flight _ the bosses decided to stay home. The decision to scrap the travel _ after the staffers had gone to London, Paris, Rome and elsewhere _ has triggered a dispute between the two lawmakers who planned it. Rep. Frank Annunzio, D-Ill., the chief organizer, canceled the trip. He said he didn\'t want to use a military plane during the U.S. invasion of Panama, which began while the advance team was in Europe. But Rep. Doug Barnard Jr., D-Ga., said he suspected his colleagues got ``cold feet\'\' because of harsh winter weather in Europe and bad publicity at home. According to House records, the six-member advance team spent more than $28,000 for lodging, meals, commercial air transportation and other expenses between Dec. 13-20. The staffers and members contended they learned useful information regardless of the cancellation. The lawmakers were to have traveled in January to gather information on Europe\'s move toward a unified financial system. Aides to Annunzio and Barnard also now disagree over whether the January itinerary was even set. The lawmakers\' respective advance teams scouted different cities. Curtis Prins, staff director of the Annunzio-led House Banking subcommittee on financial institutions, said the military jet would have taken members to Strasbourg in France, London, Brussels and Rome. Those were the cities visited by Annunzio\'s staffer on the advance mission, subcommittee economist Gregory Hallisey. Five House Government Operations subcommittee staffers traveled for Barnard to Paris, Brussels and Madrid. One of those staffers, Peter Barash, said the stops had ``not been fixed\'\' by the members. Barash was staff director of the Government Operations subcommittee on commerce, consumer and monetary affairs, a job he left on March 1. Barnard is chairman of that panel and also serves on Annunzio\'s subcommittee. A sixth congressional staffer on the trip was assigned to Barnard\'s committee by Congress\' investigative arm, the General Accounting Office. Barnard bristled over Annunzio\'s decision to cancel the trip, maintaining it is vital lawmakers planning to restructure the U.S. banking system learn firsthand about Europe\'s move toward unified financial services by 1992. Barash said he held useful meetings with foreign tax authorities, U.S. officials involved in tax enforcement, representatives of the European Community and U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials. ``We\'ve been doing serious and hard work,\'\' he said. Annunzio said in an interview that he canceled the trip because ``I could not in good conscience justify using military personnel\'\' and equipment when the U.S. forces ``were fighting and dying\'\' in Panama. He said the military jet transport, a version of the commercial Boeing 707, ``might have been needed in Panama and I wanted to make sure it would be available for that purpose.\'\' Barnard, in a separate interview, said, ``I doubt if we\'re that limited\'\' in military equipment. He said several members who originally signed up had dropped out before the invasion, leaving so few lawmakers that use of a military plane couldn\'t be justified anyway. Barnard added he knew of previous trips where ``at least a minority of people got cold feet\'\' because of potential adverse publicity. ``It sounds alluring to go to London, Paris and Madrid, but when it gets down to going in wintertime, it\'s not as appealing and they change their minds,\'\' he said. Barnard said he would like to reschedule the trip for Congress\' Easter break. Annunzio noted members will be busy with primary and general elections this year, but he said he would revive the trip ``if I see interest.\'\' Prins, staff director of Annunzio\'s subcommittee, said 19 House members were signed up at one point for the January trip, and the party would have reached 41 including military escorts, spouses and staff members. The number of House members had dwindled to 12 just before the cancellation, Prins said, but he and Annunzio insisted the trip would have gone ahead with that number if the invasion had not intervened. Prins acknowledged ``if we had many more defections,\'\' the trip would have been canceled even without the invasion.\r\n'),(1699,2,'President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has postponed a trip to Oslo next month to receive the Nobel Peace Prize because of domestic political and economic problems, Tass reported today. The official Soviet news agency said Gorbachev hoped the Nobel Committee would agree to postpone the Dec. 9-10 ceremonies and present him the prize at a later unspecified date. Gorbachev postponed the trip ``due to the crucial situation in the country and the president\'s preoccupation with affairs that require his constant attention,\'\' his press office said. In Oslo, Nobel Committee secretary Geir Lundestad would not comment on the Soviet request. Gobbachev is struggling to hold his geographically and ethnically diverse country together in the face of mounting nationalism and independence drives by the 15 republics. The Soviet Union also faces a grave economic crisis.\r\n'),(1700,2,'Four-time winner Rick Swenson regained the lead Wednesday in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, while a musher miles behind him was trying to scare off curious buffaloes. Lavon Barve and three-time champion Susan Butcher were minutes behind Swenson about a third of the way through the 1,158-mile race from Anchorage to Nome. ``There\'s a lot of strong teams this year,\'\' said Butcher, warning that there\'s still plenty of time for surprises. ``We\'ve got a long way to go yet.\'\' Swenson led the race Monday topping the Alaska Range at 3,500-foot Rainy Pass, but was overtaken by defending champion Joe Runyan at Rohn on Tuesday. He had a cut on his face and a cracked plastic runner on his sled as he mushed away from this Athabascan Indian village of 110 people at Iditarod milepost 367. Swenson said the damage wouldn\'t stop him from reaching McGrath, the next checkpoint 48 miles from here, where he either would repair the runner or change sleds. Behind Swenson on the trail through Farewell Burn, eighth-place racer Tim Osmar of Clam Gulch fired shots into the air to clear the trail of several buffaloes. The Iditarod Trail is named for a tiny ghost town it passes through. The race commemorates the 1925 emergency delivery by relay dog teams of life-saving diphtheria serum to Nome. Butcher won the race in 1986, 1987 and 1988 and took second place last year. Swenson won in 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1982. He has finished in the top 10 every year since 1973, when the Iditarod was started.\r\n'),(1701,2,'The White House described the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan today as a ``welcome first step,\'\' and expressed the hope the entire force will be gone by the end of the year. ``We look forward to seeing the withdrawal proceed on schedule and will continue to monitor the progress,\'\' said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. After a bloody eight-year occupation of their neighbor, the Soviets began withdrawing troops on Sunday. The spokesman said that the U.S. policy of support for the freedom fighters that have battled the Soviets ``remains steadfast.\'\' The United States has said that it will continue to supply weapons and other materials to the resistance fighters as long as the Soviets continue their support of the Kabul regime. Under the Geneva accord on Afghanistan, half of the estimated 115,000 troops are scheduled to leave by August and the rest by February. Fitzwater said the withdrawal was ``a welcome first step in the Afghan peoples\' desire for independence and self determination.\'\' ``As the Soviets leave, we remain confident that a broadbased government chosen by the Afghan people and not imposed from outside will replace the Kabul regime,\'\' the spokesman added. Asked if the administration believes Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev will pull out all his troops, Fitzwater responded in the affirmative. ``We obviously hope the withdrawl can be complete by the end of the year,\'\' Fitzwatar said. Asked if that included Soviet advisers as well as troops, he responded, ``A Soviet\'s a Soviet.\'\'\r\n'),(1702,2,'A new management team is in place today at Coleco Industries Inc., and the company that brought Cabbage Patch Kids to the marketplace is seeking protection from its creditors in bankruptcy court. The West Hartford-based company on Tuesday gave up a months-long battle to reach an agreement to reorganize its debts with its banks and bondholders, announcing it had filed for federal bankruptcy court protection from creditors. Coleco said it filed for Chapter 11 protection late Monday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The filing will permit the company to continue operating while it reorganizes its finances. The Coleco board appointed J. Brian Clarke, currently president and chief operating officer, as president and chief executive officer. Clarke replaces Morton E. Handel, who is recovering from open-heart surgery. Handel submitted his resignation as chief executive officer because of the company\'s need for a full-time CEO during this period. He will continue as chairman of the board. The Chapter 11 filing had been expected ever since Coleco announced in March it suffered a $105.4 million loss for all of 1987 and would miss an April interest payment on its debentures. Coleco said the filing did not include the company\'s Canadian and other foreign subsidiaries. Telephone calls seeking comment from company officials on Tuesday were not returned. Coleco owes more than $100 million to a group of foreign and domestic lenders. In March, shortly after it announced a $47.4 million loss for the first quarter, the toymaker proposed a $335 million debt restructuring plan. But late last month, Coleco was forced to abandon the plan because it failed to win approval of the company\'s debtholders. The company said Tuesday it was no longer able to obtain working capital financing because of the failed plan and because some creditors had started to attach its assets. Over the past year, the toymaker slashed its work force in an effort to cut costs. It currently has fewer than 600 employees in the United States, down from an average of 2,500 last year. It also has sold several of its product lines to raise cash. ``What is going to emerge is going will be very different from what went in,\'\' said analyst David Leibowitz, senior vice president of American Securities Corp. Five years ago, Coleco was on top of the toy world with its Cabbage Patch Kids. The company sold $1 billion worth of the dolls over two years. The Cabbage Patch craze prompted Coleco to expand its product lines and make acquisitions. Coleco bought the company that makes Scrabble board games, acquired the license to the popular Trivial Pursuit board game and bought the company that makes Wrinkles stuffed animals. But the Cabbage Patch fad abated and analysts said the company did not pare its costs soon enough. When the toy industry slumped in 1987, Coleco was hit particularly hard. The company suffered losses in four of the past five years, including $215 million over the last two years. It recently lost the license to market Trivial Pursuit because of its precarious financial state. But Coleco said Tuesday it managed to retain the license for the valuable Cabbage Patch line. Coleco said it had extended its license with Original Appalachian Artworks Inc. until Dec. 31, 1994.\r\n'),(1703,2,'Medical personnel who use Pulmanex Manual resuscitators are being asked to return the devices because of a defect that in some cases could be fatal to patients. The Food and Drug Administration said Life Design Systems Inc. of Carrollton, Texas, is voluntarily recalling resuscitators with model numbers beginning with 90, 91, 95 or 96 and ending with a 0, 1, 2 or 3 after the hyphen. The recalled models have lot numbers 9321 through 9361 and were made from Nov. 17 through Dec. 27 last year. In five previous recalls, Life Designs Systems has recalled other models of the resuscitator for various reasons, the FDA said. The agency said it did not know of any deaths that have resulted from any of the faulty resuscitators. The resuscitator subject to the latest recall comes in adult, pediatric and neonatal sizes. It consists of a mask that is placed over the patient\'s mouth and nose and is attached to a plastic bag. Squeezing the plastic bag forces air into the patient\'s lungs. In faulty resuscitators, the rear valves can become dislodged and prevent air from reaching the person being resuscitated, the FDA said. If the problem is not recognized in time, the patient could die.\r\n'),(1704,2,'A small earthquake rattled central Utah early today, but there were no reports of damage or injury. The quake struck at 6:44 a.m. and registered 4.6 on the Richter scale of ground motion, according to the U.S. Geological Survey\'s National Earthquake Information Service at Golden, Colo. It was an aftershock of an earlier temblor. Initial reports of the quake came from Price, East Carbon and Helper. The quake\'s epicenter was 34 miles south of Price. The Carbon County sheriff\'s office said it received numerous calls, and the Emery County sheriff\'s office also received a few calls from residents asking about the earthquake. The central Utah area was hit by three quakes on Sunday, the largest of which was 5.6 on the Richter scale. The temblors caused minor damage and were followed by about a dozen aftershocks on Monday. Seismologists had said aftershocks could continue through mid-week. The Richter scale is a measure of ground motion as recorded on seismographs. Every increase of one number means a tenfold increase in magnitude. Thus a reading of 4.5 reflects an earthquake 10 times stronger than one of 3.5. An earthquake of 3.5 on the Richter scale can cause slight damage in a populated area and a 4 can cause moderate damage in the local area.\r\n'),(1705,2,'Jesse Jackson issued an emotional appeal today for supporters to back the Democratic ticket and told Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen that he will be keeping up the ``street heat\'\' to make sure they don\'t forget his constituents. ``It is in order and it is right to support this ticket because of our access to it and our relaionship with it,\'\' Jackson told several hundred delegates as Dukakis and Bentsen looked on. ``We have every reason to be hopeful, to be excited, to know that we are close to where we are going, a long way from where we started,\'\' Jackson said. ``And in our lifetime you and I will be in the White House.\'\' He introduced Dukakis as ``a man I\'ve come to know, to respect ... a man I\'ve come to ... love because of his own sensitivity to family,\'\' Jackson added: ``I bring to you a man I plan to watch up close ... when he becomes ... the next president of the United States _ Michael Dukakis.\'\' The group erupted in applause and shouts of ``Duke, Duke.\'\' ``We\'re going to need you, we want you, we can\'t win without you,\'\' Dukakis responded. Jackson issued a blistering attack on the Reagan record and called for Democratic unity. A progressive agenda will be won with ``a combination of street heat and leadership,\'\' he said. He promised Dukakis, ``There will be enough heat to cook our meat and enough heat for George Bush to get out of the kitchen.\'\' Jackson recalled that when Lyndon B. Johnson was added to the ticket in 1960, some civil rights activists were concered. But Johnson rose to the occasion, Jackson said. Turning to Bentsen, he said, ``In a real sense, your occasion is now... You ask us to trust you. All we can ask of anyone is that they not betray that trust.\'\' Jackson repeated that he wants neither a job nor a title with the Dukakis operation. ``I want to serve, free to serve at my own pace, free to serve, free to challenge,\'\' he said. He said he expects his own relationship with the ticket will influence some policies. ``What does it mean to me in practical terms?\'\' Jackson asked. ``The contras have lost a vote.\'\' Bentsen _ who has voted for aid to the Nicaraguan rebels _ and Dukakis politely joined the applause as delegates chanted, ``No contra aid.\'\' Jackson, who had been the last survivor in the Democratic field against Dukakis, had endorsed the ticket at Thursday night\'s closing session of the party\'s convention. At the end of the long road, Jackson said, ``I feel fantastic.\'\' But it was clear he would have to do some selling to whip up enthusiasn for the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket. Jesse Jackson embraced the Democratic ticket he had wanted to head and gave the Democrats the unity send-off they sought for victory in the November election. As he strode from the podium where he joined Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis on Thursday night, Jackson said, ``We have a good ticket and a good team. And if the unity that is expressed here tonight is sustained and expands, we will win and we will deserve to win.\'\' Asked his own feeling at the close of the convention, he said, ``I feel fantastic.\'\' With the dust hardly settled from his own presidential campaign, Jackson today was looking ahead to new political ventures. He called a meeting today of his 1,200 delegates to include them in his plans to campaign for the Dukakis ticket, raise money for his own political action committee and register voters. It appeared Thursday night that he would have to do some selling to whip up enthusiasm among some delegates for the team of Dukakis and Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. Signs reading ``No Contra aid\'\' printed up by members of the Vermont delegation were held up by several Jackson delegates around the hall. Dukakis opposes aid to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, while Bentsen has voted for it in the past. ``He\'s against peace,\'\' said Vermont delegate Cindy Milstein who mentioned several pro-military stands by Bentsen. But Jackson officials circulated a statement from him to his delegates before the vice presidential vote, urging support of Bentsen. The brief statement said that while he disagrees with Dukakis and Bentsen on some issues, ``our interest converges in building a coalition to beat the Republicans this fall.\'\' Jackson\'s appearance in the hall later was clearly appreciated. At the mention of his name by Dukakis, a deafening cheer went up from both Jackson and Dukakis delegates. At first Jackson sat unnoticed in a VIP box with former President Jimmy Carter, an uncustomary role for Jackson, until Dukakis waved to him. Jackson stood, gave a thumbs up and the delegates erupted in emotion.\r\n'),(1706,2,'The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials edged up 3.56 points to 2,072.37. But declining issues outnumbered advances by nearly 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 605 up, 789 down and 525 unchanged. Big Board volume totaled 114.88 million shares, against 141.54 million in the previous session. The NYSE\'s composite index dropped .21 to 150.63.\r\n'),(1707,2,'The following are the most popular videocassettes as they appear in next week\'s issue of Billboard magazine. Copyright 1988, Billboard Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission.\r\n'),(1708,2,'Vandals painted swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs at a Jewish cemetery in Rhode Island and in the office of a Jewish student organization in New York one day after a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht. ``I can\'t even find the word for it, it\'s so hurtful,\'\' James Oppenheim, president of the Jewish Student Union at the State University of New York at Binghamton, N.Y., said Thursday. There was no sign of forced entry at the office and sanctuary in the basement of the student union, Oppenheim said. The group has about 200 students that coordinate activities on the campus, which has about 5,000 Jewish students. ``I think it\'s politically motivated because they didn\'t do any damage that we can see,\'\' Oppenheim said. Police were taking fingerprints in the rooms but had no suspects, said Raymond Dye, vice president of student affairs. On Wednesday night the Jewish group sponsored a candlelight vigil to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night the Nazis began their first organized assaults against the Jews in Germany and Austria. In Woonsocket, R.I., vandals painted swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans at a 95-year-old Jewish cemetery, but police were uncertain whether the attack was related to Kristallnacht observances. A woman visiting B\'nai Israel Cemetery Tuesday found her son\'s headstone among the approximately half-dozen covered with swastikas and other Nazi symbols. The main road to the cemetery also had been inscribed with anti-Jewish slogans and the German word for Jew, ``Juden.\'\' ``Today when I went to the cemetery, it was a very terrible reminder of things that have happened to us in the past,\'\' Temple B\'nai Israel President Edith Wittes told those assembled for a Kristallnacht memorial service. In addition to the Nazi symbols, there were other images with possible links to Satanic worship, such as skulls and an inverted cross with its arms turned down. ``The sickness that made Adolf Hitler possible is alive and well today, in our own community,\'\' said Rabbi Joel Chernikoff.\r\n'),(1709,2,'Cher completed her transformation from pop singer to top actress at the 60th Annual Academy Awards when she won the Oscar for her role as the superstitious young widow of ``Moonstruck.\'\' ``I want to really say something,\'\' she said when she accepted the award Monday night. ``When I was little my mother said, `I want you to be something.\'\'\' ``I don\'t think that this means that I am somebody, but I guess I\'m on my way,\'\' Cher said. She was nominated by the Academy once before for ``Silkwood.\'\' Cher, known for her outrageous garb at past Oscars, was slightly subdued this time in a black sequined gown with see-through netting and strategically placed spangles. Backstage, she said of her getup: ``I think Theda Bara would probably be proud of me,\'\' referring to the famed ``vamp\'\' of the silent screen.\r\n'),(1710,2,'After more than a week of overdosing on mega-deals, the fear of failure has given Wall Street traders and speculators a reason to just say no to merger mania. Dragged down by sharp declines in key takeover issues, the Dow Jones average of 30 industrials fell 24.35 points on Thursday, closing at 2,140.83. The new wave of multibillion-dollar buyouts relies heavily on debt, and many observers are concerned that the financing of these deals ultimately may prove too fragile. ``This is not business as usual,\'\' said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Nikko Securities Co. International Inc. of the high level of debt mandated in these transactions. ``When you take a blue-chip company and turn it into a buffalo-chip company, it\'s not a good situation.\'\' Reflecting skepticism over Kohlberg Kravis Robert & Co.\'s ability to fund its $20.3 billion tender offer for RJR Nabisco Inc., Nabisco\'s stock fell $2.75 share to $82. Other takeover issues also lost substantial ground, including Kraft Inc., which fell $3 to $94.50; West Point-Pepperell Inc. plunged $3.37{ to $44.50, and Pillsbury Co. slipped $2.12{ to $58.87{. Also down were so-called ``whisper\'\' stocks, which had risen on spillover speculation. ``There\'s too much debt supporting the nation\'s corporations, that\'s what this is telling us,\'\' said Philip Puccio, a senior vice president at Dillon Read & Co. Amplifying worries over the size of the recent deals were two developments. In the corporate bond market, where the billions needed to finance the deals are raised, a $1.15 billion junk bond sale for Campeau Corp.\'s takeover of Federated Department Stores hit a major snag. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has urged banks to be cautious about lending money for multibillion-dollar takeovers and buyouts. Greenspan\'s warning came in a letter to the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday. ``Institutions have participated in so much of this debt financing that (the financial community) is starting to worry,\'\' said Puccio. ``They\'re afraid that if this thing does keep building the way it is and corporate America becomes a house of cards, it can collapse the way the stock market did.\'\' Transactions that are dependent upon a high level of debt are losing much of their allure. For example, Wall Street Journal report that U.S. Shoe Corp. is considering a leveraged buyout was said to be a factor in sending the company\'s stock tumbling $1.37{ to $24.25. Before the recent rash of deals, analysts agree, such a report would have driven the company\'s stock higher. In the junk bond market, underwriter First Boston Corp. said that while it had not officially withdrawn its offering for the Federated deal, it was engaged in discussions to restructure the transaction. Proceeds from the sale of these high-risk bonds were destined to pay off bridge loans used to cover the short-term costs of the Campeau takeover announced last spring. A delay could spell trouble for the banks and investment houses that provided that financing. ``If this causes some players to sit on the sidelines because they committed too much capital, then maybe they\'ll think twice next time,\'\' Brusca said. Because the recent deals all involve huge amounts of borrowed money, they could be devastated by higher interest rates or the inability of a company to sell off assets to cover the debt. Some observers also fear there aren\'t enough investors interested in purchasing billions of new junk bonds. But Michael Dahood, an analyst at Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., contends there is a hefty appetite for larger deals. ``I don\'t think deals that have a sound economic basis should have any difficulty getting funded,\'\' he said. The problem, however, is broader than one firm and one transaction. ``I\'m concerned about the fact that at any point in time there are a lot of firms that are highly leveraged,\'\' said Gregg Jarrell, former Securities and Exchange Commission economist and now a professor at the University of Rochester. ``No one can really know the full extent of what could happen if the economy turned down,\'\' he said.\r\n'),(1711,2,'A 36-year-old East German man fled uninjured over the heavily fortified border to West Germany by climbing fences under cover of darkness, border police said. The man crossed the frontier late Thursday near the West German community of Philippsthal, 90 miles northeast of Frankfurt, said border police in Kassel. The escapee was not identified. At least 17 people have fled over East Germany\'s border with West Germany and the Communist-constructed Berlin Wall since Jan. 1, according to West German officials.\r\n'),(1712,2,'The most urgent problem facing the president regarding manufacturing is the twin deficits. Beyond that, our concerns will unfold as the new Congress attempts to put through a number of mandated benefits which are linked to the deficit ... like mandatory health insurance, the parental leave issue, the dual-shop question and increased minimum wage. That\'s pretty tough medicine to apply to a lot of companies trying to compete in the world marketplace. The president has got to be alert to these heavy burdens on the competitive capabilities of companies and try to head off as many as possible in terms of the entire payment burden being placed on an industry.\r\n'),(1713,2,'Republican Bob Smith says he\'s just a ``common man\'\' who will push conservative issues as a U.S. senator, such as maintaining the defense budget and supporting the ``Star Wars\'\' program. Smith made fiscal conservatism the overriding theme of his campaign to replace retiring Republican Sen. Gordon Humphrey. He voted against the recent federal budget compromise because it contained tax increases, which he said could be avoided. Despite that, President Bush campaigned in New Hampshire for Smith, who stayed in Washington because of House votes. Smith says one of his greatest accomplishments in three terms in the House was his leadership last year in defeating the 50 percent congressional pay raise, a claim derided by his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Sen. John Durkin. ``I\'m a common man, representing common people with common goals and values and a whole lot of common sense, and I\'m real proud of that,\'\' says Smith, 49. Born in Trenton, N.J., Smith lives in Tuftonboro. A veteran who served on a Navy supply ship during the Vietnam War, Smith was a high school history teacher and real estate agent before being elected to Congress in 1984. He consistently supports defense spending, including for the Strategic Defense Initiative, or ``Star Wars,\'\' program, and says any defense spending cuts due to improved relationships with unfriendly countries should be gradual. Smith opposes abortion except to save the life of the mother, but says he would support an exception for rape and incest if it meant enactment of federal anti-abortion legislation. He easily won the GOP Senate nomination in September over a pro-choice opponent. He opposes the Equal Rights Amendment and favors the death penalty for violent criminals. Smith served on the House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees. He and his wife, Mary Jo, have three children.\r\n'),(1714,2,'The state\'s largest savings and loan holding company, First Texas Financial Corp., is seeking federal help for its troubled thrifts, company officials said Thursday. A proposal submitted to federal regulators by First Texas includes financial backing from New York investor Saul Steinberg\'s Reliance Insurance Co., and private funding by First Texas Chairman and Chief Executive J. Livingston Kosberg and Dallas real estate developer Richard C. Strauss. First Texas Financial is the parent company of Dallas-based First Texas Savings Association and Houston-based Gibraltar Savings Association. The plan would provide more than $250 million in private funds in return for an undetermined amount from the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., a First Texas spokeswoman who wished to remain anonymous said Thursday. ``I can confirm there has been an offer and that we are optimistic about it, but at this time, we don\'t know how much federal money is involved,\'\' she said. With 44 branches in the state, First Texas has assets of $3.4 billion. Gibraltar, with 53 locations and assets of $6.1 billion, is the state\'s largest thrift. Together, the two thrifts lost $169.9 million in the first quarter. The Federal Home Loan Bank is in the midst of implementing the Southwest Plan, a program to merge, close or consolidate more than 100 insolvent thrifts in Texas. Regulators have announced three consolidations of 11 thrifts in Texas since February involving $2.2 billion in FSLIC aid. The president of the FHLB in Dallas, George Barclay, said he hopes to close or merge 20 more thrifts by Sept. 30.\r\n'),(1715,2,'It\'s no secret that bondholders usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to things like corporate takeovers or restructurings. Unlike stock prices that often skyrocket even at the hint of a merger, corporate paper usually suffers as bondholders worry about a company being saddled with additional debt once a deal is completed. And unlike stockholders who have final say over such a deal, bondholders are relegated to a passive, non-voting role. A group of investors, though, is working to change that through the recently formed Institutional Bondholders\' Rights Association. The fledgling group, believed to be the first of its kind, has two goals: to help institutional investors respond promptly to specific situations threatening the value of debt investments; and to develop basic means for protecting the interests of institutional investors, association president Richard S. Swingle explained in a recent interview. ``Widespread corporate restructuring _ including mergers and acquisitions, management buyouts and bankruptcy reorganizations _ has underscored the need for an organization that will help safeguard the interests of institutional bondholders,\'\' Swingle said. ``Recently, it has become typical for a corporation to finance a restructuring by drastically increasing its debt load. Often the result is a reduction in the credit quality of existing corporate debt held by institutions,\'\' he said. Eight companies have joined the association since its inception earlier this month, among them: Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., Prudential Life Insurance Co. of America and Loomis, Sayles & Co., all holders of billions of dollars in corporate debt. The association, looking for more strength in numbers, hopes to have at least 25 members in a year and up to 100 in the next three to four years. Swingle, who is also a vice president at T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., said that as specific situations arise the association will assist institutional investors in taking the appropriate action. For example, he said, the group may develop a set of provisions to insert in corporate debt agreements that would guarantee institutional investor rights. Such provisions would assure that no corporate transaction could benefit shareholders at the expense of bondholders. In addition, Swingle said, the association might form ad hoc bondholder groups to negotiate terms or defeat an asset sale, or work with a corporation\'s management to preserve existing debt value in a reorganization. ``By helping institutions respond cooperatively to specific restructuring situations _ and by building explicit protection for institutions into corporate debt agreements _ we hope to guarantee that rights of institutional investors are afforded greater consideration when a corporation alters its financial structure,\'\' Swingle said.\r\n'),(1716,2,'An engine caught fire on a United Airlines jet during takeoff Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of 102 passengers and five crew members, authorities said. Seven people were injured. The twin-engine Boeing 737 bound for Chicago was taxiing down a runway at Little Rock Regional Airport about 9:30 a.m. when the fire was spotted and the takeoff was aborted, United spokesman Charles Novak said. Airport firefighters doused the burning engine, he said. Many of the passengers, who exited through emergency door and window exits, jumped from the wing of the plane to the ground and were injured. Seven people were treated at hospitals, authorities said. Most of the passengers caught the next flight out to Chicago. Novak said airline officials had not determined what caused the fire. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were at the airport late Wednesday to investigate the accident.\r\n'),(1717,2,'This tiny republic is issuing four postage stamps dedicated to the fight against AIDS, the government said Thursday. The stamps, due to come out in the next few days, were prepared in conjunction with an international congress on AIDS in San Marino in October. ``The set carries a warning but at the same time hope,\'\' a government statement said. The stamps cost about 18 cents to 71 cents each. San Marino, an enclave in Italy\'s Apennine mountains, claims to be the world\'s oldest republic, founded in 301. Tourism and its postage stamps and coins are its chief sources of income.\r\n'),(1718,2,'With youngsters back in school, satiated by the usual overflow of mindless summer entertainment, the fall movie season traditionally turns to more adult fare, particularly high caliber dramas destined for Academy Award consideration. This season, social comment, which has not been in strong supply in recent years, makes a return to the screen with such subjects as armed hate groups, infanticide, political protest fugitives, as well as another look at the Vietnam War. Already playing in the nation\'s theaters is ``Betrayed,\'\' a drama starring Debra Winger and Tom Berenger about the right-wing underground in the Midwest. At the other end of the political spectrum is Sidney Lumet\'s ``Running on Empty,\'\' with Christine Lahti, Judd Hirsch and River Phoenix. The movie concerns a family of 1960s radicals who have been living underground and on the run for 15 years. ``Bat 21,\'\' with Gene Hackman and Danny Glover takes another hard look at the Vietnam War. ``The American movies of the 1930s and 1940s made a big impact on me because of their social content,\'\' says Costa-Gavras, the Greek-French director of ``Betrayed\'\' and other political films, including ``Z\'\' and ``Missing.\'\' ``When I first saw `The Grapes of Wrath,\' it made an indelible impression on me. I deplore the fact that Hollywood retreated into a dream world in the last few decades. But I see hope for the future. There are too many young and talented filmmakers who want to comment on the world\'s ills.\'\' Social commentary won\'t be the only significance of the autumnal movie season. Following a record summer at the nation\'s box offices, Hollywood anticipates a rousing fourth-quarter finish to what may be its biggest box-office year. ``No Drought at the Box Office\'\' bannered the trade paper Variety in predicting a record $1.65-billion theater gross for the summer. With ```Crocodile\' Dundee II,\'\' ``Coming to America\'\' and ``Who Framed Roger Rabbit?\'\' breaking the $100 million barrier and ``Big\'\' well on its way, chances are good that 1988 will top last year\'s $4.25 billion. The 22-week Hollywood writers strike apparently will not affect the supply of films to the world\'s theaters. ``There is an abundant supply of product,\'\' said Herb Steinberg, spokesman for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. ``The Christmas pictures are in the can, and films now in production will carry into next year. And there are plenty of scripts ready to be filmed.\'\' Cheryl Rhoden of the Writers Guild of America acknowledged that the strike ``slowed some projects down.\'\' But she said the effects of the walkout on theatrical production are harder to measure than television, where the fall season was decimated. Fall movie-goers may notice a few more rough edges than usual because the numerous script revisions normally made in the course of theatrical filming were not permitted during the lengthy walkout. Here\'s what else is on tap for the fall season: Having little success in comedies, Whoopi Goldberg returns to drama with ``Clara\'s Heart,\'\' directed by Robert Mulligan (``To Kill a Mockingbird\'\'). Meryl Streep is accused of murdering her baby at an Australian court trial in ``Guilty by Suspicion.\'\' Diane Keaton returns to drama in ``The Good Mother,\'\' directed by Leonard Nimoy (``Three Men and a Baby\'\'). ``Criminal Law\'\' stars Kevin Bacon in a story about a serial killer. Jeremy Irons plays twins in ``Dead Ringers\'\' with Genevieve Bujold. Burt Lancaster plays a grandfather whose family visits him in ``Rocket Gibraltar.\'\' Clint Eastwood directed his homage to Charlie Parker in ``Bird,\'\' with Forest Whitaker (``Good Morning, Vietnam\'\') as the legendary sax man. ``Imagine: John Lennon\'\' traces the late Beatle\'s stormy life in rare footage from his estate. Hard to believe, but the musical will make a comeback _ sort of. Gregory Hines will appear as a dancer seeking help from oldtimer Sammy Davis Jr. in ``Tap.\'\' ``Heartbreak Hotel\'\' is listed as a musical drama starring David Keith and Tuesday Weld. Animation fans will be able to see two new features this fall: Disney\'s ``Oliver and Company,\'\' a reworking of ``Oliver Twist\'\' with the voices of Bette Midler, Billy Joel and Huey Lewis; ``The Land Before Time,\'\' a prehistoric family adventure from Steven Spielberg and Don Bluth, who combined on ``An American Tale.\'\' Since comedy is still king, there will be plenty of laugh-seekers in the fall market. Peter O\'Toole, Steve Gutenburg and Darryl Hannah appear in a comedy-fantasy about a haunted English mansion. ``Heart Break Dance,\'\' a comedy-drama about family life in a New England town, marks Don Johnson\'s emergence in feature films. He stars with Susan Sarandon and Jeff Daniels. ``The Accidental Tourist\'\' reunites the crew of ``Body Heat\'\' _ William Hurt, Kathleen Turner and writer-director Lawrence Kasdan _ in a comedy about a travel writer and a dog trainer. Rebecca deMornay plays an FBI trainee who goofs up in ``Feds.\'\' Sally Field and Tom Hanks are would-be standup comics in ``Punchline.\'\' Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley play Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson for laughs in ``Without a Clue.\'\' In ``Moon Over Parador,\'\' Richard Dreyfuss appears as an actor who impersonates a Caribbean dictator. Want some adventure? ``Gorillas in the Mist\'\' features Sigourney Weaver as the ill-fated student of ape behavior, Dian Fossey. And Don Ameche and friends are back in ``Cocoon: The Return.\'\' In the action line, Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell appear in the drug-war ``To Kill a Sunrise.\'\' ``The Beast,\'\' with Jason Patrick, concerns a Soviet tank crew in Afganistan. In ``Last Rites,\'\' Tom Berenger portrays a Catholic priest who protects a girl marked for death by the Mafia. ``Alien Nation\'\' casts James Caan, Mandy Patinkin and Terence Stamp in a sci-fi cop thriller. All these films come from the eight major releasing companies. Many others will be emanating from the ever-growing independent companies.\r\n'),(1719,2,'Pride, not profit, inspires Conrad Industries Inc. to embroider the patches that adorn the space suits of the astronauts, the company\'s president says. Conrad has embroidered the patch for Discovery, designed in tribute to the seven Challenger astronauts, as it has for every manned mission since Apollo 12, the second moon landing. The Discovery patch shows a stylized shuttle rising into the the sky on a plume of fire and smoke and streaking through a red, V-like vector. A multi-rayed sun creeps over the horizon and the Big Dipper hangs in the sky. NASA said the sunrise represents a new beginning; the launch, a safe mission; and the red vector, the symbol of aeronautics, the traditional strength of the space agency. The seven stars of the dipper symbolize Challenger astronauts. The patch has five colors, but such emblems can have up to 19, compared with three colors in a typical commercial or military design, said company president Bernhard Conrad. ``We sometimes spend a dollar and charge a dime. But we do it for the prestige, the satisfaction and the chance to sell to collectors,\'\' he said, adding that the emblems represent only a small part of its $11 million annual volume.\r\n'),(1720,2,'Federal health inspectors and Pentagon investigators have begun a joint probe of claims by Lockheed workers that they are endangered by chemicals believed to be used in making the top-secret Stealth fighter. A three-member team from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration made a visit Thursday to the aerospace company\'s Burbank plant, where 75 employees have filed suit complaining they suffer from ailments brought on by exposure to hazardous substances used in their top-secret jobs. A team of military physicians, toxic material experts and other specialists from the Department of Defense are expected to be at the plant by Monday, according to an announcement Thursday by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., whose district includes the Los Angeles suburb where the plant is located. In addition to the lawsuit, about 150 employees have filed worker\'s compensation claims related to exposure to the chemicals. The employees, some of whom work in Lockheed\'s highly classified plant nicknamed the ``Skunk Works,\'\' where the U-2 reconnaissance planes were built, have said the top-secret nature of their jobs has hampered their efforts to seek treatment from private physicians. Attorney Timothy Larson, who represents the workers in the suit and compensation claims, said five of his clients and an unknown number of workers have died since 1986. Lockheed workers claim composite materials used in the Stealth fighter, designed not to reflect radar, and chemicals used to mill or clean them are causing rashes, nausea, dizziness, memory loss and lack of concentration, Berman said. Similar symptoms have been cited in the Seattle area by workers at Boeing plants, where many of the same materials are used on commercial aircraft. In Washington, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee wants to determine whether workers in aerospace facilities with DOD contracts are being exposed to hazardous chemicals without adequate protection. No state or federal OSHA inspector has conducted a full-scale inspection of the top-secret Skunk Works since the safety agency was founded 16 years ago, high-ranking OSHA sources told the Los Angeles Times this week. An OSHA inspector with a nuclear-materials security clearance from the Department of Energy was admitted to the secure section of the plant Thursday and will remain there for several days, an OSHA official told the Los Angeles Times. ``He will look first into the specific complaints contained in the lawsuit and media reports and after that will decide whether to expand this into a wall-to-wall general inspection,\'\' said the spokesman, not identified by the Times.\r\n'),(1721,2,'Officials from the two Germanys began negotiations today on the final phase of unification, and Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere of East Germany said Berlin should be the new German capital. Meanwhile, in southern Leipzig, farmers said they would dump 2,640 gallons of milk on the streets Monday to protest the loss of business following the economic merger of the German states, the ADN news agency said. Elsewhere, a bomb threat forced the evacuation of East Germany\'s Parliament while lawmakers were in a session unrelated to the East-West talks. No bomb was found, and the lawmakers returned after about 30 minutes. De Maiziere led the East German delegation in talks today on combining the political systems of the German states. An economic treaty went into effect Sunday that united the German economies. Officials have spoken of all-German elections as early as December. In an interview with ADN, de Maiziere said the pact should give East Germans the same rights as West Germans. He also said the treaty should make Berlin the capital of a united Germany. West German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble led the West German delegation. Also today, 100,000 metal workers held one-hour ``warning strikes\'\' to demand higher wages and job protection, said union spokesman Detlef Kuchenbecker. About 10,000 marched through East Berlin to press their demands. Prices have soared in this new free-market society following the economic merger and metal workers have held strikes daily at various plants. East German stores have stocked their shelves with more expensive West German products, forcing up prices. There have also been widespread reports of price gouging by East German stores. De Maiziere and other officials have criticized the price rises. The costs of some foodstuffs varied by 100 percent from one region to another. ``There\'s no way that can be justified merely by higher transportation costs or overhead,\'\' de Maiziere told legislators Thursday. ADN reported price rises of 400 percent to 600 percent in northern Mecklenburg and Pomerania regions and said there were long shopping lines in southeastern Dresden. ``There are cities in the GDR (East Germany) where the average price levels are way above those in West Germany,\'\' said Economics Minister Gerhard Pohl. ``We need certain guarantees that GDR citizens ... won\'t be exploited.\'\' Several thousand metalworkers struck at seven plants near Leipzig, where pay talks deadlocked two days ago, according to ADN. The union wants East Germany to adopt the West German system of stipulating salary scales and job descriptions in huge collective contracts by which all the workers in a specific industry are bound. In southwestern Erfurt, 9,000 workers rallied outside their union headquarters as contract talks began, ADN said. The negotiations later collapsed, the agency reported. Workers are demanding that pay levels be brought up to West German standards by next year. The average East German earns less than half the average West German salary. Rents are being kept low to help compensate during the transition from 40 years of socialism to capitalism. But unemployment is expected to surge into the millions as East Germany faces stiff competition from West Germany. East Germany\'s Communist regime was overthrown last autumn.\r\n'),(1722,2,'The state Senate voted 34-23 Friday to give final approval to a one-year ban on a hormone used to boost cows\' milk output, making Minnesota the second major milk-producing state to do so. The Minnesota House passed the ban Thursday 68-59 despite protests from the state\'s dairy farmers that the action would put them at a competitive disadvantage. The measure follows a similar one approved by the Wisconsin Legislature last month. Minnesota and Wisconsin combined produce about 24 percent of the nation\'s milk. Rep. Chuck Brown, who led the charge for the moratorium in the Minnesota House, said he has received assurances that Gov. Rudy Perpich will sign the measure into law. Under the legislation, non-medical use of bovine growth hormone, known as BGH or bovine somatotropin, would be banned for a year. The protein is a synthetic version of a hormone that naturally appears in cows and is expected to win approval of the Food and Drug Administration for commercial use later this year. Brown and state Sen. Steve Morse urged the ban, saying more time is needed to study the potential effects of the drug on animals and humans. The legislation would keep the ban in effect as long as Wisconsin enforced a similar moratorium or if a consortium of states representing at least 40 percent of the nation\'s milk production adopted a ban on BGH. The Wisconsin Legislature approved a temporary moratorium last month that is awaiting the signature of Gov. Tommy Thompson. He has not said whether he will sign the measure. The companies that produce the hormone, Monsanto Agriculture Co., Eli Lilly Co., Upjohn Co. and American Cyanamid, have lobbied against such measures, saying the hormone has been more than adequately tested. Supporters of the synthetic hormone, including dairy farmers, a pharmacist and a veterinarian, took issue with opponents\' contentions that the drug may not be safe and argued against legislative impediments on new technology. ``There\'s no credible evidence that there\'s any health hazard,\'\' said Rep. Jim Girard. ``This is just another tool to allow farmers to increase their production.\'\' Rep. Harriet McPherson likened BGH to milk machines, embryo transplants and other technological advances that have increased milk production.\r\n'),(1723,2,'A former FBI agent who was the top agency contact for Jackie Presser\'s role as a Teamsters informant was jailed Monday for refusing to testify at the embezzlement and racketeering trial of two union officials. ``My position is the same as Friday,\'\' Robert S. Friedrick told U.S. District Court Judge George W. White, who revoked Friedrick\'s $1,000 bond and ordered him jailed to try to force him to testify under a grant of immunity. Friedrick\'s attorney, William D. Beyer, has appealed the judge\'s contempt citation of Friday to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Friedrick invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when called as a witness Friday. Prosecutors had tried to have three of his sworn sworn statements admitted as evidence but White ruled the material untrustworthy. Beyer said the Friedrick interviews on Jan. 8, 9 and 13 of 1986 conflicted with Friedrick\'s earlier testimony. Because there were two versions of his statement, Beyer said any new testimony could conflict with one or the other version and might put Friedrick in jeopardy of perjury charges. Government attorneys indicated they wanted to call Friedrick to the stand to prove that Presser\'s FBI informant ``handlers\'\' never authorized the union\'s hiring ``ghost employees\'\' who were paid for doing no work. Stephen H. Jigger, a government prosecutor, said Friedrick\'s testimony was crucial because, of three Presser FBI ``handlers,\'\' Friedrick sometimes was the only agent who attended meetings with Presser and Anthony Hughes, a co-defendant and recording secretary of Teamsters Local 507 in Cleveland. Hughes and Harold Friedman, a Teamsters international vice president and president of Local 507, are charged with plotting a $700,000 scheme to hire ``ghost employees.\'\' Presser, who was Teamsters international president, was indicted on similar charges, but died July 9 before going on trial. After Friedrick, who was fired by the FBI in August 1986, repeated his unwillingness to testify, deputy U.S. marshals took him into custody. The U.S. Marshal\'s Service said he was taken to the Justice Center lockup. The judge said Friedrick could be jailed for up to 18 months for criminal contempt. Jigger also asked the judge to consider delaying the trial to give Friedrick time behind bars to reconsider his unwillingness to testify. Jigger said the prosecution has just one more witness to call. William C. Lynch, a senior Justice Department trial attorney also on the prosecution team, said the grant of immunity would rule out use against Friedrick any testimony he gives in the current trial. The judge excused the jury until Wednesday for procedural arguments outside the its presence.\r\n'),(1724,2,'Columbia will have to be rolled back to the hangar next week so NASA can repair a hydrogen leak, a move that leaves the shuttle\'s astronomy mission up in the air and disrupts the year\'s flight plans. ``Safety\'s the first priority, and we\'ve got an item here which we absolutely have got to put to bed and we\'re going to do that,\'\' launch director Bob Sieck said Wednesday. The leak had forced NASA to scrub last week\'s launch of the shuttle with the $150 million Astro observatory. On Wednesday, a test in which super-cold liquid hydrogen was pumped into Columbia\'s big external fuel tank confirmed the leak is in a tight cavity between two metal plates that connect the orbiter and the tank, Sieck said. To fix the leak, the orbiter will have to be separated from the tank in the hangar, he said. Even then, it will be hard to pinpoint the leak because it seems to occur under extremely cold conditions only, Sieck said. Sieck declined to estimate when Columbia might be able to lift off. NASA officials have said it will take about a month to return the shuttle to the hangar and perform repairs. The move will take place sometime next week. The Astro mission is one of six remaining shuttle flights scheduled for 1990. It\'s virtually certain now one of the missions will be pushed into next year or later because of Columbia\'s problems. But Sieck said preparations for Atlantis\' secret military flight in July will continue. Shuttles have been moved from the launch pad back to the hangar twice because of mechanical failures and once because of payload problems. When last week\'s launch attempt was scrubbed, Columbia\'s mission already was two weeks late because of cooling system repairs. ``It\'s always disappointing when the hardware is bad to you, and that looks like what we\'ve got here,\'\' Sieck said. ``But we\'re reminded it\'s a complex system and things don\'t always go for the plan.\'\' Astro, an on-board observatory consisting of three ultraviolet telescopes and one X-ray telescope, was to have gone up in 1986. But the Challenger explosion postponed the mission, depriving NASA of the chance to see Halley\'s Comet. Comet Austin, discovered last year, is on its way out of the solar system, and the chances of seeing it grow slimmer every day.\r\n'),(1725,2,'Republican George Bush today portrayed Michael Dukakis as the odd man out in opposing a reduction in capital gains taxes, and said his Democratic opponent is ``just itching to repeal\'\' income tax cuts enacted in President Reagan\'s first term. Fortified by new polls showing him with a double-digit lead, the vice president attacked Dukakis at a luncheon sponsored by the Detroit Economic Club and the Women\'s Economic Club. Playing it safe, Bush stuck to time-tested themes. The GOP nominee has proposed slashing the capital gains tax on profits from stocks, real estate and other assets from its current top of 33 percent to 15 percent. Dukakis denounced it as a tax break for the wealthy and said it would give Bush himself a $22,000 tax break annually. Defending his plan as a way to spur investments and create jobs, Bush said, ``Over the years, it\'s been endorsed by everyone from John F. Kennedy to Lloyd Bentsen to my running mate, Dan Quayle, to Ronald Reagan and George Bush.\'\' Bentsen is Dukakis\' vice presidential running mate. ``It is not a tax break for the rich. It is a break for those who want to have a job in this country and I am for it,\'\' Bush said. ``Unfortunately, my opponent\'s only experience with business is regulating it and taxing it,\'\' Bush said. ``He\'s never run a business. He\'s never started a business. He\'s never met a payroll. He doesn\'t understand how when you\'re starting out, you need people to join you in taking risks. So he paints my proposal as an effort to help the rich.\'\' ``Wrong,\'\' Bush told his audience of 1,600 people. The vice president also said that since Reagan took office in 1981, the administration has cut personal income tax rates by an average 27 percent. He said there has been an undeniable link between low taxes and economic growth. Bush said Dukakis was asked during the Democratic primary race if he would repeal the 1981 tax cuts. He said Dukakis shrugged his shoulders and called the tax cut ``one of the worse bills that Congress every could have passed\'\' and ``a government-made disaster.\'\' Bush said, ``Those sound to me like the words of someone who is just itching to repeal one of the most successful economic policies in our history, and I know why. He has proposed mandated new spending, both by government and by business, that will cost ... billions and billions and billions.\'\' He said that if elected on Nov. 8, he will tell Congress that ``the American people, in electing me, voted against a tax increase\'\' and that instead, spending increases should be limited to the inflation rate. Bush told a GOP barbecue in Lima, Ohio, on Monday that the election was about keeping the country strong economically and militarily. ``We cannot gamble America\'s future on a president who hasn\'t had one single day\'s experience in national defense matters or foreign affairs,\'\' Bush said, winning cheers from the audience. A handful of hecklers shouted noisily at him during his speech, and Bush said, ``I\'m glad they\'re here.\'\' He urged the audience to ask the protesters how high interest rates and inflation were during the last Democratic administration, and then supplied the answers _ 21 percent for the former and in double digits for the latter. Working his way toward the battleground state of California, where he will campaign later this week, Bush planned stops today at rallies at a stockyard in Sioux Falls, S.D., and at a high school in Billings, Mont. In the evening, he was flying to Tacoma, Wash., to campaign there Thursday morning. Whereas Michigan offers the prospect of 20 electoral votes, South Dakota has only three and Montana has only four. However, all three states are on Dukakis\' blueprint for reaching the 270 needed to win the White House, so Bush is doing his best to keep them out of the Democratic column. His campaign was bouyed Tuesday by news of two new polls indicating that Bush has solidified his lead in the two weeks since the last presidential debate. A CBS News-New York Times poll showed Bush with a 13-point advantage, 54-41 percent, while a Gallup poll showed Bush with a 14-point edge, 53-39 percent. With things going his way, Bush stuck to a familiar theme Tuesday: hammering Dukakis about the economy during stops in Ohio in Canton, Columbus and Lima.\r\n'),(1726,2,'A judge sentenced a defense contractor to three years in prison and fined him $750,000 for faking quality tests on engine bolts used in thousands of military and commercial aircraft. ``This is a very egregious case motivated primarily by greed and avarice,\'\' U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima said Tuesday in sentencing Norman D. McHaffie, 56, former president of McHaffie Inc. of Sylmar. ``The actions of McHaffie literally weakened and endangered the national defense,\'\' Tashima said. No accidents were attributed to McHaffie bolts. The bolts were used in the Air Force B-1B strategic bomber, the Navy-Marine Corps F-18 Hornet fighter-attack aircraft, the Navy-Air Force A-7 Corsair II jet attack fighter, the Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter and the Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon. They also were used in thousands of Boeing Co. and McDonnell Douglas Corp. commercial jets, the government said. Jack Gamble of Boeing Commercial Airplane Group said executives at the world\'s largest manufacturer of jetliners cooperated in the government investigation. ``We did quality checks on every (McHaffie-tested) bolt we had, and we had no bad bolts,\'\' Gamble said. Tashima also sentenced McHaffie\'s quality control supervisor, James Hicks, 45, of Sepulveda to 18 months in prison for participating in the scheme to submit false test certifications to the government. A shop floor manager, William Whitham, 37, of Lancaster, was previously sentenced to 20 weekends in prison. McHaffie pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy and two counts of submitting false test certifications to the Department of Defense. The other men also admitted wrongdoing. Prosecutors contended that McHaffie saved more than $1.5 million by failing to properly test some 9 million bolts between 1979 and 1989. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen A. Mansfield said it was the longest-running fraud against the government by a defense contractor uncovered so far. McHaffie told Hicks and Whitman to create fake test data and fabricate reports to conceal the fraud, according to a federal complaint filed March 29. The government alleged bolts sent to General Electric Co.\'s engine division failed testing by an outside laboratory. The discovery that many of the company\'s bolts failed to meet testing requirements also led to a massive effort to discard them from parts suppliers, prosecutors said. General Electric alone spent at least $4 million to test a sample of bolts, the government said. McHaffie shut down in June 1989 and sold off its assets.\r\n'),(1727,2,'Firefighters on Monday mopped up remnants of blazes that charred nearly 2,200 acres in three Southern California counties, including one fire that destroyed six buildings and another started by boys playing with a toy rocket. No one was injured in any of the fires, officials said. In southeast Montana, hundreds of firefighters worked in 100-degree heat and winds of up to 25 mph to fight a wildfire that surged across 6,000 acres of grassland and timber on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation Monday. Twenty smoke jumpers parachuted into the most difficult area at mid-morning, and officials called in a total of 400 firefighters during the day, said Keith Mosbaugh, fire boss for the interagency team trying to control the blaze. He said firefighters do not expect to contain the blaze before Thursday. No one was injured, Mosbaugh added. The fire broke out late Saturday or early Sunday and may have been caused by children playing with matches, said Mike Caprata, a fire management forester with the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Lame Deer. The cause was under investigation. The largest California blaze burned 1,800 acres on the outskirts of Desert Hot Springs, a community of 6,000 people 110 miles east of Los Angeles, said Cheri Hill, a dispatcher-clerk for the Riverside County Fire Department. Crews hoped to control the fire, or extinguish most of its flames, by Monday evening after more than 200 firefighters contained its spread 12 hours earlier, she said. The wind-whipped fire destroyed three homes and three other buildings and damaged another home, she said. The cause of the fire, which started Sunday afternoon in the center divider of Highway 62 about 4{ miles north of Desert Hot Springs, was under investigation, Ms. Hill said. Despite 15 mph to 30 mph winds, crews expected to control a 220-acre fire in the San Bernardino National Forest about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles by Tuesday morning, after containing it at 8 a.m. Monday, said forest spokeswoman Lindsay Maierhofer. The blaze of unknown origin burned in dense pinon and juniper trees and destroyed an abandoned mining shack. It was reported early Sunday afternoon, and 390 firefighters, four helicopters and three air tankers were sent to the battle. A 170-acre brush and grass fire near the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, 45 miles southeast of Los Angeles, was controlled at 9 p.m. Sunday, nearly seven hours after it was reported, said county fire department Capt. Patrick McIntosh. The fire was started by three teen-agers who were playing with a model rocket, he said. The three boys, ages 15, 16 and 17, were taken into custody and later released to their parents, McIntosh said, adding that ``the fire department will seek cost recovery from the parents for the firefighting operations. He said 150 firefighters fought the fire with equipment that included two fire-retardant-dropping planes.\r\n'),(1728,2,'The Federal Reserve will move quickly to lower interest rates now that negotiators have reached agreement on a deficit-cutting plan, many economists predicted Monday. But these analysts said the interest rate relief will be too little and too late to avert a recession. This forecast was made on the eve of a key meeting Tuesday of the Fed\'s top policy-making group, the Federal Open Market Committee. The panel, composed of Fed board members in Washington and Fed regional bank presidents, meets eight times a year to set interest rate policies. President Bush told reporters Monday that he was looking for the Fed to lower interest rates ``once they see that a sound budget agreement has been put into effect.\'\' Bush and congressional leaders have pledged to try to write the agreement into legislation and enact it by Oct. 19. Many economists expected a vote at Tuesday\'s meeting to nudge short-term interest rates down by about one-fourth of a percentage point. The actual rate cut, they said, might come as early as next week. Some economists said the rate cut would be enough to prompt commercial banks to lower their benchmark prime lending rate from 10 percent to 9.5 percent, although there wasn\'t universal agreement on this forecast. Analysts who expect a fairly prompt Fed easing move noted numerous statements Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has made that the central bank stood ready to lower interest rates following a credible, multiyear deficit reduction package. ``Greenspan has got to ease. If he doesn\'t, he is telling the financial markets that he doesn\'t view the deficit agreement as credible,\'\' said David Wyss, chief financial economist with DRI-McGraw Hill. Wyss said that if Congress showed evidence of moving quickly to approve the budget agreement and the September unemployment report, due out on Friday, showed a further rise in the jobless rate, then the Fed would move perhaps as early as next week to cut the federal funds rate from 8 percent to 7.75 percent. The Fed funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other for overnight loans, is the bellwether rate the Fed often uses to signal changes in its credit policies. Allen Sinai, chief economist of the Boston Co., said while he was looking for a quick rate cut on the Fed\'s part, markets should not expect anything beyond a quarter of a percentage point drop, given the inflationary pressures arising from a doubling of oil prices since August when Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait. ``The Fed is being tossed back and forth by the Iraqi event,\'\' Sinai said. ``It wants to ease because of an impending recession but aggressive easing is very hard to do as long as the inflation threat is as great as it is.\'\' David Jones, an economist at Aubrey G. Lanston & Co., a government securities dealer in New York, said regardless of whether the Fed eases immediately or waits until Congress actually passes the budget agreement, the rate cut will not be in time to keep alive the current recovery, which has already lasted a peacetime record of eight years. ``The handwriting is on the wall,\'\' Jones said. ``The Fed has already waited too long if it had hoped to avoid a recession.\'\' Jones and many other analysts believe the first economic downturn since the 1981-82 slump will begin sometime in the final three months of this year. While a number of analysts forecast a Fed easing move to support a budget deal, this forecast was not universally shared. Jerry Jordan, chief economist of the First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles, said it would be a mistake for the Fed to rush to support the budget deal with lower interest rates. Jordan, one of a group of economists who monitor Fed actions as part of the Shadow Open Market Committee, warned that Fed efforts to ease rates ran the risk of allowing the higher inflation from this year\'s oil shocks to become embedded in the economy. Many analysts who believe the Fed will begin to ease rates in coming months said they looked for those rate cuts to accelerate early next year once it becomes clear the country is in a recession. Jones said the Fed will be forced next year to keep pushing rates down because the banking system - which already faces heavy losses from collapsing real estate markets - will move slower than it has in the past to lower the cost of loans to businesses and consumers in response to Fed easing moves.\r\n'),(1729,2,'Johnny Carson, poking fun at Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton for the 35-minute speech that had Democratic conventioneers shouting and snoozing, invited him to appear on his ``Tonight Show.\'\' ``It would be great,\'\' Carson told his studio audience Friday night. ``We won\'t have to book any other guests.\'\' Carson said Clinton had been invited to appear on his late-night show next week. The governor\'s press secretary, Mike Gauldin, said in Little Rock that the invitation had been received, but didn\'t know if Clinton had accepted. Clinton\'s speech Wednesday night nominating Michael Dukakis for the Democratic presidential nomination was widely panned for its length _ Clinton had been allotted 15 minutes _ and its content, which many described as boring. In his monologue, Carson said the 5-foot-7 Dukakis looked taller when he delivered his acceptance speech Thursday ``because he was standing on a transcript of Gov. Bill Clinton\'s speech. ``It\'s kind of a sad footnote. Clinton\'s speech is still going on. Because of the greenhouse effect, it\'s still trapped in Atlanta,\'\' Carson said. Jackie Speer, an Arkansas State Police trooper assigned to the Governor\'s Mansion, said he believed Clinton was asleep when Carson\'s monologue began, and said the governor was not available for comment. When he returned to Little Rock on Friday, Clinton told reporters, ``Everybody knows I can make a speech. Now everyone knows I can blow one.\'\'\r\n'),(1730,2,'A Playboy magazine photographer will not be allowed to screen Providence College students for a ``Women of the Big East\'\' pictorial at either the Roman Catholic college or a Providence hotel, officials said. Photographer David Mecey had planned to meet with Providence College students for part of a Big East athletic conference layout scheduled for the April 1989 issue, Playboy spokeswoman Cindy Rakowitz said from New York. Mecey, who planned to stay in Providence from Wednesday through Friday, intended to interview and photograph women in various locations, including the Providence Marriott Inn where he had a reservation. The planned feature would include nude and semi-nude photos. The hotel\'s name and number were listed on a Playboy leaflet and in a quarter-page advertisement to appear in today\'s edition of The NewPaper, said Anne Trumbore, an employee at the weekly alternative newspaper. But Stephen McCarthy, the hotel\'s resident manager, said that when officials realized Wednesday morning who Mecey was, they decided not to allow him to conduct business at the hotel. Mecey was told by hotel officials when he arrived Wednesday night that he could not conduct interviews on hotel property. ``If he wants to stay here, he can. He has rented a room and we are in the business of renting rooms,\'\' said general manager Rene Neidhart. ``But he did not have our authorization to use our name in any advertisements, and he cannot interview or photograph in the hotel.\'\' ``I\'m not entirely taken aback, but I think that\'s pretty drastic,\'\' said Rakowitz when informed of the Marriott\'s decision. ``That\'s sort of eliminating the rights of the individual to make a freedom of choice _ but a hotel is private property.\'\' Playboy also was banned from interviewing or staying at the Sheraton Tara in Braintree, Mass., when it interviews Boston College students in mid-November, said Jeff Cohen, Playboy\'s managing photo editor. Some people who arrived at the Marriott looking for Mecey were escorted off hotel property by security guards, said McCarthy. He said several people, both women and men, were removed from the lobby and floors. Playboy had decided against seeking the cooperation of administrators at any of the schools it will visit, deciding instead to advertise off-campus and in college newspapers. Playboy had hoped to run an ad in the Cowl, the student newspaper at the 3,800-student college, but students and administrators decided against it, said a school spokesman, the Rev. John McGreevy. Officials at St. John\'s University in New York, another Catholic school, decided earlier this month against running an article about the Playboy feature in its student newspaper. ``I\'m still confident that we will recruit our women,\'\' said Rakowitz, who said about 20 women were wanted for the feature. ``I\'ve never come into a problem at a hotel. I think it\'s sort of repressing.\'\' Other schools in the Big East Conference are Villanova University, in Villanova, Pa.; Washington\'s Georgetown University; Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J.; the University of Connecticut; the University of Pittsburgh; and New York\'s Syracuse University.\r\n'),(1731,2,'``M. Butterfly\'\' was chosen best play and ``Into the Woods\'\' was picked as best musical of the 1987-88 New York theater season by the Drama Desk, it was announced Tuesday. ``The Phantom of Opera,\'\' which lost the top musical prize, won the most awards _ seven. It picked up awards for actor in a musical, Michael Crawford; director of a musical, Harold Prince; music, Andrew Lloyd Webber; orchestrations, Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Cullen; set design, Maria Bjornson; costume design, Maria Bjornson; and lighting design, Andrew Bridge. Ron Silver was named best actor for his performance as a greedy Hollywood mogul in David Mamet\'s ``Speed-the-Plow,\'\' while Stockard Channing was chosen best actress for her portrait of a woman slowly going mad in Alan Ayckbourn\'s ``Woman in Mind.\'\' ``M. Butterfly,\'\' written by David Henry Hwang, tells the bizarre story of a French diplomat who has an affair with a transvestite Chinese opera singer. The play also won awards for its director, John Dexter, and for featured actor, B.D. Wong, who plays the opera star. ``Into the Woods,\'\' an adult fairy tale musical, captured five prizes. Besides best musical, it won for featured actor in a musical, Robert Westenberg; featured actress in a musical, Joanna Gleason; lyrics, Stephen Sondheim, and book of musical, James Lapine. Patti LuPone was named best actress in a musical for her raucous portrayal of Reno Sweeney in Cole Porter\'s ``Anything Goes.\'\' The show also won the best revival award as well as a prize for choreography, which went to Michael Smuin. The prize for featured actress in a play went to Christine Estabrook who played a retarded woman in ``The Boys Next Door,\'\' while an ensemble acting award was given the cast of the off-Broadway musical ``Oil City Symphony.\'\' Special Drama Desk awards were also announced for Michael Feinstein; Actors Equity Association, the Theater on Film and Tape Collection at Lincoln Center and the Yale Repertory Theater. The Drama Desk, which was started in 1949, is an association of New York drama critics, editors and reporters.\r\n'),(1732,2,'A commuter plane crashed in heavy fog Friday night after takeoff from Raleigh-Durham Airport, and all 12 people aboard were feared dead, officials said. American Eagle Flight 378 was en route to Richmond, Va., with 10 passengers and two crew members when it went down in a wooded area at 9:27 p.m. about a mile from the 10,000-foot runway, said airport spokeswoman Teresa Damiano. ``I show them as fatal,\'\' said V.H. Steed, night duty officer with the Federal Aviation Agency in Atlanta. Witnesses said they heard an explosion and saw a fireball before the twin-engine plane with a seating capacity of 19 went down near a small residential area, Ms. Damiano said. She said no homes were hit. ``There are no anticipated survivors,\'\' she said. ``Indications are that the plane is in several pieces. There was a small bit of fire that was contained. There was no indication to the tower that the plane was in any danger prior to takeoff.\'\' Shortly after midnight, a woman was escorted into the terminal sobbing and asking, ``What happened?\'\' The woman, who declined to give her name, said her 13-year-old son was on the flight. She said she had received no official word on her son\'s fate. ``It sounded like a blast or something because they\'ve been blasting down on this road, putting in sewer lines, and that\'s the way it sounded,\'\' said Mary H. Ward, who lives in a mobile home three miles from the airport. ``It wasn\'t too awful loud. It was kind of muffled. I wondered what it was, but there was nobody here but me so I didn\'t go out and look around.\'\' At Richmond International Airport, several people were waiting for information on the crash and on arrangements for travel to North Carolina, said a ground supervisor for American Airlines who refused to give his name. ``They can\'t believe it happened,\'\' said the man. ``Some people wish it was them.\'\' Most of the passengers were from Richmond, and the crew was based in Raleigh, he said. Investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington will arrive Saturday, Steed said. American Eagle, an affiliate of American Airlines, had recently resumed flights from its base at Raleigh-Durham after filing for bankruptcy reorganization Jan. 15. The airline abruptly ceased flights Jan. 14, leaving some passengers stranded. In its bankruptcy filing, AVAir Inc., which operates American Eagle, claimed $9.2 million in assets and $12 million in liabilities.\r\n'),(1733,2,'Axl Rose, lead singer of Guns N\' Roses, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly hitting a neighbor woman over the head with a wine bottle during an argument about loud music, authorities said. Rose\'s neighbor Gabriela Kantor accused Rose of grabbing her keys and tossing them off a balcony before emptying a wine bottle and swinging it at her, said Los Angeles County Sheriff\'s Deputy Roger Hom. Rose was arrested and booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon. His business manager posted the $5,000 bail, said Deputy Bill Linnemeyer and arraignment was set for Nov. 20. Kantor was taken to a hospital for observation and released. In a statement, Rose denied both striking the woman and playing music loudly. Rose met with attorneys Tuesday to discuss whether to file a complaint seeking an injunction against Ms. Kantor, said Bryn Bridenthal, a spokeswoman for his record company, Geffen Records. ``He\'s been having problems with this woman for the past eight months,\'\' Bridenthal said. In an earlier incident, deputies went to Rose\'s apartment Aug. 1 to ask him to turn down his stereo. Rose later filed a complaint saying one deputy forced his way into the apartment while others tried to provoke him. Critics of the Los Angeles-based Guns N\' Roses band have called the band\'s lyrics homophobic and racist. The band gained notoriety earlier this year after an obscenity-laced acceptance speech for a music award on live television.\r\n'),(1734,2,'The keepers of clarinetist Benny Goodman\'s musical legacy on Monday unveiled a trove of performances by the King of Swing not previously available to collectors. A lilting, playful, swinging version of ``Sweet Georgia Brown,\'\' driven by Goodman\'s clarinet and spiced with a Zoot Sims saxophone solo, reverberated through a conference room of the Yale Club. The number was the first cut in a 50-minute recording released by Yale University and Musicmasters at a news conference in the club. Before now, that performance had been heard only by diners at the Rainbow Grill in Rockefeller Center in June 1967. It was part of 400 unreleased tapes Goodman bequeathed to Yale when he died two years ago. Yale music professor Harold E. Samuel said the new album is a sampler of the tapes in the Goodman archive. Future releases will be devoted wholly to particular playing dates or recording sessions. Samuel described the performances as ``a more spontaneous, relaxed Benny Goodman than you would find on many of his other recordings.\'\' Selections on the record include ``If I Had You\'\' from a 1955 gig at Basin Street East in 1955, ``Poor Butterfly\'\' at the 1958 Brussels World Fair and ``Cherokee,\'\' taped at Park Recording Co. in 1958 but never released. The album closes with a Fletcher Henderson arrangement of ``Blue Room,\'\' performed by a Goodman band that included drummer Louie Bellson and trumpeter Randy Sandke. ``I never stop being thrilled by this music,\'\' said Goodman\'s daughter, Rachel Edelson, who said she wants to make new generations aware of ``the scope of his contributions to the field of music.\'\' ``My children, at age 8 and 4, are learning it very very well,\'\' she said. ``Sometimes they complain about listening to it all the time, but I want them to know it, and I play it nonstop.\'\' She said that except for a scene in the 1938 movie ``Hollywood Hotel,\'\' no film exists of the quartet composed of Goodman, drummer Gene Krupa, pianist Teddy Wilson and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, because moviemakers then would not show black and white players together. ``I knew about my father being the first white musician to have hired blacks, but I simply had not been aware of the level of resistance that he met and that he simply didn\'t care about,\'\' Mrs. Edelson said. Royalties from the new releases will pay the cost of maintaining the Goodman archive, which, in addition to the tapes, contain 1,500 arrangements, 5,000 photographs, scrapbooks and other memorabilia. Goodman died in 1986. Yale already has cataloged and indexed the arrangements, which Samuel said will be ``a boon to performers and scholars for generations to come.\'\' Preserving the tapes, dating from the 1950s, has been the first order of business, Samuel said. Most of the 1950s tapes are acetate and must preserved on sturdier digital stock. ``There might be only one playing left on some of the acetates, and that one playing has to be a transfer onto more permanent material,\'\' he said. Identifying the performances and choosing the best for commercial release is being done by Loren Schoenberg, an authority on Goodman\'s work. ``Goodman was a fantastic perfectionist, and we have an obligation to him not to release anything that he would not have released himself,\'\' said Samuel. The albums are being marketed in the three popular formats _ long playing record, tape cassette and compact disc.\r\n'),(1735,2,'Children don\'t play outside here in the summer, and they go to school armed. Nearly everyone is enlisted in the battle against Public Enemy No. 1 _ mosquitoes. Williston, located at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, is a kind of mosquito mecca. The rivers create an ideal breeding ground for hundreds of thousands of the insects. ``They\'re bad,\'\' says 23-year-old Kellee Cox, who moved to the area from Fargo last spring. ``I can\'t believe it. I\'ve got a million mosquito bites. ``I went into my back yard and got swarmed with them,\'\' she says, revealing dozens of irritated red bites on her arms. ``They just swarmed over me and attacked me like killer bees.\'\' It isn\'t a new problem; explorers Lewis and Clark complained about the bugs during their brief visits to the rivers\' confluence in 1805 and 1806. A historian called a mosquito attack of 1947 the worst on record. Some say the mosquitoes enjoy the predominantly Norwegian blood of the town\'s 13,000 residents. Others have proposed getting rid of the bugs by building a bubble over the town or setting up huge fans to blow them away. For years several agencies, including the impressive-sounding Vector Control District board, labored unsuccessfully to put down the insect uprising. ``Too many people were running the same program,\'\' says Bill Cole, chairman of the vector board. ``Things weren\'t getting done.\'\' But a new idea emerged from a heated city meeting last summer at which residents were challenged to come up with their own ideas for mosquito control. Two housewives joined a pediatrician, two teachers and the owner of a day care center to form the Bug Busters _ a volunteer group that studied ways to control the pests while protecting the environment. They enlisted the local high school, a woodworking club and the Army Corps of Engineers to make about two dozen mini-houses along the river, each designed to attract bats and sparrows _ natural mosquito predators. ``We\'re not importing bats or anything like that,\'\' said Bug Buster Jackie Stenehjem. ``The bats are already here. We\'re just hoping they\'ll move out of town and move into the houses along the river.\'\' Before the Bug Busters, the spraying of newly discovered larvae had to be approved by several agencies, taking up to a week. Now the decisions are in local hands and extermination can start within 10 minutes. In April, voters approved an annual fee of $12 per household to help bolster mosquito control. Despite a rough week or two, this summer generally was better than last. But children still stay mostly indoors and when they they go to school, they take cans of bug repellent with their pencils and notebooks. Residents try to make the best of the bug situation, which they recognize is an unwinnable war. ``It\'s a numbers game we\'re playing,\'\' Cole said. ``We just want to get it down to where it\'s livable.\'\'\r\n'),(1736,2,'Authorities are extending mandatory birth control to the far northwest\'s ethnic minorities, but they will be allowed more children than majority Hans, an official report said Sunday. As of July 1, minority couples in cities of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will be limited to two children, and those in rural areas will be permitted three, the Xinhua News Agency said. Minority ethnic groups in Xinjiang total 8.6 million, or more than 61 percent of the population, the report said. Most Hans or ethnic Chinese, who make up more than 90 percent of China\'s 1 billion people, are limited to one child with the country struggling to feed and educate its spiraling population. However, the policy has been more relaxed toward China\'s 56 ethnic minority groups. The different standard toward minorities has been designed in part to win their loyalty to the Han-controlled government and allay their fears of being overwhelmed by ethnic Chinese.\r\n'),(1737,2,'Frank Sinatra came home to New Jersey to celebrate his 75th birthday at a sold-out concert attended by celebrity pals and 19,000 adoring fans. The Hoboken native performed Wednesday at Byrne Arena, where celebrity guests included Tony Bennett, husband and wife Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, actor Roger Moore, Robert Wagner and his wife, Jill St. John, comedians Alan King and Joe Piscopo, Eli Wallach and entertainer Harry Connick Jr. Liza Minnelli joined Ol\' Blue Eyes on stage in singing ``New York, New York.\'\' Sinatra\'s shows here on Tuesday and Wednesday kicked off his nationwide 75th birthday tour.\r\n'),(1738,2,'Tens of thousands of workers made sick by asbestos will receive sharply reduced compensation payments from the Manville trust under a plan unveiled Monday to resolve the nation\'s biggest product liability case. The long-awaited restructuring is designed to insure payments to victims of lung cancer and other respiratory ailments, clear a court backlog and create a model for companies facing huge liabilities for asbestos products. The plan includes up to $520 million in new contributions to the trust by Manville Corp., which was driven into bankruptcy court in 1982 by mounting asbestos lawsuits. The trust was formed in the company\'s 1988 reorganization and faces more than 130,000 claims. ``These steps ... will more effectively, efficiently and Equitably compensate those injured by asbestos exposure,\'\' Manville chairman and chief executive Tom Stephens said in a statement. The plan was expected to be approved by U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein, who is leading efforts to resolve asbestos litigation. The judge Monday began a process to declare a class action to settle trust claims. A restructured trust would pay asbestos victims according to the severity of illness, rather than when a claim is filed. The plan slashes plaintiffs lawyers\' fees to a maximum 25 percent of settlements. It also includes dismissing tens of thousands of lawsuits against the trust pending in state and federal courts nationwide. Asbestos health claims form the biggest product liability issue in U.S. history. Manville trust payments have averaged about $43,000, but are forecast to fall more than half for serious diseases and even more for less severe ailments. Claimants are to receive a maximum 45 percent of settlements until all claims are partially met. ``It is a terrible compromise,\'\' said Heather Maurer, executive director of the Asbestos Victims of America, an advocacy group representing 18,000 people. ``I$3,000 or $4,000 is in any way just compensation for their diseases and deaths.\'\' But architects of the plan said it was fair way to compensate victims given the limited funds available. The restructuring was ordered by Weinstein after the trust ran out of cash to pay new claims and said some would be deferred until long into the 21st century. ``Everybody is getting an (equal) share of the fair value of their claim,\'\' said GEne Locks, a Philadelphia plaintiffs lawyer. ``Some people are going to get it a little faster than others.\'\' Asbestos is a white mineral with natural insulation and heat resistance used widely for decades in shipbuilding, construction and other industries. A high incidence of lung cancer and other respiratory ailments attributed to asbestos began appearing in the 1970s. Under the Manville plan, payments would be made annually to claimants based on a percentage of the trust\'s available resources. Claims are split into two groups: cancer and other serious ailments, and lesser diseases. Payments would be made only to claims in the first group during the plan\'s first two years. An estimated 23,000 such claims are expected to get some money. The group includes relatives of workers who died before being compensated. The more than 100,000 claims in the second group would begin receiving payment in the plan\'s third year. Payments are to be made first to those with hardships, then according to disease severity, then to claimants over 70 years old and finally to those who filed first. Despite the progress, payments will not resume until Weinstein holds hearings and reviews the plan, or until expected court appeals by plaintiffs lawyers and other defendant companies are Heard. Lawyers estimate that payments might not resume for a year or more. The trust, formed in 1988, has paid out more than $1.1 billion to settle nearly 26,000 claims. A total of 163,000 claims have been filed and more arrive daily. The trust has $434 million in settled but unpaid claims, which will be met in full under the plan. Trust officials have blamed the cash crunch on more claims and bigger settlements than anticipated and faster case resolution. Critics have said the trust was badly managed, doling out too-large payments for minor ailments. The reduction in plaintiffs lawyers\' fees from about one-third of settlements followed sharp criticism by Weinstein. ``The 25 percent limitation will over time provide the victims hundreds of millions of dollars that otherwise would have gone to their attorneys,\'\' Leon Silverman, the court-appointed adviser for the restructuring, said in his report to Weinstein. Dismissing lawsuits against the trust - primarily over the size of or delay in settlements - also should lead to savings. The trust expects more than $50 million in legal defense expenses this year. The plan establishes maximum settlements for specific diseases. They range from $350,000 for mesolthelioma, a fatal respiratory ailment, to $30,000 for pleural disease. Expected median settlements are about 40 percent of the maximum. Payments to all Manville claimants except those with urgent health or financial needs were suspended in July. The Washingon, D.C.-based trust originally was funded with about $3 billion in cash and Manville securities. Its main asset is 80 percent stock ownership of Manville, a Denver manufacturing and natural resources company.\r\n'),(1739,2,'Government and business leaders said today President Bush\'s decision to continue favorable trade status for Beijing is welcome news for this British colony that relies heavily on commerce with China. Trade and Industry Secretary John Chan called Bush\'s move Thursday ``very good news from Hong Kong\'s point of view.\'\' In a statement, he noted that the business community and government had engaged in intensive lobbying during the past few weeks to explain how termination of special trade status would harm Hong Kong, which will return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Seto Fai, honorary president of the Chinese Manufacturers\' Association, said the U.S. decision will help prevent Hong Kong from sliding into economic recession. ``Hong Kong is already experiencing a slowing of economic growth and could not afford to stand a blow from the United States,\'\' he said. ``Now, we have at least another year to breathe.\'\' The news drew little response from the stock market, which had rallied sharply earlier in the week on expectation that Bush would renew China\'s most-favored-nation trade status. The blue-chip Hang Seng Index today rose 20 points in early trading before finishing the morning session virtually unchanged at 3,049. The market had gained 130 points in the preceding five sessions, largely on anticipation of the U.S. decision. Most-favored-nation status gives Chinese exports to the United States the lowest possible tariffs. Denial would send tariffs rising sharply on about $12 billion in annual imports from China of textiles, toys and other products. Much of the Chinese exports to the United States are produced in joint-venture factories set up by Hong Kong investors in southern China. About 70 percent of Chinese products sent to the U.S. market are shipped through Hong Kong, Seto said. ``Hong Kong nowadays shares an inseparable economic link with China. Any threat to sanction China economically would inevitably drag us into it,\'\' said Carson Chan, assistant director for the Federation of Hong Kong Industries. He said termination of the special trade status for China would have resulted in at least 20,000 Hong Kong people losing their jobs in industries such as trade, transportation and banking. Hong Kong\'s economy already is experiencing high inflation and sluggish growth, with the gross domestic product forecast to rise only 3 percent this year. Industrialists expressed confidence that the U.S. Congress will not reject Bush\'s decision, despite opposition by some lawmakers.\r\n'),(1740,2,'A dancer for the rap group Heavy D & The Boyz died after falling 30 feet during horseplay at an arena, authorities said. Troy Dixon, 22, whose stage name is Trouble T-Roy, died Sunday evening of of injuries suffered in the fall, said officials at Wishard Hospital. Police said Dixon was standing on the third-level ramp at the Market Square Arena late Saturday when another group member, while fooling around, rolled a trash barrel down the ramp toward him. Dixon jumped on a 4-foot retaining wall to avoid the barrel and fell over backward to the ground, police said. ``It was an absolute freaky accident,\'\' said group manager Carol Kirkendaul. The Rev. Charles R. Williams, president of Indiana Black Expo, said the group had performed at the arena earlier Saturday as part of the Black Expo. The group, from Mount Vernon, N.Y., was on a 10-city tour and was one of the headline acts for Black Expo, which also featured the rap group Public Enemy. Kirkendaul said the group is in shock, and an upcoming concert in Detroit had been postponed. Heavy D & The Boyz won a Soul Train Music Award and a NAACP Image Award for their album ``Big Tyme.\'\'\r\n'),(1741,2,'The nation\'s capital had plenty of attention-grabbers last week _ a juicy Pentagon scandal, Ronald Reagan\'s last summit, a new $16 million House of Representatives phone system that went deaf _ but here\'s what Washington was really talking about: A fugitive ferret named Fuji, its combative owner, and a 5-year-old boy. Not even Carl Rowan\'s uninvited, underwear swimmer _ the 18-year-old suburban lad shot after taking an unauthorized dip in the columnist\'s pool _ could match the continuing drama. The ferret\'s owner, 19-year-old Jennifer Au, was on a weekend furlough from jail where she spent the week charged with contempt of court for not telling where Fuji is. The boy, Auston Jacob Simpson, was nearing the end of a painful series of six rabies shots. The story began June 3 when Auston\'s grandmother took him to the Docktor Pet Center in Manassas, Va., a Washington suburb. He stopped by a cage containing Fuji and two other ferrets. One bit him. Authorities then sought to kill each of the ferrets and test their innards for rabies. Two of the ferrets were sacrificed _ their heads cut off and their brains examined by health officials, who found the animals to have been healthy. But Fuji was spirited away by Miss Au, who worked in the pet shop. In court, charged with concealing the animal, she said she left the ferret at an abandoned house after making a deal over the telephone with someone she didn\'t know to have it picked up. The anonymous phone contact apparently was made after the biting incident became known to a group of ferret lovers. Miss Au told Circuit Judge Percy Thornton that said she saw the boy being bitten and that Fuji didn\'t do it. Moreover, she said, the ferret had been isolated in a cage for more than a month, and its continued good health proved it didn\'t have rabies. She said she had tried to comply with the judge\'s order to produce the animal by contacting ferret groups, but the judge was unsympathetic. ``You\'re putting this child at risk,\'\' Thornton said and found her in contempt. When she shouted at him, the judge ordered her jailed for three hours. ``I think your priorities are mixed up,\'\' said Thornton. A weekend went by and the ferret still had not been produced. Thornton ordered Miss Au to jail. ``If it were in this court\'s power,\'\' said the judge, ``I would put you through the same thing this child is going through.\'\' On Thursday, with the ferret still missing, Miss Au appeared before the judge for a bond hearing and was turned down. On Friday, Thornton issued the weekend leave and ordered the young woman back behind bars on Monday. Meanwhile, a second person _ a 24-year-old man who was not publicly identified _ was scheduled to begin the rabies shots after he said he was bitten by a ferret in the same store. The ferret battle was fought not only in court, but in the pages of the Washington Post. An editorial sided with the judge and his hard line. ``It is truly contemptible that this woman and her confederates have chosen to put a child through this torture rather than obey a court order and the dictates of common decency,\'\' said the Post. But in the same issue, writer Henry Mitchell allied himself with the ferret. ``There has to be some reasonable basis for thinking this particular ferret, despite testimony to the contrary, bit the boy, and from everything you could read of the case there was no reason to doubt the woman when she swore it was not her ferret,\'\' he wrote. The ferret story was not the clear winner in the talk-of-the-town competition. The Rowan-intruder story resurfaced when authorities decided to charge the uninvited swimmer and the young woman arrested with him in Rowan\'s back yard, but not to charge the columnist for shooting the young man. The on-again, off-again phone system in the House was a one-day sensation, causing impassioned denunciations from congressmen who found their link to constituents interrupted. And the Pentagon procurement scandal continued to bubble. The week\'s most telling quote came from Miss Au, when she was jailed on Monday: ``This is extremely stupid and ridiculous, needless,\'\' she said. ``This has gone too far.\'\'\r\n'),(1742,2,'Here are thumbnail sketches of figures in the burgeoning probe into allegations that defense contractors and consultants, many of them former military personnel, bribed Pentagon officials for contracting details to help win lucrative military contracts.\r\n'),(1743,2,'Attorney General Edwin Meese\'s wife, Ursula, will undergo questioning shortly in the criminal investigation of her husband about her own $40,000-a-year job, say sources familiar with the case. The office of independent counsel James McKay is trying to determine whether longtime Meese friend E. Robert Wallach in effect helped supplement the Meeses\' income by recommending Mrs. Meese for jobs, said sources familiar with the probe, speaking on condition of anonymity. Mrs. Meese has retained the same Washington law firm representing her husband, said James Rocap, one of Meese\'s lawyers. She will either make a federal grand jury appearance or be questioned by investigators from McKay\'s office. McKay said last week that his investigation of Meese, also encompassing an examination of the circumstances surrounding Mrs. Meese\'s job, would continue at least until the end of April. McKay last month subpoenaed records relating to Mrs. Meese\'s post with the Washington chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, said a lawyer for the chapter, James Bierbower. A lawyer for Wallach, George Walker, has told The Washington Post that Wallach had suggested Mrs. Meese for a job with a local radio station owned by the Bender family of Washington. Mrs. Meese took the position with the MS Society instead. However, Bierbower said the Bender Foundation of Washington, controlled by the same family that owns the radio station, is contributing the $40,000 a year that constitutes Mrs. Meese\'s salary with the MS group. Calls to the Bender Foundation seeking its reasons for paying Mrs. Meese\'s salary were not returned. Mrs. Meese has been a volunteer for the MS Society since 1981 and for the past two years has been in charge of a program called Operation Job Match, matching MS victims with employers. Mrs. Meese also was questioned in an earlier independent counsel\'s investigation of Meese in 1984. In that investigation, independent counsel Jacob Stein probed Meese\'s failure to include in his financial disclosure statements a $15,000 loan by Edwin Thomas to Mrs. Meese. Thomas later became Meese\'s assistant counselor at the White House. The independent counsel found no connection between the loan and federal jobs obtained by Thomas, his wife and his son. In another development Monday, Justice Department sources said Meese will face an ethics investigation by his own department\'s Office of Professional Responsibility if McKay doesn\'t seek an indictment. Such an inquiry ultimately could lead to a recommendation to President Reagan that Meese be fired. Former Assistant Attorney General William Weld\'s files on the attorney general\'s dealings with Wallach were moved to OPR last Friday, the sources said. Material collected by Weld\'s criminal division last year led to McKay\'s criminal investigation of Meese. McKay said Friday he has insufficient evidence to date to warrant seeking an indictment of Meese in connection with his involvement with a $1 billion Iraqi oil pipeline touted by Wallach or his involvement with the regional Bell telephone companies at a time when he held $14,000 in Baby Bell stock. In December, McKay said he didn\'t have sufficient evidence at that time to warrant seeking an indictment of Meese in connection with his assistance to scandal-plagued Wedtech Corp. McKay said that if he decides not to seek a criminal indictment of Meese, the independent counsel\'s office ``will refer all of those matters for review and action by the appropriate administrative authorities,\'\' a reference to OPR. OPR\'s chief, Michael Shaheen, denied assertions by Justice Department sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, that his office had begun examining Meese\'s ties to longtime friend Wallach last year. That review was halted when McKay launched his criminal investigation of Meese last May 11, the sources said.\r\n'),(1744,2,'National contract talks between the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp. continued Tuesday after a union executive told local leaders to prepare the troops for a strike. Negotiators were working against a midnight Friday deadline to reach a national contract covering about 300,000 active GM workers. UAW contracts with Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. also expire at the same time, but the union has chosen GM as its target for a strike. In all, more than 450,000 active auto workers are covered by UAW contracts with the Big Three automakers. The union\'s main bargaining goal is job security, and a union telephone recording said Tuesday that little progress had been made on that issue. ``The corporation must become more serious in their attitude,\'\' said UAW Vice President Stephen Yokich, in charge of the union\'s GM bargaining team. He told local union leaders they should be ready for a strike. ``I trust that you will do everything necessary to prepare the membership for a disciplined response to whatever action is required in the difficult days ahead,\'\' Yokich said. The last time the UAW struck GM over a national contract was in 1984, when the union staged a weeklong walkout at 12 assembly plants and the company\'s Technical Center in Warren, Mich. This year, members of UAW Local 659 at GM\'s AC Rochester West component plant in Flint staged a six-day strike that shut down seven assembly plants and parts of more than a dozen component factories. ``We haven\'t heard hardly anything,\'\' said UAW Local 662 Vice President Larry Howerton of Anderson, Ind. ``We\'re going to have to hear something pretty soon. We\'ve got to be notified.\'\' There has been little news coming out of the talks this year. UAW and GM officials have been available to media only occasionally and when they have appeared, they rarely talked about contract details. They have preferred instead to say both sides were working hard and there still was time to reach an agreement before the deadline. So far, union officials have said tentative agreements have been reached on nearly all non-economic issues, such as military leave and jury duty provisions. But the economic issues, which include job security, are the tough ones. The UAW leadership has a strong strike authorization vote under its belt, clearing the way for it to call a strike against GM if an agreement cannot be reached.\r\n'),(1745,2,'James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., says he was framed to cover up an FBI plot to kill the civil rights leader and wants the government to reopen his case. Ray, 60, was sentenced to serve 99 years for King\'s murder in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. The Tennessee parole board has scheduled a January parole hearing for him, but Ray says he is not hopeful. ``I doubt very much they\'ll give me a parole,\'\' he said. ``I think the only way I\'ll get out of here is through a jury. If they wouldn\'t grant me a trial I don\'t see how they\'ll grant me a parole.\'\' Ray pleaded guilty on the day his trial was to begin on March 9, 1969, but recanted three days later and has not received a complete trial to prove his innocence. He alleges the FBI threatened to jail his father and brother if he didn\'t sign a confession. Ray\'s father was a fugitive from prison and his brother spent several years in jail. In an interview at Brushy State Prison in East Tennessee with talk show host Morton Downey Jr., Ray claimed he was set up in a plot to kill King, whose calls for economic justice for minorities and effective use of non-violent protest drew the wrath of then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. He said the government has refused his requests to review the evidence against him, has never conducted ballistics tests on the alleged murder weapon and has suppressed witnesses and investigations that could have cleared him. ``Since they won\'t, they must be hiding something,\'\' Ray said of the FBI. The show is scheduled to be aired Nov. 28. King was in Memphis the day of his assassination to support a strike by city sanitation workers seeking higher pay. Ray was identified from fingerprints on a rifle found near the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where King was killed as he stood on a balcony. Hosea Williams, an aide to King present when he was shot, said during taping Monday of ``The Morton Downey Jr. Show \'\' that ``I\'ve never believed Ray killed Dr. King.\'\' Williams said King was convinced that Hoover\'s FBI was plotting his death. He also said he was surprised to find days after the assassination that ``Ray had no political philosophy. He was just a two-bit redneck hustler.\'\' Many blacks have expressed anger that the Tennessee board has scheduled a January parole hearing for Ray. Under a 1985 law providing parole hearings for inmates held for 20 years, Ray became eligible for parole consideration this month. The law was designed to allow the state to relieve prison overcrowding. James M. Brown, chairman of the Tennessee Voters Council and a member of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. State Holiday Committee, called Ray\'s parole hearing ``cruel, dangerous and shameful,\'\' and said he would ask Gov. Ned McWherter to call it off. He noted the hearing in January would coincide with the Jan. 16 holiday honoring King\'s birthday. But McWherter told reporters Monday that he will not interfere with the decision of the board, which by law is an independent state agency.\r\n'),(1746,2,'Black Denison University students called off a two-day boycott of classes Wednesday after the school\'s president stiffened the punishment for two white students found guilty of racial harassment. The Black Student Union, which had called the boycotts Monday and Tuesday, suspended the action after university President Andrew De Rocco ordered the two whites to leave the campus for the remainder of the semester. The students, who have not been identified by the university, were given until 5 p.m. Wednesday to leave. The University Judicial Board, comprised of four students and four faculty members, had earlier found the white students guilty of racial harassment of a black student and ordered the whites be suspended for the 1988 fall term. That suspension will remain in effect, but De Rocco on Tuesday night announced the additional sanctions. ``The issues raised by this case have led to an expression of intense feelings on the campus among students, faculty and others, to an interruption of classes and to an atmosphere that is not conducive to the orderly processes of student and faculty life,\'\' De Rocco said. The two white students were accused of harassing Aaron Laramore, a black senior from Toledo. Laramore claimed in a complaint he filed against the students that they pounded on the wall between their room and his and yelled racial epithets. The white students testified in their judicial board hearing that their remarks came in a private conversation. But the Black Student Union said the slurs were aimed at Laramore, the dormitory\'s head resident. Most students continued to attend classes during the two-day boycott, which was accompanied by rallies to protest campus racism and the initial one-semester suspensions. Bheki Khumalo, a member of the Black Student Union, said Wednesday said the group was not fully satisfied with the university\'s latest action, but believed the protest had accomplished its goal. ``Evidently, this was the best the president could do,\'\' Khumalo said. ``We\'ve laid the foundation for more things to come on our campus.\'\' About 80 of Denison\'s 2,100 undergraduates are black, according to the university, a liberal arts school about 25 miles northeast of Columbus.\r\n'),(1747,2,'101. John Hugh MacMillan III, $730, Hillsboro Beach, Fla., inheritance (Cargill Inc.), 62. 102. Marion MacMillan Pictet, $730, Geneva, inheritance (Cargill Inc.), 57. 103. Whitney MacMillan, $730, Minneapolis, inheritance (Cargill Inc.), 61. 104. Cargill MacMillan Jr., $730, Palm Springs, Calif., inheritance (Cargill Inc.), 63. 105. Pauline MacMillan Keinath, $730, St. Louis, inheritance (Cargill Inc.), 56. 106. James Howard Marshall II, $725, Houston, oil, 85. 107. Joseph Albert Albertson, $725, Boise, Idaho, Albertson\'s Inc., 84. 108. William Morse Davidson, $725, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Guardian Industries Corp., 67. 109. Samuel Curtis Johnson, $720, Racine, Wisc., Johnson Wax, 62. 110. Barbara Piasecka Johnson, $715, Princeton, N.J., inheritance (Johnson & Johnson), 53. 111. Wallace Henry Coulter, $710, Miami Springs, Fla., blood equipment, 78. 112. Morton K. Blaustein, $700, Baltimore, inheritance (oil), 63. 113. Robert Henry Dedman, $700, Dallas, country clubs, 64. 114. William Michael Cafaro, $700, Hubbard, Ohio, shopping malls, 77. 115. Michael Robert Milken, $700, Encino, Calif., financier, 44. 116. George Phydias Mitchell, $700, Houston, oil, 71. 117. Carl Ray Pohlad, $680, Minneapolis, MEI Corp., 75. 118. Andrew Jerrold Perenchio, $665, Bel Air, Calif., television, 59. 119. William Redington Hewlett, $665, Portola Valley, Calif., Hewlett-Packard, 77. 120. John Richard Simplot, $660, Boise, Idaho, potatoes, 81. 121. Albert Lee Ueltschi, $655, Irvine, Texas, Flight Safety International, 73. 122. Jerry J. Moore, $650, Houston, shopping centers, 62. 123. Leon Hess, $650, New York City, Amerada Hess Corp., 76. 124. Oveta Culp Hobby, $650, Houston, media, 85. 125. William Ingraham Koch, $650, Palm Beach, Fla., inheritance (oil services), 50. 126. Amos Barr Hostetter Jr., $635, Boston, cable television, 53. 127. Helen Kinney Copley, $630, La Jolla, Calif., publishing, 67. 128. John Murdoch Harbert III, $625, Birmingham, Ala., construction, 69. 129. Richard Mellon Scaife, $625, Shadyside, Pa., inheritance, (publishing), 58. 130. Howard Butcher Hillman, $620, Greenwich, Conn., inheritance (industry), 56. 131. Tatnall Lea Hillman, $620, Radnor, Pa., inheritance (industry), 52. 132. Meshulam Riklis, $620, Beverly Hills, Calif., and New York City, finance, 66. 133. William Clay Ford, $610, Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich., inheritance (Ford Motor Co.), 65. 134. Fred A. Lennon, $600, Chagrin Falls, Ohio, valves, 84. 135. Frederick Woodruff Field, $600, Beverly Hills, Calif., inheritance (media), 38. 136. Melvin Simon, $600, Indianapolis, shopping centers, 63. 137. Alexander Gus Spanos, $600, Stockton, Calif., real estate, 67. 138. Ralph Lauren, $600, New York City and vicinity, apparel, 51. 139. James Lawrence Walton, $580, Bentonville, Ark., Wal-Mart Stores, 68. 140. Shelby Cullom Davis, $575, Tarrytown, N.Y., investment banking, 81. 141. Charles Henry Dyson, $575, New York City, conglomerator, 81. 142. Roy Edward Disney, $575, Los Angeles, Walt Disney Productions, 60. 143. William Wrigley, $565, Lake Geneva, Wisc., Wrigley\'s, 57. 144. Donald John Tyson, $565, Springdale, Ark., Tyson Foods, 60. 145. Nelson Peltz, $560, Palm Beach, Fla., Bedford, N.Y., leveraged buyouts, 48. 146. Thomas Stephen Monaghan, $550, Ann Arbor, Mich., Domino\'s Pizza, 53. 147. Henry R. Kravis, $550, New York City, leveraged buyouts, 46. 148. George R. Roberts, $550, San Francisco, leveraged buyouts, 47. 149. Jeremy Maurice Jacobs, $550, East Aurora, N.Y., sports concessions, 50. 150. Thomas John Flatley, $550, Milton, Mass., real estate, 59. 151. Howard Kaskel, $550, New York City, real estate, 53. 152. Louis Larrick Ward, $545, Kansas City, Mo., Russell Stover Candies Inc., 70. 153. Estee Lauder, $540, New York City, cosmetics, 82. 154. Leonard Alan Lauder, $540, New York City, cosmetics, 57. 155. Ronald Steven Lauder, $540, New York City, cosmetics, 46. 156. Marshall Field V, $540, Lake Forest, Ill., inheritance (media), 49. 157. Robert William Galvin, $540, Barrington Hills, Ill., Motorola, 68. 158. Cordelia Scaife May, $525, Ligonier, Pa., inheritance (Mellon family), 62. 159. Laszlo Nandor Tauber, $525, Potomac, Md., real estate, 75. 160. James LeVoy Sorenson, $525, Salt Lake City, medical devices, 69. 161. Frank Batten, $520, Virginia Beach, Va., publishing, 63. 162. David Geffen, $515, Malibu, Calif., music, 47. 163. Roy Hampton Park, $510, Ithaca, N.Y., Park Communications, 80. 164. John G. Rangos Sr., $505, Pittsburgh, solid waste, 61. 165. Dorrance Hill Hamilton, $500, Strafford, Pa., inheritance (Campbell Soup), 62. 166. Charlotte Colket Weber, $500, Ocala, Fla., inheritance (Campbell Soup), 47. 167. Jerome Spiegel Kohlberg Jr., $500, Mount Kisco, N.Y., leveraged buyouts, 65. 168. Joseph S. Gruss, $500, New York City, oil, 87. 169. Henry John Heinz III, $500, Fox Chapel, Pa., H.J. Heinz Co., 52. 170. Robert Alfred Lurie, $500, San Francisco, inheritance (real estate), 61. 171. Bernard Francis Saul II, $500, Chevy Chase, Md., banking, 58. 172. Robert Staples Howard, $500, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., publishing, 66. 173. Dennis Washington, $500, Missoula, Mont., entrepreneur, 56. 174. John Orin Edson, $500, Seattle, manufacturing, 57. 175. Harold Brown, $500, Boston, real estate, 65. 176. Sheldon Henry Solow, $500, New York City, real estate, 62. 177. Joe Lewis Allbritton, $500, Houston, media, 65. 178. William Edward Maritz, $500, St. Louis, Maritz Inc., 61. 179. Richard E. Jacobs, $500, Lakewood, Ohio, shopping centers, 65. 180. Henry Earl Singleton, $500, Los Angeles, Teledyne, 73. 181. Erskine Bronson Ingram, $500, Nashville, Tenn., barges, 58. 182. Peter Stephen Kalikow, $500, New York City, real estate, 47. 183. Caroline Rose Hunt, $500, Dallas, inheritance (oil), 67. 184. Frederick Robinson Koch, $500, New York City, Monaco, inheritance (oil services), 56. 185. Charles Cassius Gates Jr., $490, Denver, Gates Corp., 69. 186. Maurice Raymond Greenberg, $480, New York City, American International Group, 65. 187. Alan Ashton, $475, Orem, Utah, WordPerfect, 45. 188. Bruce Bastian, $475, Orem, Utah, WordPerfect, 39. 189. Hope Hill van Beuren, $470, Middletown, Pa., inheritance (Campbell Soup), 56. 190. A. Donald McCulloch Jr., $470, Bryn Mawr, Pa., diet centers, 43. 191. William S. Paley, $460, New York City, CBS Inc., 89. 192. William Gordon Bennett, $460, Las Vegas, Circus Circus Enterprises, 65. 193. Patrick Joseph McGovern, $450, Nashua, N.H., publishing, 53. 194. Samuel Zell, $450, Chicago, real estate, 49. 195. John Jeffry Louis Jr., $450, Winnetka, Ill., inheritance (Johnson Wax), 65. 196. John William Berry Sr., $450, Dayton, Ohio, Yellow Pages, 68. 197. Barbara Tyson, $450, Fayetteville, Ark., Tyson Foods, 41. 198. Bernard F. Brennan, $450, Winnetka, Ill., Montgomery Ward, 52. 199. Franklin Parsons Perdue, $450, Salisbury, Md., chickens, 70. 200. Luigino Francesco Paulucci, $450, Sanford, Fla., food processing, 72.\r\n'),(1748,2,'A black man went to the gallows alone today after a judge granted a stay of execution to the ``Sharpeville Six,\'\' who were aided in their appeal by an international clemency campaign. The pre-dawn hanging of Tsepo Letsoara, 24, concluded without fanfare, while world leaders, clergymen and politicians continued to plea with the government to save the ``Sharpeville Six.\'\' Letsoara was convicted of the murder of a black woman in a Port Elizabeth township in October 1985, during nationwide racial unrest. The victim, Grace Mvetye, was killed by the ``necklace\'\' method, in which a gasoline-soaked tire was placed around her neck and set ablaze. The ``Sharpeville Six,\'\' five black men and a woman, would have joined Letsoara on the gallows today had Pretoria Supreme Court Justice Willem Human not granted a one-month stay of execution Thursday. Human made his decision after defense lawyers presented evidence of perjury by one of the prosecution\'s chief witnesses. Human granted the convicts four weeks to apply for a retrial. The case was controversial because the six were convicted under the principle of ``common cause,\'\' which held them responsible for the September 1984 death of town councilor Jacob Dlamini because they among a mob of 100 that stoned and burned Dlamini to death in Sharpeville. Dlamini was killed on the first day of riots that lasted nearly three years and claimed more than 2,500 black lives. President P.W. Botha had ignored pleas from leaders of most Western nations and from countries and organizations around the world to stop the executions. The government said Human\'s decision ``proves the wisdom of the state president and his ministers in deciding not to impede the due process of law. The government also indicated a link between the scheduled hangings and a car bomb that exploded Thursday in Krugersdorp, killing three black people and injuring 20 people. The explosion occurred in a Magistrate\'s Court where the Sharpeville Six had been held briefly between their arrest and trial. Police offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a white man they say is a member of the outlawed African National Congress. The man was described as the prime suspect in the bombing. Deputy Minister of Information Stoffel Van der Merwe said neither pressure from overseas nor car bombs would persuade the government to interfere in a court case. The Star, an independent Johannesburg newspaper, reported today that Botha granted clemency three weeks ago to a black policeman who was sentenced to death for murdering a youth two years ago in Mamelodi, the black township outside Pretoria. A spokesman for the Department of Justice said Botha commuted Constable George John Sindane\'s death sentence to eight years in prison. The spokesman said Sindane was one of five people whose death sentences were commuted this year. In other developments Thursday, _ Attorneys said a $2.25 million wrongful arrest lawsuit was begun against the Ministry of Law and Order after charges of sedition and subversion were dropped against a black Roman Catholic nun and 13 others who lived in black townships outside Krugersdorp. Sister Bernard Ncube, president of the Federation of Transvaal Women, spent 16 months in detention, including 13 in solitary confinement, after being charged. The state alleged that the group established ``kangaroo\'\' courts, campaigned against the police and initiated a boycott of white-owned shops and buses. The charges were dropped Thursday after the prosecution refused to supply a court with details of the alleged acts. _Also, the attorney for freed African National Congress leader Govan Mbeki said the government denied his request for a passport, which he sought to visit his three children living in exile. Attorney Priscilla Jana said no reason was given for the denial. Mbeki was freed from prison in November after serving 24 years of a life sentence for treason and sabotage in connection with his activities as national chairman of the ANC. His oldest son, Thabo, is an executive member of the ANC in exile in Lusaka, Zambia. Since his release from prison, Mbeki has been restricted to the Port Elizabeth area, and banned from giving public speeches or news interviews.\r\n'),(1749,2,'Thousands of Czechs joined U.S. veterans Saturday for a sun-kissed streetfest in the first celebration ever of the liberation of this beer-brewing city by American troops in World War II. Pubs were turned into imitations of Wild West saloons, and youths with American Army paraphernalia rode the streets on vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycles inherited from their parents. Up to 150,000 visitors were expected to descend on Pilsen, a city of 130,000, on Sunday, when President Vaclav Havel and U.S. Ambassador Shirley Temple Black were to preside over the close of the two-day celebration. Gen. George C. Patton\'s 3rd Army liberated Pilsen on May 6, 1945, just three days before World War II ended in Prague. By agreement with the Soviets, American troops came to a halt at the demarcation line cutting southwest through Czech territory, leaving the Red Army to conquer the Czechoslovak capital. ``Boy, everybody wanted to go on to Prague and get it over with,\'\' said Cpl. Ross Johnston, 75, an attorney from Zanesville, Ohio. ``But we had to stop here, wait for two weeks and then we were pulled out.\'\' The Communists barred any commemoration of the U.S. liberation of about 3,600 miles of Czechoslovak territory and marked May 5 as a day of liberation by Soviet troops. Six months after Czechoslovakia\'s peaceful revolution in December, however, the atmosphere in this grim industrial city had changed remarkably. American flags adorned the former bastions of Communist officials, and scores of U.S. veterans were in town for the celebration. Tens of thousands of people turned out Saturday morning to see the ceremonial inauguration of a monument to the 2nd Infantry Divison on Pilsen\'s downtown Republic Square. Those who lived long enough to see the return of Patton\'s men still remember the postwar atmosphere. ``It felt so right that our town was freed from the Nazis by a western army,\'\' Frantisek Kotva, a pensioner, mused over a mug of the city\'s famous beer. ``We all loved the GIs, but then we had to forget about them for a long time,\'\' he said, alluding to the four decades of Communist suppression that followed. Elsewhere in Czechoslovakia, the occasion was marked with quieter ceremonies. Ambassador Temple Black joined Jan Urban, the leader of the Civic Forum movement that led the revolution against the Communists, at the unveiling of a memorial to the U.S. Army in Vitejovice, about 70 miles southwest of Prague. A similar plaque was unveiled in the nearby town of Chodov. In Lipnik and Bevcou, crowds gathered to remember Martin Zeberski, a U.S. pilot killed there in August 1944. Havel and Temple Black will lead Sunday\'s festivities in Pilsen, which were to begin with a morning ceremony at the demarcation line and end with a ``country ball.\'\' ``I\'ve been to several similar events, but this is much bigger than any of us expected,\'\' Johnston said. ``If the very president of the United States came here in person, he could not be shown more courtesy and respect than we were.\'\'\r\n'),(1750,2,'Gang members thwarted in an attempt to attack rivals rampaged through the city, killing one person and wounding up to nine others, police said Monday. The victims apparently were chosen at random during a four-hour spree of shootings and robberies Sunday night throughout this central California city of 350,000 people, said Sgt. Mike Guthrie. ``There doesn\'t seem to be any identifiable pattern,\'\' Guthrie said. ``I think it was more driving until they saw an opportunity and taking it.\'\' Police arrested four boys, ages 14, 15, 16 and 17, and confiscated five guns early Monday. All of those arrested are from Fresno, Guthrie said. Each was charged with one count of murder, six counts of attempted murder and seven counts of armed robbery. Their names were withheld because of their ages. One suspect remained at large and additional charges were pending against the four held, police said. Besides the three shotguns, one rifle and a handgun, police seized crack cocaine from one of the youths, Guthrie said. The rampage began after uniformed officers patrolled a drug-infested west Fresno neighborhood called ``the U,\'\' said Guthrie. Five gang members intended to shoot rivals, but left the area because of the police, Guthrie said. After the fatal shooting downtown, one juvenile left the group, Guthrie said. The other four robbed and shot people along an eight-mile stretch north to near Fresno State University, then headed back downtown, he said. ``This entire scenario was an afterthought,\'\' Guthrie said. The shooting spree was ``unprecedented in our city,\'\' he said. ``I can recall nothing of this magnitude ... There very easily could have been half a dozen or more murder victims.\'\' Police blamed the juveniles for the killing of a 47-year-old man and shootings that left six other men wounded. Two remained hospitalized Monday in serious condition, said Sgt. Dwight Williamson. The others weren\'t seriously wounded, he said. The victims\' names were withheld released. Three other people were injured in shootings Sunday night and investigators were trying to determine whether the same youths were to blame.\r\n'),(1751,2,'Beau Rambo, a 1{-year-old cocker spaniel, has a heritage that would make any genealogical name-dropper take notice. His great-great-grandmother was none other than Checkers, the dog immortalized by Richard Nixon. In his 1952 ``Checkers\'\' speech, the then vice presidential candidate rebutted charges that he illegally accepted gifts from wealthy supporters. He cited the dog, a supporter\'s gift to his family, as one contribution he would keep. The family pet died in 1964 at age 12. The speech proved an overwhelming success, turning public opinion in favor of the GOP ticket: Dwight Eisenhower, who was running for president, and Nixon. Today, the lineage of the Nixon family pet carries on in Craig Patterson\'s Beau Rambo, who lives in West Point. Patterson discovered Rambo\'s lineage when he called the dog\'s Idaho breeder to obtain the pedigree. ``She said (Rambo) had some show dogs on his dad\'s side and she rattled off something about Nixon\'s Checkers,\'\' he recalled. Nikki Deines, a breeder in Emmett, Idaho, confirmed the lineage reads like this: Checkers Prize Package of Nixon fame begat Otis the Twelfth, who begat Miss Mollie Value, who begat Nikki\'s Beau Tamara, who begat Rambo.\r\n'),(1752,2,'A black high school student says she was told to ``go back to the ghetto\'\' during a football game, prompting school officials Wednesday to promise to work toward preventing future racial clashes. Shana Cannell, a 14-year-old freshman, said a cheerleader at Pekin led other students in racially harassing blacks at the Sept. 2 game between the Peoria Lions and the Pekin Dragons. ``While I was playing in the (Peoria) band, Pekin High School students taunted my friends and me with racial slurs such as ... `go back to the ghetto,\'\'\' the teen-ager wrote in a letter to the Journal Star of Peoria. She added that ``one of the more vocal students was a Pekin cheerleader who was standing in front of her coach\'\' and referred to her by a common racial epithet. Jack Wilt, Pekin School District superintendent, said he has found no witnesses but has no reason to doubt the girl\'s story. Wilt said he plans on offering her a written apology. ``I can\'t pinpoint who made the remarks but I don\'t doubt they were made,\'\' Wilt said Wednesday. Ms. Cannell\'s father, Julian Cannell, the Peoria School District attorney, said an apology ``is not the answer.\'\' ``My speculation is the teachers and parents in Pekin don\'t care,\'\' he said. ``They must educate their children that overt racism will not be tolerated in our society.\'\' Chic Renner, president of the Pekin school board, said Wednesday that the remarks of a few students do not reflect the attitudes of everyone in Pekin. Wilt said there is a history of racial problems at athletic events involving Pekin and Peoria High, which has 1,200 students and a 39 percent minority enrollment. He noted that less than 1 percent of Pekin High\'s 2,500-member student body is black and only one or two black families live in Pekin. Renner is concerned the incident is rekindling the longstanding perception of Pekin as a racist community. ``I don\'t know how long we have to dwell on it,\'\' he said. ``We recognize the problem and are trying to deal with it and cure it.\'\'\r\n'),(1753,2,'The administration of Mayor Kurt Schmoke has reversed itself and approved a parade permit for a white supremacist ``skinhead\'\' group rather than face a threatened court challenge. Deputy City Solicitor Ambrose Hartman said the city reluctantly approved the permit Monday, despite objections from community leaders, after concluding it could not win should the group sue on the grounds that its right to free speech was being denied. The group, known as BASH, or Baltimore Area Skin Heads, said it wants to protest the arrival of Soviet Jews in the United States and would march within a month. The Baltimore Sun quoted an unidentified member of the group as saying the group selected a predominately white, working-class area of Baltimore called Hampden because it is ``one of the last white neighborhoods around.\'\' The group wants Marylanders to take a stand against race-mixing and what they say are other threats to white power, he said. Eleven churches, community organizations and other Hampden civic groups asked the city to deny the permit after learning of the planned rally last month. Referring to two wealthier Baltimore neighborhoods, the Rev. David Rimbach, pastor of the Hampden United Methodist Church, said: ``They\'re not going to parade though Roland Park or Charles Village, they are going to parade through Hampden, because they think it\'s a place of hate and violence. ``We don\'t want to be painted with those kind of colors any more,\'\' he said Wednesday. Skinheads are known for their shaved heads, heavy boots and Nazi insignia. They have been linked to racial and religious crime in more than two dozen states. ``What we resent more than anything is it adds to the reputation for intolerance we\'ve gotten over the years,\'\' said Edward R. Jeunette Jr., past president of the Hampden Community Council. He said it ``doesn\'t represent a majority view of the people who live here.\'\'\r\n'),(1754,2,'Drug testing of Detroit\'s 5,000-member police force was ordered stopped, at least temporarily, by a federal judge who said he\'s not convinced the department has a widespread drug problem. U.S. District Judge Horace Gilmore ordered Friday that the testing be halted until a hearing can be held to determine the merits of the practice. The ruling came after the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of 70 city employees seeking to stop the testing, which has been conducted on about 1,000 officers since it began May 26. ``It\'s ironic that out of the first 1,000 officers tested, the department said none tested positive for drugs,\'\' said William Werthheimer Jr., an attorney for the ACLU. ``That\'s not consistent with a departmentwide problem.\'\' The judge said his decision was based on a federal appeals court ruling last month in a case from Chattanooga, Tenn. The appeals court said that unless there is evidence of a widespread drug problem in a police department, mass testing violates Fourth Amendment\'s ban on unreasonable searches. Detroit Police Department spokesman Fred Zaharoff said the department would abide by the decision, but declined further comment. The injunction granted by Gilmore prohibits the testing until 5 p.m. Tuesday, by which time the parties expect to hold a hearing on the merits of the tests. The Detroit police department has been rocked recently by suspensions of 14 officers for drug use and reports that an additional 100 officers are under investigation for crack cocaine use or other crack-related crimes. Under Detroit\'s drug testing program, police officers who test positive for cocaine or heroin would be subject to firing after a four-step retesting process. Officers testing positive for marijuana could remain on the force after a suspension and education program.\r\n'),(1755,2,'Iraq said Tuesday that a former oil minister of Iran who was captured by Iraqi forces early in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war committed suicide two years later. The official Iraqi News Agency said its information came from an ``official source\'\' who was commenting on press reports that Iraq was still holding former Cabinet member Mohammad Javad Tondguyan. INA, monitored in Nicosia, did not say exactly when or how he died. The agency said President Turgut Ozal of Turkey, then prime minister, sought to gain Tondguyan\'s release on March 22, 1986, during a visit to Baghdad, and that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein told him Tondguyan had committed suicide. On Monday, Iran accused Iraq of holding Tondguyan in a ``secret prison\'\' and demanded his immediate release. Iran\'s official Islamic Republic News Agency said Iran had ``live and documented evidence\'\' Tondguyan was alive and that Iraq should show good will by releasing him at once. Tondguyan was captured while on a tour of the fronts in October 1980, a month after the Iran-Iraq war broke out. A cease-fire ended hostilities in August 1988. Saddam recently agreed to Iran\'s terms for a formal peace settlement of their border dispute as he tried to break out of the international isolation that followed his Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait. Saddam subsequently withdrew his troops from sections of Iranian territory occupied during the conflict. The two Persian Gulf neighbors also have exchanged tens of thousands of prisoners of war. The Iraqi agency said Iraq formally informed Iran of Tondguyan\'s suicide through the International Committee of the Red Cross. It said Iraq also handed over to Iran all papers related to the investigation, a medical report and a death certificate in accordance with provisions of the 1949 Geneva Convention.\r\n'),(1756,2,'A Soviet pilot landed a passenger plane on a beach on Turkey\'s Black Sea coast Monday and asked for political asylum. Officials quoted him as saying he wanted to flee the ``undemocratic regime\'\' in Moscow. A government announcement said the pilot was alone in the Antonov-2 plane when it landed near Kumcagiz, a village in Kocaeli province. The official Soviet news agency Tass said the 12-seat plane was seized in Izmail, near the Ukrainian port of Odessa. The report offered few details. The Turkish statement identified the pilot as Valeri Yuricevic. Kocaeli Gov. Ihsan Dede said Yuricevic was married and had a child. He said the pilot recently separated from his wife. Tass said the pilot resigned several months ago from his job with an Odessa air crew. Officials quoted Yuricevic as saying during an interrogation that he escaped ``the undemocratic regime\'\' in his country and wanted to live in Turkey. Dede told The Associated Press that Yuricevic, 29, complained about harsh living conditions in the Soviet Union, where shortages are widespread and economic problems continue. He said the pilot did not elaborate. Dede said Yuricevic\'s request for political asylum was being examined. State TV showed the plane near the coastline. A village girl interviewed on television said residents watched the plane land. She said the pilot approached her after he got out of the plane and spoke to her in Russian. Another villager said the pilot was shaking and looked nervous. Villagers brought the pilot to the police station, Dede said. The plane, flying at low altitude, made the trip in two hours. Turkey\'s announcement said the plane was tracked immediately after it entered Turkish airspace and military planes were put on alert. However, the plane was allowed to land safely when authorities determined it posed no threat. There are no airports in the province. A government official, who requested anoynmity, said the Soviets immediately asked Turkey to return the plane and the pilot. Dede said local officials were waiting for a team of technical experts to move the plane, which sunk into the sand on the beach. When a Soviet air force captain defected to this country in a MIG-29 jet a year ago, Turkey allowed the plane to be flown back to the Soviet Union but sent the pilot to the United States upon his request.\r\n'),(1757,2,'The dollar was mostly higher in domestic and foreign trading Friday but fell sharply against the yen as investors regained some confidence in the Japanese currency. Gold prices were lower. Analysts said a rise in interest rates in Japan and a recovery on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after a string of steep losses helped support the yen, which itself has fallen sharply in recent weeks. Jack Barbanel, president of First Global Asset Management Inc., said traders believed Japanese yields would go even higher, which would make the yen even more attractive. The dollar fell to 154.30 yen in New York from 155.095 late Thursday. In Tokyo early Friday, the dollar rose 0.24 yen to a closing 155.07 yen, and in London, it was quoted at a sharply lower rate of 153.85 yen. Overseas dealers said the dollar was hit in afternoon dealings by a report, later denied, that Japan was moving to issue dollar-denominated bonds in a bid to add a layer of intervention to help the sagging yen. The dollar also was hit by profit-taking before Friday\'s talks between Treasury Secretary James Brady and his Japanese counterpart, Ryutaro Hashimoto, in Los Angeles. Barbanel said the dollar\'s strong showing against other currencies was due partly to higher interest rates in the United States, and also to concerns about tensions between the Soviet Union and Lithuania. The dollar is seen as a safe haven in times of international political strife. Other late dollar rates in New York, compared with late Thursday\'s quotes, included: 1.7135 West German marks, up from 1.7028; 1.5200 Swiss francs, up from 1.5120; 5.7720 French francs, up from 5.7415; 1,260.25 Italian lire, up from 1,255.50; and 1.17505 Canadian dollars, down from 1.17575. Other late dollar rates in Europe, compared with late Thursday\'s prices, included: 1.7100 West German marks, up from 1.7054; 1.5179 Swiss francs, up from 1.5150; 5.7645 French francs, up from 5.7505; 1.9249 Dutch guilders, up from 1.9210; 1,258.50 Italian lire, up from 1,255.50; and 1.1751 Canadian dollars, down from 1.1757. The pound recovered somewhat from its recent slide on Britain\'s economic woes and political uncertainty. In London, the pound rose to $1.6040 from $1.6015 late Thursday, but it fell in New York to $1.6010 from $1.6040. Gold fell $5.10 a troy ounce on the Commodity Exchange in New York, closing at $388.90. Later, Republic National Bank of New York quoted a bid of $389.10 a troy ounce, down $4.90. Gold fell in London to a late bid price of $386.95 a troy ounce from $393.05 bid late Thursday. In Zurich, the metal fell to a closing bid of $391.50 from $393 late Thursday. Earlier, in Hong Kong, gold rose 13 cents to close at a bid $393.65. Silver fell 4.1 cents to $5.043 a troy ounce on the Commodity Exchange. In London, silver fell to a late bid price of $5.04 a troy ounce, down from Thursday\'s $5.08.\r\n'),(1758,2,'A heart valve manufacturer bowed to the demands of consumer activists and agreed to inform thousands of implant patients of potential defects. Shiley Inc. of Irvine, a subsidiary of New York-based Pfizer Inc., said Tuesday it will identify and notify 21,000 patients in the United States of product defects that could prove dangerous. Its notices will advise patients about the warning signs of mechanical valve failure and what steps to take should the device fail, company officials said. The announcement affects those patients who received the Bjork-Shiley 60-degree ``convexo-concave\'\' heart valve. The company voluntarily pulled the valves from the U.S. market in 1986 following reports of valve fractures. Roger Sachs, vice president and medical director at Shiley, said the firm was determining how patients will be notified. He said Shiley was negotiating with another company to compile a registry of implant patients. The decision comes after Public Citizen Health Research Group, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer organization, filed a lawsuit against Shiley and Pfizer to force Shiley to warn patients about the defects. A judge dismissed the suit in May after ruling that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had sole authority to issue such an order. ``If the company does what it says it is going to do, there is no question that some people who otherwise would die will live,\'\' said Public Citizen\'s director, Dr. Sidney Wolfe. ``I think they (Shiley) saw the handwriting on the wall and yielded to something they should have done a long time ago,\'\' he added. Originally, Shiley had cautioned only surgeons about the valve\'s problems, replying upon them to notify their patients. In March, the company mailed warnings to surgeons, cardiologists, primary physicians and emergency room practitioners. A statement issued Tuesday by Shiley said the decision to notify patients directly came in response to FDA concerns that physicians may not have effectively communicated the product\'s defects to implant patients. Shiley officials added they will ask the FDA to review the notices it will send to patients. FDA spokeswoman Susan Cruzan said the agency could decide by early next year whether to require valve manufacturers to notify patients directly of any potential product defects.\r\n'),(1759,2,'Pentagon officials raised ``the possibility\'\' that a military identification signal received by the cruiser Vincennes may have been sent by a military jet and not the Iranian commercial airliner shot down by one of the ship\'s missiles, Rep. Les Aspin said today. But a Navy spokesman, Lt. Brian Cullin, said, ``We do not believe there was another aircraft in the area.\'\' Aspin, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said that possibility was raised Tuesday by Defense Department officials who met behind closed doors with House members to discuss Sunday\'s attack by the Vincennes, in which all 290 people on the Iranair jetliner died. Pentagon spokesman Dan Howard said Tuesday the Vincennes\' sophisticated electronic equipment had picked up transmissions from Iran Air flight 655 on a military frequency, leading the crew of the cruiser to think it was firing at an Iranian F-14 fighter. The Pentagon officials who briefed the House members ``said they were examining a wide range of possibilities about what happened,\'\' Aspin said today. ``We pressed them on the military transmission angle, the fact that the Vincennes said it was receiving on a military channel\'\' from the airliner, he said. ``We were told that there were three possibilities. One is that the Airbus had in fact been broadcasting on both civilian and military frequencies; the second is the fact that people on the Vincennes made a mistake in reading the information, and the third is that there was a second plane that was a military plane,\'\' he said. ``The possibility exists that there was a military plane that was somehow masked\'\' by the airliner, he said. The Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system used by the Vincennes as part of the identification process ``is good, but it also has a lot of limitations,\'\' said Aspin, a Wisconsin Democrat. ``For one thing, it\'s not very good at determining altitudes,\'\' Aspin said. He said that if there were a second plane, its existence could be one explanation of the wide divergence between reports about the altitude of the Airbus. The Vincennes thought the Airbus was at about 7,000 feet, but Howard said Tuesday that the USS Sides, another ship in the area, had tracked the jetliner\'s altitude at above 12,000 feet. The Vincennes efforts to identify the plane were hampered by the lack of an airborne radar system in the vicinity, said Adm. William Crowe, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who on Sunday acknowledged that downed plane was an airliner. ``There was no air cover,\'\' Crowe said Sunday. The United States does operate E-2 Hawkeye and Airborne Warning and Control (AWACS) reconnaissance aircraft with sophisticated look-down radar in the region, but they were not aloft at the time of the incident. Crowe was asked on Sunday whether any other Iranian aircraft were in the area, and said ``there was an F-4 up later. Whether it had been up all the time or earlier, we\'re not able to determine. ... It didn\'t play a part in this.\'\' The F-4\'s and F-14\'s were among the U.S.-made weapons sold to Iran during the reign of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in 1979.\r\n'),(1760,2,'The Soviets have become more open about announcing their space failures, but failed to announce the destruction of a spy satellite last month and gave out sparse details about a rocket failure, space-watcher Jim Oberg said Saturday. The official Tass news agency reported that the upper stage of the Proton rocket booster failed on Wednesday and that on Thursday ``the Sputniks entered dense layers of the atmosphere and ceased their existence.\'\' According to U.S. Space Command, the largest chunk of debris from the mission re-entered the earth\'s atmosphere Friday afternoon between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and a smaller chunk fell earlier near Australia. Besides the failure of the Proton, with three satellites aboard, the Soviets lost another satellite, Cosmos 1,906, on Jan. 31. The imaging satellite was launched on Dec. 26 and was ``blown up to prevent the film and equipment from falling into the hands of western intelligence agencies,\'\' Oberg said. Since Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev came to power in March 1985, Oberg said, the Soviets ``have certainly released new material. But there remain severe limits. Military stuff is clearly beyond the limit.\'\' Still, Oberg said, Western technology can detect such events as the Proton failure, and Western news reports can force further disclosures from the Soviets. Penetrating the secretive Soviet space program is nothing new for Oberg, who has published his findings in a new book called ``Uncovering Soviet Disasters: Exploring the Limits of Glasnost.\'\' Long before Gorbachev\'s moderate reforms led to greater disclosure of problems in the Soviet Union, Oberg had pieced together hair-raising tales of disasters that for decades went unreported in the state-controlled media. Oberg has ``been working since childhood at this, watching their space program, looking for chinks in their secrecy, and driving through them.\'\' Soviet secrecy can be dangerous, Oberg wrote in his book. On Oct. 24, 1962, a Soviet space probe exploded into dozens of objects during the Cuban missile crisis, the confrontation that brought the superpowers their closest to nuclear war. Debris from the probe ``appeared without warning on American attack-warning radars in Alaska,\'\' Oberg wrote. ``The Cuban missile crisis was at its height, and for a few moments the unannounced and unpredicted Soviet space failure looked like the long-feared massive Soviet (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) attack.\'\' The debris burned up as it entered the atmosphere. But, Oberg said, the Soviets have never publicly acknowledged the event. Soviet media also have not reported on the most spectacular ``and probably the greatest disaster of the space age,\'\' the ``Nedelin catastrophe,\'\' which on about Oct. 24, 1960, killed scores of Soviets including Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, the commander in chief of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces. The accident came three years after the Soviets launched the first satellite, ``Sputnik.\'\' Operating in the strictest secrecy, the Soviets launched two unmanned spacecraft on a probe to Mars, but both fell back into the atmosphere and burned up because their upper stages failed. A third booster was loaded with fuel, and the order was given to launch. But the main rocket engine did not ignite. ``It just stood there on the launch pad, bathed in searchlights and fuming with clouds of supercold liquid oxygen,\'\' Oberg wrote. ``Nedelin made a fatal error and committed a gross violation of elementary rocket safety standards,\'\' Oberg wrote. ``From the launch bunker, where he had prepared to watch the expected success, he ordered a team of engineers to inspect the rocket booster immediately. ...\'\' ``Since he was an experienced combat commander, he would not send men into peril he himself avoided, so he walked out to the base of the rocket while the inspection was being made.\'\' Although the main rocket failed to ignite, the uppermost stage continued to operate as though it were en route to Mars, and at the time when it would have separated from the booster, fired its own rockets. ``A million pounds of kerosene and liquid oxygen flared up in a pyre which must have been visible for hundreds of miles,\'\' Oberg wrote. The Soviet press carried an official obituary of Nedelin several days later, saying that he had ``died tragically in the line of duty\'\' in a plane crash. Not a word has appeared since then in the official press, although writings smuggled out of Russia or published by emgres have described the incident, and Oberg pieced together the evidence.\r\n'),(1761,2,'The original stars of the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber\'s new musical ``Aspects of Love\'\' will recreate their roles in the Broadway production opening April 8 at the Broadhurst Theater. The two American actresses, Ann Crumb and Kathleen Rowe McAllen, and two British actors, Michael Ball and Kevin Colson, are part of an ongoing exchange between American and British Actors\' Equity. Directed by Trevor Nunn, ``Aspects of Love\'\' originally opened in London\'s West End on April 17, 1989, where it continues to play to capacity houses. Set in France in the 1950s and based on David Garnett\'s novel, ``Aspects of Love\'\' traces the course, over 18 years, of a romance between a young English boy and a penniless French actress, through an affair that involves all those whose lives it touches.\r\n'),(1762,2,'National Republican campaign committees have suffered multimillion-dollar drops in receipts and spending compared to the last non-presidential election campaign, a federal agency said Wednesday. The GOP committees still have spent far more this time around than their Democratic counterparts, which did not experience a decline in campaign fund-rasising, the Federal Election Commission said. As of Oct. 17, the FEC said, the Republican national, senatorial and congressional committees had received $30 million less and spent $26 million less than in the same period during the 1985-86 cycle. At the same time, the level of financial activity at the Democratic committees remained on a par with the previous off-year campaign cycle. Republican Party strategists have said GOP fund-raising efforts were hurt by President Bush\'s change of heart on taxes. Bush abandoned his no-new-taxes campaign pledge this fall and agreed to a package of spending cuts and new taxes to help reduce the federal deficit. Nevertheless, the GOP managed to outspend the Democrats this year by more than $118 million, according to the FEC. The three GOP committees raised and spent $159 million from Jan. 1, 1989, to Oct. 17, 1990. The three Democratic committees raised $37 million and spent $40 million in the same period. The Republicans contributed nearly twice as much as the Democrats directly to candidates - $1.8 million compared to just over $900,000, the FEC said. Coordinated expenditures, or indirect aid to candidates, came to $7.4 million for the GOP and $5.8 million for the Democrats. The GOP also has transferred much more money to state party committees than the Democrats - $3.7 million compared to $1.6 million. In addition, the national Republican Party operates two joint fund-raising committees that have distributed $1.9 million to 49 Senate candidates, the FEC said. Democrats have filed a complaint alleging that the committees - the Republican Senatorial Inner Circle 1990 and 1990-91 - are illegally circumventing campaign spending limits.\r\n'),(1763,2,'Today is Wednesday, Oct. 26, the 300th day of 1988. There are 66 days left in the year. Today\'s highlight in history: In 1881, the Gunfight at the O-K Corral occurred in Tombstone, Ariz., as Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and ``Doc\'\' Holliday shot it out with Ike Clanton\'s gang. Three members of Clanton\'s gang were killed; Earp\'s brothers were wounded. On this date: In 1774, the First Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia. In 1825, the Erie Canal opened, connecting the waters of Lake Erie and the Hudson River. In 1942, the U.S. ship Hornet was sunk in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands during World War II. In 1949, President Harry S. Truman signed a measure raising the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour. In 1957, the Soviet Union announced that its defense minister, Marshal Georgi Zhukov, had been relieved of his duties. In 1958, Pan American Airways flew its first Boeing 707 jetliner from New York to Paris. The trip took eight hours, 41 minutes. In 1967, the Shah of Iran crowned himself and his queen after 26 years on the Peacock Throne. In 1972, national security adviser Henry Kissinger declared ``Peace is at hand\'\' in Vietnam. In 1975, Anwar Sadat became the first Egyptian president to pay an official visit to the United States as he arrived to seek economic and military aid from Washington. In 1977, the experimental space shuttle Enterprise glided to a bumpy but successful landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California in a test witnessed by Britain\'s Prince Charles. In 1979, South Korean president Park Chung-hee was shot to death by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae-kyu. In 1984, ``Baby Fae,\'\' a newborn with a severe heart defect, was given the heart of a baboon in an experiment transplant in Loma Linda, California. Baby Fae lived 21 days with the animal\'s heart. Ten years ago: President Jimmy Carter told a Democratic Party rally in Miami that he intended to sign an $18.7 billion tax cut measure, despite previous threats to veto it. Five years ago: Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger reported that the U.S.-led military incursion into Grenada was progressing ``extremely well,\'\' and said six U.S. servicemen had been killed since the invasion began the day before. One year ago: In Miami, an investor who had suffered heavy stock market losses shot and killed a brokerage manager and wounded his personal broker, then turned the gun on himself. Today\'s birthdays: The former archbishop of Philadelphia, Cardinal John Krol, is 78. French President Francois Mitterrand is 72. Actor Bob Hoskins is 46. Actress Jaclyn Smith is 41. Thought for today: ``You have not done enough, you have never done enough, so long as it is still possible that you have something to contribute.\'\' _ Dag Hammarskjold, U.N. Secretary-General (1905-1961).\r\n'),(1764,2,'Wood storks have come home to roost in southern Florida, but but naturalists are worried that the endangered birds won\'t have a chance to rear their young before the rainy season. Summer deluges at the storks\' two major ancestral breeding grounds would drench nestlings and disperse the fish the birds rely on for food, they explained. Last week, 620 pairs of wood storks were nesting at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, a National Audubon Society refuge about 20 miles north of Naples that was once the primary stork-nesting area in North America. Another 75 pairs have taken up residence at Everglades National Park\'s Cuthbert Island. The two sites were believed to have been all but abandoned by North America\'s sole species of stork, a giant white bird with an iron-black head. ``We are ecstatic to be able to report these numbers,\'\' said Paul Hinchcliff, chief naturalist at Corkscrew. ``Whether or not there\'s enough time before the start of the rainy season to fledge enough young remains to be seen.\'\' Almost all previous attempts to nest so late in the year have ended disastrously, said John Ogden, who heads a wood stork study team at Everglades National Park. If they are unable to feed offspring, parent birds will abandon the colony, leaving hundreds of crying young birds to starve. Wood storks have not produced offspring in significant numbers at Corkscrew since 1984-85, when 353 pairs of birds successfully raised 530 young. Fifty years ago, it was common to see 6,000 to 8,000 pairs of storks nesting in the gray-boughed cypress trees. Since the early 1960s, however, storks have been spurning Corkscrew in favor of central and northern Florida and other Southern states. Between 1960 and 1980, the wood stork nesting population at Corkscrew dropped by 75 percent. The renewed Corkscrew colony represents almost 30 percent of the total U.S. stork population, estimated at 4,000. Historically, storks came to Corkscrew by the tens of thousands to nest in early winter, leaving plenty of time to rear offspring before the onset of rain. But human activity disrupted the annual cycle of high-water summers and low-water winters in Florida\'s wetlands. Much of the area that provided shallow feeding waters for wood storks during the early winter has been drained for farming or sudivisions. The birds have been forced to wait until late winter or spring for the deeper waters of the interior Everglades to drop low enough for them to efficiently feed. As result, nesting is delayed, and this year\'s young won\'t be ready to leave their nests until about mid-July, Ogden said.\r\n'),(1765,2,'Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci said Monday he will travel to Moscow in early August for his third meeting with Soviet Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov, and the second-ranking Soviet defense official will tour the United States in July. The exchange of visits is aimed at reducing military tension between the superpowers as part of a general widening and improvement in the U.S.-Soviet dialogue. In the first business session between the Soviet and U.S. defense secretaries, Carlucci and Yazov met in Bern, Switzerland, last March and for a second time during the Moscow summit May 31-June 2. The ``dialogue is not valuable for its own sake, but only as a means to enhance our security,\'\' Carlucci said in a speech at the National Press Club. ``Our discussions in Bern and last month in Moscow were candid and, I think precisely because of that, constructive.\'\' ``We have gained a great deal from having an opportunity to air our differences, and to explore ways that we might improve our relations,\'\' he said. ``As in our earlier meetings, our agenda will include exploring ways to avoid dangerous military incidents, and to expand military-to-military contacts.\'\' The Soviet first deputy defense minister, Marshal Sergei F. Akhromeyev, will make a July 5-11 visit to the United States at the invitation of Adm. William Crowe, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staffs, the Pentagon and Soviet news agency Tass announced. Akhromeyev was in Washington last December for the summit, but the upcoming trip, ``will be his first visit outside the nation\'s capital,\'\' the Pentagon announcement said. Akhromeyev, the Soviet chief of staff, ``will tour military units from all four military services and will travel to Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota and New York during his visit,\'\' it said. Crowe and Akhromeyev will have joint news conferences on July 6 and July 11, and on July 11, the Soviet marshal will address a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. Akhromeyev will not be allowed to view any classified training or equipment, the Pentagon said, but he will visit Camp Lejeune, N.C.; the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt; Fort Hood, Texas; and Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D. The Soviet defense official will be allowed to view a new B-1B bomber, but will not be allowed to fly in one, the Pentagon added. In his speech, Carlucci said he was skeptical of the reform rhetoric of Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and of Soviet claims that ``they are shifting to a purely defensive military posture.\'\' ``For my part, I have indicated that the United States would welcome such a shift, but that in spite of Soviet claims, we see no change in the Soviet force structure and no reduction in resources devoted to the Soviet military, which continues to absorb between 15 and 17 percent of the Soviet\'\' gross national product, he said. ``Now is not the time to let down our guard,\'\' he said. ``There is every reason to believe that the Soviets see in our technology a way to derive not only economic but military advantage.\'\' ``If the end result of reform is a Soviet Union that is less expansionist, that reduces the resources it now devotes to the military, that delivers on its promises to respect fundamental freedoms and human rights, that is more open to dialogue with the West, then change will have been for the better,\'\' Carlucci said. ``On the other hand, if the end product of Soviet restructuring is nothing more than the development, perhaps even with Western assistance, of a stronger Soviet military machine, then we in the West will face a far more dangerous threat than we do at present,\'\' he said. An aide to Carlucci said that the exact dates and interinary of the trip to Moscow would not be announced until next month.\r\n'),(1766,2,'Rain answered some prayers in the parched Midwest, where neighbors informed on water wasters by the hundreds, but as the nation buckled under record heat Eastern farmers began worrying that drought conditions were heading their way. More record high temperatures today were expected to burn lingering moisture from drought-choked soil in the nation\'s farm belt. Temperatures topped the 100-degree mark in 23 states Tuesday, the first day of summer, and set 67 records. However, ``it looks like things will be not quite as hot as they were the last couple days,\'\' said Hugh Crowther of the National Weather Service in Kansas City, Mo. Meteorologists forecast no major rainfall in the next few days, although widely scattered showers and thunderstorms dampened the central Plains and Great Lakes region this morning, while strong thunderstorms lashed parts of Wisconsin and Michigan. The heat and lack of rain also continued to shrink water levels on rivers, staunching traffic on parts of the Mississippi and Ohio as barges ran aground or became snagged in bottlenecks. ``I can\'t keep the (Mississippi) river open,\'\' said Cmdr. Michael Donohoe with the Coast Guard near Memphis, Tenn., where officials expect a towboat traffic jam of up to 1,800 barges. ``Mother Nature is going to make that decision for us.\'\' In an interview today on ABC-TV\'s ``Good Morning America,\'\' Donohoe said the Army Corps of Engineers began dredging the river Tuesday night, and ``we hope to have the channel re-opened by Friday at noon.\'\' Tuesday, the Army Corps of Engineers managed to free a 26-barge tow that ran aground near Rosedale, Miss., reopening 730 miles of the Mississippi downstream from Memphis to the Gulf of Mexico. Heavy rain fell Tuesday on part of the drought-ravaged northern Plains, but it was scarcely enough to quench dusty pastures. Lightning ignited dry timber and grass in northwestern South Dakota, where firefighters were trying to control two fires that burned a total 6,500 acres. At the Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, Jack Wilson, director of the Bureau of Land Management, told ``Good Morning America\'\' he was concerned about the coming forest fire season because of the drought and expected ``a considerable number\'\' of forests to be closed as the season progresses. Regis Krebs, a farmer from Beckemeyer, Ill., near St. Louis, discovered the fire risk when a spark from his combine set part of his wheat field ablaze. ``He lost a couple acres of wheat in about 10 minutes,\'\' said Fire Chief Vincent Pollman. ``Everything is bone dry and it went up quickly.\'\' On the Chicago Board of Trade, drought worries Tuesday drove corn futures prices up to their daily limit for the sixth straight day. Soybean futures also rose sharply while wheat futures retreated. Commodities analysts said the weather service\'s latest six-to-10 day forecast for hot, dry weather in the Midwest threatened further damage to corn, oat and soybean crops. ``With the corn crop, each week that goes by without rain means another 10 percent is lost,\'\' said Joel Karlin, an analyst with Research Department Inc. in Chicago. Some estimate anywhere from 10 percent to 30 percent of the U.S. corn crop already has been ruined. Marion Hartman, director of the Ohio Corn Growers Board, said today on the ABC-TV program, ``I don\'t want to call this a disaster, but it\'s approaching a disaster. Let\'s say it\'s getting critical.\'\' Hay was so scarce that a hay hot line was started in Dayton, Ohio, for farmers seeking fodder from as far away as Kansas. For the most part those with livestock face the choice of feeding hay stored for the winter, buying feed at higher prices or selling their herds in a falling market. ``I see tears. I see anger,\'\' said Laura Koenig of Stratford, Wis., who runs a program to help farmers deal with stress. ``I see very tired men, women giving up and walking away, children saying, `I don\'t want to go in the barn.\'\'\' ``There\'s no hay, no prospect of getting any,\'\' said O.H. Campbell, 71, of Henderson, Ky. ``I cut about 50 bales. I\'m going to use that to feed this summer and then I\'m going to sell the herd off.\'\' Many utilities hit record peak loads Tuesday and asked customers to cut back on electricity. Water use restrictions were widespread, prompting many residents of Oakland County, Mich., to inform on neighbors who violate them, officials said. ``The people have begun to realize the severity of this,\'\' said Al Beanblossom, assistant manager for the Waterford Township Water and Sewer Department. ``That\'s why I think people are turning in their neighbors.\'\' ``We laugh about it,\'\' Beanblossom said. ``We say, `Here comes another squealer.\'\'\' There was little laughter in the East, however, where signs of drought began appearing. Pennsylvania authorities on Tuesday warned the next two weeks are critical. ``Things are drying out pretty quickly out there,\'\' said Gene Schenck, spokesman for the state Agriculture Department. ``The hot sun and the breeze take the moisture right out of the soil.\'\' A weekly state survey of 225 farmers and county extension agents showed 80 percent reported their soil was short of moisture last week, Schenck said.\r\n'),(1767,2,'A police sergeant on Wednesday began the somber roll call of the 270 people who died in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland. In a silent courtroom virtually empty of spectators, Sgt. David Johnston began listing in alphabetical order the fate of each victim and where their bodies were found as documented by investigators and pathologists. All 259 people aboard the Boeing 747 died when it exploded over the nearby town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988. Eleven people in that Scottish town were also killed in the crash. Johnston, of Strathclyde police, told the first public hearing into the crash that he arrived in Lockerbie on Christmas Day to work with a unit collating information on the dead. The first name on his roll call was John Michael Gerard Ahearn, 26, a government bonds broker who lived in Rockville Center, N.Y. In a process lasting six minutes, Johnston told the court how the young American had been sitting in seat 30C in the economy class area. His body was found the day after the crash on the Lockerbie golf course. A postmortem exam put the cause of death as multiple injuries. Johnston said Ahearn was identified by dental records. The sergeant then continued with the list. The roll call is expected to take several days. Earlier, Johnston told how 17 victims, 10 passengers and seven Lockerbie residents, were officially registered as ``missing presumed dead.\'\' Most of the missing passengers were sitting in the fuel-laden wing section that crashed in a fireball in the Sherwood Crescent section of town, damaging or destroying about 20 homes. The missing local residents were from those homes. Several dozen bags of unidentified human remains and two bodies that could not be identified were cremated, police said. Johnston said for each casualty, a ``victim pack\'\' was compiled, listing all documentary material relating to their death. The officer also produced maps showing the location of each body and described how the victims were identified by several means, mainly dental records and fingerprints. Some were identified by distinctive features like tattoos. Two victims were identified by next of kin who were members of the medical profession. The officer described how police obtained proof that those missing had joined the doomed flight, in some cases recovering personal documents like driving licenses from the debris. The inquiry is focusing on the causes of death and airport security, but not criminal responsibility. Scottish police say they are investigating several radical Palestinian groups and Fraser has said he believes the bombers will be caught.\r\n'),(1768,2,'Pope John Paul II on Thursday voiced support for a plan to combat rising anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, but Vatican officials declined appeals by a Jewish delegation to recognize Israel. A Jewish leader, Seymour Reich, said two days of talks between the Jewish delegation and the Vatican marked ``the beginning of a new chapter\'\' in the Catholic-Jewish relationship. But he said delegates of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations were ``somewhat disappointed\'\' the pope did not go further in his comments. The Vatican\'s new foreign minister, Monsignor Jean-Louis Tauran, cited the Vatican\'s traditional reasons for not recognizing Israel, including unsettled borders, the status of Jerusalem and the Palestinians\' lack of a homeland. The pope hailed progress in relations between Jews and Catholics in his speech to the 30-member Jewish delegation and top Vatican officials. In particular, he praised a September plan drawn up by Jews and Catholics in Prague, Czechoslovakia, for fighting anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. The six-point plan included calls for setting up courses for priests to counter anti-Jewish sentiment, and omiting religiously divisive material from textbooks. The Prague meeting also branded anti-Semitism a sin. Jewish leaders have expressed concern about an upsurge of anti-Semitism in the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, including the pope\'s native Poland. The pope praised the Prague meeting for coming ``to conclusions that are of great importance for the continuation of our dialogue and cooperation. It is my hope that these may be widely recognized and that the recommendations then formulated will be implemented wherever human and religious rights are violated.\'\' Besides the pope\'s endorsement for the plan to combat anti-Semitism, the Jewish delegation had sought the Vatican\'s formal recognition of Israel. But Reich, of Great Neck, N.Y., said they saw no change in the Vatican position on the Jewish State. Reich said the Jewish delegates told Vatican officials, ``there can be no full normalization of relations between the Catholic and Jewish communities until the Vatican has full normalization of relations with the Jewish state.\'\' Nevertheless, delegates said the one-hour papal meeting was warm. Lisa Palmieri-Billig of the Anti-Defamation League, quoted the pope as reiterating his wish to visit the Holy Land. ``I hope one day to be able to visit the holy sites, beginning with those of Abraham\'\' in Jerusalem, he said, according to Palmieri-Billig. ``That would be our joy,\'\' replied Rabbi David Rosen, according to Palmieri-Billig. Rosen is a representative of the Anti-Defamation League in Jerusalem. The Catholic-Jewish meetings were held to mark the 25th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, adopted during the Second Vatican Council. The document, considered a turning point in Catholic-Jewish relations, withdrew the accusation that the Jews were responsible for killing Christ.\r\n'),(1769,2,'Church bells peal and a man with a megaphone mimics a crowing rooster as the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide rides into town on horseback to be greeted by thousands of adoring supporters. The fiery leftist priest, revered by the masses as a prophet, is taking his remarkable quest for the presidency across Haiti in a campaign imbued with messianic symbolism and patriotic fervor. He calls the campaign Operation ``Lavales,\'\' or Torrent, a biblical flood to cleanse Haiti of corruption and tyranny; its emblem is the fighting cock, representing Haiti\'s coming sunrise. ``With Aristide, Lord, there will be no dishonesty,\'\' the people chant as the slight, bespectacled cleric nicknamed ``Titid\'\' appears in their midst. Aristide, 37, has survived at least three assassination attempts and was expelled from his Roman Catholic order in 1988 for preaching revolution. He is widely regarded as the frontrunner among 11 candidates in the Dec. 16 election. Supporters say the charismatic priest offers the best hope of giving the impoverished Caribbean nation not only the first democratically elected president in its turbulent 186-year history, but the stability of a government with huge popular support. Critics accuse Aristide of demagoguery and say his a presidency based on emotional mass appeal would pose the threat of a theocratic dictatorship. That appeal has been evident on campaign stops across the country, from the slums of Port-au-Prince, the capital, to the northern city of Cap-Haitien, where an estimated 60,000 people took part in what was probably the biggest demonstration in the city\'s history. In Jacmel, a crumbling port on the southern coast, perhaps 5,000 people, including hundreds of students in brown and blue school uniforms, poured into the town square for a recent Aristide rally. Dismounting a horse he rode from the outskirts of the city, Aristide plunged into one of his trademark question-response orations in which the distinctions between national pride and Christian love are blurred. Aristide: ``Young people, you know what it is to be lovesick?\'\' Crowd: ``Yes!\'\' Aristide: ``Are you in love with Haiti?\'\' Crowd: ``Yes!\'\' All sing the lilting ``Haiti Cherie,\'\' or ``Darling Haiti,\'\' which is to Haitians what ``America the Beautiful\'\' is to Americans. Then Aristide: ``We are going to do away with injustice - totally.\'\' Together: ``Totally, totally, totally, totally, totally, totally.\'\' Aristide unexpectedly entered the presidential race in mid-October after Roger Lafontant, reputed former head of the Duvalier dictatorship\'s infamous Tonton Macoute militia, declared his candidacy. Lafontant was later disqualified on a technicality. Although no opinion polls have been published, the consensus among political observers is that Aristide commands much wider support than any of Haiti\'s veteran politicians. ``Aristide is the figurehead of a messianic movement, the incarnation of a collective dream,\'\' says Laennec Hurbon, a specialist on religious movements in the Caribbean. ``His responsibility to his following is not the same as that of a politician to his constituency.\'\' Aristide gained a nationwide following largely from radio broadcasts of his electrifying sermons in which he railed against successive military regimes that have ruled Haiti since the February 1986, when Jean-Claude ``Baby Doc\'\' Duvalier was driven into exile. He is an adherent of liberation theology, which promotes political and social awareness among the poor. In September 1988, thugs armed with guns, machetes and spikes burst into Aristide\'s St. Jean Bosco Church during Mass, killing at least 12 parishioners and wounding 70. Three months later, Aristide, was expelled from the conservative Salesian Order for refusing to tone down his rhetoric. The only other presidential candidate whose appeal approaches Aristide\'s is the moderate Louis Dejoie Jr., who drew thousands of supporters on a recent campaign swing of the southern peninsula. Marc Bazin, a former World Bank official frequently mentioned as a favorite of the U.S. Embassy, which denies any preference, is also seen as running strongly. Bazin\'s National Alliance for Democracy andPProgress, the country\'s best-funded political machine, is expected to dominate Parliament after the election. If Bazin fails to win the presidency, he could still become prime minister since the president must chose a prime minister from among the majority party. Under Haiti\'s constitution, the president is head of state but the prime minister runs the government. Aristide has said he would ``embrace\'\' the next prime minister, but many Haitians see the potential for conflict. Voter registration has reached 3.3 million, or 92 percent of the electorate, according to election officials - a phenomenon largely attributed to Aristide\'s candidacy.\r\n'),(1770,2,'Five young adults exploring a storm drain were found alive after being washed away by runoff from a thunderstorm Thursday night, authorities said. The five, who were among eight people 18 to 25 years old who were exploring the drain, were located about 350 yards inside the drain about 11:30 p.m., said Fire Department spokesman Brad Stewart. ``They\'re all alive,\'\' Stewart said. One of the eight, John Shaffer of Charleston, said he and two friends were able to escape the drain. ``We got washed down the tube,\'\' said Shaffer, 21. ``We got a quarter of the way down and the water got so high. We tried to get out and we got washed out. ``We were just exploring there,\'\' he said. ``It wasn\'t raining when we went in, but then the water came in.\'\' The storm dumped up to 1{ inches of rain in a two-hour period in the area, the National Weather Service said.\r\n'),(1771,2,'Gov. Robert D. Orr said he has narrowed his list of candidates for Vice President-elect Dan Quayle\'s U.S. Senate seat to eight finalists. Orr said Friday that expects to name his selection sometime this week. A final background check of the finalists was being conducted over the weekend. The Indianapolis Star, in its Sunday editions, said Orr confirmed a list finalists that the paper had learned from sources. The eight, all Republicans, are U.S. Reps. Dan Coats and Dan Burton; former Indiana Secretary of State Edwin J. Simcox; state House Speaker Paul S. Mannweiler of Indianapolis; state Rep. Patrick J. Kiely of Anderson, chairman of the state House Ways and Means Committee; Lt. Gov. John M. Mutz; Indianapolis Mayor William H. Hudnut; and Marion County Prosecutor Stephen Goldsmith, the newspaper said. Orr told the newspaper Friday he had reduced a group of 50 candidates for the Senate seat down to 20 to 25 names and then down to the eight finalists. He said that the finalists who are from the Indianapolis area, such as Hudnut and Goldsmith, have a slight disadvantage compared with the other candidates because Indiana\'s other senator, Richard Lugar, is from there.\r\n'),(1772,2,'A bride who got onto her husband\'s Harley Davidson while still wearing her wedding gown spent the night in a hospital after it got caught in the motorcycle\'s back wheel. Denise Hudson and her husband, Lee, planned to ride to Raleigh, N.C., for a Grateful Dead concert after getting married July Fourth at a park. But the train of Mrs. Hudson\'s full-length gown got caught and dragged her under the bike. Mrs. Hudson, 28, suffered a broken pelvis and a concussion. ``She\'s skinned and sore. It could have been worse,\'\' said Hudson, 30, who received minor cuts and bruises. Paramedics had to cut the cream-colored gown to pieces to free her. Mrs. Hudson will have to spend the next few days in Grand Strand General Hospital, and the next few weeks recovering from her injuries. ``We can always have another honeymoon,\'\' her husband said.\r\n'),(1773,2,'Relief services for about 260,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon will be cut to the minimum because of the kidnapping of two Scandinavian employees of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the agency said Saturday. ``There will be noticeable changes in UNRWA services and activities because of security problems and the lack of freedom of movement,\'\' said agency spokesman Niall Kiely. ``We feel agency staff, be they foreign nationals or locals, are under threat to their physical safety.\'\' UNRWA employees Jan Stening, 44 of Sweden, and William Jorgensen, 58, of Norway, were kidnapped Feb. 5. UNRWA said Palestinians, acting independently of guerrilla factions, kidnapped the men for personal motives. Kiely said only four of the 14 international staff assigned to Lebanon remained in west Beirut and ``they are very heavily involved in the search for Stening and Jorgensen.\'\' He said he was ``reasonably hopeful\'\' that the Scandinavians would be released because ``there are no real setbacks\'\' in negotiations. He did not elaborate. Kiely said UNRWA has canceled a repair program for Beirut\'s war-ravaged Chatilla and Bourj el-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camps ``because it can\'t be supervised.\'\' About 2,200 local relief workers serve with UNRWA at field centers in Lebanon. Kiely said another impact of the kidnappings in south Lebanon was that all UNRWA transports between Beirut and the southern port cities of Sidon and Tyre have been stopped both ways. He said agency operations such as schools ``have a certain momentum, so for the moment many services will continue to run as before.\'\'\r\n'),(1774,2,'The dollar sank in European trading this morning as traders concentrated on U.S. economic weaknesses. Gold was higher. The dollar closed in Tokyo at 141.65 yen, down 0.65 yen from its close Wednesday. That was the lowest closing rate since Oct. 25, 1989. Later in London, the dollar was quoted at 141.09 yen. Other dollar rates at midmorning compared with late Wednesday: _1.5557 German marks, down from 1.5630 _1.2968 Swiss francs, up from 1.2963 _5.2140 French francs, down from 5.2375 _1.7540 Dutch guilders, down from 1.7607 _1,160.50 Italian lire, down from 1,166.00 _1.1500 Canadian dollars, down from 1.1532 In London, the British pound was quoted at $1.9045, compared with $1.8990 late Wednesday. A trader in Milan, Italy, said the market expected bad news for the U.S. economy when employment figures are released Friday. London\'s major bullion dealers fixed a recommended gold price of $388.25 at midmorning, up from $387.75 Wednesday. In Zurich, the bid price was $388.00, from $385.75 late Wednesday. Gold in Hong Kong rose $3.57 an ounce today, to close at $387.59. Silver traded in London at a bid price of $4.84 a troy ounce, up from Wednesday\'s $4.78.\r\n'),(1775,2,'The stock market recorded some spotty losses today as investors studied new signs of sluggishness in business activity. The Commerce Department reported that the index of leading economic indicators was unchanged in June, rather than posting the small increase many analysts had been expecting. Separately, a monthly report from the National Association of Purchasing Management showed a marked dropoff in its measure of activity in the manufacturing sector of the economy. Those developments reinforced expectations in the financial world that business growth was likely to remain meager at best in the near future. In that environment, hopes have flagged on Wall Street for any impending improvement in corporate earnings. But at the same time, interest rates have moved lower of late. In today\'s credit market activity, prices of long-term government bonds rose about $5 for each $1,000 in face value, lowering their yields to the 8.35 percent-8.37 percent range.\r\n'),(1776,2,'CBS Inc. said Monday it expects to post a loss in the fourth quarter because of a weak advertising market and unexpectedly large losses on its television broadcasts of major league baseball. The company also said it expects lower earnings from continuing operations for all of 1991 compared with this year. The glum forecast comes as CBS reportedly planned a meeting with its affiliates board to propose a reduction in the estimated $160 million the network pays about 200 affiliated stations for carrying its shows. Media analysts said they expected CBS would post a loss for the last three months of 1990 and an earnings decline in 1991. Analyst Jeff Russell of Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. said CBS would lose about $35 million in the quarter and earnings will fall to about $205 million in 1991 from about $230 million in 1990. In reaction to the news, CBS shares dropped $4 to close at $159.75 in trading of New York Stock Exchange issues. CBS isn\'t the only media company suffering because of a slowdown this quarter in national ad spending growth. Capital Cities-ABC Inc., which operates the ABC Television Network, said last month as it reported a decline in profit in the third quarter that it expected a decline in earnings for the fourth quarter as well. Like CBS, Capital Cities-ABC has been hurt by losses on major league baseball coverage at its 80 percent-owned ESPN cable TV network. The third major network, NBC, is owned by General Electric Co. which does not report separately on its broadcasting subsidiary\'s performance. CBS\'s unspecified loss projected for the fourth quarter would be its first excluding special items since the company lost $20 million on continuing operations in the fourth quarter of 1986, spokesman Kewith Fawcett said. CBS earned $59.5 million, or $2.31 a share, in the fourth quarter of 1989. This was the first year of CBS\'s four-year baseball contract which allows it to carry several regular season games along with the league championship series, World Series and All-Star game. While the network reportedly expected to lose about $35 million in the first year of the $1.06 billion contract, the losses are said to have run much higher. CBS Sports President Neal Pilson has said only that the loss on baseball was under $100 million. On Monday, CBS said losses on baseball were ``higher than anticipated\'\' as the result of soft demand in the ad marketplace for time on sports programs and because the World Series and one of the two league championships were settled in four games instead of the maximum seven. The short series meant CBS had fewer nights of baseball on which to sell advertising. Games later in a series also tend to draw bigger audiences, making them more valuable to advertisers. CBS said its TV network would have had a loss for the fourth quarter even without baseball, because of the soft ad marketplace. It said the marketplace weakness has dampened demand for network, local TV and radio advertising, and said network ad prices have been particulartly soft for National Football League and primetime broadcasts, where CBS ratings have improved. In projecting a decline in earnings from continuing operations in 1991 compared with 1990, CBS cited the worsening economic climate for advertising and rising costs for entertainment programs and sports rights. Another reason is that the 1990 figures include profits on the coverage of the NFL Super Bowl and the National Basketball Association playoffs and championship that the network will not have rights to in 1991. ``As a result, the CBS Television Network is currently expected to show an operating loss in 1991,\'\' the statement said. Russell said his firm expects the CBS TV Network will post a profit of about $10 million for 1990 and lose about $35 million next year.\r\n'),(1777,2,'The Nikkei Stock Average closed at 25,622.71 points, up 301.99 points, on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday.\r\n'),(1778,2,'Thousands of Egyptians are traveling to Kuwait and Iraq to bring home relatives or retrieve belongings ranging from birth certificates to mink coats. Others hope to resume old jobs or win positions vacated in the exodus of workers who fled after Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2. Before they go, the Egyptians must obtain permits from Iraq\'s consulate in Cairo. The papers, called ``facilitating documents\'\' rather than visas, allow entrance to Iraq and its ``governorate of Kuwait.\'\' Egypt has led Arab opposition to the Iraqi conquest, and strongly rejects Baghdad\'s annexation of its small neighbor. But Cairo has not prevented Egyptians from going to Iraq or Kuwait. ``Some of these people are very poor,\'\' said an official of the Interior Ministry, which keeps track of the reverse exodus by issuing permits to Egyptians who work outside the country. ``They have no alternative but to work there. They don\'t care if there\'s a war or not. We can\'t stop them.\'\' On Wednesday, applicants milled about outside the Iraqi Consulate, awaiting their documents. ``I want to see if my school is still open,\'\' said Mahmoud, a mathmetics teacher at a school in Kuwait who gave only his first name. He seemed in a quandary about the journey, wondering aloud whether he should take his wife. Men waiting with him strongly advised that she stay in Egypt. On Aug. 2, about 1.5 million Egyptians worked in the two Persian Gulf states. At least 400,000 fled in the days that followed, thronging refugee camps in Jordan to await ferries to Egypt. Western and Arab countries helped by sending aircraft and other aid. But as weeks passed, returnees began feeling secure enough to worry about possessions or jobs left behind. An Egyptian in Alexandria told of a friend who had worked in Kuwait for many years but fled the advancing Iraqis, leaving his car and other belongings. He went back last month and recently returned home in the car. It was stuffed with electric appliances, silverware, china and his wife\'s mink coat. Interior Minister Abdel-Halim Moussa said 5,062 Egyptians left for Iraq and Kuwait through mid-September. ``Some believe they can find jobs, because many Egyptian workers left for home,\'\' he said in an interview published Wednesday in Al-Ahaly, a weekly newspaper. ``Others leave to bring back their belongings and documents.\'\' Figures at the Iraqi Consulate were far below Moussa\'s, and a consular officer could not explain the discrepancy. He said the office issued only about 800 permits through mid-September, with hundreds more being processed. He said most were for Egyptians returning to jobs in Kuwait. Of about 15 men and three women outside the Iraqi Consulate, all but one said they planned to bring back family members or possessions. Fearing Iraqi harassment, all asked not be identified or allowed use only of first names. ``I love Kuwait. It\'s like my second home,\'\' said a man who worked there as an expert with the Kuwait navy. ``There\'s no way I\'m going to work there for those people (the Iraqis). I\'d fight them if I could.\'\' Ahmed, a burly man in dark glasses, said he was returning to Kuwait for his wife and three children. They were stranded by the invasion while Ahmed was vacationing in Cairo. Closely examining an Iraqi permit handed to a teacher, Ahmed told him: ``You\'d better be careful. I hear the Iraqis are keeping the teachers and not letting them leave.\'\' Mahmoud, one of three teachers outside the consultate Wednesday, was the only one considering working in occupied Kuwait. Ahmed and two others attempted to dissuade him. ``The atmosphere in Kuwait is terrible now, destruction and terror,\'\' Ahmed said. ``The Iraqis hate us.\'\'\r\n'),(1779,2,'Chrysler Corp. Vice Chairman Gerald Greenwald\'s resignation, announced at a time when the automaker is scaling back and struggling to regain lost market share, is troubling to the company and investors alike, analysts say. Greenwald, the apparent successor to Chairman Lee Iacocca, said Wednesday he was resigning to head United Air Lines employees\' $4.38 billion proposal to buy the carrier. He became the third top Chrysler executive to quit this month. Iacocca, 65, whose contract expires at the end of 1991, said when Greenwald was named vice chairman in November 1988 that the chairmanship was his to lose. But Greenwald, 54, flew earlier this week to Iacocca\'s villa in central Italy to discuss his plans with his longtime boss, a company spokesman said. ``Lee made a major effort to try and change his mind,\'\' an unidentified company source told The Detroit News. But Iacocca and Greenwald returned Wednesday to Detroit to make the announcement. ``It has to disturb investors that ... the person who has been designated as the next chairman of Chrysler would leave Chrysler just a few days after the Chrysler treasurer announced his resignation,\'\' said Ronald A. Glantz, senior vice president at Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. in San Francisco. ``Not only will investors be disturbed by the management succession, they will wonder what these managers know about Chrysler that we don\'t know,\'\' Glantz said. Greenwald\'s resignation, effective immediately, follows those of Michael Hammes, who was vice president of international operations, and Chrysler Treasurer and Vice President Fred Zuckerman. Chrysler also has seen its market share slide and its earnings dive. The automaker reported a 80 percent drop in earnings during the first quarter of this year. It made $71 million during the period, or 32 cents a share, compared with $351 million, or $1.50 a share in the first quarter of 1989. Its U.S. market share for cars and light trucks fell from 14.1 percent at the end of April 1989 to 12.4 percent at the end of April 1990, and an austerity program launched last October will slice $1.5 billion from Chrysler\'s $426 billion annual budget by 1991. Greenwald, vice chairman since November 1988, will become chief executive officer of the Chicago-based United Employees Acquisition Corp., an entity formed by the airline\'s three major unions to handle the buyout efforts. UAL stock was up $4.75 a share to $155.62{ in mid-day trading on news of Greenwald\'s move. United\'s pilots union led an ill-fated $6.75 billion plan to acquire the airline last year. The proposal collapsed after the union and its partners, which included senior management and British Airways PLC, were unable to get bank financing for the deal, sparking a stock market panic. After the acquisition, Greenwald, 54, will become chairman and chief executive officer of UAL Corp. and United Airlines, its chief subsidiary, the employee group said in a statement. Glantz added that Greenwald is putting himself in position to cash in on the buyout. ``He\'s paid about $1 million a year (at Chrysler) ... but his Chrysler stock options are worthless,\'\' Glantz said. ``In a leveraged buyout that works, you can make tens of millions of dollars, maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars.\'\' Chrysler spokesman Steve Harris said there has been no decison on who will replace Greenwald, but Glantz said the logical successor is Robert S. Miller Jr., 49, now Chrysler\'s chief financial officer. United Auto Workers union vice president Stan Marshall, who leads the union\'s Chrysler department, speculated that Robert A. Lutz, president of the automaker\'s Chrysler Motors Corp. subsidiary, also will have a shot at filling Greenwald\'s shoes. ``He\'s been the one out there pushing the cars while Greenwald held back on putting cars on the market,\'\' Marshall said. Harris said the recent resignations were unrelated to each other or to the company\'s belt tightening. ``This really shows the depth of Chrysler\'s management,\'\' Harris said from the company\'s Highland Park headquarters. ``There are some very talented people here. They are sought after.\'\' Hammes left May 17 to become an executive vice president for Black & Decker Corp. and vice president of Black & Decker\'s power tool group, Harris said. Zuckerman said he resigned, effective this summer, to look elsewhere for a position in ``corporate restructuring or other senior financial officer activities.\'\' Greenwald worked with Iacocca at Ford Motor Co. and followed him to Chrysler in 1979. He played major roles in securing federal government loans that saved Chrysler from bankruptcy in 1979, and in negotiating the purchase of American Motors Corp. in 1987. ``I can understand Jerry\'s interest in an opportunity like the one United Air Lines presents today,\'\' Iacocca said. ``He is a major management talent, and he\'ll have a chance to show it.\'\' Greenwald said the difficult part about resigning from Chrysler will be leaving Iacocca and other Chrysler executives. ``Looking back, the most gratifying period for me were those uncertain years,\'\' he said. ``I\'ve been offered an opportunity to lead another great company during a period of major transition, and it\'s an opportunity I can\'t turn down.\'\'\r\n'),(1780,2,'The union representing workers at Nordstrom Inc. filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday, accusing the clothing retailer of widespread violations of wage and hour laws. The suit was the second to be filed against the upscale clothier in as many days. On Tuesday, a U.S. District Court suit was filed here by three Nordstrom shareholders who alleged they and other stockholders had suffered financial losses because company officials failed to disclose labor problems at the chain. United Food & Commercial Workers Union Locals 1001 and 367 and five current and former Nordstrom employees filed their suit in King County Superior Court. The suit includes in its class approximately 50,000 current and former Nordstrom workers in Washington, Oregon, California, Virginia, Utah and Alaska. The two locals represent about 1,500 Nordstrom workers in the Seattle area. Nationally, Nordstrom has about 60 stores and employs about 30,000. On Feb. 15, the Washington Department of Labor and Industries ruled Nordstrom had violated state laws by failing to pay some employees for time worked outside normal working hours. The state, acting on a complaint filed by the UFCW, found that workers had not been properly compensated for such things as attending meetings, delivering merchandise to other stores and customers, doing inventory work or writing thank-you notes to customers. Nordstrom said Monday it had made a $15 million provision for expected back pay claims by employees and adopted a procedure to handle the claims. The charge against fourth-quarter earnings was cited by the company as one reason why profits fell 34 percent in the period ending Jan. 31. Joe Peterson, Local 1001 president in Seattle, said at the time that the $15 million was far too little and threatened to sue if Nordstrom officials failed to negotiate a back-pay settlement with the union. Union officials have said claims could exceed $200 million in California alone. Nordstrom said claims forms had been sent to sales clerks in states other than Washington. In Washington state, those forms must be reviewed by the state\'s labor office and by the two union locals. Labor and Industries spokeswoman Karen Jones said Wednesday that the review had not yet taken place, and James Webster, attorney for Local 1001, said, ``They have not come to us to discuss that plan as they said they would in the papers.\'\' Webster said the union had ``hoped for a settlement from the outset,\'\' and was still willing to meet with company officials. The union lawsuit repeats the allegations made in the state complaint and alleges other violations of Washington and California labor laws, including that Washington employees were required to buy clothes from Nordstrom to wear at work. In a news release, Nordstrom co-chairman John Nordstrom said the company regretted the lawsuit, saying that once it was filed, ``local court rules place restrictions on our ability to communicate directly with our employees about their claims. This could slow down and perhaps bring to a halt the resolution process.\'\' Nordstrom said the company will continue trying to compensate for back claims, including seeking court approval to do so. The suit asks the court to order Nordstrom to keep proper employment records and award damages equal to twice the amount of wages unpaid, other damages to be determined at trial, and attorneys\' fees. The union has said claims in Washington state may total $30 million to $40 million and run as high as $200 million in California. It had no estimate on likely claims in other states. To date, the union has received about 520 claims from workers worth about $2.5 million.\r\n'),(1781,2,'Alan Paton, the country\'s best known author, was recovering today from surgery for an undisclosed ailment, a press report said. Paton, whose 1948 novel ``Cry, The Beloved Country\'\' drew a compelling picture of South Africa\'s apartheid system of racial segregation, was in ``fairly serious condition\'\' after Tuesday\'s operation, according to an unidentified heart surgeon quoted by the South African Press Association. A spokeswoman at St. Augustine\'s Hospital in Durban said today that Paton was in stable condition. The 85-year-old novelist underwent surgery after being admitted to the Durban hospital Monday, the news agency said. Paton\'s ``Cry, The Beloved Country\'\' is the second best-selling book ever in South Africa after the Bible. Paton worked in anti-apartheid politics for many years with the United Party and still contributes political commentary to South African newspapers. By law and custom, apartheid establishes a racially segregated society in which the 26 million blacks have no vote in national affairs. The 5 million whites control the economy and maintain separate districts, schools and health services.\r\n'),(1782,2,'Shining Path rebels assassinated two leaders of presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa\'s Democratic Front coalition in separate attacks, police said. The shootings took place less than two weeks before Vargas Llosa, a celebrated novelist and free-market advocate, faces centrist Alberto Fujimori in a runoff presidential election. Fujimori, a political newcomer, is favored to win the June 10 showdown. Felix Vega Riquelme, the former governor of Piura, was shot to death on Tuesday in the coastal city 530 miles northwest of Lima, police said. Hours later, in the Andean city of Cerro de Pasco, Prospero Delson Huaman was shot and killed, police said. Cerro de Pasco is 110 miles northeast of Lima. Vega was gunned down by two men on a motorcycle as he was getting out of a pickup truck, police said. An unidentified companion was seriously wounded. Delson was shot twice in the head by two rebels as he walked home from his job at the Centromin mining company, police said. Before the formation of the Democratic Front coalition, both men were leaders of the center-right Popular Action Party of former president Fernando Belaunde. The Maoist-inspired Shining Path has tried to sabotage the electoral process in Peru. Before April 8 general elections, the rebels called an armed strike in Lima and most of Peru\'s countryside. The government says more than 18,000 people have died in political violence since the Shining Path took up arms 10 years ago. Also Tuesday, police said villagers armed with sticks, stones and machetes battled over a disputed plot of land, leaving seven people dead. As many as 50 people were injured in the clash, which took place Monday night between the small Andean villages of Lircaycacca and Chinabamba, police said. The villages are 30 miles southeast of Huancavalica, an Andean city 145 miles southeast of Lima. The land battle followed three years of deteriorating relations between the two isolated villages, police said. Earlier clashes between the villages, each of which has 200 to 300 residents, resulted in injuries but no deaths, police said.\r\n'),(1783,2,'St. Joseph\'s Aspirin for Children, once a leader in over-the-counter pain relief for youngsters, is slowly disappearing from medicine cabinets. The manufacture of the chewable orange tablets ended in December 1986 as Shering Plough Corp. of Madison focuses on chewable low-dosage aspirin products for adults concerned about preventing heart disease. Aspirin-free pain relievers and name-brand aspirin products competed with each other until the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a report in 1982, said giving aspirin to children suffering from chicken pox and influenza increased the risk of contracting Reye\'s syndrome. The illness is fatal in about 20 percent to 30 percent of the cases, and some survivors suffer permanent brain damage. The government in 1986 ordered warning labels on all aspirin bottles about the risk to children and teen-agers of contracting Reye\'s syndrome. The market ``dropped considerably from 1980 with the Reye\'s syndrome business,\'\' said Terry Kelly, a spokesman for Sterling Drug Inc. of New York, which still manufactures Bayer\'s Aspirin for Children. ``We feel there are certain patients for whom children\'s aspirin is appropriate,\'\' Kelly said. St. Joseph\'s Aspirin for Children, first marketed in 1949, was replaced with aspirin-free tablets called St. Joseph\'s Aspirin-Free Fever Reducer. Jim Saberton, a consultant with Kline & Co. Inc. in Fairfield, said Wednesday that the children\'s aspirin market has become relatively small with sales of about $15 million in 1986 compared with sales of about $115 million for the non-aspirin pain reliever acetominophen that same year. ``The risk and work involved in making aspirin is unattractive, especially since there\'s acetominophen,\'\' he said. St. Joseph\'s Aspirin for Children and Bayer Children\'s Aspirin each had about $5 million in sales in 1986, with the balance of sales taken up by generic brands, he said. He also said Johnson & Johnson\'s Tylenol products, which use acetominophen, cut heavily into sales of St. Joseph\'s, which once held 50 percent of the children\'s pain-reliever market while Bayer had the other half. Lewis Nolan, a Schering Plough spokesman, said, however, that his company disputes the link of aspirin to Reye\'s syndrome. ``It\'s been our position that there\'s been no scientific valid evidence to link aspirin and Reye\'s syndrome,\'\' he said. St. Joseph\'s Low Dose Adult Aspirin was introduced last month, although the company makes no claim in relation to aspirin\'s effectiveness against heart disease. The low dose aspirin product label advises it not be given to young children, he said. Kelly said his company showed higher sales of Bayer Children\'s Aspirin during 1987, although he could not say if it was due to Shering Plough leaving the market. ``I think the first increase you saw was ours last year. I cannot analyze why that is,\'\' he said.\r\n'),(1784,2,'Proponents of artificial hearts fear the Food and Drug Administration\'s withdrawal of approval for the Jarvik heart could hurt research toward a totally implantable device, but most see it as a temporary setback. And they don\'t believe the action will have a serious impact on heart patients because other temporary heart-assist devices still are available as a bridge to a heart transplant. ``It is a shame because the Jarvik, for its limitation, did make some positive contributions,\'\' said Dr. Antonio Gotto, chief of internal medical services at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and past president of the American Heart Association. ``I hope this will be only a temporary, not a permanent, setback toward the goal of achieving a totally implantable heart.\'\' The FDA informed Symbion Inc. of Tempe, Ariz., this week that it was withdrawing approval for continued investigational uses of its artificial heart, both as a permanent replacement and a temporary bridge for patients awaiting a human heart transplant. The Jarvik heart, named after its inventor, Dr. Robert Jarvik, gained household recognition after it was implanted in Barney Clark on Dec. 2, 1982. He lived 112 days, his new heart tethered to a bulky external power system, before he succumbed to multiple organ failure. In revoking Symbion\'s approval, the FDA said it had found ``serious deficiencies\'\' in manufacturing quality control, monitoring of research sites, servicing of equipment, training of personnel and reporting of adverse reactions to FDA. Dr. Donald Olsen, director of the University of Utah\'s Institute for Biomedical Engineering, said he was ``surprised and disappointed\'\' by the FDA\'s action and hoped it would not hurt future federal funding of artificial heart research in general, particularly for totally implantable devices. ``Our concern, of course, is that this particular publicity will not have a negative influence\'\' on artificial heart development in general, said Olsen. ``But I would like to make sure (people know) that the artificial heart did not fail; it was a failure on the part of Symbion to meet the requirements of the FDA\'\' for improving the device. Gerson Rosenberg, a biomedical engineer who leads Pennsylvania State University\'s efforts to design an electric heart, said he did not think the decision to pull the Jarvik would hinder research. But others felt the decision could slow research in the field. ``By removing the Jarvik, you take the first and main artificial heart player out of the ballgame,\'\' said Dr. Jacob Kolff, who heads Temple University\'s efforts to develop the temporary ``Philadelphia Heart.\'\' ``That leaves a bit of a vacuum for those researchers who think there may be a future for an artificial heart,\'\' said the surgeon, whose father, Dr. Willem Kolff, developed the first artificial kidney in 1943. Withdrawal of the permanent Jarvik heart leaves only one other natural-heart replacement with FDA investigational approval, but that device is used only as a temporary bridge and only at Hershey Medical Center of Penn State. Other companies have approvals for temporary implants and for left ventricular assist pumps that help the natural heart work without replacement.\r\n'),(1785,2,'A tanker carrying 375,000 gallons of fuel oil ran aground today in the Delaware River but was refloated a few hours later without any apparent leaks, authorities said. The Norwegian tanker Manhattan Princess, operated by Ahlers Shipping of Belgium, grounded on a muddy bottom on the New Jersey side of the river at 12:45 a.m. today, said Coast Guard Lt. Pete Hoffman. Coast Guard Lt. Pete Hoffman said two tugboats pulling on the tanker got it off the bottom with little trouble after high tide arrived about 9:15 a.m. Investigators found no leakage or ship damage, he said. The ship, drawing 37 feet of water, was en route to the Hess terminal in Pennsauken, N.J., when it wandered out of the 40-foot deep channel. An investigator went along with the tanker to look into the cause of the grounding, Hoffman said. The ease of refloating the tanker was an indication that the tanker wasn\'t very hard aground on the soft, muddy bottom, Hoffman said, and it also suggested that there wouldn\'t be any damage to the hull.\r\n'),(1786,2,'Two mothers tipped police to drugs in their sons\' bedrooms, leading to the arrest of one of the teen-agers and confiscation of cocaine from both, police said. The recent arrest of a 14-year-old Landover boy came after his mother told police that she had found the drug in the youth\'s room, said Carol Landrum, a spokesman for the police department. The son was charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute and was being held at Boys Village in Cheltenham, Landrum said. Police said they seized 19 grams of cocaine, which officers said could sell for $4,700 if divided into smaller amounts. Only one day earlier, another Landover woman told police she found nearly seven ounces of cocaine, with a street value police placed at about $47,000, under her son\'s bed and a handgun in his dresser drawer. Police did not immediately make an arrest in that case, Landrum said. Police declined to identify either woman. Police Chief Robert Zidek in neighboring Bladensburg, whose department offers parents a videotape showing how to search for drugs, said the mothers probably did the right thing to help their sons. ``They may have tried everything else, and nothing worked,\'\' Zidek said. He advises parents who think their child is using drugs to talk to the child first, get the child professional counseling and save calling the police as a last resort.\r\n'),(1787,2,'Future peace talks between Nicaragua\'s leftist government and its Contra rebels are likely to have a political hue the Sandinistas never wanted. The government appeared to open the door to political discussions with its armed opponents by belatedly agreeing in principle last week to a proposal by the mediator of the negotiations, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Nicaragua. That proposal called on the Contras to accept a cease-fire in exchange for four major concessions by the Sandinista government. The concessions were something the Contras had been seeking, and they were quick to accept the cardinal\'s plan. The government was called upon to grant unrestricted freedom of the press and a total, unconditional amnesty for political prisoners, renew a dialogue with its internal opposition and review its universal military conscription law. Whether it was a tactical error or a considered response, the Sandinistas delayed in taking a position that President Daniel Ortega has long and strenuously opposed. On innumerable occasions in the past, he has said he would never discuss political matters with the Contras. ``We don\'t want to create the impression that we don\'t want a cease-fire and are being intransigent,\'\' said Paul Reichler, a Washington, D.C., attorney who advises the Sandinistas. ``At all costs, we want the negotiations to go forward.\'\' Reichler\'s comments came in a chat with reporters Friday after Obando y Bravo abruptly suspended the latest round of peace talks a day before they were supposed to end and obliquely blamed the Sandinistas for the breakdown. Ortega said Saturday in Managua that the cardinal\'s proposal ``was not rejected\'\' by the Sandinistas and said his government ``is willing to continue the conversations.\'\' But a clarification was needed on the withdrawal of the Contras to enclaves during the truce, Ortega said at the close of a government meeting. He repeated that his government is willing to apply an amnesty once a cease-fire is in effect. Referring to the military draft, he said ``it is logical that with the end of the war the military service will not require the current volume (of soldiers).\'\' Ortega told the meeting on new economic measures aimed at fighting inflation that ``enemies of the revolution\'\' opposed the measures. He said the right, the extreme left and the opposition daily La Prensa should be careful not to stir up insurrection. The cardinal said after his return to Managua on Saturday that with the suspension of talks, ``We have given time for reflection since there is a lack of trust between the two sides.\'\' Appearances are of vital importance to both sides, with neither party wanting to be seen as the spoiler as long as there is any remaining chance the U.S. Congress might approve additional military aid for the Contras. In private talks with reporters, the Sandinistas made it clear that they were initially surprised by the cardinal\'s five-point proposal, then disappointed by his abrupt cancellation of the talks. Victor Hugo Tinoco, Nicaragua\'s deputy foreign minister, said Obando halted the negotiations Friday afternoon before he had a chance to deliver the government\'s formal, written response to the proposal the cardinal put forth Thursday. But Tinoco insisted that he had discussed the government\'s position at length with the cardinal Friday morning and had not been given any reason to believe that the cardinal was unwilling to continue the negotiations. The cardinal ``did not tell us he disagreed\'\' with the government\'s position, Reichler told reporters later. In its written response, the government declared its ``agreement in principle\'\' with the cardinal\'s proposal, but carefully conditioned its answers to his requests that it reconsider its mandatory draft law and grant an unconditional amnesty to the thousands of political prisoners in Nicaraguan jails. But before Nicaragua\'s formal response was delivered, Obando had canceled the talks, saying he was disappointed that both sides had not accepted his proposal, at least in principle. The remark was clearly aimed at the Sandinistas. But late or not, the government\'s response clearly put such political matters as press freedom and amnesty on the bargaining table for further talks and, given the opening, the Contras are likely to push for even greater concessions. The cardinal is expected to announce a time and place for a third round of face-to-face negotiations sometime this week. The first round of talks took place in San Jose, Costa Rica, in late January, only a week before the House rejected President Reagan\'s latest request for about $43 million in additional Contra aid. But the administration is considering a new bid for military aid for the rebels, and as long as that possibility exists, both sides will be playing their cards cautiously at the bargaining table.\r\n'),(1788,2,'NBC\'s Jane Pauley, safely away from the woes and slipping ratings of the ``Today\'\' show she once co-hosted, starts life anew in prime time Tuesday with an appropriately entitled special: ``Changes.\'\' Her own changes include anchoring a prime-time news series that NBC once said might start this summer. However, it has no executive producer yet and may not arrive until fall or even January, she says. But she doesn\'t consider this the NBC News version of ``Waiting for Godot.\'\' ``I think it\'s very sensible,\'\' Pauley says of the delay. In her view, ``Corporations don\'t normally behave sensibly if there is some pressure to put something on the air. But this strikes me as a very rational way to approach a weekly series, and I\'m very pleased with that.\'\' On Saturday, Pauley, who also has been filling in for Tom Brokaw on the ``NBC Nightly News,\'\' leaves for East Germany to start another documentary on sports there. A few more documentaries lie ahead after that. Tuesday\'s special is about three people and one couple whose lives are in transition. Work on the first story, about Frank Morgan, a 56-year-old acclaimed jazz saxophonist who spent much of his life in prison, began in December. That was the month that Pauley, her contract extended to 1992, bid adieu to 13 years of predawn wakeups for ``Today.\'\' She had told its audience in October she was leaving and got a hug then from her successor, Deborah Norville. But since January, ``Today\'\' hasn\'t exactly been hugged by viewers, even though Pauley took pains in October to assure them she wasn\'t at odds with Norville or co-host Bryant Gumbel, whom she called her friends. Although NBC executives say they have no research to indicate it, ``Today\'\' likely was hurt and ABC\'s ``Good Morning America\'\' helped by the turmoil preceding Pauley\'s decision to leave. Those off-camera troubles last year included the leak of Gumbel\'s caustic memo criticizing staffers, notably weatherman Willard Scott, and the decision of NBC executives, including ``Today\'\' vice president Dick Ebersol, to replace veteran ``Today\'\' news anchor John Palmer with Norville. Although NBC officials have said they expected a dip in ``Today\'\' ratings when Norville moved up from news anchor to succeed Pauley in January, the dip now is in its third month. ABC\'s ``Good Morning America\'\' easily won the important February ratings ``sweeps,\'\' the results used by TV stations to set their advertising rates. It averaged a 4.5 rating, which was good news for ABC affiliates. No so for NBC affiliates. ``Today,\'\' according to NBC\'s estimate, had a 3.65 average in the sweeps _ well below the 4.6 it had in February 1989 when it won the reveille ratings race. Each ratings point now represents 921,000 homes. Pauley, who last year kept a stiff upper lip and never publicly complained about the behind-camera woes at ``Today,\'\' is sympathetic to its current ratings problems. ``Well, I\'ve been there before,\'\' she says, harking back to a time when she co-hosted ``Today\'\' with Brokaw and the Nielsen verdict was that ``Good Morning America,\'\' then hosted by David Hartman, had become No. 1. ``It was almost a relief when it finally happened,\'\' she says. ``Because from that moment on, we were able to scramble and get our act together and come back.\'\' She thinks the same thing will happen again, and that those in charge of ``Today,\'\' including new executive producer Tom Capra, will ``be able to put together something that comes on pretty strong.\'\' Pauley laughed uproariously when asked about an upcoming report in the National Enquirer confiding that NBC, on bended knee, had begged her to return to ``Today\'\' and that she has agreed to interview guests on two of five shows each week, starting in April. ``Totally bogus,\'\' she said. Her own thoughts about the ``Today\'\' turmoil and its effect on the show\'s ratings? ``Obviously, I can\'t personalize it,\'\' she said. ``And yet, I think that an explanation is that there were `dislocations,\' shall we say, on the `Today\' show. ... And I think that bothers people, especially early in the morning. ``It\'s not just that `Jane is gone.\' It\'s just that there was too much disruption. In the morning, you want, er, regularity.\'\'\r\n'),(1789,2,'Yellow Creek used to run black for miles, with a stench that made people retch. Red blisters disfigured fish in the stream. People downstream blamed pollution from a tannery and aged sewage treatment plant in this town of 13,000 for their neighbors\' cancer deaths as well as their foul well water. In 1983, the city engineer testified that 2.5 million gallons of raw or partly treated sewage had been dumped into Yellow Creek that year alone. Today, Yellow Creek sparkles as it winds quietly through the thickly forested Appalachian hills. People who live along the creek say water quality is probably the best they\'ve seen in a decade and credit the $7.7 million sewage treatment plant built in 1986. Credit is also due to the Yellow Creek Concerned Citizens, a local environmental group that has labored since 1980, filing lawsuits, lobbying Congress, holding candlelight memorials for people they believe were fatally sickened by pollution, occupying city hall to demand that the creek be cleaned. But the black tide, although receded, left behind a legacy of health questions and lingering legal challenges. Neighbors suspect that years of tannery pollution deposited a layer of toxic sediment in the creek bed. And they\'re worried that a new court agreement will loosen pollution regulations. Over the years, word of Yellow Creek and its lessons has stretched well beyond this mountainous corner of southeastern Kentucky. The tactics and victories of the Yellow Creek Concerned Citizens are being studied by environmental groups across America, and in some cases, around the world. ``Remember, this struggle for the small community of Yellow Creek is in no way the only one,\'\' said M.M. Chiputa of the Southern African Environmental Network of Zaire. ``We have it, you have it and they have it.\'\' Yellow Creek has gained such attention largely because of Larry Wilson, the president of the citizens group. Wilson is environmental programs director at the Highlander Institute in New Market, Tenn., which holds training sessions for social activists who hail from Bhopal, India, to Dayhoit, Ky. As a polished insider of the national environmental movement, Wilson wields influence that last month drew more than 100 activists from Massachusetts to Arkansas to a meeting on the future of Yellow Creek. John O\'Connor, executive director of the National Toxics Campaign in Boston, struck a common theme among many of the speakers at the March 31 meeting. ``We kind of feel if they can get away with poisoning people in Yellow Creek, they can get away with poisoning anyone in the United States,\'\' O\'Connor said. Yet Yellow Creek is anything but poisonous today, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA environmental engineer Ron Barrow said results of a study of creek water and surface sediment, to be released later this month, will ``show significant improvements\'\' over a 1982 study of creek pollution. A standard EPA test using water fleas showed they not only survived but also reproduced in full-strength effluent from the new sewage plant. And Dirk Anderson, manager of the Middlesboro Tannery Co., says it ``has done an excellent job in meeting state and federal guidelines\'\' and ``installed the most efficient pretreatment system in the tanning industry today.\'\' He says the tannery\'s waste water ``is one of the best discharges in the United States\'\' and asks, ``What is the controversy?\'\' To many residents, the controversy remains vivid. An advisory warning residents of Bell County since the early 1980s not to swim in the creek, drink its water or eat its fish is still in force. Wilson asserts that he ``feels really comfortable\'\' in estimating that 100 deaths in the valley from cancer, leukemia and other illness can be linked to the pollution. A 1988 study of Bell County cancer rates, while failing to tie the illness to creek pollution, did show that residents face an increased risk of cancer. ``Those cancers that have been linked to occupational exposure to tannery work tend to be higher in Bell County than the comparison groups,\'\' said the report by Lorann Stallones, an epidemiologist with the University of Kentucky Medical Center. And a study done in the early 1980s by Vanderbilt University\'s Center for Health Services indicated that residents who drank well water tended to have higher rates of miscarriages, kidney and digestive ailments. A $31 million lawsuit filed by residents against the tannery in 1983 requested long-term health monitoring, a proposal supported then by a leading state health official. ``Toxic chemicals often take many years to produce their effects, and certainly there have been significant exposures in the past because of the tannery effluent,\'\' Dr. Arthur L. Frank of the University of Kentucky Medical Center said in a statement for the lawsuit. No long-term monitoring is underway, and the lawsuit is still pending in state court. Many of these concerns deal less with the creek\'s current water quality and more with the sediment on its bottom. A University of Louisville chemist probing the creek bed in 1987 found deep deposits of chromium, a byproduct of tanning. In research by the National Cancer Institute, chromium is suspected of causing cancer in humans. W. Hank Graddy III, attorney for the citizens\' group, said the study indicated chromium was still accumulating ``even after all these years of litigation and trying (to) ... require them to adopt controls.\'\' Barrow, the EPA engineer, and Bill Phillips, an attorney for the agency, said they were not aware of any complaints about chromium deposits until a reporter posed questions about the matter earlier this month. That reaction, along with other official stances, has made Yellow Creek residents suspicious of government regulators, especially the EPA. Creek residents are worried, for example, about a new court document signed by the city, the tannery and the EPA that will alter the amount of chromium, cyanide, mercury, and bacteria allowed in tannery wastewater sent to the sewage plant. Graddy, Wilson and others contend the agreement will increase the permissable amounts and cause Yellow Creek to be polluted again. Attorneys for the city, tannery and EPA all say it would tighten pollution regulations, not make the situation worse. The agreement amends a 1985 consent decree that settled a 1984 lawsuit filed by the Justice Department. That suit alleged numerous violations of EPA regulations because raw sewage was spilling into the creek. The disagreement is so strong because each side is comparing the new document to a different prior arrangement: the officials assert the provisions strengthen the 5-year-old consent decree, and the environmentalists say they are weaker than those in an operative pollution permit dating from 1985. The citizens\' group also opposes the agreement because it would reduce the fines levied against the city and tannery. Together, they have been fined at least $1.62 million for federal pollution violations, but collections would total only $177,400 under the pending amendment. ``The burden of proof is on the victims here,\'\' Wilson said, ``because government agencies and industry already have the money and lawyers in place to defend their position. ... ``We\'re overwhelmed,\'\' he said. ``We\'re fighting life and death.\'\'\r\n'),(1790,2,'African guerrilla leader Sam Nujoma is asking presidential hopefuls Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson to pressure South Africa into relinquishing control over South-West Africa, the territory known as Namibia. Nujoma, who heads the South-West Africa People\'s Organization, said he had met with campaign managers who promised him a meeting with the two Democratic candidates within the coming week. GOP contender George Bush has not responded to a similar request for a meeting, Nujoma said in an interview Tuesday. Nujoma, 58, said that despite claims to the contrary, South Africa is trying to strengthen its hold over the mineral-rich territory which it rules in defiance of a 1978 U.N. resolution calling for Namibian independence. Nujoma, who lives in exile in Angola, accused South African troops of arson and bombing attacks against Namibia\'s 1.5 million residents, including the burning of 14 church-run schools last month. South Africa has denied the charges, accusing SWAPO of the attacks. South African President P.W. Botha paid a rare visit to the territory on April 8, and proposed increased powers for his chief representative there. The proposal would weaken the ``transitional\'\' government established by South Africa in 1985 with a view to eventual independence for Namibia. ``South Africa has no intention whatsoever to leave Namibia,\'\' said Nujoma. The South Africans will have to be ``forced out by the combined resistance of the Namibian people and international pressure.\'\' He called on the next U.S. administration to pursue steps similar to the trade sanctions legislated by Congress in 1986 against South Africa. Nujoma said he had requested a meeting with Secretary of State George P. Shultz but had not received any response. A State Department official confirmed Nujoma had asked for a meeting, and said Shultz had yet to reply. Shultz has been criticized by conservative members of Congress, such as Rep. Patrick Swindall, R-Ga., for allowing Nujoma into the country in view of his organization\'s guerrilla activities and support from the Soviet Union. In a letter to Shultz, Swindall called Nujoma a ``terrorist and Soviet puppet.\'\' The United States supports a South African pullout and an independent Namibia, but its contacts with SWAPO have been limited. U.S. representatives are taking part in two days of talks in London with representatives from Angola, Cuba and South Africa on a plan for the pullout of South African forces from Namibia and Cuban troops from Angola. Cuba has an estimated 37,000 soldiers in Angola. Estimates for the South African military presence in Namibia range from 40,000 to 100,000. Nujoma said he was sure Angola would protect his group\'s interests at the talks and press its demands for Namibian independence. ``It will be a package, I am assured of this by the Angolan government,\'\' he said. If an agreement is worked out, SWAPO will stop its attacks against South African troops, he said. SWAPO says it killed more than 90 South Africans this year, but its claims cannot be verified. Nujoma conceded that SWAPO gets most of its arms and training from the Soviet Union, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Angola and several other members of the Organization of African Unity. But he added that if the United States wants to supply SWAPO with weapons, ``we will certainly accept it with great pleasure.\'\' Nujoma is on a three-week visit to the United States to attend several U.N.-sponsored seminars on Namibia and to highlight his organization\'s demands.\r\n'),(1791,2,'Voters attacked election officials and smashed ballot boxes Sunday, claiming the country\'s first multiparty elections in 22 years were rigged in favor of President Omar Bongo. One election official was reported hurt in the violence, which forced the closing of the main voting station in the capital city of Libreville. Sunday was the first of two rounds of voting to elect 120 legislators from 520 candidates in the oil-rich West African nation of 1.2 million people. Bongo called the election and legalized opposition parties following a wave of protests earlier this year. Bongo had permitted only his Democratic Party to operate since shortly after taking power in late 1967. Violence began after voters at the largest balloting station, Libreville\'s Hotel de Ville, said they discovered stuffed ballot boxes before voting began. They smashed the boxes and assaulted officials, witnesses said. At several voting stations in the capital, particularly in the populous suburbs of Lalala and Venez-Voir, election officials asked voters to deposit unmarked ballots. Shocked voters cried out that the elections were ``a scandal.\'\'Journalists saw ballot papers that did not match the official forms circulating in Libreville. In Tchibanga, a small town about 300 miles southeast of Libreville, an independent radio station reported voters ransacked the election office and town hall and beat up election officials. The attacks there began after voters learned there were not enough ballots, and some of the 37 opposition parties claimed their tickets had been removed from voting booths, the station reported. The government did not immediately respond to the charges of fraud. It also was not clear if ballots would be counted or whether future voting will be held. Bongo\'s opponents accuse him of corruption, nepotism and economic policies that cause unemployment. They have promised better health care, education, housing and roads. Bongo, one of a handful of civilian leaders in West Africa, has said his party is ready to entertain new ideas. The Democratic Party already was assured of 13 uncontested assembly seats. The death of Progress Party leader Joseph Rendjambe on May 23 triggered widespread rioting by followers who accused Bongo of orchestrating his murder. The unrest ended after French and Gabonese doctors performed an autopsy and concluded Rendjambe, a diabetic, died of natural causes. The worst violence occurred in Port Gentil, where demonstrators burned down the French consulate and took some foreign oil executives hostage. France sent troops and the hostages were freed. Gabon, which achieved independence in 1960, receives about 80 percent of its income from oil.\r\n'),(1792,2,'How does an adult reviewer approach a movie such as ``Big Top Pee-wee\'\'? Very carefully. If you lambaste it as an entertainment aimed at the 5-year-old audience, you might be accurate. But you could also be accused of being a kill-joy and a fogy. If you try to compare it with the innocent comedy of the silent screen, you might also score some points. But you could also be accused of hunting for gold in a pile of dross. So here goes. ``Big Top Pee-wee\'\' is a clever piece of pure entertainment conceived by Paul Reubens and executed by Pee-wee Herman, who are the same person. Those who loved ``Pee-wee\'s Big Adventure\'\' will adore this one. The story begins with Pee-wee waking up on the most antiseptic farm in the world. Everything is sunny and bright, matching Pee-wee\'s personality. The animals sleep on mattresss and eat flapjacks at a picnic table. Pee-wee\'s greenhouse is a wonder. With his magic food supplements, he can grow anything. Even hot dogs. Pee-wee\'s constant companion is Vance, a pure-white pig. Vance talks. With a charity seldom seen in comedians, Pee-wee gives Vance most of the punchlines. But then, how are you going to upstage a talking pig? Every day Pee-wee is scheduled for a sandwich lunch with his heartthrob, the local schoolmarm (Penelope Ann Miller). For such a shy man, Pee-wee can be aggressive. He throws his body on top of the schoolmarm, who resists him because the schoolkids are watching. And taking snapshots. Then the circus comes to the farm. A new set of animals are roaming the acres, as well as exotic circus people, such as the Italian aerialist (Valeria Golino), with whom Pee-wee falls in love. The townspeople object to having the circus in their midst, providing a modicum of conflict to the script. Centerstage at all times is Pee-wee Herman, a man with a squeaky voice, tight suit and white socks. He is, in the end, an endearing character, guileless yet savvy. He wears well, despite the inane circumstances in which he finds himself. Kris Kristofferson as the circus boss lends strength, though his three-inch wife (Susan Tyrell) stretches fantasy too far. Randal Kleiser directed in a straightforward fashion. Only one sequence is truly hilarious, and that is borrowed from Alfred Hitchcock. When Pee-wee finally makes love with the aerialist, we see a train entering a tunnel (``North by Northwest\'\') and skyrockets exploding (``To Catch a Thief\'\'). ``Big Top Pee-wee\'\' was produced by Reubens and Debra Hill, and written by him and George McGrath. The rating is PG, perhaps for sexual innuendo. Running time: 87 minutes.\r\n'),(1793,2,'A 17-year-old Israeli going to pray at the Western Wall was stabbed twice in the stomach today in the walled Old City, authorities said. A police roundup of Palestinian suspects set off more violence. The incidents came the day after Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir won a vote of confidence in Parliament for his new right-wing government. Cabinet members today promised new steps to put down the 2{-year-old Palestinian uprising. Israel radio reported that the new defense minister, Moshe Arens, began consulting high-ranking army officers today on how to end the uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The new foreign minister, David Levy, suggested the army could withdraw from the occupied lands as part of a peace settlement. But he repeated the new government\'s opposition to Palestinian demands for statehood in the territories. The new government\'s agriculture minister, Rafael Eitan, who led Israel\'s forces in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, suggested on army radio that more Palestinians be deported. ``Instead of shooting at children you have to deport those responsible, the inciters, the organizers,\'\' he said. Since the start of the uprising in December 1987, 60 Arabs have been expelled to neighboring Lebanon. After today\'s stabbing in Jerusalem, police seized up about 100 Palestinians near Damascus Gate, one of the main entrances to the Old City, said Jersualem police commander Arieh Bibi. The arrests set off a spate of stone-throwing at Israeli cars on Sultan Suleiman Street just outside the city walls, but no injuries were reported. The victim, identified as Yosef Edri, was in moderate condition at Sharei Tzadek Hospital, spokeswoman Orna Cohen said. He is a student at a yeshiva, or Jewish seminary, and is from Dimona in Israel\'s Negev Desert. Bibi told Israel radio that police had recovered the knife. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, meanwhile, soldiers destroyed three houses of Palestinians accused of throwing firebombs or killing suspected Arab collaborators and sealed two other homes of Palestinian suspects. One of the suspects, 25-year-old Abdel Hakim Shana, was convicted of murdering alleged collaborators and sentenced to life imprisonment. Soldiers tore down the four-room house owned by his father, which was home to a family of 12. The Supreme Court rejected appeals from some families of the suspects. U.S. policy opposes the demolition of houses as an unfair collective punishment. The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories said there has been a marked decline in recent months in destruction of houses by the army. It said that through the end of May a total of 293 houses were destroyed and 173 sealed for security reasons. Several hundred others have been destroyed for being built without a permit.\r\n'),(1794,2,'And of course, as far as the _ how we make it better _ yes, we can do better on interdiction, but we\'ve got to do a lot better on inter _ we\'ve got to do a lot better on education. And we have to do _ be tougher on those who commit crimes. We\'ve got to get after the users more. We have to change this whole culture. You know, I saw a movie, ``Crocodile Dundee.\'\' And I saw the cocaine scene treated with humor, as though this was a humorous little incident. And it\'s bad. Everybody ought to be in this thing _ entertainment industry, people involved in the schools, education. And it isn\'t a Republican or Democrat or a liberal problem, but we have got to instill values in these young people. And I have put forward a many-point drug program that includes what I would do as president of the United States in terms of doing better on interdiction, and in terms of doing better in the neighborhoods. But I think we\'re all in this together, and my plea to the American people is: values in the schools.\r\n'),(1795,2,'R.P. Scherer Corp.\'s largest shareholder, waging a proxy battle Wednesday that could lead to the sale of the company her late father founded and estranged husband runs, said there\'s no reason to believe the capsule maker\'s brisk earnings pace will continue. Karla Scherer Fink, addressing shareholders at the company\'s annual meeting here in an effort to win three seats on Scherer\'s board, said the company\'s strong financial position makes this an opportune time to sell. But after an hour of civilized wrangling, Chairman Wilbur Mack adjourned the meeting until 10 a.m. EDT next Wednesday, when he said results of the balloting would be announced. Ballots were turned over to the accounting firm of Arthur Young & Co. for tabulation. Meanwhile, Mrs. Fink and her brother, John S. Scherer, were given an eleventh-hour boost when a state Court of Appeals judge ordered that a block of 9.3 percent of Scherer\'s stock, held in trust for them, not be voted. The trustee of the block, Manufacturers National Bank, indicated it would back management. In nationwide over-the-counter trading, Scherer closed up $1.37{ to $26.25. Speaking to about 200 people attending the meeting, Mrs. Fink, daughter of the company\'s late founder Robert P. Scherer, said, ``There are interested potential buyers watching closely what goes on here ... But they will not come forward in the kind of hostile environment the management has created.\'\' Mrs. Fink filed for divorce from Peter Fink, Scherer\'s president and chief executive, several months ago after the board rejected her proposal to sell the company. In his address to shareholders, Fink countered that ``to divert and to distract management and employees with a continuation of the controversy that has marked these past several months would be a grave disservice to the company and the shareholders.\'\' While management does not intend to ``put a for-sale sign on the door,\'\' he said, ``if a bonafide offer were to emerge, it would clearly be our board\'s duty to give it thorough and full consideration.\'\' After the meeting Mrs. Fink refused to predict the outcome of the vote. ``We\'re hoping,\'\' she said. In a statement released later, John Scherer said the pair was ``confident our candidates had won the two board seats ... We were not certain about the third seat. But as the meeting progressed and we learned the bank could not vote the trust, our optimism increased.\'\' Fink said the company ``wants to first determine what the outcome of this election is.\'\' Fink added that ``we simply cannot afford to be sidetracked by a headline-making personality conflict.\'\' Scherer, employing about 2,800 people at 22 facilities in 13 countries, is the world\'s largest maker of gelatin capsules for the pharmaceutical and nutritional supplement industries. The company had $290.7 million in sales and $15.1 million in net income in its last fiscal year, ended March 31. Mrs. Fink and her brother control about 38.2 percent of the company but are seeking control over an additional 470,000 shares _ or 9.3 percent _ that are held in two family trusts set up by their father. The support of another shareholder, Cilluffo Associates, brings the total shares backing the pair to 39.9 percent. The two had sought removal of Manufacturers National Bank as administrator of the trusts, claiming it had conflicting interests. A probate court judge named an independent fiduciary to decide how the stock should be voted. A circuit court judge overturned that ruling, and the two asked the state court of appeals to reverse the circuit judge\'s ruling. The dispute has been marked by letters and calls to shareholders, advertisements and news releases.\r\n'),(1796,2,'With Magellan safely in orbit around Venus today, exuberant NASA engineers started preparing the spacecraft for a mapping mission meant to reveal what forces shaped the landscape of the hellishly hot planet. ``We think we\'ll see lots of rocky surfaces, hills and dales and volcanoes,\'\' said Bill Johnson, chief engineer for Magellan\'s radar imaging system. Geologists hope the $744 million exploration will reveal ``the way the planet works internally, the way mountains are built and the way volcanoes work,\'\' said Steve Saunders, chief Magellan scientist at NASA\'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mapping is set to start next month. On Friday, Magellan plunged over the north pole of Venus, fired its braking rocket and dropped into an elliptical orbit that ranges from about 171 miles to 5,054 miles above the planet\'s surface. ``We made it!\'\' said Carolynn Young, a Magellan project team member. ``I had goose bumps from head to toe. It\'s wonderful.\'\' The spacecraft successfully jettisoned the retrorocket Friday night, laboratory spokesman Bob MacMillin said. He said engineers\' plans for today included monitoring Magellan\'s performance and collecting precise information on its orbit _ details needed for successful mapping. Magellan\'s arrival at Venus broke a string of bad luck for NASA. Hydrogen gas leaks have grounded the shuttle fleet temporarily and a mirror focusing flaw severely impaired the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope. Magellan is equipped with radar designed to peer through the thick Venusian clouds and unveil the landscape of the second planet from the sun. On Sept. 1, it will start mapping by bouncing radar waves off Venus and capturing the echoes. NASA said the radar should be able to yield pictures and maps of about 90 percent of Venus at a level of detail 10 times better than in images produced by two Soviet Venera spacecraft that were launched in 1983. It should be able to detect features as small as about two football fields. ``It\'s like going to the Grand Canyon instead of having someone tell you about it,\'\' mission analyst Rob Lock said. Magellan project manager Tony Spear said some worthwhile pictures of Venus\' surface may be produced by radar tests that start next Thursday, but ``it is most likely in September ... that we will get images of sufficient quality.\'\' Magellan was launched from the shuttle Atlantis on May 4, 1989, starting a roundabout 948-million-mile journey to Venus. It met the planet at a distance of 144 million miles from Earth. Venus is Earth\'s nearest neighbor other than the moon, and is similar to Earth in size, mass, density and position. Magellan may reveal similarities and differences between the two planets, including whether any of Venus\' volcanoes are active and whether its surface features are formed by large-scale movements of gigantic plates of rocky crust. It also will look for signs that the bone-dry planet may have had oceans before a runaway ``greenhouse effect\'\' raised its surface temperature to 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Saunders said Magellan has no ability to determine what caused global warming on Venus, but may find clues to when it started. Lennard Fisk, NASA\'s associate administrator for space science, called Magellan\'s arrival at Venus ``the beginning of one of the most exciting eras of planetary exploration\'\' _ a period that includes upcoming missions to Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, asteroids and comets. Magellan was the first U.S. planetary spacecraft launched since Pioneers 12 and 13 were sent to Venus in 1978, and also the first launched from a shuttle. Magellan, named for 16th century global circumnavigator Ferdinand Magellan, is 21 feet long and 15 feet wide. After firing the heavy fuel-filled braking rocket, its 3.7-ton weight dropped to less than 1.5 tons, Spear said.\r\n'),(1797,2,'Lewis Mumford, a philosopher, planner, critic and educator who warned of the dehumanizing effect of technology, died in his spartan, functional country home. He was 94. He died on Friday ``of old age\'\' in his sleep, said his grandson, James Morss. ``He was frail, but there was no sickness.\'\' Mumford, best known for his writings on cities, culture and architecture, authored more than 30 books, including ``The City in History,\'\' for which he received the 1961 National Book Award. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Reagan in 1986. Recipients are honored for their lifetime contributions to American arts. The roots of Mumford\'s philosophy grew from the America of a century ago. He embraced the notion of self-reliance put forth by Whitman and Emerson. He also was inspired by Melville and Thoreau, who stressed the virtues of humanism and a personalized society. ``The test of maturity, for nations as well as individuals, is not the increase in power,\'\' he said near the end of his life, ``but the increase of self-understanding, self-control, self-direction and self-transcendence. For in a mature society, man himself, and not his machines or his organizations, is the chief work of art.\'\' Mumford urged people to turn away from faceless technology and return to human feelings and moral values. He vehemently denied accusations that he saw science as evil and wanted to destroy machinery with the hope of bringing back a pre-industrial society. What he feared, he said, was science without conscience and ``a dominant minority\'\' of those people who had mastered high technology holding power over others as a result. The illegitimate son of a businessman, Mumford was born in New York City on Oct. 19, 1895, and grew up on Manhattan\'s West Side. He attended night classes at City College for five years, but failing health prevented him from completing his degree. Instead, he took graduate courses at Columbia University and at the New School for Social Research. It was then he discovered the works of Sir Patrick Geddes, a Scottish town planner whose influence he called the most important in his life. After serving as a naval radio technician in World War I, Mumford became associate editor of The Dial magazine. His essays on housing and urban matters led him to become acting editor of The Sociological Review. Mumford was co-founder of the Regional Planning Association of America and served on the staff of the New York Housing and Regional Planning Commission. In the 1930s, he began weekly art columns and monthly architecture critiques for The New Yorker. From 1934 to 1951, he published four books that became known as the ``Renewal of Life\'\' series. They made his international reputation and landed him on Time magazine\'s cover. The volumes _ ``Technics and Civilization,\'\' ``The Culture of Cities,\'\' ``The Condition of Man,\'\' and the ``Conduct of Life\'\' _ established Mumford as a first-rate thinker. Visiting professorships at MIT, Dartmouth, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania followed. Among honors bestowed upon him were the President\'s Medal of Freedom in 1964, the Gold Medal of the Town Planning Institute, the Emerson-Thoreau Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society for the History of Technology and an honorary knighthood of the Order of the British Empire. He is survived by his wife, Sophia; his daughter, Alison Mumford Morss, and two grandchildren, James and Elizabeth.\r\n'),(1798,2,'Stock prices rose today in what analysts described as a technical rebound from the market\'s free-fall slide of the past several weeks. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, down 173.02 points over the past three sessions, recovered 30.94 to 2,514.36 by 3 p.m. on Wall Street. Gainers outnumbered losers by about 8 to 7 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 821 up, 720 down and 444 unchanged. Analysts said buyers were encouraged by hopes that the markets had gone too far in their appraisal of the potential calamities resulting from the showdown in the Middle East. But by near-unanimous agreement the mood in the marketplace remained cautious and touchy. It will take months, economists observe, to gauge the effects on business aactivity of the upsurge in oil prices and interest rates that followed Iraq\'s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait. Even without that disruptive influence, the domestic economy was widely believed to have been verging on a recession as it began the second half of 1990. Among actively traded blue chips, General Electric rose 1&lsqb; to 59|; International Business Machines 1&rsqb; to 98\\; Boeing 2} to 45\\, and American Telephone & Telegraph } to 31\\. Federal National Mortgage gained 1} to 28&rsqb;. The stock traded as low as 24~ Thursday before the company announced that it had earmarked as much as $500 million for buybacks of its common shares and warrants. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks rose 1.07 to 169.95. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was down 1.14 at 314.71. Volume on the Big Board came to 169.08 million shares with an hour to go.\r\n'),(1799,2,'Daily massage can speed up the growth of premature babies who were exposed to cocaine in the womb, a study says. As a result, the babies were able to leave the hospital about four days earlier on average than non-massaged premature infants, researcher Tiffany Field said Monday. Faster-growing babies also become more responsive, which promotes interaction with parents, she said. Other research shows that parental involvement helps a child\'s development in the first year of life, she said. Fetuses are exposed to cocaine when a pregnant woman uses the drug. Such use raises the risk of premature birth. Field is a professor of pediatrics, psychology and psychiatry at the University of Miami Medical School. She reported preliminary results from the study at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, and discussed it in a later interview. The meeting concludes Tuesday. The study, still in progress, has so far produced data on 16 infants. They were born about 10 weeks before their due dates, weighing about 2.6 pounds. They had to stay 20 days to 30 days in a neonatal intensive care unit. Normally, such children then require about 20 days in the hospital simply to gain enough weight to be discharged, Field said. The massage program took place during this latter period. Infants were massaged with firmness, Field said. ``They love it when you give them a little pressure,\'\' she said. The routine included 10 seconds of working over the top of the head and down to the neck, and then 10 seconds going the other way, she said. Also massaged were the neck and shoulders, back, legs and arms. The chest and abdomen were avoided because the infants obviously did not like being touched there, perhaps associating it with painful medical procedures, Field said. After five minutes of massage, the babies\' arms and legs were moved about for five minutes, and then came five more minutes of massage. The 15-minute sessions were done three times a day for 10 days. The massaged babies gained 28 percent more weight per day after the treatment than a comparison group of 16 premature infants who had also been exposed to cocaine, but who were not massaged, Field said. The difference appeared around the sixth day of the treatment and continued for at least a few days after it ended, when researchers stopped keeping track, Field said. Nobody knows why massage spurs growth, but perhaps it stimulates release of hormones that aid absorption of food, she said. Prior studies of premature babies have shown simply holding or paying attention to them did not cause them to gain weight, Field said. The massage treatment looks promising, said a prominent pediatric researcher, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton of Cambridge, Mass. But he cautioned that ``it has to be done with sensitivity to the baby\'s condition and responses.\'\' The massager must ease up in response to signals from the infant, he said. Massage had already been shown to speed up the growth of premature infants not exposed to cocaine, Field said. In one study, a 10-day course of daily massage spurred weight gain by 47 percent. The massaged infants were able to leave the hospital six days sooner, saving substantial sums of money in health care costs, Field said. About 10 percent of births in the United States are premature, amounting to 350,000 a year, according to the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. Most premature infants weigh less than 5.5 pounds at birth. About 15 percent to 20 percent of premature infants die in the first month after birth.\r\n'),(1800,2,'Democrat Michael Dukakis said today he was gaining ground on George Bush whom he called a failure as vice president. Republican Bush proposed a $100 million umbrella organization to encourage volunteerism, saying, ``I want our affluent to help our poor.\'\' While the two White House contenders campaigned in critical states _ Dukakis in Illinois and Bush in California _ the vice presidential candidates devoted their time to preparing for Wednesday night\'s debate. Republican Dan Quayle, who has studied at an undisclosed location in Washington, D.C., was leaving today for Omaha, Neb., for the debate, as was Democrat Lloyd Bentsen, who did his final preparations in Austin, Texas. Dukakis, at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., said Bush had failed in five missions: as part of an administration effort to increase U.S. sales in Japan, as head of task forces on regulatory reform, drug interdiction and international terrorism, and in an effort to recommend banking reforms. ``Mr. Bush was given five important missions by this administration and he failed every one. And that was before they asked him to pick a running mate in this election,\'\' Dukakis said. The Massachusetts governor, slightly behind Bush in recent polls, said he was ``beginning to turn this race around.\'\' He said the final weeks would be ``tough and competitive.\'\' Bush, in Sacramento, Calif., proposed creation of ``Youth Engaged in Service to America,\'\' an organization chaired by the president that ``will work with existing youth programs and will put an emphasis on programs that are started in our schools.\'\' The organization might develop some new volunteer programs but mostly would work in partnership with programs already under way, such as Peace Corps, the California Conservation Corps and others, said Bush campaign adviser Loret Ruppe, director of the Peace Corps. Bush said, ``I want our affluent to help our poor. I want our young to help our elderly. ... I want the young men and women of our tree-lined suburbs to get on a bus, or the subway, or the metro, and go into the cities where the want is.\'\' On Monday, Dukakis promised a presidency that would enforce civil rights laws while Bush pledged support for development of a space station in his administration. With the election five weeks away, the Democratic presidential nominee told black supporters on Chicago\'s South Side Monday night that the nation will be deciding between ``two different futures, two different roads to travel.\'\' And the choice of the GOP nominee will lead to an ``America of privilege _ an America where the very rich get even richer and the rest of us just get by. This is George Bush\'s America,\'\' Dukakis said. The vice president, who earlier Monday welcomed the return of the space shuttle Discovery and its five-man crew, told a rally in Redding, Calif., that he is committed to the creation of an operational space station by 1996. ``This goal is achievable, sensible ... and we will meet that goal,\'\' Bush said. The two candidates vowed to hold their second presidential debate either Oct. 13 or 14, despite the League of Women Voters\' withdrawal of its sponsorship. The date will be determined by the length of the American League baseball playoffs. In announcing the decision, League President Nancy M. Neuman cited the campaigns\' control of debate format and other details that would squelch any spontaneity. ``We have no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public,\'\' she said. The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, sponsors of the first presidential debate and the vice presidential encounter, quickly stepped in and agreed to take over sponsorship. Janet Brown, executive director of the commission, said the group hopes to keep the debate in Los Angeles and was seeking help from local groups to finance preparations, which the League had estimated at $500,000. Dukakis, in a rare appearance in the predominantly black Chicago neighborhood, paid tribute to late Mayor Harold Washington and the Democrat nominee\'s former rival for the nomination, Jesse Jackson. Jackson is a ``great son of Chicago\'\' whose ``sun still shines brightly over all of America,\'\' Dukakis told the audience. The candidate pledged that his administration would enforce civil rights laws, provide same-day voter registration and select judges committed to equality. ``We\'re going to aim high and enforce the civil rights laws of this country, not veto them; we\'re going to have a Justice Department that will inspire us, not embarrass us; and we\'re going to have an attorney general who understands what the word justice means,\'\' Dukakis said. Earlier in the day, the Massachusetts governor stopped in Dearborn Heights, Mich., where he spoke to students about drug use and helped destroy about $100,000 worth of marijuana, cocaine and heroin by throwing it into a county incinerator. At a rally in Hartford, Conn., Dukakis responded to Bush\'s charge that the Democratic nominee is a big-spending liberal. ``The solutions we\'re proposing are not big-money solutions or big-government solutions,\'\' Dukakis said. ``And unlike Mr. Bush\'s tired old ideas, they won\'t leave America running in place. They\'ll make America the most powerful and productive country on earth.\'\' Meanwhile, the Democrat\'s campaign introduced two new ads following the recent theme of ``The Packaging of George Bush.\'\' The ads, which show campaign advisers sitting around a table, deal with the Reagan administration\'s environmental record and Bush\'s dealings with Panamanian ruler Manuel Antonio Noriega.\r\n'),(1801,2,'Charles S. Robb, a former governor and son-in-law of President Lyndon Johnson, defeated a longshot GOP opponent Tuesday to become Virginia\'s first Democrat elected to the Senate since 1966. Republican George Bush overwhelmed Democrat Michael Dukakis for the state\'s 12 electoral votes. With 14 percent of the precincts counted, Bush had 166,202 votes or 58 percent and Dukakis had 118,962 votes or 42 percent. With 14 percent of the precincts counted, Robb had 203,493 votes or 73 percent, and Republican Maurice Dawkins had 76,874 votes or 27 percent. Robb and Dawkins, a retired black minister and Washington lobbyist, competed for the seat of Republican Paul S. Trible Jr., who passed up a bid for a second Senate term and plans to run for governor in 1989. Robb outspent Dawkins by about 10 to one. Also on the ballot was a pari-mutuel referendum. Virginia voters narrowly defeated horse-track wagering 10 years ago, but a lottery referendum passed easily last year. Five Democrats and five Republicans were expected to win re-election to the U.S. House.\r\n'),(1802,2,'July 8 The Sun, Bremerton, Wash., on the resignation of Attorney General Meese: The last crony is leaving. Months, even years after propriety demanded it, Ed Meese says he\'ll resign _ sometime. Whatever conservative legacy he left the Justice Department and the courts is overshadowed by his cheapening of the office of attorney general and the chaos now paralyzing Justice. ... Meese has managed to slip through the net in four investigations, because the evidence against him always was circumstantial. It just happened that cronies who did favors for Meese soon ended up with lucrative government contracts, or federal jobs or other special favors. The best Meese\'s investigators could find was impropriety, not illegality. Yet the attorney general took the lack of charges as a ringing endorsement of his innocence. ... Meese is a deal-maker, a hustler. He never understood that the attorney general can\'t use his office to create a personal pork barrel. ... Does Meese leave any legacy except sleaze? ... He tried to weaken the Miranda Rule and abortion rights before a Supreme Court that was prepared to do neither. He embarked on an anti-pornography crusade, an odd priority for someone whose mission also includes fighting organized crime. He botched the early stages of the Iran-Contra probe, perhaps deliberately. Yet, Meese has shown one thing. An attorney general\'s politics are not as important as his credibility, his honesty and his ability to lead. After three years with a laughingstock for a leader, Justice needs an attorney general of high personal reputation. But the department must wait for the next administration to provide one.\r\n'),(1803,2,'Student radicals and dissidents today attacked a government party office and staged anti-government demonstrations demanding the arrest of the disgraced former president, Chun Doo-hwan. News reports said about a dozen students briefly occupied an office of President Roh Tae-woo\'s governing Democratic Justice Party in the southern city of Chonju. ``Arrest Chun Doo-hwan,\'\' they shouted while attacking the office and destroying windows with rocks and steel pipes, according to the reports. Police, firing tear gas, retook the building in 20 minutes and arrested six students, the reports said. The other students ran away, they said. In southern Seoul, 1,200 radical students and dissidents held an outdoor rally denouncing Roh for blocking public efforts to divulge more details of misdeeds committed during Chun\'s administration. They dispersed voluntarily after a two-mile march down a main street. About 4,000 riot police were posted, but no clashes were reported. In the southern city of Kwangju, 300 people, mostly students, marched peacefully through downtown streets, shouting slogans demanding Chun\'s arrest, the South Korean news agency Yonhap said. They dispersed in two hours, it said. Chun, who left office in February, went into self-imposed rural exile last month after apologizing to the nation for corruption and other scandals involving his seven-year authoritarian rule. Chun denied personal wrongdoing, but some of his family members have been arrested for taking bribes or embezzeling official funds.\r\n'),(1804,2,'Republican platform writers agreed today to keep Michael Dukakis\' name out of their party document with the hope that after the Nov. 8 election the Democratic nominee ``will fade into oblivion.\'\' Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr opened the platform hearing by asking the delegates not to refer to Dukakis by name in the document. Orr, the committee chairman, said past GOP platforms avoided direct references to the Democrats\' nominee. ``That\'s a very good idea since obviously after November 1988 Governor Dukakis will fade into oblivion,\'\' said New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu. ``We don\'t want anyone to have to refer to an encyclopedia to figure out what we have to say.\'\' The Democratic platform does not mention George Bush or Ronald Reagan by name. Sen. Bob Kasten of Wisconsin, a co-chairman of the committee, told reporters that none of the subcommittee revisions was ``giving anyone major heartburn.\'\' Kasten said the panel would seek to finish drafting the platform Thursday, a day ahead of schedule. The Republicans also released what they said was a GOP staff estimate of how much implicit promises in the Democratic platform will wind up costing taxpayers: $43.1 billion in 1989 alone. The full 106-member Republican Platform Committee today began reviewing the document anew line by line, after seven subcommittees spent Tuesday putting their imprint on 158 pages of staff-produced working papers. That draft is largely a distillation of policies from the 1984 GOP platform and stands that Bush has staked out on such issues as child care and education. It includes new planks on AIDS and the homeless, as well as the GOP\'s hard and fast line against abortion and higher taxes. Orr said the subcommittees were not making major changes, but emphasized, ``Until we\'re done on Friday, it\'s not a done deal, It\'s not over with.\'\' The subcommittees, taking advice from such Bush campaign emissaries as former Texas Sen. John Tower, resisted most moves to push the platform to the left or right. The defense subcommittee called for ``rapid and certain deployment of SDI as technology permits.\'\' The original draft, echoing Bush campaign language, had just spoken of deployment ``as soon as possible.\'\' In the family subcommittee, Lynn Glaze, a Delaware delegate, was rebuffed three times when she sought to soften the anti-abortion language. Her motions were tabled without discussion, as was her call for support of the Equal Rights Amendment. Bunny Chambers, a member of the conservative Eagle Forum from Oklahoma City who moved to table Glaze\'s amendments, said, ``I felt like we\'d discussed enough (in the past). I didn\'t want to spend all the time on it.\'\' The family subcommittee also killed a plank on the special needs of ``little persons\'\' _ dwarfs. Committee members expressed confusion about the term `little persons\'\' and what the plank was doing in the draft. On AIDS, not addressed in 1984, the draft promises to ``not only marshal our scientific resources against AIDS, but ... protect those who do not have the disease.\'\' It is silent on the civil rights legislation for AIDS victims recommended by a presidential commission. The family subcommittee did amend the AIDS plank to say victims ``should be encouraged to seek early diagnosis and to remain on the job or in school as long as they are functionally able.\'\' The defense subcommittee balked at an amendment by its co-chairman, Angela ``Bay\'\' Buchanan, to declare a goal of U.S. ``space dominance.\'\' Buchanan, the former U.S. treasurer from Irvine, Calif., said she was satisfied with compromise language that space must be kept free and secure for all nations. Gone from the draft documents was the 1984 GOP declaration that ``we shall keep the peace by keeping our country stronger than any potential adversary.\'\' On taxes, the draft says, ``Republicans unequivocally reiterate the no-tax pledge we have proudly kept.\'\' Like the 1984 platform, the draft calls for the appointment of judges ``who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of human life.\'\' Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. of Connecticut skipped Tuesday\'s session to return to Washington, but planned to be back today to wage his uphill battle for liberal amendments. The draft documents back a line-item veto, a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and ``a flexible freeze on current government spending.\'\' They endorse a child-care tax credit for families of modest means. Bush recently proposed a $1,000-per-child credit for families with incomes up to $20,000. The draft speaks of the importance of imparting to children ``the Judeo-Christian values of Western civilization and our ideals of liberty.\'\' The family subcommittee rejected an amendment to change ``Judeo-Christian\'\' to ``traditional.\'\' On abortion, the draft declares ``the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,\'\' and calls again for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. It says, ``Republicans deplore the apartheid system of South Africa,\'\' but warns against economic pressures that harm black workers and entrepreneurs there. The foreign policy panel added a plank declaring that, ``Republicans are strongly committed to obtaining the freedom of all Americans held captive by terrorist elements in the Middle East.\'\'\r\n'),(1805,2,'An outside review of the deadly 1984 gas leak at a Bhopal, India plant was intended to objectively assesses the cause of the disaster, Union Carbide Corp. says, although the resulting report provides little new information on the incident. The report released Tuesday by the firm Arthur D. Little Inc. supported Carbide\'s claims that sabotage by a disgruntled employee caused the disaster. It also refuted as ``physically impossible\'\' the Indian government\'s contention that the disaster stemmed from negligence. ``We wanted the world to know that somebody that had a reputation that was worldwide and sterling...would look at things critically,\'\' said Bud Holman, a Carbide attorney. The report did not provide a motive for sabotage or name the worker believed responsible. But Holman said the company and the Indian government knew the worker\'s identity, and it eventually would be revealed in court. He said the worker wanted to punish a superior who had demoted him. Ashok Kalelkare, a senior vice president of Arthur D. Little, based in Cambridge, Mass., presented the findings Tuesday to a London symposium sponsored by the Institute of Chemical Engineers of the United Kingdom. An Indian government attorney involved in the case on declined comment on the report today, saying it would be ``improper while we\'re in litigation.\'\' He insisted on anonymity. In composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Carbide closed up 75 cents a share to $23.87{ on Tuesday. At least 2,850 people were killed and 20,000 injured when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a holding tank at Union Carbide India Ltd.\'s Bhopal plant on Dec. 3, 1984. More than 500,000 people have filed claims in the case and the Indian government filed criminal charges against Carbide in December. The Arthur D. Little report theorized that a worker entered the plant\'s storage area during a shift change the night of Dec. 2, 1984, and hooked a rubber hose to the methyl isocyanate tank with the intention of ruining the tank\'s contents. The chemical produces a deadly gas when mixed with water. ``The results of this investigation show, with virtual certainty, that the Bhopal incident was caused by the entry of water to the tank through a hose that had been connected directly to the tank,\'\' the report stated. ``It is equally clear that those most directly involved attempted to obfuscate these events.\'\' The report was based on interviews with more than 70 former employees of the now-closed plant. Among those interviewed was an unidentified instrument supervisor who told investigators that the day after the disaster he discovered a gauge on the chemical tank had been replaced with a plug. Nearby, he also noticed a length of hose with water running from it, the report said. The report theorized that the gauge was removed, the hose inserted, and the hole filled with a plug once the water had been added to the tank. The Indian government contends that water got into the chemical tank when a worker failed to install a ``slip-blind,\'\' a device that prevents water from backing up, while cleaning a filter about 400 feet away. But Arthur D. Little\'s report asserted the theory was implausible for three reasons: the worker\'s hose pressure wasn\'t high enough to raise the water to the level of the chemical tank; a safety valve to prevent such a mishap was found in good working order after the accident; and pipes that would have remained filled with water after such an occurrence were dry. The report alleged that workers altered plant logs to hide that they tried to drain the tank after realizing water had been added. The consultant\'s report was highly critical of the Indian government, saying it stuck to the negligence theory despite evidence to the contrary and hindered Union Carbide\'s ability to discover what actually happened. The company finally got access to key plant records and through them the names of plant employees when a U.S. magistrate ordered India to produce copies of the documents as part of the civil suit to which it was a party\r\n'),(1806,2,'Amid the frozen farm fields of Iowa, Judy Shelly answered a cry for help from a small wooden garage. Huddled inside were a mother and three children. They\'d lost almost everything _ including their home. They had blankets, beds, a few sticks of furniture and a hot plate, but no bathroom or refrigerator. No money either. Forced off their farm, abandoned by husband and father, the family was struggling to survive. Their predicament is a sad but increasingly common sign of hard times in the heartland. As farmers lose their land, small-town factories shut their doors and housing costs rise, growing numbers of rural folks are joining the ranks of the nation\'s homeless. ``Rural homeless people are everywhere around us,\'\' said Louisa Stark, president of the National Coalition for the Homeless. ``They\'re living in barns and chicken coops. They\'re doubled and tripled up with families and friends. They\'re living under trees or, in some cases, sleeping in caves.\'\' Garages, too. The Iowa family had rented a nearby house after losing their farm last winter, but when the pipes burst and the landlord couldn\'t afford repairs, they moved into the garage because it was cheaper to warm with a kerosene heater. Shelly, who works for a farmers-assistance group, helped find them a place to stay. They moved on shortly after. People think rural America ``has been able to stand on its own two feet ever since the Depression,\'\' Shelly said. ``(They think) somehow they\'ll get by. They think you have the white picket fence, mom and dad sit down at the table and eat with the kids. That\'s not the way it is. ``The reality is urban life and rural life are not much different anymore,\'\' she added. ``We have people going without food. We have people going without heat.\'\' And people going without roofs over their heads. Up to 3 million Americans are homeless, the national coalition says. Some experts estimate 10 percent to 20 percent are in rural areas, but nobody knows for sure because they aren\'t as conspicious as people panhandling on city streets or sleeping on grates. ``Everybody calls the rural homeless invisible. In fact, they are,\'\' said Melanie Roth of the Housing Assistance Council in Washington, D.C., which deals with rural low-income housing needs. ``They don\'t wander the streets of small-town America,\'\' said Keith Luebke, co-director of the Welcome Inn Transitional Living Center in Mankato, Minn. ``They leave or they somehow hide themselves or hide their problems. They don\'t want anyone to know.\'\' Most of the newest rural homeless are working poor and farm families, says a report by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences. Compared with their urban counterparts, the report says, they\'re younger families dependent on two incomes; typically, one wage-earner loses a job and the remaining income isn\'t enough to pay the rent. They most often live in counties where employment is dependent on single troubled industries. These people face a Hobson\'s choice of moving in with friends or relatives _ or pulling up roots and leaving. The institute\'s report said some rural areas have a five-year waiting list for public housing. Though their numbers are just a fraction of those in the cities, the rural homeless get much less help _ fewer shelters, fewer soup kitchens, less money from charities. ``In short, the faint voice that has recently been given to the homeless in urban America has been denied the homeless of rural America,\'\' said a national coalition study on such problems in Appalachia and the South. Several studies have examined rural homelessness. Among the findings: _ More than three-quarters of community agencies responding to a Housing Assistance Council survey last year reported increases in rural homeless from 1981-82 to 1986-87. Of those, 38 percent said the increase was significant. _ In Ohio, the proportion of women among the rural homeless was twice that of urban homeless populations, according to a 1985 study. That\'s partly due to the higher percentage of married people among the rural homeless, 18.5 percent against 6.7 percent married among urban homeless. _ In Minnesota, 36 percent of adults in shelters and transitional living centers had jobs, compared with 24 percent in urban Minneapolis, said a 1988 study by the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless. _ In Iowa, a study found one of the larger groups in danger of losing homes was farm widows, many of whom live on just a few hundred dollars a month. The count of rural homeless should also include people who live in ramshackle houses or stay with friends and family, a common arrangement among down-and-out farmers, the experts say. It may be 21 people living in one house, nine children and three adults squeezed in a trailer or a family so crowded they sleep in shifts. ``You have people living on top of each other. Those are the hidden homeless,\'\' said Luebke. ``These people no longer have their own home or apartment. They have a roof over their head, but in real terms they should be considered homeless.\'\' Living conditions for others are so abysmal that social agencies say it\'s tantamount to being homeless. ``When people have a home where the roof is constantly leaking and the cold air can come in ... (and) there\'s no money to fix those things, that\'s not a home,\'\' said Norma Dell, director of Bethany House, a Kentucky social service center. Agencies around the country have files on people living in rat-infested shanties, rotting houses without walls or shacks without heat, water or toilets. Others describe a wheelchair-bound man living under a bridge after being evicted, an Indian family sleeping in an old school bus and drawing water from a horse trough, a man who lived in an abandoned refrigerator. Stark said she\'s heard reports from California of farmworkers living in groves of trees or taking shelter in caves.\r\n'),(1807,2,'Insurance officials in California and Illinois have given their approval for Batus Inc. to acquire Farmers Group Inc., the companies said in a joint announcement Monday. The statement said affirmative action was taken by California Insurance Commissioner Roxani Gillespiee and Illinois Insurance Director John Washburn. Batus and Farmers, a California insurance company, announced Aug. 24 that they had entered into an agreement providing for Batus to acquire Farmers at a price of $75 per share in cash, or about $5.2 billion. Arizona, Idaho and Washington ruled favorably on the plan earlier but it still must be accepted by four other states.\r\n'),(1808,2,'Stock prices advanced broadly this morning in early, moderate trading after the Tokyo market and other overseas exchanges regained strength. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials gained 7.66 points to 2,591.22 in the first half hour of trading. Advancing issues outnumbered losers by more than 2 to 1 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 620 up, 286 down and 467 unchanged. Volume on the Big Board came to 21.87 million shares as of 10 a.m. on Wall Street. On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the key Nikkei index rose more than 400 points in early trading, but then plunged on a wave of computer-guided selling by foreign institutions. But the Japanese market recovered as investors gradually returned and computerized buy programs kicked in. By the close, the Nikkei index gained 92.51 points, or 0.25 percent, to move to 35,826.84. On Wednesday, the Nikkei plummeted more than 3 percent for its third-worst drop ever. The plunge helped set off a tumble on Wall Street, but the U.S. markets later recovered as institutional investors took advantage of bargains. This morning, the NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks gained 0.30 to 181.37. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was up 0.63 at 353.58. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones average of 30 industrials closed down 13.29 points to 2,583.56. Declining issues outnumbered advances by about 5 to 3 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks, with 577 up, 963 down and 455 unchanged. Volume on the floor of the Big Board totaled 159.24 million shares, up from 147.30 million in the previous session.\r\n'),(1809,2,'The African National Congress recommended Monday that Nelson Mandela meet rival black leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a breakthrough that could help ease the violence in black townships. The ANC proposed a meeting between itself and Buthelezi\'s conservative Inkatha Freedom Party ``in the near future,\'\' but did not specify a date. The ANC statement said both Mandela and Buthelezi should attend. Buthelezi said he welcomed the offer and was ready to consider a suitable time and place for the talks. Mandela is in Australia and will be traveling throughout Asia until early November. Since his release from prison in February, Mandela has turned down invitations from his old friend Buthelezi despite the ongoing violence between their supporters in the eastern province of Natal and in black areas outside Johannesburg. ANC leaders have harshly briticized Buthelezi and accused him of orchestrating the violence to obtain a meeting with Mandela and enhance his stature. Buthelezi has denied the charge and accused the ANC of trying to destroy all rivals. The ANC was conciliatory in its statement Monday. The group said ``it welcomed the steps being taken jointly by the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party\'\' to stop the violence. The two sides have been holding periodic peace talks, but neither Mandela nor Buthelezi has attended. About 5,000 blacks have died in the ANC-Inkatha power struggle since 1986 in Natal Province. The fighting spread to the Johannesburg area in August and has claimed 800 lives. The ANC and Inkatha, the two largest black opposition movements, both oppose apartheid but differ over tactics and a future South Africa. The socialist-oriented ANC has employed boycotts, strikes, protests and waged an armed struggle, recently suspended, in its battle against the government. Inkatha does not endorse any of those measures and favors capitalism. The ANC draws support across tribal lines, while virtually all Inkatha members are Zulus. The ANC also has opposed Buthelezi\'s role as leader of the KwaZulu homeland in Natal Province. The ANC considers the 10 black homelands part of the apartheid system. Buthelezi, meanwhile, sees the limited self-government in the homelands as an interim step on the road to black majority rule.\r\n'),(1810,2,'Former President Jimmy Carter and three members of a Soviet volunteer organization have agreed to work jointly on housing projects for the needy next summer in Washington state and the Soviet Union. Carter met Sunday with the Soviet delegation at his home in Plains. He is active in Habitat for Humanity, a group that builds homes for the working poor. ``One of the things they (the Russians) wanted to do was housing work for the benefit of low-income people with children, and Habitat fit the bill,\'\' said Millard Fuller, Habitat\'s executive director, who also attended the meeting with the Soviets. ``We decided that next summer a group of 10 Soviets will come to Yakima and work with 10 Americans on the Habitat project there for five or six weeks,\'\' Fuller said. ``Then the group will go to the Soviet Union and work on a similar project there.\'\' Habitat has conducted home-building projects in more than 300 U.S. cities as well as Canada, Australia and developing nations. The Soviets delagation are members of a private volunteer organization, the Soviet Peace Fund, and were invited to the United States by Ploughshares, a Seattle-based organization. The Soviet delegation included Svetlana Savitskaya, the first woman cosmonaut to walk in space. ``It\'s very important to look at each other eye to eye,\'\' said Ms. Savitskaya, who added that the project will help promote peace. ``This will help us to see there are not enemies among us but good friends.\'\' The project\'s ultimate goal is to have the Soviets and Americans working side-by-side in developing nations, organizers said, but no decision on that was reached.\r\n'),(1811,2,'If, instead of heading for Las Vegas, a high-roller in 1980 bought a typical acre of U.S. farmland for $750 in hopes of turning a fast buck, the profit would hardly have been the stuff of a gambler\'s dreams. The speculator could have sold the one acre in 1982 for a record $823. That would have been a profit of less than 5 percent a year. But it would have been a profit. And there are more losers than winners at roulette tables. After the U.S. farmland boom of the 1970s peaked in 1982, however, it was downhill for years, with the bottom in 1987 at an average of $599 per acre. By 1990, according to the Agriculture Department, farm real estate prices nationally - including buildings as well as land - had recovered to around $693 per acre. These are only averages. No doubt there have been some speculative land deals that have resulted in somebody getting rich. But did speculators help run up farmland prices in the 1970s so much that the bottom was bound to fall out of the market in the 1980s? A USDA analysis says it is doubtful that speculation and easy credit policies led to the farmland bust. There is little doubt, however, that the slide in land prices was a huge factor in the financial crunch that gripped the nation\'s agriculture in the mid-1980s. Land is the main asset of farmers, and when values crumbled their collateral shrank, and so did their borrowing power. ``Many market observers said (farmland) prices reflected a speculative mania rather than expected farm income,\'\' the report said. ``Speculative manias, often called bubbles, occur when investors buy an asset intending only to sell it later at a higher price, rather than using it to generate income over a number of years.\'\' The report was written by Fred Kuchler and Abebayehu Tegene of the department\'s Economic Research Service and is in the November issue of Agricultural Outlook magazine. ``While there is some circumstantial evidence of a speculative bubble in the 1970s, the long-run stable relation between farmland prices and returns (as measured by cash rental rates) leads to the conclusion that bubbles have most likely not occurred in farmland markets,\'\' the report said. ``Rather,\'\' it added, ``expectations about future farm incomes and other economic factors have determined, and continue to determine, farmland prices.\'\' The report also said that many analysts believe ``aggressive lending policies touched off a speculative bubble in farmland prices\'\' during the 1970s. ``That conclusion appears to be incorrect, but the evidence does not rule out the possibility that aggressive lending, reflected in lower mortgage rates or greater volumes of credit, could have caused investors to re-evaluate their expectations,\'\' the report said. ``The lenders probably made farmland a much better investment.\'\' Recently the American Bankers Association released an independent study that said a liberalization of Farm Credit System lending policies nearly 20 years ago led to the boom-and-bust era in agriculture. According to the study, the cooperatively owned Farm Credit System - which includes federal land bank associations - was authorized by Congress in 1971 to raise its collateral limit for farm real estate loans. That meant larger loans to buy land. The bankers\' study said the liberalization ``unleased a boom in land prices in rural America that saw the inflation-adjusted value of farmland nearly double from 1971 to 1980.\'\' But the bankers\' study said the boom was unsustainable and that by the mid-1980s the average real value of farmland, after allowing for inflation, was almost down to its 1971 level. The USDA reports it is impossible to prove conclusively that speculative bubbles exist or do not exist. One reason is that economists do not agree exactly on how much income should be attributed to land. ``If there was no speculative bubble, the runup in farmland prices during the 1970s must reflect big shifts in expectations,\'\' the report said. ``Farmland investors might have believed that farm income would rise at a faster pace or that income would continue to rise at the rate of the 1950s and 1960s.\'\'\r\n'),(1812,2,'Just eight weeks after Florida\'s $55.1 million jackpot eclipsed lottomania in California, the Golden State is back with a $55 million-plus jackpot that will be North America\'s richest ever. Lottery officials and merchants said ticket sales for Saturday\'s drawing already were double what an average Thursday would rake in. The official estimate of ``over $55 million\'\' for the drawing is conservative, based on previous betting patterns in the two-year history of California\'s computerized lottery game, said lottery spokesman Bob Taylor. ``Over $55 million\'\' could mean several million dollars over, officials acknowledge. It all depends on how wildly Californians react to the 1-in-14-million chance of winning the jackpot, which would be paid in an annuity of at least $2.75 million before taxes for 20 years, for the cost of a $1 lotto ticket. The size of the jackpot depends on sales and jackpot rollovers, which fuel each other to produce the heavy gambling periods dubbed lottomania. When no one picks all six winning numbers out of a choice of 49 numbers, the jackpot is rolled over, or added, to the top prize for the next twice-weekly drawing. Four rollovers, including a $33.4 million jackpot Wednesday night, produced the current record prize estimate. The exact size of the jackpot depends on how many tickets are sold. Twenty cents of every $1 ticket feeds the jackpot. The California lottery produced a $51.4 million jackpot, North America\'s largest at the time, in June. It was evenly split between two players, an aircraft mechanic and a supermarket clerk. That record was eclipsed Sept. 3 by a $55.1 million prize in Florida that went to a 63-year-old real estate broker.\r\n'),(1813,2,'Stock prices sagged again today, extending Tuesday\'s sharp decline. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, down 78.22 points on Tuesday, was off 6.18 at 2,439.36 by 3 p.m. today on Wall Street. Losers outnumbered gainers by almost 5 to 2 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 420 up, 1,028 down and 495 unchanged. Analysts said rumors of increasing tensions in the Persian Gulf caused some fresh problems for the market. The atmosphere was already gloomy, they noted, following Tuesday\'s upsurge in oil prices to above $40 a barrel. Today crude-oil futures for November delivery pushed past $41 a barrel in early trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, then dropped back to the neighborhood of $39.50. Recession worries have intensified of late as analysts continue to cut their earnings estimates for a wide range of companies. Profit reports for the third quarter of the year will reach flood stage over the next couple of weeks. Motorola rose 1&lsqb; to 53~ in active trading after taking a 7-point drop Tuesday, when the company posted a quarterly earnings gain that fell short of expectations. Losers among the blue-chip industrials included Aluminum Co. of America, down 2{ at 57\\; American Telephone & Telegraph, down &rsqb; at 31|; General Electric, down | at 52\\, and Mobil, down ~ at 58|. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks dropped .91 to 166.50. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was down 2.66 at 300.39. Volume on the Big Board came to 133.34 million shares with an hour to go.\r\n'),(1814,2,'A flight to Baltimore from San Juan, Puerto Rico, was diverted to Miami after passengers wrongly accused a fellow traveler of carrying a gun, an airline official said Monday. Passengers on American Airlines Flight 704 Sunday night told flight attendants that a man was ``acting a little strange,\'\' and that he had a gun in his briefcase, said Tim Smith, a spokesman at American\'s Dallas headquarters. ``The flight attendants then alerted the plane\'s captain, who decided to divert the plane to Miami\'\' shortly before 9 p.m., Smith said. ``The man was met by Dade County authorities who searched him and his baggage and found nothing.\'\' The man, who was not identified, spent the night in Miami and was rescheduled onto a flight to Baltimore Monday morning, Smith said. The airplane refueled during a 30-minute stop in Miami, then continued on to Baltimore\'s Washington International Airport, he said.\r\n'),(1815,2,'President Bush complained testily Thursday about news accounts which he said portrayed him as deceptive, declaring he would hold fewer news conferences and initiate a ``new approach\'\' toward reporters. ``From now on, it\'s going to be a little different. ... So we\'ve got a new relationship,\'\' Bush told reporters traveling with him aboard Air Force One to the four-nation Colombia drug summit. ``It will be pleasant. It will be fun. But it\'s different,\'\' said the president, who has averaged one question and answer session with reporters each week since taking office 13 months ago. Later, Bush\'s press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, said the president was ``just kidding\'\' in asserting that he would have fewer news conferences and in declining comment on a series of questions. ``He was having fun,\'\' Fitzwater said. The president, who apparently read a wire service account of his testy mood on the plane, protested to reporters later: ``I\'m not fuming.\'\' Bush\'s pique apparently was triggered by an ABC-TV report Wednesday night recapping instances in which Bush\'s words were belied by subsequent events. The president was criticized on the same score in a Feb. 26 article in The New Republic entitled, ``The Deceiving Line.\'\' Most recently Bush told a news conference on Monday that it wasn\'t time yet for a conference among the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France on the future status of Germany. ``Not at this juncture,\'\' he told the news conference. Yet, the next day, a major agreement was announced in Ottawa by Secretary of State James A. Baker III on a German reunification push that would include a summit among the four powers that vanquished Germany in World War II. ``When I told you ... that I didn\'t think there\'d be a deal and there shortly was a deal, then I\'m hit for deceiving you,\'\' Bush groused Thursday. Bush, a onetime CIA director, has conducted much of his foreign policy in secrecy. Two missions to China by national security adviser Brent Scowcroft came despite a Bush announcement in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown that he was barring high-level exchanges between the two countries. The president later insisted that Scowcroft\'s trips to Beijing were ``visits\'\' and not ``exchanges,\'\' and thus not covered by the Bush edict. Bush, who usually maintains a bantering relationship with reporters, said, ``I think we\'ve had too many press conferences. It overdoes it. It\'s overexposure.\'\' By answering few questions directly, he said, ``I\'m not going to be burned for holding out or doing something deceptive.\'\' The president, who slept the night before on Air Force One so he would be well-rested for Thursday\'s pre-dawn flight here, even gave a prickly response when asked if he had gotten a good night\'s sleep. ``I had a very good night\'s sleep. I can\'t get into the details of that because some will say it\'s too much sleep, some will say it\'s too little. ...,\'\' he said. Bush parried a series of questions from reporters, most of them dealing with the drug summit. ``I\'m not going to discuss what I\'m going to bring up,\'\' Bush said when asked about his agenda for the day\'s conference in Cartagena with the presidents of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. ``I\'m not going to discuss whether there\'s any surprises or not. This is a new thing. This is a new approach.\'\' He then said his non-answers were ``a trial run\'\' for later dealings with the media. In fact, Bush, who answers reporters questions about once a week, planned to finish his day in Colombia with yet another news conference. Bush\'s comments with reporters came shortly before his jet touched down here, where a U.S. press center was set up at the airport. Bush flew by helicopter the 60 miles to Cartagena and was returning here before flying home to Washington. Asked about an NBC-TV report that Colombian President Virgilio Barco had made a deal with some drug lords in his country not to extradite them to the United States if they turned over drug labs, Bush snapped: ``I have no comment whatsoever on that. I have no comment on whether I know about it or not. I can\'t comment on whether it\'s true or not.\'\' Bush did not mention which particular news reports had irked him the most. However, Thursday\'s editions of the Washington Post had a story on what it called ``the debate between President Bush and the press over secrecy and deception.\'\' And ABC-TV had a news report on Wednesday night by White House correspondent Brit Hume on the same subject. Hume was one of several reporters invited to a recent off the record lunch at the White House with Bush, at which the subject reportedly came up. News accounts said that Bush told the reporters at the lunch that he had undertaken no further secret diplomatic missions _ like Scowcroft\'s clandestine visits to China. Then, the next day, it was disclosed that Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger had gone on a secret mission to London to notify U.S. allies of Bush\'s latest plan to reduce troops in Europe. Bush also gave what some have seen as misleading comments on his surprise seaside summit at Malta in December with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The president in September had said that there were no plans for a superpower summit before 1990, but he later revealed that the session had been arranged as early as last July.\r\n'),(1816,2,'NASA opened Discovery\'s payload bay doors Saturday to remove the Hubble Space Telescope\'s batteries for recharging and to replace a faulty part in preparation for an April 25 launch. Technicians took out a faulty auxiliary power unit responsible for grounding the shuttle last week. A new unit was being installed to be tested Sunday and fired up briefly later this week. ``We haven\'t run into any problem,\'\' said Lisa Malone, a spokeswoman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. ``We\'re looking good for the 25th.\'\' Hubble\'s six nickel-hydrogen batteries will be recharged for 5{ days in a laboratory at the Vehicle Assembly Building. NASA decided to take the batteries there because they can be recharged at a cooler temperature and thus retain more power. ``We will have a higher capacity in them than we would have had we been recharging at the pad,\'\' said Fred Wojtalik, a NASA project manager. ``This will make the opportunities for additional launch days a lot easier for us.\'\' The batteries will power Hubble from the time it is disconnected from the shuttle\'s power system during deployment until its energy-collecting solar panels are unfurled. Discovery was poised for launch Tuesday, but the mission was scrubbed four minutes before liftoff when the auxiliary power unit failed. NASA was not sure how long it would take to replace the 88-pound unit because the procedure had never been performed before at the launch pad. The work went smoothly, Malone said. The defective power unit was returned to the manufacturer, Sunstrand Corp. of Rockford, Ill., for testing. The shuttle\'s three auxiliary power units pressurize the hydraulic system, which is used to move wing and rudder surfaces and in the ship\'s braking and steering systems. NASA planned to close Discovery\'s payload bay doors Sunday as soon as the lengthy process of removing the batteries was completed. The chamber will remain sealed to reduce the risk of getting too much dust on the telescope\'s 94-inch mirror, the finest ever made, until the batteries are returned next weekend. The $1.5 billion telescope is NASA\'s most expensive and complex payload. Once it is in orbit above Earth\'s distorting atmosphere, it will be able to detect objects 50 times fainter and with 10 times greater clarity than the best observatory on the ground. Astronomers expect to study stars and galaxies so distant that their light has been traveling toward Earth for 14 billion years, close to the beginning of the universe.\r\n'),(1817,2,'East Germany\'s former Communist economics czar, who is accused of corruption, has been released from prison because of failing health, officials said Monday. Doctors agreed that Guenter Mittag, 63, was too ill to remain in jail where he was being held in preventive custody, said East German justice officials who asked not to be identified. Mittag was responsible for economic policy in the Communist government that was ousted during last fall\'s pro-democracy movement. He had been in prison since December and is accused of corruption and sabotaging the country\'s economy. Other top officials under investigation by the new democratically elected government include former Communist leader Erich Honecker and longtime security chief Erich Mielke. Mittag suffers from acute diabetes, said East German justice officials. He is considered to be the most ill of all the former Communist party leaders under investigation.\r\n'),(1818,2,'The dollar continued its slide against the Japanese yen in European trading this morning, but gained ground from Thursday\'s lower levels against several European currencies. Spot gold prices were driven sharply lower under the pressure of Japanese selling. The dollar closed in Tokyo at 154.15 yen, down 2.60 yen from Thursday\'s close. Later in London, it was quoted at 153.99 yen. Other dollar rates in Europe, compared with late Thursday: _1.6342 West German marks, down from 1.6368 _1.3995 Swiss francs, up from 1.3950 _5.5285 French francs, up from 5.5235 _1.8410 Dutch guilders, up from 1.8407 _1,206.00 Italian lire, up from 1,205.75 _$1.1770 Canadian, up from $1.1650 The British pound fell to $1.6728 from $1.6770 late Thursday. Some market players remained on the sidelines awaiting the U.S. government\'s release later today of the producer price index and retail sales figures. Concern that the U.S. economy is slowing also helped push the dollar lower, dealers said. Dealers said an overnight decline in the dollar\'s value against the Swiss franc and West German mark pushed it below a technical floor, resulting in widespread dollar selling. The franc has been rising because of high Swiss interest rates, strong Asian demand and the increasing tendency to view the franc as a ``safe haven\'\' currency, dealers said. Japan\'s major securities houses sold the dollar heavily in the morning. After lunch, they were joined by life insurers and other major market players, said John Radinoff, vice president of Goldman Sachs (Japan). ``The yen has been massively oversold, and people have been looking for excuses to sell dollars,\'\' Radinoff said. ``Over the next couple of days there will be some serious thinking going on over whether this is the start of a new trend or whether the dollar is just testing to find a new base,\'\' said Mahesh Trivedi, senior corporate dealer at Daiwa (Europe) Bank Ltd. ``We could be just near the beginning of a sharp rise in the yen,\'\' said Mark Austin, currency analyst at Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp. in London. Spot gold prices in London dropped as low as $367.50 an ounce in London this morning, off from $371.35 an ounce late Thursday. In Zurich, gold opened at $367.60 an ounce, down from $371.25 bid late Thursday. In Hong Kong, gold dropped $3.12 an ounce today, to close at $369.10. Silver bullion rose in London to a late bid price of $5.06 a troy ounce, down from $5.08 bid late Thursday.\r\n'),(1819,2,'The only thing undeniable about ``Twin Peaks\'\' is that the series opened with homecoming queen Laura Palmer\'s body washing ashore, meticulously wrapped in white plastic tarp. OK, maybe even that\'s not true. Laura\'s lookalike cousin also arrived, very much alive, leading at least one TV critic to theorize that Laura Palmer killed Laura Palmer. Or rather, Laura Palmer killed her cousin and now is impersonating her. It\'s a whodunit gone amok. In ``Twin Peaks,\'\' we don\'t even know who\'s been done. And if you understand the bizarre, quirky, weird, offbeat episodic series brought to television by filmdom\'s offbeat, weird, quirky and bizarre director David Lynch, please fill the rest of us in. We\'re hopelessly confused. Tonight\'s season finale promises to resolve the Palmer murder in a small Northwest lumber town whose occupants are alternately obsessed with doughnuts, coffee, pie, logs, psychic visions, Laura\'s murder, tape recorders, birds, wife-beating, cocaine, draperies that glide silently and dancing dwarfs who talk backwards. Newsweek was so confused, it ran a chart titled ``The Story So Far (As Near As Anyone Can Figure).\'\' Los Angeles Times television columnist Howard Rosenberg said he was watching every episode and ``loving it. I think.\'\' Here\'s the basic plot, or a reasonable facsimile: Seventeen-year-old Laura Palmer turns up dead. Pie-loving FBI agent Dale Cooper comes to town to help doughnut-loving Sheriff Harry S. Truman solve the murder. Laura may or may not have been a drug dealer, but she most definitely was homecoming queen. Her mother has psychic visions. There is a woman who carries around a log. A one-armed man is ominously referred to. Cooper walks around talking into a tape recorder. Nadine wears an eye patch, lives for noiseless drapes and is married to ``Big Ed\'\' Hurley, who runs the town gas station. Josie Packard owns the local mill and has the hots for Truman. Everybody is sleeping with everybody else\'s husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend ... well, you get the picture. If you don\'t, take heart. ``Twin Peaks\'\' will be back in the fall, ABC announced this week. Oh, goody. That gives us all enough time to get over the motion sickness from trying to figure out this season.\r\n'),(1820,2,'Democratic Sen. Paul Simon captured a second term Tuesday, fending off a challenge by Republican Rep. Lynn Martin, whose anti-tax message and late call for limiting the terms of Washington lawmakers failed to dent the popularity of the liberal incumbent.\r\n'),(1821,2,'At least five bombs exploded in two cities today, ripping through a government building and the offices of business groups and labor unions. Police said no injuries were reported. The early morning blasts went off simultaneously in Salonica and Athens, the capital. Police said anonymous callers claimed responsibility on behalf of the leftist guerrilla groups May 1 and the Revolutionary Popular Struggle. The groups have asked voters to boycott Sunday\'s crucial parliamentary elections, citing ``political mockery\'\' by the leading parties, the Conservatives and the Socialists. The Salonica blasts caused extensive damage at the European Community\'s northern Greece information center, located on the 6th floor of an office building, and the Industrialists Association of Northern Greece, police said. In Athens, bombs caused minor damage at the National Economy ministry, and buildings housing the General Confederation of Greek Trade Unions and the Federation of Greek Industrialists, they said on condition of anonymity. In the past, the attacks of the terrorist groups have focused on economic targets and none has ever caused fatalities. Both groups say they oppose capitalism, imperialism and the U.S. military presence in Greece. Greeks vote Sunday for the third time in a year, hoping to break a political deadlock that has created compromise governments unable to confront an economy in crisis and growing terrorism. But pollsters predict the election will end like those in June and November 1989, with no party winning enough seats to control the government.\r\n'),(1822,2,'Budget negotiators should limit next year\'s deficit cuts to $50 billion to $60 billion, far less than the law requires, say top fiscal experts for Congress and the Bush administration. The advice, if followed, would make it easier _ and less politically painful _ for participants in the budget summit to reach a deficit-reduction deal for 1991. White House officials and congressional leaders met in the Capitol Thursday for their second round of talks on the $1.2 trillion budget for fiscal 1991, which begins Oct. 1. That spending plan will have to contain an enormous amount of taxes or spending cuts to meet the $64 billion deficit ceiling mandated by the Gramm-Rudman balanced budget law. At Thursday\'s session, negotiators did not agree on what size of budget-cutting package they need. ``It\'s bouncing all over the ballpark, $60 billion, $45 billion, $50 billion,\'\' said Senate Budget Committee Chairman James Sasser, D-Tenn. Their own analysts gave them wildly differing figures about the size of the looming shortfall. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said next year\'s budget gap looks like it will be $149 billion to $159 billion. That would mean savings _ either new taxes or spending slashes _ of $85 billion to $95 billion to shrink the shortfall to the Gramm-Rudman target of $64 billion. The White House\'s Office of Management and Budget projected a shortfall of $123 billion to $138 billion. That would necessitate $59 billion to $74 billion in cuts to hit the Gramm-Rudman ceiling. Neither set of figures includes the cost of rescuing the country\'s savings and loan institutions, a bailout that could cost the government tens of billions of dollars next year. Yet according to participants, CBO Director Robert Reischauer and OMB Director Richard Darman agreed that savings should be limited to $50 billion to $60 billion. The two budget experts said deficit cuts exceeding that amount could slow an already weak economy. Many economists worry that taking more than that amount away from consumers and government contractors _ in the form of higher taxes or spending cuts _ could prompt a recession. Some negotiators have said that loosening the deficit targets in the Gramm-Rudman law could be one way of keeping automatic cuts from taking effect. Darman also presented negotiators with examples of the spending cuts the Gramm-Rudman law would impose next year if Congress and President Bush fail to enact a deficit-reduction plan. The law would trigger enough cuts to reduce the deficit to $64 billion. According to the budget chief, $30 billion in Gramm-Rudman cuts would mean a 10.4 percent cut in domestic programs and a 7.6 percent reduction in defense spending. A $60 billion cutback would pare domestic programs by 22.2 percent and defense by 15.2 percent. In January, Bush released a proposed budget asserting that only $37 billion in savings would be needed to reach the Gramm-Rudman deficit target. The administration says that since that time, projected costs of aiding the savings and loan industry have grown, interest rates have jumped and tax collections have dropped. Democrats point out that CBO and many private economists have been expecting the higher deficit figures for months. The budget talks are expected to last weeks or months. Both sides are being cautious in suggesting how to cope with a problem that could mean unpopular tax increases or spending reductions in an election year.\r\n'),(1823,2,'The government intensified its crackdown on apartheid opponents today by introducing a bill that would outlaw foreign funding of political activity. The legislation, expected to be adopted during Parliament\'s current session, could cripple the operations of anti-apartheid organizations and churches spared during last week\'s crackdown on major black opposition groups. Eighteen groups, including the largest anti-apartheid coalition and largest labor federation, were barred from political activity. The new legislation, called ``The Promotion of Orderly Politics Bill,\'\' would prohibit all organizations from receiving money from abroad for political purposes. Many anti-apartheid, human rights and religious groups receive the bulk of their funds from overseas. The bill would empower the justice minister to declare certain organizations ``restricted\'\' and to take control of foreign funds sent to them. Money which is deemed to be earmarked for undesirable political activities will ``either be returned to the foreign source or dealt with as determined by the minister,\'\' the bill says. No court challenge of the restrictions would be allowed. The funding restrictions could be applied to politically related activities of anti-apartheid church organizations, which have vowed to step up protests because of bans on other groups. The South African Council of Churches, which includes most major Protestant denominations and is deeply engaged in civil rights work, has received more than 90 percent of its funds from abroad in recent years. The Roman Catholic Church, which cooperates with the council of churches but receives funds separately, also relies heavily on overseas financing. The Rev. Smangiliso Mkhatshwa, secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, said the bill might prove difficult to enforce. ``If the church says supporting the families of detainees and paying legal fees is the work of love, the work of evangelism, it is dificult to see how the government can define for the church what it pastoral and what is political,\'\' he said. Another section of the bill sets a penalty of two years in jail or a $2,000 fine for anyone who ``says or does anything\'\' to foment hostility or violence between of different racial, cultural or religious groups. The penalties would apply to anyone who displays any banner, emblem or slogan deemed to convey such hostility, and also to anyone who attends a gathering where such items are displayed. Helen Suzman, veteran Parliament member of the anti-apartheid Progressive Federal Party, said she planned to demand a special debate today on the arrests of prominent clergymen who were protesting the government crackdown. About 25 church leaders, including Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and more than 100 other protesters were detained briefly Monday after riot policeman blocked them from marching to Parliament with a petition protesting the bans on opposition groups. One of the arrested churchmen, Roman Catholic Archbishop Stephen Naidoo, said in an interview today that he and his colleagues considered it their duty to continue challenging the government. ``The church has got to take a stand on the morality of the use of political power,\'\' he said. ``If it being used by a minority for the protection of the minority and the oppression of the majority, then the church has got to point this out.\'\' In another development, government officials warned the country\'s largest conglomerate, the Anglo American Corp., that they would not tolerate its announced plan to defy the Group Areas Act _ the law that establishes racially segregated living areas. Apartheid establishes a racially segregated society in which the nation\'s 26 million blacks have no vote in national affairs. The 5 million whites control the economy and maintain separate districts, schools and health services. An executive in Anglo\'s property division, Graham Lindrop, recently described the act as a sham and said his company was prepared to negotiate leases directly with black tenants renting apartments in the ``white\'\' Johannesburg neighborhood of Hillbrow. Currently, most of the thousands of blacks living illegally in Hillbrow are forced to have their leases signed by a third party and are vulnerable to exploitation and threats from their landlords. The government has indicated it might allow Hillbrow and a few other areas to become integrated, but it says violations of the Group Areas Act will not be tolerated in the meantime. ``The act still stands until changes are approved by Parliament, Piet Badenhorst, a deputy Cabinet minister, said Monday. ``There will be prosecutions.\'\' Anglo American\'s stance was praised by foes of the Group Areas Act and denounced as civil disobedience by the extreme-right Conservative Party.\r\n'),(1824,2,'A witch doctor using a monkey as bait captured the companion of a notorious man-eating crocodile, but the 200-year-old killer croc remains at large, a newspaper said today. Bujang Sudin, a 16.4-foot long specimen weighing 397 pounds, was pulled from a river Saturday and sold to a nearby crocodile farm, the New Straits Times said. The newspaper said the witch doctor, Bakir Alias Yeop, lured the crocodile with the monkey and chanted, ``Bujang Sudin come.\'\' It said two other men then helped haul the crocodile from the river. The report quoted Abang Adris Abang Suhai, a police official in Sarawak state, 540 miles southeast of Kuala Lumpur. Police said the people of Sungai Sadong village in Sarawak had been complaining that a crocodile was troubling them and chasing them as they walked along the river bank. They wanted it caught. Police said they did not know if Bujang Sudin had eaten any humans. The crocodile\'s companion, however, has, and has been the subject of massive police hunts. He is Bujang Senang, which means ``easy-going bachelor\'\' in Malay, and he is believed to have been born about 200 years ago. Bujang Sudin means ``bachelor Sudin\'\'. In 1984, Bujang Senang became famous in Malaysia when he killed a 51-year-old man who was in a boat near his home. On Aug. 2, 1982, the crocodile killed an 86-year-old man. Police sharpshooters scoured the rivers in an effort to track down the crocodile. Authorities called witch doctors from as far away as Indonesia to help. Police have stopped looking for Bujang Senang, although there have been occasional reports of him being sighted along various rivers.\r\n'),(1825,2,'A chain saw is useful for cleanup and maintenance of your yard and garden, but observe some basics for safe and easy operation. Solo Incorporated, which makes chain saws, has these tips: _ When starting the chain saw, place it on level ground at least 10 feet from the gas can and fueling area. Hold the saw down by placing one foot on the rear handlebar while firmly holding the front handlebar with one hand. If your saw has only a top handlebar, hold it firmly on the ground, pulling up on the starting grip. _ Hold the saw firmly with both hands, maintaining a secure grip. This will help you avoid injury from kickback. Don\'t overreach or cut above shoulder height, and when cutting logs, only cut one at a time. _ In bucking timber, don\'t stand directly behind the saw while cutting. Position yourself so you\'ll be away from the direction of the log roll. Hold the saw on the right side of your body (outside the line of sight across the chain) to minimize chances of injury from an unexpected broken chain or kickback. Examine the log for internal stress _ a bowed appearance is an indication _ and avoid cutting the log on the wrong side, which can result in kickback. _ To avoid kickback while limbing, make sure the log is in a secure position and work on the safest side _ usually uphill and away from the fall of cut limbs. To avoid kickback, make sure the guidebar\'s tip doesn\'t come in contact with another branch, the side of a tree, or another object. When limbing, bend your knees slightly and position your right leg behind the front carrying handlebar. The left leg should be forward and away from the guidebar\'s contact range. Avoid standing on limbs, slash or debris. _ Survey the area before felling a tree. Is the trunk sound or hollow and rotted? What\'s the wind direction and speed? Which direction is the tree leaning in? Is the tree\'s crown denser and heavier on one side? When you\'ve determined the answers to these questions, figure your escape route, which should be at a 45-degee angle back from the line of the fall. When you have checked this and cleared the small limbs and branches from the bottom portion of the trunk, you\'re ready to fell the tree. Stand away from the tree and maintain a balanced stance. Then start by making a careful undercut. This notch, cut to a depth of a quarter-inch, will determine the line of the fall and should be positioned at a right angle to the projected fall. _ Wear protective clothing each time you use a saw. These include goggles or a face mask, snug but comfortable work clothing, cuffless long pants, hearing protection, non-slip safety gloves, and boots with steel toecaps.\r\n'),(1826,2,'Pope John Paul II heard confessions from 11 pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter\'s Basilica today in keeping with a Good Friday tradition he began in 1979. In the evening, the pope planned to carry a wooden cross in a torch-lit procession at the Colosseum recalling Christ\'s walk to his crucifixion on Calvary Hill in Jerusalem. Several hundred people were waiting when John Paul appeared shortly after noon in St. Peter\'s Basilica and stepped into one of the hand-carved mahogany confessional booths. Over the next 70 minutes, he heard confessions from a family of three Italians, a 40-year-old Italian steelworker and his 53-year-old friend, a 13-year-old Italian boy studying for his confirmation, a 59-year-old contractor from the Netherlands and his 27-year-old daughter, a 22-year-old American student from California, a Nigerian man studying in England, and a Spanish housewife. At the end of the confessions, the pope blessed the hundreds of people present and asked them to join him in prayer.\r\n'),(1827,2,'Most of East Germany\'s anti-terrorist unit is made up of former members of the ousted Communist regime\'s feared secret police, a government spokesman said today. The Interior Ministry official said 109 of the 149 members of the special police unit worked previously as agents for the domestic security network known as the Stasi, which has been disbanded. The remaining 40 members came from the East German army, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity. The anti-terrorist unit was formed in December under the reform-oriented caretaker government led by Premier Hans Modrow, who ran East Germany after the Communist hard-liners were ousted in November. Modrow\'s retooled Communist Party was voted out of power in the nation\'s first democratic elections on March 18. But the spokesman said none of the former secret police working in the special unit took part in the violent crackdown on demonstrations on Oct. 7-8 that helped fuel the peaceful revolt that ousted the former regime. East Germany is embroiled in debate over what to do with the 80,000 people who worked for the Stasi, which used a network of surveillance and informants to enforce the rule of the former Communist government. Some people have demanded investigations of former Stasi members and the estimated 100,000 informants and those who worked with them. Others argue the network was so vast that the investigation would amount to a witchhunt. But many former bureaucrats, intelligence specialists and law enforcement officials are considered by some people to be too valuable and experienced to be removed from their jobs. Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere and his Cabinet on Wednesday gave a vote of confidence to the embattled interior minister, Peter-Michael Diestel, who is reluctant to remove former Stasi members from the domestic security network. Many lawmakers, including those from Diestel\'s own archconservative German Social Union, have demanded the interior minister\'s resignation because of his propensity for hiring or retaining security specialists from the old regime. Opposition lawmakers say Diestel has more than 2,000 former members of the Stasi on the payroll. Diestel on Wednesday announced the formation of a new committee to oversee the dissolution of the Stasi and to decide what to do with files kept on an estimated 6 million East Germans. The committee includes prominent East German authors Stefan Heym and Walter Janka, church leaders, and members of a former citizens committee set up by the Modrow government.\r\n'),(1828,2,'A cold front from Nova Scotia through the mid-Atlantic Coast into the lower Mississippi Valley brought showers and scattered thunderstorms Friday to eastern New England and the mid-Atlantic states. Showers and thunderstorms were spotty elsewhere in the nation. In Des Moines, Iowa, where rainfall was 7{ inches below normal for the year, showers on Friday only brought .01 inches to the area. Showers and thunderstorms developed in parched areas of the Southeast, from western North Carolina into south central Alabama, north central and northeast Texas and the central and southern Gulf Coast. Showers and thunderstorms were scattered in parts of eastern and southern Nevada, southwest Utah, northern Arizona, northwest New Mexico and central Colorado. Temperatures Friday afternoon were in the 80s or 90s across much of the nation. The coolest temperatures were in the 50s and 60s in the Pacific Northwest, the 60s from upper Michigan into northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania, and across much of New England. Temperatures were in the 70s from the upper Mississippi Valley and lower Great Lakes into the central Appalachians. Temperatures were already above 100 degrees across the desert Southwest. The lowest temperature for the nation Friday was 32 at Marquette, Mich. The national weather forecast for Saturday includes scattered showers and thunderstorms in the front range of the Colorado Rockies, the lower Mississippi Valley and parts of the Middle Atlantic and southern Appalachian regions. The rest of the nation will have mostly sunny skies. High temperatures will be in the 80s or 90s across much of the nation; in the 70s from the eastern Great Lakes through New England and along the California coast into the Pacific Northwest, with a few highs in the mid 60s; and, from 100 to 115 across the desert Southwest.\r\n'),(1829,2,'The two Koreas met on the soccer field at Olympic Stadium today before more than 80,000 South Koreans, who cheered for both teams and roared approval for unification. South Korea\'s national team won 1-0, but the score was insignificant beside the diplomatic coup in having two enemy nations share a playing field for only the second time since World War II. The first time was two weeks ago in North Korea, when the northern team beat the south 2-1. Today\'s crowd was the largest to see a South Korean sports event since the 1988 Olympic Games. At the end of the game, spectators rose for a standing ovation as the athletes jogged around the stadium holding hands and waving. The teams exchanged shirts and waved them in the air. ``Our wish is unification,\'\' blared a unification song over the loudspeakers. The game, called North-South Unification Soccer, is the high point of a five-day visit by a 78-member North Korean sports delegation, the first from the Communist north to visit the south since the 1945 division of the peninsula. South Korean soccer players visited the north earlier this month. That visit was only the second civilian exchange between the countries in more than four decades. The soccer delegation returns to North Korea on Friday after rounds of sightseeing, dinners and talks on future sports exchanges. South Korean Sports Minister Chung Dong Sung and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yu Sun, agreed in principle to form a joint single team for the 1992 Olympic Games and other international sports events at talks in Pyongyang. They said further discussions would be held in Seoul. About 5,000 plainclothes police were positioned inside and outside the stadium. Spectators were searched twice and passed through metal detectors to get to their seats. Scalpers were asking $140 for tickets, 10 times the highest face value price. The teams of the rival Koreas entered the stadium side by side, holding hands and waving to thunderous applause. ``This is not purely sports festival,\'\' Kim said before the match began. ``It should lead to a unification festival.\'\' ``I hope this soccer match will be a spring board for national unification,\'\' Chung. Thousands roared in approval and waved colorful pompons. Spectators had been asked not to bring national flags, decorative placards or other paraphernalia which would be identified only with South Korea. A drum and bugle corps played and a gigantic electric signboard flashed the pictures of the ministers. The North Korean team threw half a dozen soccer balls signed with their signatures into the grandstand and screaming spectators raced to retrieve them. During the game, the South Korean crowd cheered wildly for plays by both teams. Radical students, who had said they would root for the North Korean visitors, were not visible. News reports said tickets were sold on an individual basis apparently to avoid large radical or dissident groups sitting together. The sports exchange comes at a time when South Korea and North Korea are seeking to find ways to ease tensions and work together for unification. The prime ministers of both Koreas met for the second time last week in Pyongyang, the north\'s capital, and have agreed to meet again in Seoul in December. A South Korean musicians\' delegation returns Wednesday from a 10-day visit to the north. The Korean peninsula was divided into the Communist North and capitalist South in 1945 at the end of the World War II. The two nations fought a war in the early 1950s and a peace treaty was never signed. The border between the Koreas remains tightly sealed and is one of the most heavily fortified demarcations in the world with more than 1.5 million troops on either side.\r\n'),(1830,2,'Archaeologists say the tombs of a mysterious city have yielded the first example of the use on children of an ancient art: carving or engraving teeth as a sign of beauty. Evidence of the engraving was discovered on the teeth of a young boy\'s skeleton found in the ruins of Montezuma\'s Balcony, whose civilization was far more advanced than any previously thought to exist in the region. Montezuma\'s Balcony is 310 miles north of Mexico City outside Ciudad Victoria, capital of northeastern Tamaulipas state. Its name is derived from that of Moctezuma, the Aztec king. Tamaulipas, which spent more than $53,000 on the project, plans to open the site to the public this year. Two canyons and a mountain surround the remote, 12-acre city. It is reached by a steep, rocky road that veers two miles off the main highway to 86 huge slabs of stone named the ``grand stairway.\'\' Only from the top of the stairway can the remains of more than 100 circular structures be seen, each up to 50 feet in diameter, built from stacked and fitted rocks. More than 100 skeletons were found in basements, along with ceramic fragments, food-grinding utensils, pipes, necklaces, arrowheads, knives and small figurines. The remains of the boy, no older than 5, showed evidence of the carving, called dental mutilation, in his two upper incisors and one lower incisor. ``This is a very rare find,\'\' said Jesus Narez, director of the Montezuma\'s Balcony restoration project. ``Until now, we have never detected dental mutilations in a person this young.\'\' In primitive cultures, dental mutilation is believed to be practiced only on adults. It still is done by some Brazilian, Indonesian and African communities. ``We think it hurts a lot, but . . . peyote, which was commonly used in those times, was probably used to put the child to sleep or dull the pain,\'\' Narez said. Several other things make Montezuma\'s Balcony unique, said Narez, curator-investigator of the architectural and cultural collections of northern Mexico at the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. He said two groups of people lived there: the Grassiles, thin and fine featured, and the Robustus, big-boned and heavy. Archaeologists chose the names. ``At least for now, we think they lived there together, but radiocarbon testing is being done to determine if they were there at the same time or if one group followed the other,\'\' Narez said. According to Narez, the city\'s 3,000 people probably lived between the years 600 and 1400. The elite occupied in the structures and were buried in their basements, and the others lived in wooden huts, he said. References to Montezuma\'s Balcony appeared in a researcher\'s report in the mid-1800s, and there was another report in the 1940s. Work on the site began in 1988 and was completed in August. Although their culture was higher than others in the area, the Montezuma\'s Balcony residents were not as advanced as the Teotihuacans, Zapotecs or Mayas of southern Mexico, who built pyramids and cities in the same period. Northern tribes like the Huastecas the warrior-like Chichimecas, led more primitive, simpler lives than the people of Montezuma\'s Balcony, Narez said. ``We never thought we\'d find these types of buildings so far north,\'\' he said, adding that huge pieces of rock used to build the Montezuma\'s Balcony structures were moved with the aid of planks and rope. ``A tribal group with limited organization would not have had sufficient social structure to construct these buildings,\'\' he said. ``They must have had chiefs, priests, workers and so on.\'\' He said the site probably was chosen because only the side with the ``grand staircase\'\' would have to be guarded. Circular structures are typical of Huastecas. Dome-like huts of palm and wood built over basements were believed to lesson the impact of hurricanes and cyclones. Montezuma\'s Balcony may have been part of a commercial corridor, Narez said, because artifacts like pipes and necklaces show influences of tribes from farther north like the Kaddo, Adena, Apaches and Mississippians. He said how its people became extinct had not been determined. ``We can only guess at this point,\'\' he said. ``Climate changes may have made it hard to get enough to eat. There may have been frequent fighting with the Chichimecas. There may have been illness.\'\'\r\n'),(1831,2,'The senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said today his panel will look into a report that the Pentagon has stockpiled $30 billion worth of unnecessary supplies and equipment. Sen. John Warner of Virginia said that he and Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., the Armed Services Committee chairman, ``will go to work on the problem,\'\' described in a Senate Budget Committee staff report disclosed over the weekend. Warner, however, said he did not believe the value of unnecessary supplies was as high as $30 billion, saying he thought it was more like $10 billion. He said he based the lower estimate on discussions he had with an assistant secretary of defense, whom he did not identify. The report said that the Defense Department has roughly $100 billion in supplies and equipment stockpiled at various installations and that as much as $30 billion worth of the material is going to waste. ``They have a 13,000-year supply of a particular part for an F-14 fighter aircraft,\'\' Sen. James Sasser, D-Tenn., chairman of the Budget Committee, said today. ``There are a number of other instances similar to that.\'\' The Budget Committee\'s findings were based in part by staff aides\' visits to military bases around the country and on interviews with Pentagon officials. The committee staff found, among other things, that there was a glut of supplies and that in many instances equipment was stored in the open and was deteriorating. The report\'s release came as Congress is beginning to weigh the Bush administration\'s proposed $295 billion budget for fiscal 1991, which begins next Oct. 1. Appearing on NBC-TV\'s ``Today,\'\' show, Sasser said, ``The Pentagon has over $100 billion in spare parts. About $30 billion of those spare parts would be characterized as excess, as not needed.\'\' The senator said the excess supplies included, among other things, ``a female dress shirt that was prepared and tailored for the military. And this is a result of a study that cost $3.2 million. ``They studied the number of sizes they needed and they concluded 40 sizes of the shirt weren\'t enough so they went up to 120 sizes,\'\' Sasser said. ``Now, $3 million of these shirts are still gathering dust in Pentagon warehouses and now they\'ve shifted over to a different shirt style entirely.\'\' ``So this is an example of the kind of problems we have in Pentagon procurement practices,\'\' he said. Sasser also said the Defense Department has spent over $700 million in the past six to eight years for additional warehouse space. ``And now with the troops on the verge of returning from Europe, we\'re going to have just a glut of material that we\'re going to have to store or deal with some way,\'\' he said. ``So I predict we\'re going to see war surplus stores bulging at the seams again just as they did after World War II.\'\'\r\n'),(1832,2,'Seven guards at a prison operated by the District of Columbia have been charged with distributing crack, powdered cocaine or marijuana to inmates. The officers were named in six indictments unsealed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. Their arrests were the result of a six-month undercover FBI investigation in which an inmate was an informant, officials said. Federal prosecutors said Friday that the probe revealed how guards at the Lorton Correctional Complex in Fairfax County, Va., enlisted inmates to make drug sales and arranged payments from outside the facility. They also alleged that the guards took bribes. U.S. Attorney Henry E. Hudson added, however, that the officers were not believed to be involved in a coordinated drug trafficking effort. ``What we have here are a number of isolated instances, all occurring at about the same time,\'\' he said during a Friday news conference. The investigation uncovered no widespread drug abuse by Lorton officers, said Walter B. Ridley, director of the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. His department runs the complex. The FBI launched the investigation because Lorton inmates appeared to have continual access to illegal drugs, said Thomas E. Duhadway, director of the FBI field office in Washington. Officials said charges against the officers ranged from possession with intent to distribute to introduction of narcotics into a prison. Each faces at least three counts. A civilian also was charged with possession of marijuana and cocaine. All those charged were released on personal recognizance bonds and ordered to appear for arraignments Monday in the Alexandria court.\r\n'),(1833,2,'The University of Miami was voted national champion Tuesday in the second narrowest voting since The Associated Press began its postseason college football poll 21 years ago. Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, whose team finished second, was one of those who had a better choice in mind. ``You can justify why Miami won it. What you can\'t justify is why we didn\'t,\'\' Holtz said a day after the Fighting Irish defeated previously unbeaten and top-ranked Colorado 21-6 in the Orange Bowl. ``We played the toughest schedule, we had the best record ... and we beat the No. 1 team quite decisively,\'\' Holtz said in an emotional statement likely to renew debate over a playoff system. Miami won its third national championship in the last six years by beating Alabama 33-25 in the Sugar Bowl on Monday night. The Hurricanes and Notre Dame each finished with one loss, but Miami beat the Irish 27-10 on Nov. 25. ``There is no doubt in my mind that we\'re the best team in the country,\'\' Miami coach Dennis Erickson said. ``It just happens that it came down to two teams with one loss, and we beat them.\'\' Miami (11-1) received 39 first-place votes and 1,474 points, with Notre Dame (12-1) getting 19 first-place votes and 1,452 points. The 22-point margin was the second closest since the AP began its postseason poll of sports writers and broadcasters in 1968. The other two first-place votes went to No. 3 Florida State, the only team to beat Miami this season. Colorado fell to No. 4. Miami also was chosen No. 1 in United Press International\'s coaches\' poll, and by USA Today-CNN. Erickson said the close vote will increase calls for a playoff in college football. ``The debate is going to go on until there is one. I really believe down the road there will be a playoff system,\'\' he said.\r\n'),(1834,2,'Leftist rebels claimed responsibility Friday for a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the national legislature, which they called ``the lair of the corrupt.\'\' Radio Venceremos, the guerrillas\' clandestine station, said the Thursday attack, which damaged a wall but caused no injuries, was an operation dubbed ``Armed with bazookas, the people will triumph.\'\' A projectile fired from a Chinese-made RPG-2 slammed into a wall of the unicameral National Assembly shortly before the day\'s session began. The impact startled spectators entering the building only a few yards from where the grenade struck. ``This audacious guerrilla action demonstrates the inability of the puppet armed forces, a useless army that is not even capable of guarding utility poles, nor highways, nor its own barracks, nor the National Assembly,\'\' said the Radio Venceremos broadcast. The broadcast characterized the Assembly as ``the lair of the corrupt and death-squad members.\'\' A congressional commission and several judges are investigating cases of alleged misuse of public funds by government officials. There have also been allegations right-wing death squads operated out of the Assembly building during the early 1980s, when thousands of suspected leftists were abducted and murdered. A 9-year-old civil war pits the rebels against forces of the U.S.-backed Christian Democratic administration. In 1982, the Assembly was the target of a similar rocket-propelled grenade attack, which also caused no injuries. About 65,000 people have been killed in the war, the majority of them civilians.\r\n'),(1835,2,'Stock prices eked out a small gain today as the market absorbed the news of increases in the prime lending rate. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 4.98 to 2,109.35 by 3 p.m. on Wall Street. Gainers slightly outnumbered losers in the overall count of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 708 up, 663 down and 545 unchanged. Many large banks across the country raised their prime lending rates today from 9 to 9.5 percent. Analysts said, however, that those moves were seen largely as a response to recent increases in open-market money rates and did not necessarily have much predictive value for the future course of rates in general. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, said Wednesday that further increases in rates were not inevitable. In any case, brokers said traders were reluctant to commit themselves extensively either way in advance of Friday\'s report from the Commerce Department on the nation\'s trade balance for May. Millipore climbed 1| to 38~ and Worthington Industries, traded in the over-the-counter market, gained 1[ to 24]. The two stocks were added to Standard & Poor\'s 500-stock composite index, prompting buying by index funds set up to duplicate the performance of the 500. Motorola fell 1} to 50{. The company reported second-quarter earnings of 93 cents a share, up from 62 cents in the comparable period last year but below what some Wall Streeters had been looking for. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks rose .21 to 152.48. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was up .19 at 307.85. Volume on the Big Board came to 147.41 million shares with an hour to go.\r\n'),(1836,2,'Woody Allen has added his next three pictures to his exclusive agreement with Orion Pictures Corp. as writer, director and producer. He will star in two of the three. Principal photography was recently completed on Allen\'s ``Alice,\'\' which will be released by Orion this fall. Also starring in ``Alice\'\' are Alec Baldwin, Blythe Danner, Judy Davis, William Hurt and Cybill Shepherd. The fall will also see the start of the last film under the existing agreement. The movie, as yet untitled, stars Allen and Mia Farrow.\r\n'),(1837,2,'Financial disclosure forms for this year\'s House and Senate races show few exceptions to the rule that incumbents have the edge in fund raising, according to a Federal Election Commission analysis released Saturday. Candidates raised $279 million and spent $192 million from January 1989 through the end of June, the analysis says. The candidates still in this year\'s races reported having $158.8 million available to spend for the November elections. The data confirm the overwhelming advantage of incumbents, particularly in receiving donations from special-interest political action committees. Proposals to significantly restrict or even prohibit PAC donations and other incentives designed to level the playing field for challengers are included in campaign-finance overhaul plans now before Congress. Overall, when races for open seats are excluded, four of every five dollars donated to congressional candidates went to incumbents. The 441 incumbents seeking re-election to House or Senate seats reported raising a total of $196 million in the 18-month period covered by the study, with $74 million of that total coming from PACs. Including primary races there were nearly twice as many challengers _ 793 _ but they raised just $46 million, with $6. 3 million coming from PACs. The total of challenger loans to their own campaigns eclipsed their overall PAC receipts by more than $1 million. But challengers have matched or even surpassed incumbents in raising money in a dozen races, some of them this year\'s hottest contests. In Oregon, for example, Democratic challenger Mike Kopetski is essentially even with incumbent Republican Rep. Denny Smith in a race considered a toss-up. And in California, actor Ralph Waite, running as a Democrat, reported raising $235,000 as of June 30, more than twice the total raised by incumbent Republican Rep. Alfred McCandless. Two Virginia races have challengers beating their opponents at fund-raising. Democrat James Moran, mayor of the Washington suburb of Alexandria, reported a slight edge over incumbent Republican Stan Parris. Republican Rep. Frank Wolf is expected to keep his seat but is being beaten at the fund-raising game by Lyndon LaRouche, the perennial fringe presidential candidate who is running despite being in a federal prison for a fraud conviction. In Senate races, where six-year terms give plenty of time to raise money, incumbents enjoy huge fund-raising edges. The king of Senate fund-raising is Republican Phil Gramm of Texas, who raised $8.9 million from January 1989 through June alone, and as of June 30 reported $6.2 million in the bank. Democratic challenger Hugh Parmer had raised $1.4 million over the 18 months but had just $20,500 left to enter the final months of the campaign. Not far behind Gramm was New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bill Bradley, who is considered a possible presidential candidate in 1992. Bradley raised $6.7 million over the 18-month period and had $4.3 million in the bank at the end of June. Republican challenger Christine Todd Whitman raised $228,000 and had less than $75,000 on hand. On the House side, members of the Democratic leadership have the biggest advantage. For example, Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt, the House majority leader and another potential 1992 presidential candidate, raised nearly $1 million over the 18-month period. His Republican challenger, Malcolm Holekamp, collected just $18,436.\r\n'),(1838,2,'The dollar advanced strongly on domestic and foreign markets Tuesday after the Federal Reserve surprised traders by increasing its discount rate. Gold prices fell. Republic National Bank of New York quoted a bid of $426.90 a troy ounce as of 4 p.m. EDT, down from $430.20 late Monday. ``Raising rates in the face of a strong dollar probably was not expected,\'\' said Rick Gomes, a vice president at Irving Trust Co. Traders had not expected the Fed to increase the discount rate, the fee the central bank charges for short-term loans to member banks, because the dollar has been strong, Gomes said. Investors bought the dollar because higher interest rates make it more valuable. Gomes said it was possible the major industrial countries known as the Group of Seven _ the United States is one _ were putting their monetary policies ahead of their currencies. Gomes said there were rumors in the market that West Germany, Japan and other G-7 countries might follow the Fed\'s lead and increase their own interest rates. But Earl I. Johnson, a vice president at Harris Trust & Co. in Chicago, said foreign interest rate hikes would not stop the dollar\'s upswing. ``The only thing to put a cap on the dollar would be central bank selling,\'\' he said. Johnson called the Fed move confirmation of the economy\'s strength. The Fed\'s board voted unanimously to increase the disount rate to 6.5 percent from 6 percent. The increase, which took effect immediately, was the first change in the rate since Sept. 4 and put the rate at its highest in more than two years. An increase in the discount rate is the central bank\'s most direct way of pushing interest rates higher as a curb on economic growth. Economists have been concerned in recent months that continuing economic growth could spark a new round of inflation, partly because of the country\'s low unemployment, high production levels and the Midwestern drought. In Tokyo, before the Fed announcement, the dollar fell 0.39 Japanese yen to a closing 133.58 yen. In late London trading, after news of the discount rate hike, the dollar rose to 134.25 yen and in New York, it climbed to 135.15 yen from 133.725 yen late Monday. In London, the British pound fell sharply against the dollar. It cost $1.6830 to buy one pound, cheaper than $1.7022 late Monday. Sterling also dropped against the dollar in New York, closing at $1.6840, compared with late Monday\'s $1.7005. Other late dollar rates in New York, compared with late Monday\'s prices, included: 1.9204 West German marks, up from 1.90005; 1.6065 Swiss francs, up from 1.5883; 6.4710 French francs, up from 6.4115; 1,413.475 Italian lire, up from 1,402.00; and 1.2160 Canadian dollars, up from 1.2110. Other late dollar rates in Europe, compared with late Monday\'s rates, included: 1.5960 Swiss francs, up from 1.5857; 6.4325 French francs, up from 6.3950; 2.1570 Dutch guilders, up from 2.1435; 1,403.50 Italian lire, up from 1,399.50; and 1.2137 Canadian dollars, up from 1.2097. Gold prices fell under increased selling pressure after the discount rate rise attracted investors away from bullion. In London, gold dropped to a late bid of $426 a troy ounce, compared with $432.25 bid late Monday. In Zurich, gold closed at a bid $426 an ounce compared with $432 bid late Monday. Earlier, in Hong Kong, gold fell $3.39 to close at a bid $430.61 an ounce. In New York, gold fell on the Commodity Exchange to $427.40 a troy ounce, down from $430.40 late Monday. Silver slipped in London to a late bid of $6.60 a troy ounce, down from $6.78 late Monday. On New York\'s Comex, silver fell to $6.630 a troy ounce from late Monday\'s $6.675.\r\n'),(1839,2,'The Defense Ministry claimed 229 Contra rebels and 90 soldiers loyal to the leftist Sandinista government were killed in 4,801 combat engagements in February. A statement issued Monday night said 39 civilians also were killed, 55 injured and 115 kidnapped during the period. The statement said U.S. Air Force planes violated Nicaraguan airspace 13 times. It said other planes, mostly leaving Honduras to resupply the Contra rebels, were detected 35 times in February. The Contra rebels, trained and supplied by the United States, have been fighting to oust the Sandinistas since November 1981.\r\n'),(1840,2,'If the presidential race were to go to the candidate with the fastest plane, Republican George Bush would leave Democrat Michael Dukakis in his jetstream. One only need to hear the nickname of the Dukakis plane _ ``Sky Pig\'\' _ to get the general idea. The name comes partly from the bloated look of the aircraft, a stubby 20-year-old Boeing 737, but mostly the description is based on flying time: It takes the plane seven hours to cross the country _ a 4{-hour flight on most commercial airlines. Method of travel is just one of many contrasts of day-to-day life on the campaign trail for the two men who would be president. Because he\'s the vice president, Bush gets to draw from a fleet of fast Air Force planes hangared at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington. As any plane the president flies automatically becomes ``Air Force One,\'\' whatever plane Bush is on becomes ``Air Force Two.\'\' Usually a converted Boeing 707 or a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9, Bush\'s planes are fast, meticulously cared for and flown by Air Force pilots. Bush\'s campaign reimburses taxpayers, in part, for the use of the plane, which is blue and white with the words ``The United States of America\'\' emblazoned across the sides. Dukakis\' plane, chartered from Presidential Airlines, is the same aircraft that Bush\'s former rival, Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, used. Designed for short-range flying, ``Sky Pig\'\' cannot cross the country without one or more refueling stops. That was fine for the kind of campaigning Dole did during the GOP primaries _ after all, Dole used to joke that he\'d fly over a state and direct the pilot to land wherever he spotted a crowd _ but it poses some scheduling problems in the final weeks of a national campaign. Aides to Dukakis, however, say the candidate is comfortable with the plane, likes the ``Presidential\'\' designation on the side in green letters, and has no plans to trade it in for a sleeker model.\r\n'),(1841,2,'Here is a text of President Bush\'s news conference Thursday: President Bush: Well I have a brief statement and then I\'ll be glad to take some questions. The United States is engaged in a collective effort involving the overwhelming majority of the member states of the United Nations to reverse the consequences of Iraqi aggression. And our goals, enshrined in five Security Council resolutions, are clear: the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait, the restoration of Kuwait\'s legitimate government, the stability of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, and the protection of American citizens. What is at stake here is truly significant _ the dependability of America\'s commitments to its friends and allies, the shape of the post-postwar world, opposition to aggression, the potential domination of the energy resources that are crucial to the entire world. This effort has been truly international from the very outset. Many other countries are contributing. At last count, 22 countries have either responded to a request from Saudi Arabia to help deter further aggression, or are contributing maritime forces pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 665. And still others are providing other forms of financial and material support to these defense efforts or to countries whose economies are affected adversely by sanctions or by higher oil prices. And still others are paying a heavy economic price at home for complying with the United Nations sanctions. It is important that the considerable burden of the effort be shared by those being defended and those who benefit from the free flow of oil. Indeed, anyone with a stake in international order has an interest in ensuring that all of us succeed. The United States has large interests in the balance and has undertaken commitments commensurate with them, and we\'re more than willing to bear our fair share of the burden. This includes above all the thousands of men and women in our armed forces who are now in the Gulf, but we also expect others to bear their fair share. A number of countries already have announced their willingness to help those adversely affected economically by this endeavor. And it\'s essential, though, that this be a concerted and coordinated one and that all affected countries participate. It is important to get the priorities right and make sure that those most deserving of assistance receive it and that those most able to contribute do so. And for that reason, I directed an interagency effort to develop a strategy to accomplish this objective. The group\'s report was presented at yesterday\'s National Security Council meeting here, and this morning I approved an action plan. And our approach calls for substantial economic assistance to those states _ in particular, I\'d single out Turkey and Egypt, who are bearing a great part of the burden of sanctions and higher oil prices. The plan also targets additional countries, including Jordan, the countries of Eastern Europe and others for special assistance. The United States will also seek burdensharing for part of our own effort. At the same time, we will be asking other governments, including Japan, the Republic of Korea, Federal Republic of Germany, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, free Kuwait, and others to join us in making available financial and, where appropriate, energy resources to countries that have been most affected by the current situation. To facilitate this undertaking, I\'ve asked Secretary of State Jim Baker and the Secretary of the Treasury Nick Brady to lead high-level delegations to the Persian Gulf, Europe and Asia. And I\'ll be getting directly in touch with the leaders of these countries before Secretaries Baker and Brady arrive to set forth, spell out our general objectives. Let me close by repeating what I said the other day in meeting with the congressional leaders. The basic pieces of our policy are in place. The Iraqi regime stands in opposition to the entire world and to the interests of the Iraqi people. It is truly Iraq against the world. But I want to make this point clear, we have no argument with the people of Iraq. The sanctions are beginning to take hold. And in the meantime, we want to ensure that countries contributing to this unprecedented collective response do not suffer for doing so. And what I\'ve announced today and what I expect will be implemented in the coming days should help create a context in which sanctions against Iraq can be sustained with the intended effect. Another area where there has been unprecedented international solidarity is OPEC\'s willingness to take up the slack in oil production created by the embargo on Iraqi and Kuwait\'s oil. In this connection, I met this morning with our energy advisers who are watching the oil production situation very, very closely. And we are pleased with OPEC\'s decision to help take up the slack in crude oil production. And although we are in what I would see as a transition period, the situation appears manageable. At the present time, we don\'t anticipate major imbalances in the oil market. But we do have the Strategic Petroleum Reserve tested and available if it is truly needed. And our energy policy is resulting in increased oil production and fuel switching to natural gas and to other fuels. I also repeat my previous request for Americans to conserve and for all parties to act responsibly. Right now, the situation, I would say, is relative stable, and I am very pleased by the coordination that has taken place with so many countries in maintaining adequate fuel levels. MORE\r\n'),(1842,2,'Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell will head a delegation of eight Democratic senators that will visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel later this week. ``It is important for members of Congress to have first-hand knowledge of the serious issues in the Persian Gulf,\'\' the Maine Democrat said in a statement announcing the seven-day trip. A 19-member House delegation, meanwhile, was leaving Tuesday for a trip to Saudi Arabia that also will include a stop in Israel. That group is led by Intelligence Committee Chairman Anthony Beilenson, D-Calif., and Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the senior GOP member of the panel. ``Through meetings with our allies, briefings with U.S. military commanders and discussions with our servicemen and women in Saudi Arabia, I am hopeful that this trip will increase our understanding of the issues in the Middle East,\'\' Mitchell said. Joining him on the Senate delegation leaving Thursday will be: Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Richard Bryan, D-Nev.; Bob Graham, D-Fla.; Herbert Kohl, D-Wis.; Charles Robb, D-Va.; Richard Shelby, D-Ala.; and Paul Simon, D-Ill. The members of the delegation will travel first to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, where they are scheduled to meet with King Fahd. After military briefings and meetings with service personnel in Dhahran, they will go to Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other officials. The delegation also is scheduled to visit Jerusalem and meet there with Israeli officials.\r\n'),(1843,2,'A jury has convicted two Navajos in the shooting and burning deaths of two tribal police officers, but couldn\'t agree on a verdict for a third defendant, who now faces a murder retrial. The federal jury on Tuesday found Thomas Cly, 22, and Vinton Bedoni, 31, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of using a firearm in the December killings. Prosecutors said they would seek a new murder trial for the third defendant, Ben Atene Jr. Atene, 22, must be retried within 70 days under federal speedy trial rules. He was being held without bail in the Salt Lake County Jail. ``The people on the (Navajo) reservation were watching to see whether white man\'s justice worked,\'\' said U.S. Attorney Brent Ward, who added he had ``never been so pleased\'\' with a case since taking his post. Ward said Atene\'s next trial might be aided by more witnesses, who, in light of the two convictions, might admit to being at the murder scene. U.S. District Judge Thomas Greene set sentencing for Cly and Bedoni for Oct. 3. The first-degree murder charges each carry a possible life sentence and the weapons charges carry five years. The jury deliberated 48 hours before convicting Cly and Bedoni. Greene then ordered the jurors to continue deliberations for Atene. When they were unable to come to a decision 90 minutes later, Greene declared a mistrial in Atene\'s case. Greene denied a defense request to acquit Atene. First-degree murder charges were dismissed July 22 against Atene\'s 22-year-old brother, Marques Atene, when prosecutors acknowledged they didn\'t have enough evidence for a conviction. The defendants were charged in the slayings of officers Roy Lee Stanley and Andy Begay, whose charred bodies were found Dec. 5 inside a burned-out police truck in a remote southern Utah canyon. During the trial, prosecution witnesses testified that the officers were shot at the scene of a bonfire and drinking party on the night of Dec. 4. Alcohol is illegal on the reservation. Defense attorney Robert VanSciver said he planned to discuss the possibility of appeal with his client, Bedoni. Attorney Ed Brass said he was certain Cly would challenge his conviction. The verdict brought relief and sadness to Marie Holiday, whose brother was Stanley. ``I\'ve been thinking about my brother Roy all during this trial,\'\' she said. ``I kept thinking about him, so I have this mixed feeling and I don\'t know how to describe it.\'\' The killings have divided the community of about 2,000 Navajos living in Monument Valley in southeastern Utah, she said, and she and her family have been ostracized by many of their neighbors. ``They all wept with us when my brother died, but then when these people were arrested for it, they all turned the other way,\'\' she said.\r\n'),(1844,2,'Iraq has accepted President Bush\'s offer to hold talks on the Persian Gulf crisis, the State Department said today. ``We are engaged with them on dates and arrangements for the two meetings,\'\' the department said. Bush had proposed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein send his foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, to Washington. Then, Bush said in making the offer last Friday, Secretary of State James A. Baker III would go to Baghdad. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, today, Bush said any talks would be mandated by U.N. Security Council resolutions that have been adopted since the crisis began. ``That means no concession of territory. That means freedom of innocent people that are held against their will. ... And that means the eventual security and stability of the gulf, although that\'s not specified by the resolution,\'\' Bush said. His comments came before the State Department announced that Iraq had accepted the offer to hold talks. Earlier today, Baker told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he would not negotiate with Saddam on the trip and added a new warning: ``If force must be used, it will be used suddenly, massively and decisively.\'\' He said his meeting in Baghdad ``will not be the beginning of a negotation over the terms of the United Nations resolutions.\'\' Nor, Baker said, would he negotiate on subjects ``unrelated\'\' to the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. ``I will not be negotiating the Palestinian question or the civil war in Lebanon,\'\' he said. ``Saddam did not invade Kuwait to help the Palestinians. He did it for his own self-aggrandizement.\'\' Saddam had said earlier that the Palestinian problem must be on the agenda in any dialogue with Baker. Joe Wilson, the deputy ambassador in Iraq, was called in by the Iraqi foreign minister to be told of Iraq\'s acceptance of the offer, the announcement said. Wilson and a number of other U.S. officials remain in the U.S. Embassy in Baghadad. Bush made last week\'s unexpected overture at a presidential news conference in Washington. It followed mounting complaints in Congress that the administration was rushing into war with Iraq over its invasion of Kuwait without giving diplmacy enough time for the pursuit of a peaceful settlement. Even so, Bush pledged the administration would not waver from the resolution approved last Thursday by the U.N. Security Council threatening a forceful eviction of Iraqi troops if they did not withdraw by Jan. 15. Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., urged Baker at today\'s hearing to provide Saddam Hussein with ``a way out\'\' of the crisis. He suggested one approach would be to propose the World Court resolve Iraq\'s territorial claims against Kuwait. ``If at all possible, make that a meaningful trip,\'\' Simon urged. Baker stressed that the U.N. resolution did not require the United States to attack Jan. 15 or a day after. Without elaboration, Baker said diplomatic steps were being taken in the search for a peaceful solution. However, Baker insisted that Iraq must withdraw from all of Kuwait, liberate all foreign hostages and permit the restoration of the ousted government. Bush, in making the offer to swap envoys, said Baker would not waver from the three demands. ``The best way to get that across is one-on-one, Baker looking him in the eye,\'\' Bush said.\r\n'),(1845,2,'An unprecedented plan by Boston University to run Chelsea\'s troubled schools deprives parents of a say in their children\'s education, the state education commissioner and teachers unions charged Thursday. Education Commissioner Harold Raynolds said the Chelsea School Committee was abdicating its responsibility to run the community\'s schools and depriving Chelsea residents of a role. ``This is a sort of modern-day tragedy,\'\' Reynolds said. The private university has proposed taking over the management and operation of Chelsea\'s schools for 10 years. Schools in the industrial city north of Boston have among the lowest test scores and highest dropout rates in the state. The School Committee is the local school board in Chelsea and is expected to endorse the takeover. The Massachusetts Federation of Teachers opposes the plan. ``The citizens ought to control their schools, the citizens ought to determine the climate in which their children learn,\'\' said Annemarie DuBois, union director. ``It is not necesssary to take the public out of public education.\'\' The plan calls for BU to raise money from private sources and use students and faculty from its School of Education. Other elements in the proposal raised hackles, including the university\'s request for an exemption from state open-meeting and open-records laws and freedom from liability if students, parents or others sue it. The state wants those elements revised, and an amended plan was due Thursday. But it did not materialize. Peter Greer, dean of the School of Education, and university attorney Michael Rosen said those concerns were being worked out and a revised plan would be ready next month. Once the Chelsea School Committee agrees to the contract, it still requires the Legislature\'s approval. Greer said that at a public meeting last month in Chelsea, 38 out of 44 people spoke in favor of the plan. ``The people of Chelsea have said `Please do this,\'\'\' he said. Teachers unions have questioned the constitutionality of the plan but failed several weeks ago to persuade a judge to bar the contract from going forward. About 275 Chelsea teachers are represented by the 650,000-member American Federation of Teachers, which also opposes the plan. ``We delude ourselves into thinking this is a model or experiment that could be duplicated,\'\' said Bella Rosenberg, assistant to national AFT president Albert Shanker. This is ``a small school district that is about to become a colony of a very large university,\'\' Ms. Rosenberg said.\r\n'),(1846,2,'Chrysler Corp. will shut down its car assembly plant in St. Louis and lay off 3,700 workers in a move that\'s likely to worsen already souring relations between the company and its union. Thursday\'s announcement, the latest in a series of moves by U.S. automakers to cut capacity in the face of slumping sales, makes it likely that job security will be the union\'s top priority when it opens contract negotiations with the nation\'s Big Three automakers this summer. Chrysler said its St. Louis No. 1 plant will close Sept. 21, one week after its existing contract with the United Auto Workers expires. As previously announced, Chrysler will eliminate one shift at the plant on Feb. 12. The company said it will transfer production of the Dodge Daytona to its Sterling Heights, Mich., assembly plant, and shift assembly of the Chrysler LeBaron coupe and convertible to its Newark, Del., plant. The St. Louis plant will be the third Chrysler has closed since late 1988. It was announced just one day before the company closes a Detroit plant and puts 1,700 other workers on indefinite layoff. The move angered United Auto Workers officials. ``Workers and their unions don\'t design the cars or develop the marketing plans,\'\' UAW President Owen Bieber and Vice President Stan Marshall, head of the union\'s Chrysler department, said in a statement. ``Senior management calls those shots, but when they miscalculate or screw up, they all stay in place while the workers are told to hit the street,\'\' they said. Chrysler spokesman Doug Nicoll said the timing of the St. Louis plant closing was dictated by the UAW contract, which expires Sept. 14. That pact doesn\'t allow the company to close a plant because of product transfers. It says plants may be shut down only if sales of its products slump badly. Chrysler used that as justification for today\'s closing of its Jefferson Avenue assembly plant in Detroit. That factory makes Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon subcompact cars, whose sales have fallen by more than 50 percent from their heyday of about 208,000 in 1986. The UAW has contested that closing, saying Chrysler didn\'t do enough to keep the design of the small cars fresh and market them properly. Some of the 1,700 workers laid off from Jefferson Avenue will be offered jobs at Jefferson North, a plant under construction next to the existing factory. That plant will begin producing a sport-utility vehicle in late 1992. Chrysler is shutting the St. Louis plant in two stages. Beginning Feb. 12, it will eliminate one shift, putting 1,900 of its 3,700 workers on indefinite layoff. In September, it will lay off the remaining 1,800 workers and close the plant. The announcement couldn\'t have come at a worst moment, said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at San Diego. ``I think this coming on top of Jefferson is going to create a lot of anxiety and hostility in the industry going into negotiations,\'\' he said. The UAW opens talks with General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler in July. UAW President Owen Bieber said negotiating priorities will be worked out at a special union convention in May in Kansas City, Mo., but job security was more than likely to be the top issue. Michigan State University labor professor Dale Brickner agreed. ``Job security is going to be the barn burner,\'\' Brickner said. ``If we had strikes this fall, one or more, it certainly would not surprise me.\'\' Nicoll, the Chrysler spokesman, said the Delaware and Michigan plants would be idled in November to retool for the new cars and would resume production in December. Employment at each plant will increase by a few hundred workers, with laid off St. Louis workers getting the first cracks at the new jobs. The St. Louis closing is one in a series of temporary or indefinite shutdowns or production cuts at Big Three assembly plants nationwide. About 15,400 workers will have lost their jobs at 11 GM or Chrysler assembly plants because of indefinite layoffs between January and September. ``This isn\'t the last,\'\' Shaiken said. ``I think we will see something else at GM, particularly as contract time approaches.\'\' The closures come as auto sales slump and capacity at Japanese-owned plants grows. Within the last year, Honda Motor Co. Ltd. has opened a second assembly plant in Ohio and Nissan Motor Corp. has announced a huge expansion of its factory in Smyrna, Tenn. Since 1986, the best year in automotive sales history, GM and Chrysler have lost market share while Ford and Japanese companies, with the help of their new U.S. plants, have increased their shares.\r\n'),(1847,2,'He\'s a composer for our time, a man who writes operas about the social condition of the modern world. Sir Michael Tippett, though better known in his native England than in America, has been called ``one of the three or four giant composers in the last half of the 20th century.\'\'\r\n'),(1848,2,'The Education Department says an investigation has determined that a graduate mathematics program at the University of California at Los Angeles discriminated against Asian Americans. Michael Williams, assistant secretary for civil rights, said Monday that the 30-month inquiry found ``a statistical disparity in the rates of admission to the mathematics department on the basis of race\'\' and ``an inconsistency in how Asian and white applicants who received the same evaluation ratings were treated.\'\' Seventy-five other departments were cleared of discrimination allegations, while eight departments were found to have inconclusive records, Williams said. The Office of Civil Rights also is investigating undergraduate admission practices at UCLA and at Harvard. As a result of the findings, Williams said UCLA must offer admission to five Asian-American students who had been ``discriminatorily denied admission.\'\' The university also must establish a uniform system of admission and improve recordkeeping ``to allow us to determine whether or not it is observing the civil rights laws.\'\' UCLA Chancellor Charles Young said the university will appeal the violation finding because ``we firmly believe that racially neutral criteria were used to make these decisions and that the OCR has no basis to conclude that discrimination exists at UCLA.\'\' ---\r\n'),(1849,2,'The Pittsburgh Cancer Institute has started human testing of a treatment that doctors hope will enhance the body\'s ability to fight cancer and maybe dissolve malignant tumors. Two patients at the center were the first people to receive the treatment, in vitro sensitization or IVS, which previously had been tested only on mice, The Pittsburgh Press reported Sunday. Studies have shown the process fights remaining tumor cells in mice, the newspaper said. In some cases, the animals\' cancer has been eliminated entirely. Researchers say it is too soon to tell what effect the treatment has had on the two patients. Their patients\' identity and the type of cancer they had were not disclosed. The tests began in June. ``I have no question but that at some point in the intermediate-term future, this will be of therapeutic benefit,\'\' said Dr. John M. Kirkwood, one of two principal investigators in the study. Dr. Norman Wolmark, the other lead investigator, said the information gathered in the study should be useful in pointing the way even if there is no immediate effect on the two patients\' tumors. ``I think the treatment can be modified in the hope that a successful tumor response will result,\'\' he said. In vitro sensitization involves removing a tumor and irradiating it to inactivate the tumor cells, researchers told The Press. The cells are combined with a bacterium commonly used to vaccinate against tuberculosis in order to stimulate the patient\'s immune system. The patient then is injected with the irradiated cells to produce sensitized lymphocytes, or cells critical to the body\'s natural defense against disease and infection, researchers said. Other steps in the complex treatment involve the use of the tumor-fighting hormone interleukin-2. Researchers told the Press it may be two years or more before enough patients are treated for a sufficient amount of time to know the effectiveness of the treatment. The groundwork for the treatment was begun more than five years ago at the National Cancer Institute in Washington by research scientist Suyu Shu. In 1986, Shu moved to the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, which is affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh, where he continued his laboratory work with mice. He recently left for the University of Michigan. Shu\'s approach, called adoptive cellular immunotheraphy, is not a widely used approach to cancer research. Most tumors are not recognized or only weakly recognized by the body\'s immune system and therefore continue growing because the immune system does little to attack them, said Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. ``This is basically the main reason there has not been great emphasis\'\' in research to enhance the immune system, he told the newspaper. Herberman said researchers, ideally, would ``like to see some almost immediate shrinkage of the tumor. But it may not happen that way.\'\' ``It\'s a tall order to expect this kind of treatment would actually make a large tumor melt away,\'\' he said.\r\n'),(1850,2,'Sen. Dan Quayle is warning Republicans against overconfidence in the waning days of the presidential campaign, saying the GOP could end up like Thomas Dewey in 1948. Arriving here Tuesday night at the end of a long campaign day in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, Quayle said ``the polls have been all over the lot.\'\' ``We believe, in fact, we have a small but marginally insignificant lead,\'\' he told reporters. Two nationwide surveys released Tuesday night show the Republican ticket of George Bush and Quayle holding double-digit leads of 12 and 13 points in the final week before the election. Earlier, while campaigning for Indiana Lt. Gov. John Mutz, who is trying to succeed Robert Orr in Quayle\'s homestate of Indiana, the senator sought to deflect burgeoning speculation about whether his wife, Marilyn, might be appointed to fill his vacant Senate seat in the event of a Bush-Quayle victory next Tuesday. ``It\'s going to be Bob Orr\'s decision,\'\' Quayle said of talk within Republican Party circles in the state that Mrs. Quayle might be offered the vacant seat. During an interview last weekend on the syndicated program ``McLaughlin: One on One,\'\' Quayle\'s wife refused to flatly rule out such a possibility. ``I think it\'s a real honor for her to be considered,\'\' Quayle told reporters in Evansville. ``I\'m not going to do anything to disrupt the discussion. ... Of course, we\'ve got a family, and life is going to change a lot\'\' if the Bush-Quayle ticket is elected, he said. Quayle was appearing at a campaign rally today in this ``City on the Bluffs\'\' before traveling to Owensboro, Ky. He has appearances scheduled later in the week in Greenville and Spartanburg, S.C., and in Oklahoma and Alabama. The senator, who complained about last-minute scheduling changes dictated by the Bush campaign headquarters in Washington, seemed buoyed by two appearances in his homestate, one in Jeffersonville and the second in Evansville. Red, white and blue balloons sailed in front of a flag-waving, cheering crowd as the band struck up ``Back Home in Indiana.\'\' But when he arrived in Memphis in late evening, Quayle deflected questions which assumed a Republican Party victory at the polls. ``We believe this election could still go either way,\'\' he said. ``We\'re not taking anything for granted. That would be absolutely lethal.\'\' ``One way you can lose an election is to sit back, and relax, and we\'ll end up like Dewey did,\'\' Quayle said. He was referring to Thomas Dewey\'s upset loss to Democrat Harry Truman 40 years ago in an election that virtually all the experts had given to Dewey.\r\n'),(1851,2,'With 36.5 miles of shelves and more than 1.1 million different books, John Zubal thinks his bookstore offers the largest collection of titles for sale in the world. He hopes the Guinness Book of World Records will think so, too. Zubal, 49, says he\'s writing the editors of the Guinness Book once he has gathered supporting evidence. And there\'s quite a bit of it. Four warehouses, packed with books from floor to ceiling, house Zubal\'s volumes, arranged alphabetically by categories. The complex is so large that, until recently, his 49-year-old wife, Marilyn, used roller skates to retrieve customer requests. Guinness lists W. & G. Foyle Ltd. of London as the bookstore with the most shelving at 30 miles, while Barnes & Noble Bookstore in New York City is listed as the largest book building with 154,250 square feet of books, said Sheelagh Thomas, a deputy editor for Guinness in England. Zubal said he has 78,000 square feet of books, and more titles than any other store because he has few duplicate books, textbooks or remainders such as those sold at Barnes & Noble and Foyle. Bibliophiles from as far way as Japan visit his store regularly, he said. But if you want to learn how to ski or groom your pet, don\'t go to Zubal\'s. ``We don\'t have too many (books) for the casual reader,\'\' Zubal said recently. ``Mostly our books are for the scholar and most are sold by mail order. We are not too concerned with what is being published now.\'\' Fewer than 2 percent of Zubal\'s tomes were published after 1960, he said. Some of the biggest categories are literary criticism, anthropology, philosophy, theology and history. Zubal estimated he has 250 books alone about Charles Dickens and 1,000 on Shakespeare. ``We do a lot of business in World War II books,\'\' said Zubal. ``We think there are about 6,000 books published on World War II, and we have 3,000.\'\' Zubal acquires most of his books from contacts who tell him of literary estates or bookstores for sale. ``I used to hit the flea market circuit but now I let the younger guys do it,\'\' said the bookseller, who travels to Europe several times a year to buy and sell. Zubal also owns autographed editions by James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker. While Zubal said all his books are for sale, ``there are books I mark up to scare off the fainthearted.\'\' He was not ready to dicker over an autographed edition of ``Finnegan\'s Wake\'\' priced at $3,000. ``I\'m in no hurry to sell it,\'\' he said. ``It\'s money in the bank.\'\' Once Zubal submits his claim to Guinness, Ms. Thomas said, he will need to submit two forms from witnesses validating his claim and a color photograph. Ms. Thomas said editors would have to determine if his claim to have the most individual titles would merit a separate record category. ``That is always a possibility, but we can\'t make any promises,\'\' she said.\r\n'),(1852,2,'President Reagan\'s spokesman today denounced House-passed legislation to withdraw all U.S. investment from racially segregated South Africa, while supporter announced a campaign to ensure its passage in the Senate. Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the bill would ``destroy America\'s flexibility\'\' to seek change through diplomatic pressure. ``Such moves are more likely to stymie progress toward ending apartheid rather than to accelerate its end,\'\' Fitzwater said. The House on Thursday adopted, on a 244-132 vote, the South Africa sanctions bill, which also would impose a near-total trade embargo. The bill faces threats of a Republican filibuster and a Reagan veto. Supporters hailed the dramatic measure as a last-chance opportunity to bring strong economic pressure to bear to help end South Africa\'s apartheid system of racial separation by expanding the less sweeping sanctions adopted in 1986. But Republicans said the bill represents a ``scorched earth\'\' policy that amounts to declaring economic war against South Africa, a war they said would hurt the blacks it is designed to help by causing millions to lose their jobs. ``Apartheid is a morally wrong and politically unacceptable system which is the root cause of South Africa\'s disorder,\'\' Fitzwater said. ``However, the imposition of sanctions is not the solution,\'\' he said. ``Sanctions would hurt the very people that we seek to help. They would destroy America\'s flexibility, discard our diplomatic leverage and deepen the crisis.\'\' Groups supporting the bill told a news conference they still lack the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto but believe they could get it signed by Democrat Michael Dukakis if he is elected. Robert Brauer, legal counsel to Rep. Ron Dellums, D-Calif., said proponents were meeting with key Senate aides today to discuss strategy for the Sept. 8 debate of the sanctions bill in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Damu Smith, executive director of the Washington Office on Africa which has lobbied for an end to apartheid, said his organization will intensify a grass-roots campaign against a threatened Senate filibuster. GOP members called on the House to reverse course and adopt a policy of ``black empowerment\'\' to increase the economic and political power of blacks and weaken the foundations of the apartheid system. But Rep. Howard Wolpe, D-Mich., and other sanctions supporters said that course simply will not work. ``Black economic empowerment in the face of apartheid is an impossibility,\'\' Wolpe said as the House voted down a trio of Republican-sponsored amendments designed to dilute or change the legislation. With the House and Senate eager to adjourn for the fall elections, little time remains to push the bill through Congress, especially since both houses likely would be faced with votes to override a presidential veto. In a policy statement, the administration said Reagan\'s senior advisers will recommend that he veto the sanctions bill if it emerges from Congress in its present form because it ``undermines the president\'s ability to conduct foreign policy.\'\' It was likely that Senate opponents of the measure would launch a filibuster, since there is no limit on discourse in that chamber. Opponents have refused in the past to agree voluntarily to limit discussion on such issues, forcing the chamber to a cloture vote to shut off debate, a vote that requires the support of a two-thirds majority. Many Republican opponents accused the House Democratic leadership of staging a political vote to score points among black voters for Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis and for political activist Jesse Jackson on the eve of the Republican National Convention. ``Some of us wonder if the real purpose of this bill is to be responsive to the Jackson-Dukakis foreign policy,\'\' said Rep. William Broomfield, R-Mich. ``We are not bringing this bill to embarrass Republicans,\'\' said Rep. Ronald Dellums, D-Calif., principal sponsor of the measure. ``We are here to free black South Africa. This has nothing to do with presidential politics.\'\' Dellums said White House officials, citing ongoing peace negotiations in southern Africa, had asked him repeatedly over the last several days not to bring up the bill until after Congress returns from its Labor Day recess. He said he agreed to do so, but only if Reagan promised in writing not to veto the bill if it reached his desk. Dellums said that in the end, the White House declined to make such a promise and he decided to go ahead. In an emotional summary that drew a standing ovation from his colleagues, Dellums told the House: ``I listened to those who said this is going to hurt blacks, it\'s going to hurt corporations. But human beings will struggle for their freedom, in peace if they can, in violence if they must. ... That pales every single argument you have made. We must end the madness of apartheid.\'\' The disinvestment legislation has its roots in the economic sanctions voted by Congress in 1986 and still in effect. They banned all new public and private loans and investments in South Africa and barred certain imports and exports. The bill contains these major provisions: _All U.S. investment in South Africa would be banned and U.S. corporations with such investments would be compelled to divest them. The investment ban would not apply to any business in which blacks or other non-whites have at least a 90 percent ownership interest. _All South African imports to the United States would be banned except for certain strategic minerals and publications. The 1986 sanctions law banned only agricultural products, coal, textiles, uranium, and military vehicles. _All U.S. exports to South Africa would be prohibited with the exception of agricultural products, publications and U.S. public and private assistance. _The bill bars a U.S. company or vessel from transporting crude or refined oil to South Africa. Americans also would be forbidden to engage in the production of nuclear material in South Africa.\r\n'),(1853,2,'A rapist says his life was ruined by a judge who called the victim a ``pitiful woman\'\' as he rejected a prison sentence worked out in a plea bargain. ``He has created a living hell for me,\'\' said Mark Edward McCulloch, who accepted a 4{-year prison term offered by prosecutors but was placed on probation for two years. ``I was ready to go to jail.\'\' McCulloch now fears for his safety, saying, ``I can\'t walk out of the door without fear of losing my life. He put me at risk. Anyone can take a shot at me.\'\' Gov. Bob Martinez and others called for the resignation of Seminole Circuit Judge Kenneth Leffler after the sentencing, but the judge is returning to the bench Monday under a self-imposed limit restricting his cases to civil suits. McCulloch rented a room from the victim, a 40-year-old Casselberry woman, for two years and accepted full responsibility for the rape April 9. The woman said her tenant became infatuated and obsessed with her. Leffler, who presided over the woman\'s 1987 divorce trial, said at the sentencing, ``I\'m almost of the belief that she is a victimizer of men.\'\'\r\n'),(1854,2,'A Findlay man sitting in a downtown restaurant was arrested Friday after someone allegedly overheard him making threatening remarks against Vice President George Bush, police said. Bush, the Republican presidential nominee, campaigned in the northwest Ohio city Friday morning. Police said Charles T. Rode Jr., 35, allegedly made threatening comments about 9 a.m., shortly before Bush\'s arrival. Police and Secret Service agents arrested Rode, who did not resist and was not carrying a weapon, police said. He was held until Bush left the city and then was taken to the Lucas County jail in Toledo, where he was being held without bond Friday night on a charge of threatening the vice president.\r\n'),(1855,2,'Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher underlined the need for restraint on all sides in the Lithuania crisis during a 50-minute telephone conversation Wednesday with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, her office said. The phone call, arranged in advance through diplomatic contacts, was timed to precede Mrs. Thatcher\'s meetings Thursday and Friday with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Britain and with President Bush in Bermuda on April 13. Mrs. Thatcher\'s office gave no details on Gorbachev\'s response on Lithuania but said she emphasized the need for restraint and negotiations and expressed hope the crisis could be settled in a way suitable to both sides. ``The people of Lithuania have made clear their wish to determine their own future,\'\' Mrs. Thatcher said to the House of Commons Tuesday. She said Britain had never recognized the 1940 Soviet annexation of Lithuania though it was recognized ``in fact\'\' in the 35-nation Helsinki accords in 1975. ``Undoubtedly, that is a very difficult situation, both for President Gorbachev and for the people of Lithuania,\'\' Mrs. Thatcher said. ``I believe that it calls for great restraint on both sides. Force is not an appropriate way to settle the position. I hope it will be settled by restraint on both sides and by their discussing it so that they come to a satisfactory conclusion. ``That view was also taken by the 12 foreign secretaries of the European Community,\'\' she said. Mrs. Thatcher\'s spokesman, who by custom was not identified, said the conversation also covered other world events, including the East German elections, prospects for German unification, and the prime minister\'s visit to Kiev in June.\r\n'),(1856,2,'Mayor Edward I. Koch said he stands by his criticism of the Rev. Jesse Jackson before New York\'s Democratic primary, but says he regrets that his belligerent style and sharply worded attacks offended Jackson\'s supporters. In a statement released hours after Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward called on the mayor to apologize for his ``divisive\'\' remarks, Koch said he had ``articulated my concerns in a way that, regrettably, offended a large number of people, both black and white.\'\' ``I would hope they will look beyond my style to the substance of what I said, which I believe was fair political criticism. ``The words I used were too sharp. These are words I have used for years. Because of the particular sensitivity of this situation, I should have been more careful in my choice of words.\'\' It was highly unusual for Ward _ the city\'s first black police commissioner and a Koch appointee _ to comment on political matters that did not directly involve the police department, but he said he felt the need to do so because he was being asked regularly about Koch\'s anti-Jackson efforts. In a letter that appeared in today\'s editions of The New York Times, Koch said, ``It was never my intent to draw political lines with racial or religious borders.\'\' Ward said today he was ``absolutely\'\' satisfied that the mayor never intended to insult the black community. Koch\'s attacks on Jackson have brought a continued backlash and have prompted early efforts to form a coalition to defeat the mayor next year, when it is expected he will seek a fourth term. When asked if Koch was apologizing to Jackson as well as his supporters, the mayor\'s press secretary, George Arzt, responded: ``Whatever the letter says. We\'re not going beyond it.\'\'\r\n'),(1857,2,'The original Budweiser brewery will pay $6.5 million to leave government control next year and link with its U.S. counterpart, a news agency said Tuesday. Budvar, the small brewery in the southern Bohemian town of Ceske Budejovice, known as Budweis in German, has brewed its namesake beer since the 19th century. Adolphus Busch, a Bavarian native, acquired the rights to sell the beer in North America early this century. St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., the world\'s largest beer producer, tried to set up a joint venture with Budvar in 1988, but Communist authorities nixed the deal at the time. Efforts for ties between the companies were renewed following last year\'s democratic revolution. Government authorities sought compensation from Budvar in exchange for independence and the right to use the famous trademark. Budvar workers went on strike Monday in an effort to speed up the talks. Antonin Kratochvile, general manager of the state-controlled brewery chain Jihoceske Pivovary, said Monday that Budvar had agreed to pay the group $6.5 million for independence. ``After long negotiations which lasted almost a year the conflict was finally resolved,\'\' the official CTK news agency reported. CTK said the brewery would be independent in January. ``The Budvar beer is being brewed again for local distribution and export as well,\'\' CTK added. Details of a possible U.S-Czech joint venture have not been disclosed.\r\n'),(1858,2,'Environmental Protection Agency auditors are reviewing the agency\'s handling of an unusual case that put the bite on dozens of dentists because they sold old fillings whose toxic ingredients ended up in the soil. The case has attracted the attention of lawmakers because it tests how far the government can reach to hold parties accountable for toxic waste contamination. Last week, the EPA inspector general\'s office said it was assigning auditors to conduct a 60-day review of the case before determining whether additional study was necessary. The review comes at the request of a Pittsburgh dental supplier who claims the agency overstepped its authority. The case hinges on amalgam _ the stuff that fillings are made of _ and whether it can be considered a ``hazardous substance\'\' after it has been removed from peoples\' teeth. Amalgam is a hard, durable alloy. Dentists often save old fillings or leftover amalgam and sell it to processors, who break it down into mercury or silver. The EPA alleged in 1987 and 1988 that Pittsburgh dental suppliers Roy Ott, his son Ken, and other companies sold amalgam to metal processor Eugene Bourdeaudhui. As a result of Bourdeaudhui\'s efforts to break the amalgam down, the agency said soil in Willington, Conn., became so polluted with toxic mercury that it required a $710,000 cleanup in 1985. In seeking out responsible parties to pay for the cleanup, the EPA stunned the nationwide dental community by going after not only Bourdeaudhui but also 58 dentists and several dental suppliers who did business with him. All the parties have settled with EPA, according to attorney Robert Ging of Confluence, Pa. His clients, the Otts, agreed last November to pay the government $30,000 because they said the expense of further legal challenges was too great. In announcing several of the settlements last year, the EPA said the agreements ``demonstrate that members of the dental community understand that they have a responsibility to make themselves aware of dental amalgam\'s ultimate disposal method and that the dental community _ which controls the disposition of waste amalgam _ rather than taxpayers, should bear the cost of cleanup.\'\' But Ging said in an interview Tuesday that the principle involved compelled the Otts last month to ask EPA Inspector General John C. Martin to review the case. ``Mr. Ott and his son were so offended by the waste and the injustice of the whole procedure that they felt it ws worth their time and effort to bring this to the attention of the Congress and the people,\'\' Ging said. Several lawmakers agreed with the Otts that the case raised basic fairness questions. ``The fact that dental amalgam is considered a hazardous waste under Superfund comes as a surprise to many,\'\' said Rep. Doug Walgren, D-Pa., in a letter last year to EPA. ``A substance which is in my mouth _ and the mouths of millions of Americans _ and is deemed `safe\' by dentists and the American Dental Association hardly seems a candidate for Superfund coverage.\'\' Walgren also said it ignored ``a common sense standard of reasonableness\'\' to hold Ott and the dentists responsible for the actions of a ``third party\'\' in Connecticut. Through the Freedom of Information Act, the Otts obtained EPA documents they said demonstrated excessive charges by contractors for the cleanup. ``We share your concern that contractors may be charging excessive fees under the Superfund law,\'\' Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a letter to the family several weeks ago.\r\n'),(1859,2,'Pan American World Airways called on the United States and foreign governments today to establish uniform anti-terrorist security measures for all air carriers. In a full-page advertisement carried in The New York Times and the Washington Post, Pan Am said security measures ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration were required for American airlines, but not for foreign carriers. ``To be effective, security systems must come about through a cooperative team effort among governments, their agencies and airlines,\'\' it said. ``To do otherwise would be to perpetuate the present patchwork of rules and regulations.\'\' The advertisement, signed by Pan Am Chairman Thomas G. Plaskett, came one day after the President\'s Commission on Aviation and Security and Terrorism released a critical report on airline security. The commission was convened to investigate the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 259 people on the plane and 11 people on the ground. Pan Am suggested that security systems could be supported by government funds or a surcharge on all international air fares. ``Governments of all nations must take direct responsibility ... by providing whatever resources are necessary for improving the security of international air travel,\'\' the airline said. The presidential commission\'s report called on the government to consider ``preemptive or retaliatory military strikes\'\' against terrorist enclaves in other countries to combat air terrorism. A system should be set up to notify passengers of credible terrorist threats, it said, and the government should take more seriously the possibility of terrorist strikes in the United States.\r\n'),(1860,2,'RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The Pentagon warned Saddam Hussein today that U.S. air power will be ready to attack Iraq by Jan. 1 - even if all ground forces are not ready for war by that U.N.-imposed deadline for him to withdraw from Kuwait. The statement came from a top aide to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney the morning after a senior U.S. commander here raised eyebrows by saying American ground troops might not be ready to fight Iraq until a month or more past the United Nations deadline - and that he would urge President Bush not to order any attack until the full U.S. deployment was ready for war. Cheney spokesman Pete Williams said Cheney ``was not displeased\'\' by Lt. Gen. Calvin A.H. Waller\'s candid assessment. Still, today\'s statement by Williams and other comments by senior military officers here appeared clearly designed to give the deadline more teeth to counter any interpretation of Waller\'s remarks as possibly undermining Bush\'s demand that Saddam meet the deadline or risk attack. ---&equals; WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, trying to blunt criticism in Congress, says U.S. allies have spent more than $9 billion for the American-led military showdown with Iraq and ``the support is there.\'\' Some lawmakers have accused Germany and Japan - wealthy nations dependent on oil imports - of letting the United States shoulder the financial and military burden of the Persian Gulf crisis. Sen. Jim Sasser, D-Tenn., said Saudi Arabia was reaping a windfall profit of about $150 million a day in increased oil sales and have contributed only $987 million in cash and material - equivalent to about 6.5 days\' worth of those profits. Sasser, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said Japan had pledged $4 billion to the gulf effort and had paid $374 million through Nov. 30. Germany, he said, had offered $900 million and paid $330 million. ---&equals;\r\n'),(1861,2,'\'\' with Shevardnadze interview\r\n'),(1862,2,'President Reagan joined with President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire in offering praise Thursday for Jonas Savimbi, the guerrilla leader trying to overthrow Angola\'s communist government, the White House said. During their 15-minute White House meeting, the two presidents also thanked each other for backing solutions to problems in southern Africa and Angola, where the United States has been pressing for the pullout of pro-government Cuban military forces, said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. The White House issued a statement later Thursday saying Reagan and Mobuto agreed to support the goal of independence for South Africa-controlled Namibia and peace and reconciliation between the Angolan government and the UNITA guerrillas in Angola. Accusations that Zaire tortures prisoners and commits other human rights abuses were not raised at the White House session, Fitzwater said. The accusations were disputed by Mobutu in a brief talk with reporters. ``You can only oppress a people if they do not have confidence in you, which is not the case in Zaire, contrary to what has been written,\'\' he said. Mobutu, on a private visit to the United States, said the main purpose of his White House call was to thank Reagan ``for all he has done for Zaire in the framework of the friendship and solidarity which exists between our two countries.\'\' He also congratulated Reagan ``for the successes he had during the Moscow summit .. he has given a glimmer of hope to all of humanity.\'\' The Zairean president was also meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary James Banker and with officials of the World Bank, which last year granted his country an $80 million loan.\r\n'),(1863,2,'The International Monetary Fund announced today that it is granting the west African republic of Ghana a loan of $497 million under its new, easier terms for the poorest countries. Interest will be at only 0.5 percent, instead of the usual 6 to 7 percent or more, and there will be a 5 1@2 year grace period during which only interest need be paid. Ghana will get 10 years to repay the principal. It will get the new money in six semi-annual disbursements, which can be suspended if Ghana fails to meet agreed conditions. Ghana already owes the fund $628 million. The fund did not announce the details of its conditions, but said the government of Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings has undertaken to speed up ``structural reforms.\'\' It added that the government is also trying to help the country\'s poorest and most vulnerable groups.\r\n'),(1864,2,'GTE Corp. is cutting back in the expensive and competitive business of building telephone network switches by turning over 49 percent of its operation to American Telephone & Telegraph Co. GTE will own 51 percent of a joint venture with AT&T, then reduce its ownership to 20 percent after five years and zero after 15 years, under an agreement in principle announced by the companies Wednesday. The venture will consist of GTE\'s network switching business, which employs about 2,000 workers in the Phoenix, Ariz., area and about 3,000 in factories in the Chicago suburbs of Northlake and Genoa, Ill. AT&T will give the joint venture licenses to use some of AT&T\'s own advanced switching technology. It will continue to run its own network switching business independently of the joint venture. AT&T dominates the U.S. market for network switches, which are basically computers installed in the central offices of phone companies that are loaded with complex software to handle high-tech communications. The newest switches are being upgraded at enormous expense to handle simultaneous transmission of voices, computer data, video signals and other information over the same circuits. The deal eases GTE out of a costly business where it has been an also-ran with about 10 percent of the market, consisting mainly of the GTE local phone companies, said John Bain, an analyst for Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. Financial arrangements were not disclosed, but since GTE\'s contribution is substantially larger it is reasonable to assume that AT&T will be making some kind of payment to GTE, GTE spokesman Thomas Mattausch said. GTE\'s customers should benefit because the joint venture will work on enhancing GTE switches using the latest in AT&T technology, the companies said. The companies\' switches happen to be similar, so there is plenty of room for sharing of technology, Mattausch said. In the long term, AT&T is likely to steer GTE customers toward AT&T switches, Bain predicted. GTE has reduced its involvement in other parts of the communications equipment business in recent years by entering joint ventures with West Germany\'s Siemens AG and Japan\'s Fujitsu Ltd. ITT Corp., following a similar pattern, reduced its involvement in the network switching business at the end of 1986 by placing its telecommunications equipment business in a European-based joint venture with France\'s Compagnie Generale d\'Electricite.\r\n'),(1865,2,'Here is the text of U.N. Security Council Resolution 678, passed 12-2 Thursday, which gives Iraq until Jan. 15 to withdraw from Kuwait or face possible military action by member states: The Security Council, Recalling and reaffirming its resolutions 660 (1990), 661 (1990), 662 (1990), 664 (1990), 665 (1990), 666 (1990), 667 (1990), 669 (1990), 670 (1990), 674 (1990), and 677 (1990). Noting that, despite all efforts by the United Nations, Iraq refuses to comply with its obligation to implement Resolution 660 (1990) and the above subsequent relevant resolutions, in flagrant contempt of the Council, Mindful of its duties and responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations for the maintenance and preservation of international peace and security, Determined to secure full compliance with its decisions, Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, 1. Demands that Iraq comply fully with Resolution 660 (1990) and all subsequent relevant resolutions and decides, while maintaining all its decisions, to allow Iraq one final opportunity, as a pause of goodwill, to do so; 2. Authorizes member states cooperating with the government of Kuwait, unless Iraq on or before 15 January 1991 fully implements, as set forth in paragraph 1 above, the foregoing resolutions, to use all necessary means to uphold and implement Security Council Resolution 660 and all subsequent relevant resolutions and to restore international peace and security in the area; 3. Requests all states to provide appropriate support for the actions undertaken in pursuance of paragraph 2 of this resolution; 4. Requests the states concerned to keep the Council regularly informed on the progress of actions undertaken pursuant to paragraphs 2 and 3 of this resolution; 5. Decides to remain seized of the matter (keep the matter under active consideration).\r\n'),(1866,2,'Thirty years ago today, predominantly Protestant West Virginia said yes to a Catholic and played a pivotal role in the making of a president. When John F. Kennedy routed Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey in the state\'s Democratic primary on May 10, 1960, he put to rest the notion that a Catholic couldn\'t be president, experts said. ``It propelled John Kennedy to the nomination and undermined the religious issue,\'\' said West Virginia Wesleyan professor Robert Rupp, who is organizing a symposium Wednesday to discuss the role of religion, the media and campaign techniques in what he calls ``The Primary That Made a President.\'\' ``The West Virginia primary really was the difference in John Kennedy\'s success or defeat,\'\' said Ted Sorensen, Kennedy\'s former speechwriter. ``Given the handicap of his religion and to some extent the handicap of his age, he knew he would not be the choice of bosses in the back rooms. He had to win in the primaries and, above all, he had to win in Protestant areas,\'\' Sorensen said Wednesday. Kennedy\'s advisers expected the worst from West Virginia, about 90 percent Protestant at the time, although Kennedy had won five of nine earlier primaries. Kennedy beat Humphrey in West Virginia, 236,510 votes to 152,187. Although the vote made political history, West Virginia\'s people and the grinding, inescapable poverty some of them lived in made a lasting impression on the scion of a wealthy Massachusetts family. ``He had seen poverty before,\'\' Sorensen said. ``But the long-term hardship faced by many of the people he met in West Virginia, the look on their face and the stories they told made a very deep impression on him. It wasn\'t a theory any longer.\'\' Kennedy spent more time campaigning in West Virginia than anywhere else. His advisers, supporters and family members hit every chicken dinner, student rally and ladies\' auxiliary meeting they could. ``It was an exhausting campaign. We went to every hill and hollow,\'\' Sorensen said. When he was asked about his Catholicism, Kennedy\'s standard response was to talk about his family\'s military service, a vote-swaying appeal in a state with a high percentage of soldiers, sailors and airmen. ``He said, `Nobody asked my brother about his religion when he died for his country in World War II,\'\'\' said Charles Peters, who managed Kennedy\'s Kanawha County effort and is now editor of the Washington Monthly. Kennedy also had Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., son of the most popular president in West Virginia, on his side. ``That was as if God\'s son had said it\'s all right to vote for this Catholic,\'\' Peters said. West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler, a first-term congressman at the time, was convinced Kennedy\'s religion would cost him the state. He changed his mind after he saw the Kennedy family in action. ``It impressed me so much that they, as a family team, knew exactly what needed to be done without any kind of chitchat,\'\' Hechler said. The Kennedy and Humphrey campaigns differed markedly. Kennedy chartered a plane at one point to fly to campaign stops; Humphrey rode around in a bus. Kennedy\'s theme song was ``High Hopes\'\' by Frank Sinatra; Humphrey had a folk singer. But the Kennedy high style didn\'t scare off the simple folk of West Virginia. Peters said he advised against bringing Jacqueline Kennedy to campaign in West Virginia. ``I thought she would come across as a snobbish, Northeast woman who would contrast unfavorably with the down-to-earth Muriel Humphrey,\'\' Peters said. ``Instead she was a big hit.\'\'\r\n'),(1867,2,'Pat Robertson says he will end his run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination but will form a political action committee to fund and train conservative Christian political candidates. Robertson announced Wednesday in Washington that he had offered his endorsement to Vice President George Bush, who has mathematically clinched the GOP nomination, and indicated he would withdraw from the race on Monday. However, after Robertson\'s announcement, an aide, Richard Pinsky, said Robertson would suspend his campaign rather than withdraw outright, and would release his delegates, but at a later date. After his meeting with Bush, Robertson was asked by reporters at the White House whether he was withdrawing. ``I will be making that official on Monday,\'\' he replied. And asked whether he would be releasing his delegates, he answered, ``Of course, I will be releasing them.\'\' The Robertson campaign later put out a press release saying Robertson had spoken with reporters about the meeting with Bush and told them ``he is not withdrawing from the race nor is he releasing his delegates.\'\' The campaign did say Robertson would make a statement about his campaign status on Monday. Calls to Robertson headquarters requesting a clarification were not returned Wednesday night. The new political action committee _ Americans for the Republic _ will actively support Christian candidates, according to Barbara Gattullo, a spokesman for Americans for Robertson, Robertson\'s campaign organization. She said the staff of Americans for Robertson would switch to the new organization, keeping the same office in Virginia, after the papers are filed with the Federal Election Commission. In an interview with The Virginian-Pilot & The Ledger-Star of Norfolk, Robertson said he likely would return to his job as the Christian Broadcasting Network\'s chief executive officer, a job his son has held since Robertson announced his candidacy. That came as a surprise to CBN officials. ``I don\'t have a comment to make,\'\' CBN spokesman Benton Miller said Wednesday. ``None of the staff or I ... have been provided any information by him at this point concerning what his future plans are.\'\' Robertson had appeared since 1967 on the ``700 Club\'\' program that is the flagship of the network. He left the program in 1986 to organize his presidential campaign and in September 1987 resigned both as the network\'s chief executive officer and as a pastor in the Southern Baptist church to run for office. The network immediately reported a dramatic drop in revenues and began laying off personnel. At the time, spokesmen refused to blame Robertson\'s political ambitions for the shortfall. Robertson, who has spent more than $22 million on his campaign, has 46 delegates to the national convention. Of the March 8 Super Tuesday primaries, Robertson failed to win any. He placed third behind Bush and Kansas Republican Sen. Bob Dole in his home state of Virginia.\r\n'),(1868,2,'The nation\'s biggest junk bond underwriter has had a change of heart about its practice of letting employees buy into its own deals, one week after being accused in Congress of favoring them over its customers. Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. announced Wednesday that employees and partnerships formed by employees will no longer be permitted to purchase new issues of bonds underwritten by the firm. The investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in hearings last week, released documents showing Drexel employees reaped huge profits by purchasing bonds underwritten by the firm and then quickly reselling them, in one case within 17 days. Employees were permitted to buy bonds during initial offerings of much-sought issues, even when the practice denied bonds to public customers, the documents showed. Drexel was instrumental in developing the market for the high-yield, high-risk junk bonds, which allow companies without a track record of earnings to obtain financing based on whether they have sufficient cash flow to pay off their debts. Junk bonds have been frequently used in corporate raiding. Of the $32 billion in junk bonds issued in 1986, 40 percent were underwritten by Drexel, according to a congressional report. Drexel chief executive Frederick Joseph, in a letter to Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of both the committee and subcommittee, stuck by his assertions that the employee purchases were proper, but said the firm was worried about appearances. ``I indicated we supported such purchases; nonetheless public perception is important to financial institutions such as ours and we recognize that even the best of motives can be misunderstood,\'\' he said. Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the subcommittee, said Drexel\'s letter leaves a number of questions unanswered, including whether Drexel will be able to trade for its own accounts and pass profits on to employees in the form of bonuses. He said he would also like to know if employee accounts will be able to trade in the secondary market, which is heavily influenced by the underwriting firm. Steven Anreder, a spokesman for Drexel, said the firm had no comment beyond its brief announcement. Dingell, in a statement released by an aide, called Drexel\'s decision ``a very good step,\'\' adding, ``It should lay to rest questions associated with the fairness and legality of that particular practice.\'\' However, the aide, Dennis Fitzgibbons, said Dingell has made no decision regarding his committee\'s ongoing investigation of Drexel. Dingell has been criticized by Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Va., for subpoenaing Michael Milken, chief of Drexel\'s junk bond unit, to appear before the committee even though Milken had indicated in advance he would refuse to testify based on his constitutional protection from self-incrimination. When he refused to testify, Milken confirmed he is under investigation by a federal grand jury in New York, which is reported to be looking into insider trading allegations. Dingell said the firm\'s retreat on employee purchases ``indicates that the behavior of the committee was correct and fair in bringing these matters to light.\'\' Junk bonds pay higher interest rates than those issued by established companies and are considered riskier investments. They have been used by corporate raiders to finance unfriendly takeover attempts.\r\n'),(1869,2,'Coal mine owners are generally pleased with a Supreme Court ruling shielding them and their insurance companies from paying up to $13.6 billion in additional black lung benefits but an attorney for miners claimed a partial victory. The justices ruled 9-0 on Tuesday that a group of miners estimated to number between 94,000 and 155,000 is ineligible to seek disability benefits for the disease. The group consists of those who missed deadlines for filing court appeals after they were denied benefits. Mark Solomons, a lawyer representing the mine operators, said, ``The industry is going to be pleased.\'\' But Solomons said a second part of the Supreme Court\'s ruling will spur additional litigation for a smaller number of miners hoping to receive benefits. In that section, the justices voted 5-4 to permit some miners who worked less than 10 years in the mines to seek disability pay for black lung disease, or pneumoconiosis, a respiratory ailment caused by prolonged inhaling of coal dust. Between 8,000 and 10,000 miners with pending claims could be in line to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits under that part of the high court decision. The court said even if miners have less than 10 years on the job, they are presumed to be eligible for benefits if they display medical evidence of the disease. Paul Smith, a lawyer representing miners, said the ruling is a significant _ if only partial _ victory for the workers. ``The presumption makes a big difference,\'\' he said, because it shifts the burden of proof to the government to deny such claims. ``It\'s very difficult to prove you are disabled by black lung disease,\'\' he said. Congress created a special industry-supported fund to pay off claims by miners with the disease. Coal mine operators already owe the fund some $3 billion that was lent to it by the federal treasury. The Reagan administration had urged the justices to deny the claims of miners who had missed earlier filing deadlines. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said nothing in federal law requires the government to reopen settled claims. ``There is not even a colorable basis for the contention that Congress has imposed a duty to reconsider finally determined claims,\'\' he said. But Scalia said Congress also never intended to exclude from benefit eligibility miners who worked less than 10 years. ``We do not sit to determine what Congress ought to have done given the evidence before it, but to apply what Congress enacted _ and ... the exclusion of short-term miners from the benefits ... finds no support\'\' in a 1977 law aimed at making it easier for miners to seek benefits, Scalia said. The high court overturned a ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had ordered the Labor Department to take a fresh look at claims that were denied in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The appeals court had directed the department to use the liberalized standards adopted by Congress in 1977 to determine benefit eligibility for a group numbering from 94,000 to 155,000. The cases involved potential benefits estimated at $13.6 billion. In other cases, the court: _Threw out an appeal by an unwed California father seeking to restore a parental relationship with his 7-year-old daughter. Eight days after hearing arguments in Edward McNamara\'s case, the court dismissed the appeal for procedural reasons and left unanswered whether unwed fathers have the same parental rights as unwed mothers. _Ruled unanimously that federal employees holding sensitive intelligence-agency jobs are not entitled to administrative hearings when fired as security risks. The justices reversed a ruling requiring a hearing for a National Security Agency employee who says he was dismissed for homosexual activities.\r\n'),(1870,2,'A gunman who infiltrated from Egypt sprayed four Israeli vehicles with assault rifle fire Sunday, killing four people and wounding 24, the army said. The army said the lone gunman killed three Israeli army soldiers and a civilian driver for the national Egged bus company on the Israeli-Egyptian border, about 15 miles northwest of the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat. The gunman escaped back into Egypt. A senior Egyptian security source said an Egyptian border policeman assigned to the area of the attack had been arrested as the suspected assailant. Earlier reports from Cairo said the gunman had fired from the Egyptian side of the border. In Amman, Jordan a fundamentalist Islamic group Sunday claimed responsibility for the attack. The extremist Islamic Jihad-Beit Al-Maqdes, or Islamic Holy War-Jersualem, said the attack was carried out by ``one of our units operating in the land of Arabism and Islam, the land of Egypt.\'\' Defense Minister Moshe Arens called the attack ``a most serious incident\'\' and said Israel expected Egypt to take all the necessary steps to prevent such assaults. A military commander identified only as Brig. Gen. D. said on army radio that an Egyptian man ``whose identity is not clear to us at this moment\'\' infiltrated into Israel at the distance of about 300 yards from the scene of the shooting. ``He entered a dry riverbed, reached the road and lay in wait on the roadside,\'\' the commander said. The assailant opened fire on an army van, containing just the driver, who was injured but carried on for a few hundred yards and stopped. Another military car, also containing only one person and heading from Eilat to a nearby base, was hit by several bullets. The soldier inside was mortally wounded, drove for a few hundred yards and died, the commander said. Next came a military bus. The driver thought there had been an accident and stopped. He got out with his weapon but was shot dead ``at very close range\'\' before he could fire back. Finally, the attacker fired on an Egged bus carrying civilians working at military installations in the area. He wounded a security guard, who shot back, hitting the assailant. ``We found signs of blood showing that he was hit. I think this prevented a heavier tragedy,\'\' the commander said. ``The terrorist apparently intended to board the bus and take it over. He (the guard) did not let him come on board. He climbed down through the door and shot him, and from that moment the terrorist began running away.\'\' Reporters at the scene saw a red and white passenger bus with its windshield covered with bullet holes. Police forensic experts were seen picking up bullets around the bus. Isaac Bar-Moshe, press officer at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, said the gunman had used a Soviet-made Kalashnikov semiautomatic rifle. If the attack was indeed committed by a member of Egypt\'s uniformed forces, it would be the second. On Oct. 5, 1985, an Egyptian border police officer went berserk and shot dead four Israeli children, two women and an elderly man near the border in the Sinai Desert. Before Sunday, the latest attack on an Israeli target in Egypt was on Feb. 4, when gunmen ambushed a tour bus, killing nine Israeli vacationers. The attack took place on a desert road between Cairo and the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya. Egypt is the only Arab state to have a peace treaty with Israel. After the treaty was signed in 1979, Israel began withdrawing from the Egyptian Sinai peninsula, which it occupied in 1967. Between 1984 and 1987, two Israeli diplomats and six Israelis were wounded in Cairo in a number of attacks claimed by an Egyptian terrorist organization, Egypt\'s Revolution.\r\n'),(1871,2,'U.S. foreign policy is gaining support at the United Nations and there is less emphasis on linking foreign aid to how a recipient country votes, the American ambassador says. Some Arab envoys, however, expect the Bush administration and Congress to put pressure on recipients of American aid to rescind a General Assembly resolution adopted in 1975 that equates Zionism and racism. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, the U.S. permanent representative, told reporters recently the idea of linking U.S. foreign aid to supportive U.N. votes ``never rose to massive proportions, and the fact is that there is less focus now on scorecarding in aid than there was before. ``I don\'t think at this stage one can say this is completely a dead letter, but I don\'t see it rising to high prominence. ... I don\'t believe there is such overwhelming interest in it. ``I think we, in fact, should give assistance where we believe it is in our broad foreign policy interests to do so, all factors considered.\'\' The ambassador said nothing of the Zionism-racism resolution and Arab statements, made later, that some members of Congress wanted to penalize nations that did not follow the U.S. line. In Decemb is chairman. ``We have a list of who the aid recipients are and how the vote was, and do they understand their aid is in jeopardy?\'\' Moynihan said. ``I mean, enough is enough. ``The Soviet Union ... no longer rewards that behavior. Have they learned it and do they know that this country is angry about that because they have put peace in jeopardy in a place they had no business bothering in? ``What does it mean to Chile? What does it mean to Sri Lanka? Whose business is it in the Ivory Coast to cause instability in the Middle East?\'\' Moynihan called the document ``a low point\'\' in U.N. behavior and an attempt to politicize the General Assembly. Nearly 70 percent of political resolutions received unanimous support in the 44th General Assembly last year, according to the latest voting report. That compares with 64 percent in 1988, 60 percent in 1987 and 58 percent in 1986. It said other U.N. members voted with the United States 23.3 percent of the time on the 16 issues, which ranged from the invasion of Panama to the annual question of accepting Israel\'s credentials. When all General Assembly votes are examined, the figure declines to 16.9 percent. Some U.N. diplomats say voting the same way does not guarantee an identical point of view. They also suggest that, if more countries are voting with the United States, changes in U.S. policy may be the reason.\r\n'),(1872,2,'Nearly 350,000 Chileans took to the streets in a joyous rally to celebrate President Augusto Pinochet\'s defeat in a referendum, but at least 40 people were injured in violent clashes with police. Half a dozen people lay on the street behind Santiago\'s national palace Friday evening after police fired tear gas and water cannons at a crowd of several hundred anti-government demonstrators and then charged, nightsticks swinging. The demonstrators had come from the peaceful rally at an outdoor park, where the crowd estimated by police at 350,000 swayed and sang to popular Chilean music. About 18 foreign reporters also were injured Friday in the demonstration at the national palace and other incidents, which they described as unprovoked attacks by police. At least six were treated at clinics for head injuries. Earlier Friday, soldiers at an army barracks near the rally site fired birdshot and pellets at passengers in cars who flashed the victory sign at them, Radio Cooperativa reported. Fifteen people were injured, including one who underwent surgery to remove a pellet from his head, the radio said. A spokesman for the Santiago Central Emergency Hospital told The Associated Press that nine people were treated there for gunshot wounds, and a tenth was taken to a neurological hospital for surgery. A spokesman for the National Police said there was no one available to comment on the incidents. Friday\'s rally was organized by the opposition political groups that urged Chileans to vote ``no\'\' in Wednesday\'s referendum in which Pinochet, 72, lost his bid to remain president until 1997. His defeat sets the stage for presidential elections in December 1989 and the inauguration in March 1990 of the first freely elected president since Pinochet, commander of the army, toppled Salvador Allende in a bloody coup in 1973. Opposition leaders want Pinochet to move up the date of next year\'s elections, and vowed Friday to press that demand even though the aging commander-in-chief firmly rejected it Thursday during a speech broadcast nationwide. ``If we (opposition groups) join together with more force, I think the situation will change,\'\' said moderate Socialist Ricardo Lagos, a leader of the 16-group opposition coalition. ``You have to give the defeated a couple of days to recover from the shock.\'\' Many of the 3.8 million Chileans who voted against Pinochet also want early elections. ``Chi Chi Chi. Le Le Le. Get Out Pinochet,\'\' chanted the crowd at the rally. Funerals for two people killed during anti-government demonstrations Thursday night were set for today. Police acknowleged they shot a 31-year-old man and said a 14-year-old boy was shot by an unidentified gunman, police said. Two others who were shot by unidentified gunmen was hospitalized in serious condition Friday, police said, adding that eight officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators Thursday. Dozens of people were arrested Thursday and Friday. Most were released after brief detentions. Among the foreign journalists injured were Christopher Morris, an American freelance photographer for Newsweek, and Liliana Nieto, an American photographer for the Long Island, N.Y. daily Newsday. They and at least three others were treated at Santa Maria Clinica for head injuries. A group of about 50 foreign journalists, mostly Latin American, walked to a National Police station and filed a complaint protesting ``the lamentable events against the dignity of reporters ... by national police and other security forces\'\' and asked for guarantees of their safety. Eva Miranda of Argentina, a spokeswoman for the journalists, said two reporters _ Eduardo Sanjuan and Jordy Villaroel from TV-3 in Barcelona, Spain _ were hospitalized Friday after they were beaten by police.\r\n'),(1873,2,'Kelsey Grammer of ``Cheers\'\' was jailed Thursday for a drunken driving probation violation. The 35-year-old actor, who plays brainy psychiatrist Frasier Crane on the hit NBC series, surrendered to the Van Nuys Muncipal Court and was taken immediately to County Jail. He showed up in court with a toothbrush stuck in his shirt pocket. Since his February 1988 conviction for drunken driving, he has failed to make several court appearances to prove he completed a drug rehabilitation program. Municipal Court Commissioner Patricia Schwartz last week ordered Grammer to serve a 30-day sentence for failing to attend the program and failing to serve 10 days on a state road crew. The commissioner also ordered Grammer to show up in court Thursday with proof he served at least one day of work on a California Department of Transportation road cleanup crew and enrolled in a 90-day drug rehab program. Documentation presented by Grammer on Thursday established he had completed those obligations, the court clerk said. Grammer still faces possible possession of cocaine charges. In April 1988, police stopped his car for expired license tags and a routine check showed an arrest warrant had been issued for missing a court appearance. While riding in the police car, a packet of cocaine fell from his pocket, officers said. Earlier this month, Grammer surrendered to authorities on arrest warrants involving both the drunken driving and cocaine arrests. The incarceration shouldn\'t affect production of the show, which is currently shut down between seasons.\r\n'),(1874,2,'Last month, Communist North Korea turned over what it said were the remains of five U.S. servicemen killed in the Korean War. Now American officials say they\'re not sure whose remains they have. The remains were handed over to to a U.S. congressional delegation in an emotional Memorial Day ceremony in the truce village of Panmunjom in what was billed as the first return of U.S. Korean War dead since 1954. Only two of the five bodies were identified by name by the North Koreans, based on dogtags they said were found with them. They were U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jack J. Saunders, 27, of Ogden, Utah and Army Cpl. Arthur Leo Seaton, 20, of Chester, Pa. But the United Nations Command said today that the bodies, which were sent to the Army\'s Central Identification Laboratory in Honolulu for identification, were not those of Saunders and Seaton. ``While North Korea has indicated name association for two of the five remains, dental and physical characteristics of the remains were compared with the dental and physical records of the those two individuals, with negative results,\'\' the command said. The command said its findings were preliminary, but said it did not appear that the other remains returned were those of Saunders or Seaton either. ``Until the identification process is complete, we can\'t even be sure they were the remains of Americans,\'\' the command added. The soldiers\' relatives have been told of the findings, the command said. The other three sets of remains were not identified by North Korea, but it said at the time of the return that they were believed to be those of another Army servicemen and two U.S. Air Force members. All five were believed to have been prisoners of war who died in Hwanghae Pukto province, south of North Korea\'s capital of Pyongyang. Saunders and Seaton had been listed as missing in February 1951, the Pentagon said. According to U.S. military, 8,172 U.S. soldiers remain unaccounted for from the war. The return of the remains was widely seen as a sign of healing and reconciliation after decades of emnity, an effort by North Korea to improve relations with the United States. The two countries do not have diplomatic ties. The United Nations Command says 33,629 U.S. soldiers were killed and 103,284 wounded in the war. More than 2 million Koreans were killed. The 16-nation command, led by an American general, was formed at the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War to help South Korea repel invaders from the North. There were large-scale returns of remains of U.S. war dead in 1953 and 1954. Then, after years of no returns, the North Koreans announced May 14 that they would turn over the remains of the five. Ho Jong, North Korean\'s deputy permanant representative at its U.N. mission, said at the time that the Communist government was prepared to discuss the return of more remains. He said the move was an ``eloquent illustration\'\' of North Korea\'s wilingness to ``settle pending issues with the U.S. government in a good way.\'\' North Korea acknowledged for the first time in January 1988 that it was still holding the remains of U.N. Command war dead.\r\n'),(1875,2,'Four hunger strikers, who lost a total of 151 pounds protesting the U.S. training of Salvadoran soldiers, ended their 35-day fast Sunday after doctors warned of permanent health damage. ``Our cause continues,\'\' said the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Roman Catholic priest from Lutcher, La., after the strikers ended their fast at a morning news conference. ``The bread we received today is nourishment for us to recommit ourselves.\'\' Bourgeois was among nine protesters who began the fast Sept. 3, praying, carrying signs and marching outside Fort Benning. The group demanded that the United States cut all military aid to El Salvador and stop training Salvadoran soldiers at the base\'s Army School of the Americas. The United States is spending some $315 million in aid to El Salvador this year, much of it economic and food aid for an economy racked by a decade-old civil war with leftist guerrillas. A Democratic task force has pressed the Bush administration for restrictions in next year\'s planned $85 million in military aid to the country in wake of investigations into the slayings of six Jesuit priests in the capital of San Salvador in November 1989. Five of the original protesters dropped the fast over the last two weeks. Remaining were Bourgeois; Jim Barnett, a Dominican priest who served in El Salvador and plans to return now; Charlie Liteky of Washington, D.C., who won a Medal of Honor by pulling 20 wounded men from under enemy fire during the Vietnam War; and David Scott, an ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran from Detroit. Bourgeois said the four decided to end the strike after doctors warned that their weight loss could cause permanent health damage. He said Liteky was warned he could sustain severe kidney damage. Bourgeois said he lost 38 pounds, Liteky 40, Scott 35 and Barnett 38.\r\n'),(1876,2,'The chief of the state Board of Insurance has been placed on leave while the board investigates allegations of foot-dragging in the largest insurance company insolvency case in Texas history. The board also said Thursday that the Travis County District Attorney\'s Office will review the agency\'s handling of the National County Mutual Fire Insurance insolvency case for any criminal wrongdoing. National County Mutual, a Dallas company with 125,000 auto insurance policyholders statewide, was declared insolvent last week and taken over by the insurance board. The company was $54 million in the debt. The board said recent criticism prompted it to initiate the investigation into the department\'s delay in taking control of National County Mutual. Several lawmakers complained the insurance board\'s staff knew of the company\'s problems since at least 1986 and should have moved earlier to protect its policyholders. During the examination, Commissioner Doyce Lee will be placed on leave, board members said. Board members said Lee recommended doing the independent audit and contacting the district attorney. But they said complaints by state lawmakers and consumer interest representatives forced them to put him on leave. Lee, 47, commissioner since 1985, said he agreed with the decision. ``I think it takes the pressure off of me and the board, and the agency can go about its business of regulating the industry. That will give time for the air to clear,\'\' he said. State Rep. John Gavin, D-Wichita Falls, chairman of the House Insurance Committee, supported the board\'s action. ``Most of the problem seems to be a lack of communication within the agency. The left hand and the right hand don\'t seem to work very well together,\'\' he said. Insurance board members attribute many of its problems to a major reorganization of the agency and rapid expansion of the staff, from about 850 employees to 1,300 in the past 18 months.\r\n'),(1877,2,'Riot troops broke up the second anti-American demonstration in this capital in as many weeks, hurling tear gas grenades and firing into the air to stop about 200 protesters headed for the U.S. Embassy. At least one person was arrested. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The protesters, chanting ``Embassy, embassy!\'\' had been part of a crowd of about 2,000 people who marched peacefully to the National Congress earlier Thursday to demonstrate against the Honduran government and U.S. policy in the Central American country. Five people were killed during a riot April 7 in which about 2,000 demonstrators sacked and burned the U.S. Consulate and offices of the U.S. Information Service. Those protesters were angered over the deportation to the United States of a Honduran man accused of drug trafficking. About 50 riot police and army troops threw tear gas grenades into the 200 demonstrators as they advanced on the U.S. diplomatic mission Thursday night. The tear gas dispersed the protesters momentarily, but they regrouped, cutting off a small contingent of what appeared to be young and ill-trained troops who shot long bursts of fire from their M-16s into the air. The sound of shots sparked panic in the neighborhood. Some demonstrators taunted the troops and threw stones at the soldiers, who at intervals advanced behind metal shields. During the milelong march earlier Thursday, protesters chanted slogans calling for the expulsion of the approximately 1,100 U.S. troops based in Honduras, the removal of U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels from Honduras and the defense of the Honduran Constitution. They condemned the government of President Jose Azcona Hoyo and what they called his subservience to Washington. Honduras is the United States\' staunchest ally in Central America. ``Yankee garbage, out of Honduras!\'\' and ``If the Yankees don\'t get out, in Honduras they will die!\'\' shouted the demonstrators. The marchers, most of them students, walked to the National Congress, where they listened to speeches condemning Azcona and the United States. About 500 demonstrators proceeded from there to the nearby Central Penitentiary, where they shouted for the release of inmates they consider political prisoners. A group then tried to go to the U.S. Embassy. One of the issues the marchers protested was the forced extradition of Juan Ramon Matta. Honduran police, working with U.S. agents, arrested Matta at his Tegucigalpa home on April 5 and had him flown to the United States. The Honduran Constitution prohibits the extradition of Honduran citizens. Matta is in federal prison in Marion, Ill., awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges. Matta is also wanted for questioning in the 1985 torture-slaying in Mexico of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena Salazar. The U.S. Embassy estimates damage to the consulate building in the April 7 riot at between $4 million and $6 million and has asked for reimbursement from the Honduran government.\r\n'),(1878,2,'Democratic vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen is aiming his pitch at Democrats who strayed from the party to vote for Ronald Reagan as he tours his home state on behalf of the Democratic ticket. Although confident of his own popularity in Texas, Bentsen has to persuade some of his more conservative state supporters to vote for Michael Dukakis if Democrats are to win the state\'s 29 electoral votes. Bentsen on Wednesday appealed to those voters both in public and in private, as he traveled from the city of Fort Worth to the ranching area of San Angelo to a medical center in Lubbock to the oil town of Tyler. ``I know that this county is principally Republican,\'\' Bentsen told the 250 people gathered for a picnic at Fort Concho in San Angelo. ``I also know that Lloyd Bentsen carried this county by 58 percent last time.\'\' He told them that Dukakis\' selection of a Texan for the ticket showed the Massachusetts governor was ``reaching out ... ready to listen to differing viewpoints.\'\' He then traveled to Lubbock, where he was greeted at the airport by a dozen supporters carrying ``Bentsen _ U.S. Senator\'\' placards _ but none of the Dukakis-Bentsen signs he\'d like to see. He attended a demonstration of a new program to diagnose rural patients via television at the Texas Tech medical center, and then slipped away to meet with some 200 to 300 longtime supporters of his Senate campaigns to make his pitch in private. The meeting was closed to the press. Later, in Tyler, he met with another support group _ again out of the view of reporters. And again, Bentsen\'s Senate paraphernalia was in abundance but nothing for the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket. Robert Cargill of nearby Longview, one of those invited for the dinner sponsored by East Texans for Texas, said Dukakis\' addition of Bentsen to the ticket might be enough for him to support it. ``Maybe,\'\' he said. Bentsen is also explaining to his constituents, both in his appearances and through television ads, why he is running at the same time for re-election to his Senate seat. Texas law allows him to do that, and if he didn\'t his Republican opponent, Rep. Beau Boulter, would automatically win a six-year term. If he won both races, Bentsen could resign from the Senate and force a special election, giving the Democrats a chance to hold the seat. As he traveled, Bentsen was peppered with questions about his personal wealth and his health, as a result of the release of records Monday by his Washington office. The disclosures showed the 67-year-old senator is in good health, although he has been treated for high cholesterol. His financial records revealed he has earned more than $3.8 million over the past five years, but they don\'t disclose his net worth. ``I don\'t know what my net worth is,\'\' he said. ``Frankly, I haven\'t made out a financial statement that has given me my net worth in a number of years.\'\' As he\'s been hunting for conservative votes, Bentsen also has been taking some shots at Republican George Bush\'s choice for a running mate, Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle. ``I guess we\'ll have an early season on quail,\'\' he told reporters. Bentsen brushed aside the age difference between him and the 41-year-old Quayle. ``It\'s not the miles on you, it\'s the depth of the tread,\'\' he said.\r\n'),(1879,2,'The nation\'s economy nearly came to a standstill in the second quarter, edging up a feeble annual rate of 0.4 percent, the government said Tuesday. Many of the nation\'s top economists believe a recession is imminent - if not under way already. While White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said ``we don\'t believe we are in a recession right now,\'\' he acknowledged the latest Commerce Department report on the gross national product ``is certainly cause for concern. It\'s not good news.\'\' The department\'s revised report on the GNP - the nation\'s total output of goods and services - was the lowest since a 0.3 percent rate during the last quarter of 1989 and showed the economy weakening even before the Persian Gulf crisis. ``The economy was headed toward a recession before Iraq, and Iraq was just the nail in the coffin,\'\' said Allen Sinai, chief economist for the Boston Co. A recession ``seems inescapable,\'\' he said. Surveys following Iraq\'s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait - and the subsequent oil-price spiral - showed many top economists forecasting an imminent recession. The National Association of Business Economists reported Tuesday that more than half of the 71 professional forecasters responding to its survey in late August and early September said a recession already has begun or will begin in the fourth quarter of 1990 or the first quarter of 1991. And half of the top economists surveyed each month by Blue Chip Economic Indicators now believe the economy will enter a recession this year. ``In a sharp revision of earlier views, 50 percent of the 50 panel members replying ... now think the long-delayed recession will start this year,\'\' wrote R.J. Eggert, the newsletter\'s editor. ``Of those expecting the recession to begin this year, three believe it actually began in the second quarter, six expect the downturn to begin in the current quarter and 16 have pegged the fourth quarter of this year as the starting date.\'\' Sinai pointed to negative economic data already available for July and August and said, ``It looks like the recession started in the third quarter.\'\' ``The economy ground to a halt in the second quarter and is in the process of contracting right now,\'\' added Richard W. Rahn, chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. A price index tied to the GNP was unchanged at an annual rate of 3.9 percent in the second quarter. But with the surge in oil prices, inflation as measured in the Consumer Price Index jumped 0.8 percent in August alone. The higher prices will be reflected in the third-quarter GNP report. The price of oil before the Iraqi invasion was less than $20 a barrel. It reached a record $38 a barrel at one point on Monday. Since oil is used in producing so many consumer goods as well as for heating and transportation, any price increase not only slashes available funds needed to feed economic growth but also feeds inflation. The department originally had estimated the economy grew at a 1.2 percent rate from April through June, after advances of 1.7 percent in the first quarter and 2.5 percent in 1989 and 4.5 percent in 1988. But it said Tuesday that more complete data showed weaker net exports and lower inventory accumulation than first thought. The new data showed net exports declining by $9.2 billion rather than $4.5 billion, and inventories totaling $19.8 billion rather than $22.4 billion. ``But there really were no areas of strength,\'\' Sinai said. Consumer spending, which represents two-thirds of the nation\'s economic activity, rose just 0.2 percent, down from 1.1 percent in the first quarter. Business investment fell 4.7 percent after a 5 percent gain from January through March. Housing construction plunged 11.2 percent after advancing 15.1 percent in the first quarter. Government spending rose 6.2 percent but most of that was by the federal government. State and local spending was down 0.6 percent. If the economy were in a recession - generally described as two consecutive quarters of negative growth - it would end the nearly eight years of expansion that began after the 1981-82 downturn. The Commerce Department also reported today that after-tax corporate profits fell a revised 0.6 percent, worse than the 0.2 percent drop first reported and their poorest showing since a 5.9 percent decline in the third quarter of 1989. They had risen 0.5 percent in the first quarter and 1.7 percent in the final quarter of 1989. The various changes left the GNP growing by $4.5 billion in the second quarter. After removing the effects of inflation, the GNP totaled an annual rate of $4.16 trillion.\r\n'),(1880,2,'The United States\' foreign debt burden climbed to $368.2 billion in 1987, a sharp 36.8 percent rise over the previous year, as the country lengthened its lead as the world\'s largest debtor nation. The Commerce Department said the new debt total was $99 billion higher than the $269.2 billion in debt to foreigners that the United States owed at the end of 1986. The debt means that foreigners now own more in U.S. assets than Americans own abroad. For 1987, the government reported that foreign holdings in the United States increased to $1.54 trillion from $1.34 trillion at the end of 1986. American investments overseas totaled $1.17 trillion at the close of 1987, up from $1.07 trillion a year earlier. The difference between foreign investments in this country and American holdings overseas represents the $368.2 billion debt burden the country is carrying. The country now has a debt load greater than the combined total of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, the Third World countries with the largest debt burdens. Critics have charged that the transformation of the United States from the world\'s largest creditor nation, a position it held as recently as 1983, to the world\'s biggest debtor is the chief failure of President Reagan\'s economic policies. Democrats, who hope to use the issue to their advantage in this year\'s presidential campaign, have charged that the burgeoning debt is eroding America\'s political and economic standing in the world. But the administration on Thursday sought to minimize the annual accounting of the country\'s investment position, contending that the figures were a sign of strength showing foreigners still believed America was an excellent place to invest. The United States had an investment surplus of $89.4 billion as recently as 1983. That surplus fell to $3.5 billion in 1984 and disappeared altogether in 1985, the year the country became a net debtor for the first time in 71 years with a debt of $110.7 billion. America\'s investment surplus has evaporated as the country ran up huge merchandise trade deficits during the 1980s, transferring billions of dollars into the hands of foreigners to pay for color televisions, stereo equipment and automobiles. These dollars, now in foreign hands, have been reinvested in the United States in everything from government bonds to real estate, triggering alarm bells and calls in Congress for curbs on foreign investment. Commerce Undersecretary Robert Ortner, briefing reporters Thursday, said the administration was adamantly opposed to curbs being placed on foreign investment in the United States. He also objected to comparing the United States to Third World countries, saying unlike Brazil, the United States owes its debt in its own currency. Private economists have contended that the growing debt burden has already begun to lower Americans\' standard of living as more and more money must be transferred into the hands of foreigners in the form of interest payments and dividends. But Ortner said he believed most Americans regarded the entire debate as a ``big yawn.\'\' He said that even with the growth in foreign investment, the debt still represents only about 4 percent to 5 percent of the country\'s total assets. Ortner said foreigners own about 17 percent of U.S. Treasury securities and about 12 percent of manufacturing assets in the United States. ``I am not calling this report good news. I am trying to argue that it isn\'t terrible news,\'\' he said. Ortner refused to make any projection about how large the debt would grow in coming years, but private economists have estimated it could top $1 trillion in the early 1990s before it begins to level off. ``We are losing control over our own economy and our capital markets. This money doesn\'t come free,\'\' said Lawrence Chimerine, president of the WEFA Group, an economic consulting firm in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics, said the United States has become hostage to the whims of foreign investors. He said foreign uneasiness with a plunging U.S. dollar and rising interest rates was an underlying cause of last October\'s stock market collapse. ``As long as the United States has to rely on foreign financing of such magnitudes, events could at literally any moment trigger a sharp turndown in our economy,\'\' he said. The Commerce Department report said that foreign direct investment in the United States, defined as ownership of at least a 10 percent stake in a company, had climbed 18.8 percent to $261.9 billion in 1987. The nation whose citizens had the biggest share of that investment was Britain, with $74.9 billion, followed by the Netherlands at $47 billion and Japan at $33.4 billion.\r\n'),(1881,2,'Tenneco Inc. reported a third-quarter profit of $7 million on Thursday, compared with a $117 million loss posted for the same period last year. Tenneco\'s 1988 third-quarter earnings amounted to 2 cents per share. Revenue for the 1988 quarter was $3 billion, compared with $2.8 billion last year. Third-quarter results included an after-tax loss of $42 million from discontinued operations of Tenneco Oil Co., which is being sold to several different buyers for an estimated $7.3 billion. That compares with a loss from discontinued operations of $101 million for the same period last year, which includes the discontinued operations for 1987 of Tenneco Oil and the since-sold Tenneco West operations. ``We continue to work toward further strengthening of our remaining businesses and managing them for maximum earnings, cash generation and return on assets through a focus on cost containment, efficiency enhancement and accelerated disposition of underperforming assets within each of the divisions,\'\' said James L. Ketelsen, chairman and chief executive officer. For the nine months, net earnings totaled $224 million, or $1.39 per share, compared with a net loss of $42 million for the 1987 nine-month period. Revenue for the nine months was $9.6 billion this year and $8.7 billion last year. With the sale of its oil and gas properties, Tenneco\'s biggest units will be the profitable natural gas pipeline and its Case IH farm equipment manufacturing sector. Tenneco also maintains shipbuilding, automotive packaging and chemicals units.\r\n'),(1882,2,'A United Airlines workers group announced Friday they were ending an agreement with an investment partnership to acquire the carrier\'s parent, UAL Corp. But in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the worker group, United Employment Acquisition Corp., said it was still interested in acquiring the Chicago-based airline. ``In light of current market conditions and in order to maximize the flexibility of UEAC to pursue any appropriate transaction for the acquisition of UAL, UEAC and Condor Partners L.P. entered into the termination agreement dated as of Sept. 13, 1990,\'\' the filing stated. The disclosure, which came after the markets closed Friday, ended an agreement between UEAC and Condor, an affiliate of Coniston Partners, to help UEAC, a company formed by United\'s unions, acquire UAL. Coniston Partners is the largest shareholder of UAL. Last October, news of the collapse of an employee-management leveraged buyout of UAL prompted a 190-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average. Officials at United Airlines refused to comment on Friday\'s announcement by the employee group. A representative at Coniston Partners called the move a ``non-event\'\' and a ``tactical move.\'\' They refused to comment further.\r\n'),(1883,2,'AB Volvo of Sweden announced that it has bought the bus division of British Leyland, making the major Scandinavian automaker a leading bus manufacturer in Western Europe. The purchase was announced Wednesday in London and Goteborg, Sweden. Volvo acquired the bus division from Leyland\'s management, which took over the company from state-owned Rover Group PLC in January 1987. Under the deal, Volvo acquires Leyland\'s two plants in Farington and Workington in northwestern England with a total of 1,850 employees. The plants make the well-known red double-decker buses. Volvo, Sweden\'s largest and most profitable industrial company which has diversified into food and trading, has already taken over General Motors Corp.\'s truck division. Volvo\'s latest purchase makes it the world\'s second- largest bus maker after Daimler-Benz AG of West Germany. Volvo did not disclose the price it paid for Leyland\'s bus division, which will boost Volvo\'s bus production by 40 percent, to about 5,500 units a year. Volvo\'s bus output rose by 16 percent to a record 3,920 units last year, hitting maximum capacity at its main Swedish plant and a smaller facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The British bus subsidiary will continue to operate as an independent entity although Volvo plans to build about 1,000 of its own buses at the Leyland plants by 1990, a Volvo spokesman said. Volvo\'s main markets are Scandinavia, central Europe and South America, while Leyland buses are mostly marketed in Britain and in British Commonwealth countries. Volvo\'s bus division last year accounted for 2 billion Swedish kronor, around $340 million, or only 2.2 percent of the company\'s total sales of 92.5 billion kronor, or $15.7 billion. Leyland is expected to show a small profit for 1987 on sales of roughly 1 billion kronor, or about $170 million.\r\n'),