(649,2,'Oliver North met with then-Vice President George Bush a few hours after lying to the House intelligence committee about assisting the Nicaraguan Contras, an entry in North\'s White House diaries suggests. Portions of the diaries, released Tuesday, renew questions about whether Bush was more deeply involved in assisting the Contras than he has acknowledged. The 1,400 pages of notebook entries were obtained by a private group, the National Security Archive, as the result of a lawsuit filed against the government. U.S. intelligence agencies still are reviewing the remaining 1,200 pages of North\'s diaries. White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said, ``The vice president\'s role in the Iran-Contra affair was completely examined in the congressional inquiry and we have nothing to add.\'\' Among the disclosures in the newly released material: _On Dec. 20, 1985, North laid out a ``3rd Country Solicitation Plan\'\' in support of the Contras that included trips by Bush to Honduras for an inauguration there. The plan also called for President Reagan to meet with Ecuador\'s president. Bush went to Honduras in January 1986 for the inauguration of President Jose Azcona Hoyo and Reagan met in Washington that month with Ecuadoran President Leon Febres Cordero. There was an elaborate plan in the Reagan administration to induce third countries to support the Contras, according to evidence introduced at North\'s trial last year. Bush has denied being involved in any ``quid pro quo\'\' arrangements providing additional economic and military aid to Honduras in exchange for allowing the Contras to use base camps there. _North\'s notes refer to a noon ``meeting w V.P.\'\' on Aug. 6, 1986. That would have been just 3{ hours after North lied to the House intelligence committee by denying he was supplying military advice to the Contras. North admitted he had lied when he took the witness stand at his own trial last year and when he testified in the recent trial of former National Security Adviser John Poindexter. Shortly before meeting with Bush, according to North\'s diaries, the White House aide had a ``meeting w Don Gregg,\'\' Bush\'s top national security aide. Gregg, now the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, has said he found out about North\'s involvement with the then-secret Contra resupply network on Aug. 8, 1986. Gregg asserts he didn\'t tell Bush about North\'s involvement until four months later, after the Iran-Contra affair became public. The notebooks provide offer no elaboration on the Aug. 6 meeting entries. But earlier that day, the diaries show, North got a call relating to problems in the Contra resupply operation. The call was about Felix Rodriguez, a former CIA operative sent to El Salvador with the blessing of Gregg. Rodriguez wound up working in North\'s Contra resupply network, but had a falling out with him. Rodriguez complained to Gregg on Aug. 8, 1986 that private operators were getting rich off of North\'s network. U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., said he didn\'t believe Congress had seen the page referring to Bush and Gregg and Aug. 6 meetings. ``It clearly at the very least would raise questions which ought to have been put at the time to appropriate witnesses,\'\' Hamilton said of the Aug. 6 entries. ``I would have if I had seen them.\'\' The former House Iran-Contra committee chairman suggested that a congressional investigation might be in order. ``If there is evidence relevant diaries were withheld, redacted or blacked out then I would want\'\' the House intelligence or judiciary committees to ``conduct an investigation,\'\' said Hamilton. ``I would expect the same of the independent counsel,\'\' he added, referring to the Iran-Contra prosecutor\'s office. _North and others in the U.S. government who aren\'t identified by name in his notes met with Panamanian Gen. Manuel Noriega in March 1984, where the discussion focused on the role of Costa Rica as a ``buffer\'\' between Nicaragua and Panama. _A March 6, 1984, entry focused on the ``vulnerabilities\'\' of Roberto D\'Aubuisson, referring to his ``inability to deliver U.S. aid,\'\' saying he was a ``poor military officer\'\' and alleging he ``bumped off best friend.\'\' D\'Aubuisson is the founder of Arena, now the ruling party in El Salvador. ``What were the quids and the quos with all these countries?\'\' Tom Blanton, deputy director of the archive, asked at a news conference. ``What did the vice president know and when did he know it? How much did Don Gregg know?\'\' The Justice Department released the new material from North\'s notebooks in response to a lawsuit filed by the group and by Public Citizen, a group founded by Ralph Nader. North still has the notebooks, but he supplied copies of 900 pages in 1987 to the Iran-Contra congressional committees. His lawyers heavily censored the portions they turned over to Congress. Asked whether North attorney Brendan Sullivan had withheld relevant material from the Iran-Contra congressional committees, Blanton said, ``You bet.\'\' Blanton cited a Jan. 5, 1984, entry stating, ``Costa Rica project approved,\'\' a reference to planned military exercises and other steps designed to counter the threat posed by Nicaragua. One entry said that then-Costa Rican President Alberto Monge ``needs to be stroked.\'\' Reached by telephone at his office, Sullivan said that he has not commented in the past on the Iran-Contra affair and would not do so now. ``This material should never have been withheld from Congress in the first place,\'\' said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., whose Senate subcommittee investigated allegations of narcotics trafficking in connection with the Contras. Kerry said the executive branch should produce the remainder of the material ``without further delay.\'\' North turned over copies of all 2,600 pages of his notebooks to the Iran-Contra prosecutor\'s office at his trial last year. Prosecutors did not object to the turning over of the new batch of material to the private group.\r\n'),(650,2,'A perjury indictment that cost former Police Chief Mack Vines his job was thrown out Tuesday after a judge ruled its allegations were too vague. Former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge John Onion quashed the misdemeanor perjury indictment in a hearing, a court spokeswoman said, referring all other questions to Assistant District Attorney Ted Steinke. Steinke said the DA\'s office was drafting a new indictment that would be filed Wednesday. ``This happens every day in the courthouse. It\'s not unusual at all,\'\' he said. Vines said he was relieved the perjury charge was thrown out. ``I hope and pray that ... the assistant district attorney and the district attorney\'s office will see the wisdom in not refiling,\'\' he said. ``We\'ll review the new indictment, if they file, and see if it\'s properly done,\'\' said his attorney, Bill Boyd. ``If not we\'ll file to quash, again. If they\'ve done it right, we\'ll prepare for trial.\'\' Vines was fired by Dallas City Manager Jan Hart on Sept. 12, hours after being indicted on the perjury charge. He is accused of lying to a special panel investigating the June 1989 firing of officer Patrick LeMaire, who fatally shot an unarmed man last year. LeMaire was reinstated in July by an administrative law judge but declined to return to the police force. The perjury charge alleged that Vines lied to the panel about a telephone conversation he had with assistant police chief Greg Holliday on Aug. 2, the night before Holliday was to testify before the panel. Holliday said Vines tried to influence his testimony. Vines has maintained his innocence. Boyd said the indictment was quashed because ``the law in Texas requires that if you allege perjury, you must first show the statement that you allege to be false and then state what you claim the truth to be.\'\' ``They made a general allegation in the indictment as to what they claimed to be false and they made no allegation as to what they claimed the truth to be,\'\' he said. Tuesday\'s action was the latest setback in the district attorney\'s prosecution of Vines, who had been police chief for two years. Prosecutors initially filed the case in state district court, but were told last month that the court had no jurisdiction because official misconduct was not alleged. The case was moved to Dallas County Criminal Court, where Judge John McCall stepped aside and asked Onion to preside. The city began a nationwide search for a new police chief after Vines\' dismissal. Sixty-two candidates have applied for the job, including Acting Chief Sam Gonzales.\r\n'),(651,2,'Here\'s how many people are old enough to vote in this year\'s election, and how they are spread across the United States, along with figures on the total population. Generally, in the most recent elections when the presidency was at stake, only about half of those who were old enough to vote actually went to the polls. For example, according to the Census Bureau, turnout in the 1984 presidential election was only 53.1 percent of the voting-age population, up from 52.6 percent in 1980. The bureau said turnout was 62.8 percent in 1960, 61.9 percent in 1964, 60.9 percent in 1968, 55.1 percent in 1972, and 53.6 percent in 1976. The last census in 1980 placed the nation\'s total population at 226,546,000, and the next such official count will be in 1990. Meantime, the Census Bureau\'s most recent detailed estimates are that total population reached 243,400,000 in mid-1987 and that 182,628,000 residents will be at least 18 years old when America votes this November. Since the 1984 presidential election, the voting-age population is estimated to have grown by more than 8 million. The bureau points out that voting-age projections are based on the resident population of the United States including members of the armed forces where they reside at their duty stations. It said these projections exclude people overseas _ about 520,000 in the military and 65,000 federal civilian workers plus their dependents of voting age, and an unknown number of other American citizens residing abroad _ who would be eligible to vote by absentee ballot in their home state. Meanwhile, the bureau said that the population of voting age includes many who meet the age requirement but cannot vote. Because citizenship is a universal requirement for voting, aliens are the main group of ineligible voting-age people, the bureau said. About 6.5 million legal aliens and 2.5 million undocumented aliens age 18 or over are included in the estimates and represent roughly 5 percent of the total population of voting age, the bureau said. The bureau also said somewhat more than 680,000 people will be ineligible to vote because they will be in prisons or mental hospitals. Based on Census Bureau reports, here is a state-by-state list covering: _Total population figures from the census on April 1, 1980. _An estimate of what the total population had reached on July 1, 1987, the latest available such list. _An estimate of this November\'s voting-age population (residents aged 18 or over), from projections released in February as a reference for the current election season.\r\n'),(652,2,'COUNTRY SINGLES 1.``If It Don\'t Come Easy\'\' Tanya Tucker (Capitol) 2.``Fallin\' Again\'\' Alabama (RCA) 3.``If You Change Your Mind\'\' Rosanne Cash (Columbia) 4.``Set `Em Up Joe\'\' Vern Gosdin (Columbia) 5.``Workin\' Man (Nowhere to Go)\'\' Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Warner Bros.) 6.``Talkin\' to the Wrong Man\'\' Michael Martin Murphey (Warner Bros.) 7.``I Will Whisper Your Name\'\' Michael Johnson (RCA) 8.``Goodbye Time\'\' Conway Twitty (MCA) 9.``Don\'t We All Have the Right\'\' Ricky Van Shelton (Columbia) 10.``Don\'t Close Your Eyes\'\' Keith Whitley (RCA) 11.``Baby Blue\'\' George Strait (MCA) 12.``Just One Kiss\'\' Exile (Epic) 13.``Sunday Kind of Love\'\' Reba McEntire (MCA) 14.``Midnight Highway\'\' Southern Pacific (Warner Bros.) 15.``He\'s Back and I\'m Blue\'\' The Desert Rose Band (MCA-Curb) 16.``Givers and Takers\'\' Schuyler, Knobloch and Bickhardt (MTM) 17.``Bluest Eyes in Texas\'\' Restless Heart (RCA) 18.``Satisfy You\'\' Sweethearts of the Rodeo (Columbia) 19.``She Doesn\'t Cry Anymore\'\' Shenandoah (Columbia) 20.``I\'ll Give You All My Love Tonight\'\' Bellamy Bros. (MCA-Curb)\r\n'),(653,2,'The government Thursday played down the importance of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev\'s brusque refusal to discuss Japan\'s claim to the disputed Kuril Islands. The issue has prevented the two countries from agreeing on a peace treaty to end World War II officially. It is a main cause for chilly relations even while other countries have made great strides in improving ties with Moscow. Gorbachev\'s latest statement was the banner story in every national Japanese newspaper because it appeared to reverse Moscow\'s grudging willingness to discuss the 45-year-old argument. It could also indicate negative fallout from what Japan had touted as a diplomatic victory at the Houston summit of the seven major industrial democracies this month. Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu was able to persuade other countries to mention the Kurils dispute in a summit communique. Kaifu also rejected Japanese participation in a Western European drive to give financial aid to Moscow, saying the territorial dispute stood in the way. The Soviet leader met in Moscow on Wednesday with a delegation led by Yoshio Sakurauchi, speaker of the powerful lower house of Parliament. Gorbachev turned aside the politician\'s effort to raise Tokyo\'s claim to be the rightful owner of Soviet-held islands off the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Gorbachev, quoted by the official Tass news agency, said the issue had been decided after World War II and the Soviet Union abides by postwar arrangements. ``I do not want to launch a discussion today on the issue that was repeatedly discussed with representatives of Japan,\'\' Tass quoted Gorbachev as saying. ``I can repeat today: We do not have a territorial issue.\'\' The Kyodo News Service said Gorbachev went on to hint he may cancel a trip to Tokyo tentatively set for early 1991 if Japan insists only on talking about the territorial dispute. Japan is banking on Gorbachev\'s trip to Tokyo as a chance to make progress on the issue. Both the Foreign Ministry and chief government spokesman Misoji Sakamoto said Thursday they believe the trip will take place as planned. ``As far as the government is concerned, there is no need to be overly affected by\'\' Gorbachev\'s comment, Sakamoto said at a news conference. A Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it appeared Gorbachev was simply stating the official Soviet position. The official said Japan has an ``earnest intention\'\' to improve relations with the Soviet Union but stressed the most important problem is the territorial issue. Soviet troops captured the islands in the last days of World War II and claims them as historically Russian territory. Japan demands their return on grounds that they had been ceded to Japan in 19th-century agreements. The Kurils make up a string of three islands and a cluster of islets lying in waters rich with salmon and other marine resources. The islands also have strategic value as a barrier to access between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk.\r\n'),(654,2,'Moslem militants fighting for Kashmir\'s secession from India opened fire today on air force officers, killing at least four, police said. The killings raised to at least 61 the number of people killed in Kashmir since Saturday, when the lingering Moslem movement for secession from Hindu-majority India flared. Most of the killings have occured in confrontations between troops enforcing an around-the-clock curfew and mobs of militants defying the curfew. ``The attack makes it clear that the terrorists want to make targets of anyone who is associated with the Indian government,\'\' said a police official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The air force officers were waiting for a bus to take them to the Srinagar airport when they were attacked by assailants who drove up in a car, the police official said. Three of the officers were killed on the spot in repeated bursts of fire from automatic rifles and at least four others were wounded, two of them seriously, he said. One of the wounded died at a hospital. A woman and a child walking by were also hurt, the official said. Witnesses said they saw at least five bodies being carried away after the shooting. Hundreds of troops and paramilitary police have been deployed to halt the violence in Srinagar, famous for its lakes and tourist resorts. Troops and the militants exchanged gunfire at four places in the city during a four-hour curfew relaxation which began at 5 a.m. today, police said. No deaths were reported although one para-military policeman was wounded, police said. Under the curfew imposed Saturday, people have been ordered to stay indoors except for brief periods when the ban is lifted to enable people to shop. Islamic militants are demanding either independence for predominantly Moslem Kashmir or union with neighboring Islamic Pakistan. Kashmir forms the northern part of Jammu-Kashmir state and Srinagar is the summer capital. The Jammu region, which lies south of Kashmir, is predominantly Hindu. Claimed by India and Pakistan, Kashmir was divided into Indian and Pakistani sectors by a cease-fire line that is monitored by U.N. military observers. The dispute over the territory, which has led to two wars, began after India and Pakistan were partitioned on gaining independence from Britain in 1947. India has often accused Pakistan of aiding Kashmiri militants, and Pakistan has routinely denied the charge. About 64 percent of Jammu-Kashmir\'s 5 million people are Moslems. Nationwide, Moslems comprise 12 percent of India\'s 880 million people and Hindus make up 82 percent.\r\n'),(655,2,'A court decision allowing audio tapes of counseling to be used in a murder trial has mental health professionals worried that the ancient tradition of patient confidentiality is in danger. California courts opened the door to the psychotherapist\'s office a bit wider with a decision Aug. 6 allowing tapes of counseling to be used against brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez in the slaying of their parents. Jose and Kitty Menendez were shot repeatedly at close range in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. Six months later, police arrested Lyle, 21, and Erik, 19, alleging the young men coveted their parents\' $15 million estate. Prosecutors argued that tapes of the brothers\' counseling sessions with therapist L. Jerome Oziel, in which they reportedly confessed to killing their parents, could be used as evidence. Superior Court Judge James Albracht agreed, saying the tapes were not covered by laws guarding patint-therapist communication. These statutes are an extension of the right of privacy between doctor and patient that dates to Greek philosopher Hippocrates, the founder of modern medicine. The Hippocratic oath, still taken by new physicians, binds doctors to secrecy about their patients\' cases. Many psychotherapists say the courts are eroding this vow when the need to protect society clashes with an individual\'s right to privacy. ``Confidentiality is the cornerstone of the relationship between patient and therapist,\'\' said Win Schachter, an attorney for the American Psychological Association in Sacramento. ``They (patients) talk about their most intimate and deepest thoughts. If there is a hole in that privacy, they will feel less secure and safe.\'\' Albracht\'s Menendez decision was upheld by the state Court of Appeal and is now before the California Supreme Court, which ordered the tapes sealed until it decides whether to hear the case. In making his decision, Albracht cited a recent state Supreme Court case, People vs. Clark. William John Clark was convicted of injuring his former therapist and murdering her husband by setting the couple\'s home on fire. While in therapy during the trial, Clark told another psychologist he wanted to kill two other people. That therapist warned the two people, following guidelines established in a 1974 landmark duty-to-warn ruling called the Tarasoff decision. She later testified about Clark\'s murderous desires. Clark, sentenced to death, appealed the verdict, arguing that he had not given his therapist permission to break confidentiality. But the Supreme Court ruled the sessions were not privileged because the therapist had already broken confidentiality by issuing the warnings, as required under Tarasoff. Since the Oziel tapes - as well as transcripts of the secret hearings on their admissibility - remain sealed, it is not known for sure what parallels exist between the Clark and Menendez cases. Yet a woman who claims to have had a romantic relationship with Oziel said in the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine that the therapist let her listen to sessions in which the brothers confessed to the murders. Although Oziel has denied he shared the tapes, refusing further comment, prosecutors say the brothers threatened the therapist. Under Tarasoff, this would make the counselor\'s alleged sharing of the tapes acceptable and therefore admissable in the Menendez case under Clark. ``Once the facts become known,\'\' Albracht said, ``it will be fairly clear that this case falls squarely within the statute.\'\' Gerald Chaleff, Lyle Menendez\'s attorney, acknowledged that threats were made but questioned the judge\'s decision to allow all the tapes into evidence. ``What has to be divulged is only what is necessary to prevent danger,\'\' he said. The APA\'s Schachter said the Menendez decision could have a chilling effect on therapy. ``The decision might imply that any careless words or placing of files might inadvertently trigger an opening of what was believed to have been confidential,\'\' he said. ``It could be incredibly damaging.\'\' However, Elliott Alhadeff, the prosecutor who argued for the tapes to be released, said, ``The patient has nothing to worry about as long as he trusts his psychotherapist.\'\' In the 1950s and 1960s, nearly all states passed laws requiring physicians and therapists to report suspected child abuse. Next came the far-reaching Tarasoff decision by the California Supreme Court. It requires counselors to warn people who they feel may be in danger from their patients, based on conclusions stemming from the patients\' treatment. The decision makes thetherapist liable for civil damages for any harm that may occur. Dozens of other court decisions have further limited patient privacy, and therapists wonder where it will end. ``Will we have the same duty to prevent burglary, or if someone says he is going to punch that kid?\'\' asked Gary Schoener, a Minneapolis psychologist who has published many articles on confidentiality. ``Where do you draw the line? You can\'t expect the therapist to do the job of policing society.\'\'\r\n'),(656,2,'The Marlboro man has corralled his last horse and Salem\'s ``springtime\'\' has ended on Hong Kong TV following a cigarette ad ban that began today in this British colony. The ban is part of a growing campaign in Asia against tobacco companies, which have been accused of targeting Asia\'s women and children. In a related development, Hong Kong\'s legislature has urged the government to ban children under the age of 15 from smoking in restaurants. ``Smoking parties\'\' where a group of young people lounge around a table and chain-smoke cigarettes is a popular pastime in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is also readying legislation to ban smoking in ferries, buses, taxis, government buildings, cinemas and theaters. In other Asian countries, Indonesia has banned smoking in most schools and Singapore has moved to limit advertising.\r\n'),(657,2,'Soldiers shot at anti-government demonstrators in central Bucharest tonight after the protesters occupied state-run television and stormed and burned police headquarters, witnesses said. One witness reported seeing at least two bodies after the shooting, but this could not be immediately confirmed. The most serious violence in the Romanian capital since December\'s revolution that toppled the Ceausescu regime was caused by a pre-dawn police raid that ended a 53-day anti-Communist protest in University Square. Demonstrators clashed with police during the afternoon in the square, then fanned out to police headquarters, secret police headquarters, the TV station and Victory Square, headquarters of the governing National Salvation Front. The shooting occurred outside the secret police headquarters, where the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu\'s hated Securitate force operated. Before the buildings were attacked, President-elect Ion Iliescu issued a communique calling on all ``aware and responsible people\'\' to surround government buildings and state TV to ward off ``extremist groups\'\' and to save Romania\'s democracy ``earned with so much difficulty.\'\' Scottish free-lance photographer Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert said he saw soldiers shooting from inside the Securitate building in downtown Bucharest. He said he saw the body of a man in his 40s who had been shot in the head. He said other photographers had seen at least one more body near the building, which was ringed by half a dozen armored personnel carriers. State-run television, scene of fierce fighting during December\'s revolution, was stormed by the protesters who occupied one of the main studios. An announcer said they might not be able to transmit any longer. Minutes later, the picture was cut and shortly afterward the sound was also cut. Demonstrators carrying gasoline cans got into headquarters of the regular police this evening and set fire to cars and trucks nearby. About 1,500 people stood outside, watching the right wing of the building burn. Some civilians working in the headquarters leaned out the windows, looking panicked and coughing. Every few minutes, there were minor explosions, apparently from gasoline in the vehicles set ablaze. People who thronged the streets booed as helicopters flew overhead surveying the situation. The demonstrators say Communists still dominate the National Salvation Front, which has been in power since the December revolution and which won last month\'s free elections by a landslide. The government said more than 260 people were detained when steel-helmeted police moved in before dawn to break up the sit-in in University Square that had blocked the capital\'s main thoroughfare for 53 days. Witnesses said the police clubbed several protesters. Casualty figures were not immediately available, but officials said one policeman was injured in the clash with an estimated 1,000 people supporting the demonstrators. About 20 hunger strikers were among those camped in a small tent city in University Square. Police took the fasting demonstrators, some of whom had gone without food for a month, to the hospital. The protesters supporting the hunger strikers freed two people detained in a police van then overturned the vehicle and set it on fire, witnesses said. Several buses and trucks were also reported on fire. The attack on the police headquarters occurred several hours later. A government communique issued soon after the square was cleared said 263 people were detained for investigation. It accused protesters of attempting to resist the police with violence and said some arms were confiscated. Brindusa Muresan, who had been on a hunger striker since May 9, said some of her colleagues were clubbed by police in the lobby of the nearby Intercontinental Hotel. She said they were taken to a police station, fingerprinted and photographed and sent to the hospital for tests. Protesters, their ranks sometimes swelling to as many as 10,000 by day, had blocked traffic in the central square since April 22, dubbing the area a ``Communist-free zone.\'\' The protesters have pressed for a 10-year ban on former Communists officials _ such as Iliescu _ holding office. The demonstrators also demanded independent and private broadcast media. Government officials who met with the hunger strikers for the first time on Monday pledged their support for establishing such stations.\r\n'),(658,2,'The nation\'s newspaper publishers on Tuesday watched videotaped interviews with Americans who say they don\'t read newspapers very much, then debated how to change that. An advertising consultant advised the publishers to adopt a more local focus, suggesting that international issues such as the push for independence in Lithuania don\'t sell advertising. A publisher countered that newspapers still reach a larger audience than any other news medium. The comments were made during a panel discussion at the American Newspaper Publishers Association 104th annual convention. The discussion, moderated by Jeff Greenfield of ABC News, was called ``Ozzie and Harriet Are Gone _ Who Do You Think You\'re Writing For?\'\' Virginia Dodge Fielder, vice president of research for Knight-Ridder Inc., expressed industry frustration in trying to pinpoint the cause of declining readership. ``I wish people hated us more,\'\' she said. ``I wish they expressed more dissatisfaction because if they did we\'d know how to tackle it. ... What the public is saying is not `I hate you\' but `I don\'t need you. You\'re a great electric company, but I live in an all-gas house.\'\'\' The session opened with videotaped interviews in which subjects were asked if they read a newspaper. ``I don\'t have time,\'\' was a common response. Several said that TV news was ``easier.\'\' One man said he felt less connected to his local newspaper since big business had taken it over. The comment echoed a message emphasized by Laurel Cutler, vice chairman of FCB-Leber Katz partners and vice president of consumer affairs for the Chrysler Corp. ``The only specialized thing about a newspaper is its locality,\'\' she told the audience. Localness is what you have to sell. That\'s why USA Today is a very peculiar animal. I guess it\'s the local newspaper for people on airlines.\'\' Frank A. Daniels Jr., president and publisher of The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., interjected that ``a newspaper traditionally has been a smorgasbord. You have something in there for everybody.\'\' But Ms. Cutler warned against newspapers trying to be ``all things to all people\'\' and suggested specialization was more appealing to advertisers. ``The more generalized, the more all things to all people, the less we care about you,\'\' she said. Daniels suggested that newspapers might have to follow the lead of American Express, which created different categories of cards for different income brackets. He noted that a newspaper subscription is costly and perhaps different price brackets for different incomes would encourage more readership. ``How do we create a platinum card newspaper?\'\' he asked. Greenfield suggested that the puzzle of declining readership may not be complex. ``Is it possible that the reason people read newspapers so devotedly in 1940 is there was nothing else to inform them?\'\' he asked. ``And maybe this age of newspapers is like the buggy whip manufacturers in 1910.\'\' Publishers and editors on the panel disagreed. ``One thing you may be overlooking is how adaptable newspapers are,\'\' said C. Shelby Coffey III, editor and executive vice president of the Los Angeles Times. He noted that the Times has numerous regional bureaus to keep the paper local but has inaugurated a new ``World Report\'\' section to emphasize global developments. ``Research at the Times shows that international news is of great interest to readers,\'\' he said. Coffey and Gerald Garcia, editor and publisher of The Knoxville (Tenn.) Journal, also urged development of a multi-ethnic reporting force to keep up with interests of a diverse reading audience. Coffey called it ``the polycultural newsroom.\'\' Consultant Ronald Brown, president of Banks, Brown Inc. of San Francisco, noted that the interests of that city\'s Chinese-Americn population are underrepresented in its newspapers All panelists agreed that improved education would improve readership of newspapers.\r\n'),(659,2,'Share prices took the largest drop of the year today on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and the dollar fell sharply against the Japanese yen. The Nikkei Stock Average of 225 selected issues, a 251.67-point loser the day before, plunged 513.09 points, or 1.89 percent, closing at 27,149.03 points. It was the largest one-day decline of the key index since December 26, 1987, when the Nikkei fell 587.50 points. Stock brokers attributed the decline purely to the internal reasons. They said steel and shipbuilding shares, which had supported the market over the past few weeks, finally gave way and led to a decline across the board. Nippon Steel, one of the largest shares on the exchange, had risen from the 400\'s to 750 yen in less than two months, but lost 54 points today. ``I can\'t see any outstanding reason why shares, especially steel shares, fell this much today,\'\' said Ichitaro Watanabe, a broker at Nikko Securities Co. ``The market seems to have entered a transitional stage. The 500-point drop is a result of an adjustment made for the transition.\'\' Another stock broker said the plunge without apparent reason indicated steel and ship building shares can no longer sustain the market. ``The market as a whole was not in a good mood in the last two weeks except for steel and shipbuilding shares,\'\' said Keiichi Nishida of Kidder Peabody. ``Today\'s plunge indicates the end of the steel-led market. Investors have to find other shares they can count on.\'\' In the foreign exchange market, the dollar, which gained 1.75 yen Monday, closed at 133.85 yen, down 1.30 yen from Monday\'s close. After opening at 134.30 yen, it traded in a range of 133.70-134.38 yen. Currency dealers said early morning speculation on whether the Bank of Japan would intervene in the market and sell dollars was the major cause of the currency\'s decline. ``The speculation led to a one-sided selling of the dollar,\'\' said an exchange dealer at a major U.S. bank in Tokyo, speaking on condition of anonymity.\r\n'),(660,2,'Soldiers raided illegal gold mines in the Amazon jungle and arrested more than 300 people, mostly foreigners, Foreign Minister Reinaldo Figueredo said Saturday. Most of the illegal miners detained in last week\'s raids were taken to Puerto Ayacucho, a jungle outpost on the Orinoco River about 400 miles south of Caracas, where they were to be tried on charges of damaging the environment, authorities said. Since last year, the federal government has made more than 1,000 arrests in attempting to staunch an invasion of miners crossing the unmarked jungle border between Brazil and Venezuela. The mining process, which uses mercury, has been blamed for poisoning rivers and for the deaths of several Yanomami Indians in Venezuela\'s isolated, largely roadless Amazonas territory. The government is trying to protect the estimated 14,000 Yanomami living in Venezuela, possibly the most isolated and largest primitive tribe remaining on earth. Defense Minister Hector Jurado Toro said about 800 soldiers were involved in the sweep. The troops dismantled mining operations and detained everyone who did not manage to escape into the jungle, he said.\r\n'),(661,2,'The Bush administration could support cutting U.S. aid to Israel and Egypt if similar cuts were applied to other nations as a way of freeing money for emerging democracies, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said Thursday. Baker told a House subcommittee that ``we\'re willing to stand up and be counted\'\' on such a plan because it would result in the flexibility to put foreign aid money where it is most needed. The secretary also told the panel he has done ``pretty much all we can do\'\' to bring the Israelis into talks with a Palestinian delegation aimed at setting up elections in the occupied territories. An Israeli Cabinet meeting was scheduled for Sunday. In answer to a question by Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, Baker said administration support for the cuts would ``depend on whether we do it in a non-discriminatory manner.\'\' In his busy Middle East diplomacy, Baker said, he has not found any significant reduction in tensions. But he added: ``At the same time, we must find a way to respond to changes in Eastern Europe, in Panama and in Nicaragua.\'\' ``If these leaders are not able to produce for their people, we will rue the day\'\' that the United States fell short in providing aid, he said. ``We are talking about supporting an extraordinary outbreak of freedom and democracy.\'\' Baker also said he did not want to see a repetition of the current year\'s budget crunch, in which some friendly countries that expected U.S. aid got little or nothing because 90 percent of the aid budget was already earmarked by Congress for specific other recipients. ``We ought not to be hidebound by what\'s been done over the past 10 years,\'\' Baker said. He said economic aid to all of Africa totaled just $14 million this year ``because there\'s no one up here lobbying for them.\'\' His comments were the clearest indication yet that the administration would accept cuts to Israel and Egypt, which get the largest slice of U.S. aid as a result of their participation in the Camp David Middle East peace accord a decade ago. Israel is receiving $3 billion this year and Egypt $2.1 billion, out of an overall budget of roughly $10 billion for bilateral aid. The administration has asked Congress for the same amounts for both countries next year. Baker left himself some latitude, saying he could also support a total elimination of earmarks or the creation of a new discretionary fund which the administration could use to meet new needs that develop during the year. He also said he could support enlargement of the overall foreign aid budget. But he acknowledged that those outcomes are unlikely. Earmarks have been almost sacred in Congress because of the political clout of the countries which receive them and because of lawmakers\' view that such spending guidance is their prerogative as keepers of the federal purse. It is equally difficult to increase foreign aid spending because of the popular notion that money spent overseas is wasted. Bush has proposed an increase of about $800 million for fiscal 1991, which begins Oct. 1, to an overall level of $15.3 billion. But potential new aid recipients have been popping up faster than the budget can accommodate them. Already there are demands for new aid to Eastern European countries emerging from Soviet domination, reparations to a newly democratic Panama, and support for the new democratic government in Nicaragua. Earlier this year, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., proposed finding the money for such needs by cutting 5 percent from the top current aid recipients. The administration denied planting the idea with Dole at the time, but expressed agreement with its goal of increased flexibility in distributing aid money. In his testimony, Baker also said the administration would support $400 million in loan guarantees for Israel to build housing for an influx of Soviet Jewish refugees, but only if Israel offers assurances that it would not put any new settlers in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza strip. The money is expected to be added to an upcoming supplemental appropriations bill and is likely to win congressional approval because of Israel\'s strong support on Capitol Hill. Israel has declined to provide such assurances about future settlement, but has contended that in the past that about 1 percent of refugees have settled in the territories. ``Settlements are not conducive to the peace process\'\' because they aggravate tensions with Palestinian residents, Baker said. ``We see them as an obstacle to peace... It is not unreasonable to ask some assurances these funds will not be used to create new settlements or expand old settlements in the occupied territories.\'\' Baker also said ``we\'re coming very close to the time when we will know one way or the other\'\' whether Israel will accept a proposal for talks with a Palestinian delegation about elections among the 1.7 million Palestinians in the territories. Baker has been expressing growing impatience with Israel\'s failure to respond to his proposals, aired during his meetings with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Israel. ``We\'ve really done pretty much all we can do, we think, from our end, and we are waiting for a response from the Israeli government,\'\' Baker said.\r\n'),(662,2,'Government forces fired at the Golden Temple today after seizing surrounding buildings and tightening their grip on the shrine, where militant Sikh separatists were holed up for a sixth day. Sikh extremists and government commandos traded intermittent fire through the night inside the sprawling temple complex, home of the Sikh faith\'s holiest sanctuary. At least 27 people, mostly Sikh militants, have been killed during the siege that began Monday. About 20 women and children, thought to be relatives of the militants, remain in the temple, Amritsar Police Chief K.P.S. Gill said. Government forces on Friday seized about one-third of the complex, including adjacent temple offices and a hostel. That left the militants with the equivalent of 3{ city blocks, including the temple. The extremists inside the temple complex are thought to number fewer than 100. Police sharpshooters killed at least six militants Friday, including one who tried to shoot his way out of the complex. Police said no government troops have been killed since the siege began. About 2,800 troops are posted outside the temple. Most of the militants are believed to be entrenched at the western side of the complex, officers said. But they said any government assault would more likely come from the west, officers said. ``The eastern side is difficult to enter because terrorists are still holding two 80-foot towers overlooking that entrance,\'\' said a paramilitary officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. Authorities escorted journalists to a sandbagged position atop a buildimg overlooking the towers today. In a two-hour period, government troops regularly fired machine gun bursts into the temple compound, but only sporadic shots were returned. S.D.S. Aswal, deputy superintendent of the Central Reserve Police Force, said the Sikhs did not fire from the tower in daylight because that would give away their position: ``They start firing from portholes cut into the tower after late evening.\'\' The bunker had a commanding view of the Golden Temple and the sacred pool that surrounds it. One body was seen lying near a marble walkway. In the square facing the compound\'s main entrance, cane-wielding police charged at a group of Sikhs who attempted to march into the temple. At least eight marchers were arrested, said witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity. The siege is the biggest massing of forces outside the Golden Temple since June 1984, when the army stormed the 400-year-old shrine to dislodge the Sikh militants. More than 1,200 people were killed, and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who ordered the raid, was assassinated five months later by her Sikh bodyguards. Sikh militants have waged a campaign of violence, often gunning down whole family of Hindus and moderate Sikhs, in their battle to establish a Sikh homeland in northern Punjab state, which includes Amritsar. Although Sikhs form only 2 percent of India\'s total population, they are a majority in Punjab. The Sikhs say they are discriminated against by Hindus, who comprise 82 percent of India\'s 800 million people.\r\n'),(663,2,'Twenty years after a sniper\'s bullet felled Martin Luther King Jr., his dream of equality and prosperity for American blacks still shines like a beacon. Despite some remarkable progress, however, for too many it remains only a dream. The first story of three in a series that assesses black progress in economics, politics and social influence looks at a poor West Side Chicago neighborhood where King lived in 1966 to wage war on slums and poverty.\r\n'),(664,2,'President Bush lashed out today at the Democrats, saying their ``stranglehold on Congress\'\' is to blame for the skyrocketing deficit and ``government by gridlock in Washington.\'\' ``Twenty-nine out of the last 35 years of Democrat control is long enough. We must have more Republicans in Congress,\'\' Bush said at a $100-a-plate fund-raising breakfast for GOP Senate candidate Allen Kolstad, Montana\'s lieutenant governor, who is trying to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Baucus. Bush reiterated his promise to negotiate a budget agreement ``without preconditions\'\' and said ``we are getting some good cooperation with the leadership on the Democratic side of the aisle\'\' in those talks. He devoted most of the speech to a strident attack on the opposition, who control the Senate by a 55-45 margin and the House by 257-176. Bush is hoping to wrest back control of the Senate for the GOP in this fall\'s 34 Senate races. ``With the Democrats now in the control of the United States Congress, both houses, we\'re facing government by gridlock in Washington, with spending skyrocketing out of control, good legislation thrown aside for pork barrel programs and a budget deficit looming over our children\'s children,\'\' Bush said. ``While the Republican Party is using everything we\'ve got to build a strong, competitive America, the Democratic stranglehold on the United States Congress has finally taken its toll,\'\' he said. ``Enough is enough. We must end this \'deficits don\'t matter\' mentality,\'\' Bush said. ``I do not want to preside over these godawful deficits that are saddling these young people here with billions in debt.\'\' He attacked Congress for not passing his educational excellence act and his version of child care legislation, and blasted it for adding $3.5 billion to his request for $800 million in emergency aid for Panama and Nicaragua last spring. It took 108 days to win passage of the bill, Bush said, a delay that ``jeopardized the hard-won freedom of the brave people of Nicaragua and Panama. That\'s more than a difference between parties. In my view that was a disgrace.\'\' Later, at an anti-drug rally in Daylis Stadium, Bush criticized Congress for not passing his anti-crime package. Standing in front of a huge banner with a map of Montana and the legend, ``Don\'t Let Drugs Cloud The Big Sky,\'\' Bush declared, ``It\'s time for Congress to act. Our children, our communities and our cops have waited long enough.\'\' Bush was flying later to Cheyenne, Wyo., to attend a Frontier Days parade and rally, inspect the nation\'s only squadron of 50 MX missiles in their silos at Warren Air Force Base and get in a quick fishing trip to the Middle Crow Creek Fishing Area before heading back to Washington. Asked why Bush was going out of his way to inspect the newest nuclear missile in the U.S. arsenal at a time of reduced East-West tensions, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the president wanted to underscore ``the need to maintain a strong defense during changing times.\'\' Soviet missiles are still ``aimed at us. Our relations are changing, but both countries have millions of men under arms,\'\' Fitzwater said aboard Air Force One. ``We can\'t let down our guard.\'\' At a GOP fund-raising dinner in Boise, Idaho, on Thursday, Bush defended his reversal on tax increases and blamed Congress for the looming $160 billion deficit. Addressing 900 people at an event that raised upwards of $200,000 for Rep. Larry Craig\'s Senate race, the president said Congress ``appropriates every dollar and tells the president how to spend every single penny.\'\' ``I have said I will negotiate without preconditions. And I will,\'\' he said. ``You\'ve seen the firestorm about revenues being on the table,\'\' aid Bush, who sowed discord in Republican ranks last month by abandoning his ``no new taxes\'\' campaign pledge in acknowledging that ``tax revenue increases\'\' are needed to cut the deficit. ``Well, I\'ve done my part and now it\'s their turn. A truly comprehensive package, not a temporary Band-Aid. There must be reform of the budget process and there must be real spending control,\'\' Bush said, his voice rising to a shout. ``The American people are entitled to that!\'\'\r\n'),(665,2,'The White House, on the heels of revelations that five employees were relieved of their duties as authorities investigate drug use, said today it will soon begin mandatory, random drug tests. Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the months-old investigation, which has resulted in the dismissal of two National Security Council clerks and the suspension of three White House guards, ``illustrates all too well the terrible fact of drug use in our society.\'\' Reagan, asked at a picture-taking session about the developments, first reported in today\'s Washington Post, said, ``Yes, of course I am upset that it (drug use) is found anywhere.\'\' Asked if he thought his security had ever been endangered, the president replied, ``No, I don\'t think so.\'\' Reagan, posing with Republican congressmen who had come to the White House to discuss drug policy options, said that if White House workers are found to have used drugs he would like to see them enter drug treatment programs. ``If it was just a case of using\'\' drugs, Reagan said, ``then I would like to see us do our best to get them into a drug-treatment organization with a view to attempting a cure. ... Let the people know that then we will do our best to salvage anyone who has been a victim.\'\' On Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Liz Murphy said the two clerks had ``admitted drug use and were separated from the NSC.\'\' Fitzwater today told reporters that the clerks ``agreed to resign\'\' several months ago, ``during the winter.\'\' Asked at what level the NSC clerks worked, Fitzwater said he could not specify except to say they were at the ``secretary level.\'\' Pressed to say whether the two were involved in handling sensitive matters, he responded, ``It\'s fair to assume that everyone who works at the NSC has access to sensitive material.\'\' Fitzwater said Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan, who has led a campaign to ``just say no to drugs,\'\' have known of the investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Secret Service ``for several months. ``It was started last winter when allegations were brought to the attention of the Secret Service,\'\' Fitzwater said. He said the tip had come from a member of the Uniformed Division, whose officers guard the Executive Mansion. But the White House later today corrected Fitzwater\'s statement, saying the information had come from outside the Secret Service. Fitzwater would not say today what drugs had been involved. The Post, however, quoted an unnamed source as saying that a transaction involving cocaine had taken place on the White House grounds. Fitzwater said today there was no evidence produced by the investigation so far to substantiate that any such drug sales occurred. Fitzwater said that White House employees will be sent a letter giving them 60 days\' notice of the mandatory, random drug testing. Fitzwater said the tests will be conducted six times a year, with each round involving about 2 percent of the approximately 1,600 employees of the executive office of the president. Included are employees of the Office of Management and Budget, the National Security Council and the office of the vice president and first lady. The spokesman also said that the Secret Service will begin on July 13 a program of pre-employment drug testing for job applicants. ``We have been advised that drugs were not used or sold on the White House premises and there was no breach of security,\'\' he said, although Fitzwater cautioned that the investigation by the U.S. attorney\'s office, Secret Service and DEA was continuing. Names of the five employees were not released. Evidence in the investigation, begun several months ago, has been turned over to the U.S. attorney\'s office, Secret Service spokesman Robert Snow said Wednesday. ``No arrests have been made,\'\' Snow said. ``These are only administrative actions at this point.\'\' Two of the guards were relieved of their duties last Friday. The third was placed on leave Monday. It was not clear when the NSC clerks were fired. Asked why the clerks were no longer on the payroll while the Secret Service officers were on paid leave, Fitzwater said the guards have the protection of civil service appeal processes while members of the executive office serve at the pleasure of the president. In addition to guarding the White House grounds, uniformed members of the Secret Service guard the vice president\'s home and foreign embassies. They also travel with the president to provide security. The NSC, chaired by the president, advises the president on matters of national security.\r\n'),(666,2,'Five radical students armed with bombs and knives seized a U.S. Information Service office today and detonated two bombs and started a fire before police overpowered them. Two of the students brandishing explosive devices and draped in South Korean flags stood at shattered windows on the second floor yelling ``Yankee go home\'\' as riot police ringed the building. U.S. Embassy officials said they had no reports of injuries, but the attackers smashed windows and set a fire in a periodical storage room. Thick smoke filled part of the building located in the heart of Seoul. People inside the building at the time of the attack, including at least one American, were not detained by the radicals. The students, who said they were members of the ``Young Student Suicide Group\'\' claimed they had 18 bombs and screamed at surrounding police to stay away. They tossed down a statement charging the United States was attempting to make South Korea a colony. ``Yankees stay out of Korea,\'\' the students yelled. A police officer said it was unclear how many of the explosive devices the attackers had. The bombs were crude chemical devices, possibly some kind of plastic explosive, he said. About 200 radical students hurling firebombs and rocks clashed with riot police about an hour later outside Myungdong Cathedral. Police fired volleys of tear gas at the students who yelled slogans denouncing President-elect Roh Tae-woo, who is to be sworn in Thursday. Hundreds of protesters had gathered at the cathedral less than a mile from the U.S. Information Service office earlier in the afternoon for an anti-government protest. ``Down with Roh Tae-woo,\'\' the students yelled. Some of the attackers were reading in the office\'s library when there was a large explosion in a nearby roon and they suddenly pulled out bombs and started screaming slogans, eyewitnesses said. At least one of the attackers pulled out a knife and brandished it, they said. ``He was kind of crazy-eyed,\'\' said Paul Wadden, a visiting American teacher who was reading in the library at the time. The attackers smashed three windows overlooking the main street outside and two of them stood shouting slogans out into the street and brandishing bombs and cigaretee lighters. Riot police stood on the sidewalk below with shields covering their heads and shattered glass covered the street. The students tossed at least one bomb into the street where it exploded harmlessly, eyewitnesses said. A second bomb was tossed out, but did not explode, they said. People caught in the library said the students did not attempt to detain them and they were able to leave after recovering from their initial shock. Wadden said he and other people were prevented from leaving downstairs for up to 10 minutes by building guards. There were about 40 people in the library at the time, most of them Koreans, eyewitnesses said. Police who entered the building by the rear entrance overpowered the protesters about 30 minutes after the attack began. The students were taken out of the building in a bus with covered windows. U.S. Embassy officials said South Korean riot police entered the building at their request. Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita arrived at the Lotte Hotel across the street from the U.S. Information Service office just as the incident ended, officials said. Takeshita is in Seoul for Roh\'s inauguration. American diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they did not know why the students attacked the U.S. facility. ``We have no idea what the motivation was,\'\' an embassy official said. The United States is South Korea\'s chief ally. Washington has 40,000 troops in South Korea under a mutual defense pact against communist North Korea. The U.S. Information Service provides reading material and other materials on the United States and operates libraries and information centers around the world in conjunction with American embassies. The service office in Seoul is located about half a mile from the American Embassy. The same office was seized by 73 radical students for four days in May, 1985 as an anti-American protest. They ended the occupation peacefully and some later received prison sentences. U.S. Embassy officials were unable to explain today how the attackers were able to bring weapons into the well-guarded building. Visitors must pass a metal detector, present identification and have their bags searched and there are police guards inside and outside. The statement by the students denounced Roh as a puppet who had been installed by the United States. South Korean radicals have repeatedly charged the United States has kept a series of authoritarian governments in power in South Korea. Roh, a former general, won the first democratic elections in 16 years last December.\r\n'),(667,2,'Lt. Gov. Martha Griffiths says Gov. James Blanchard lost his job in part because he removed her as a running mate. ``I don\'t know if I feel vindicated, but I think it clearly shows that I won it for him the first two times,\'\' Griffiths said Wednesday after Republican John Engler defeated Blanchard by 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent. In announcing last summer he was dropping her from the ticket, Blanchard said he was concerned about the 78-year-old Griffiths\' ability to run the state in the event something happened to him. ``I feel bad for him, but he took some very bad advice,\'\' she said. ``I would have gotten out the Detroit vote,\'\' she said, referring to the low turnout in Detroit, which analysts said hurt Blanchard. Griffiths said voters also told her repeatedly they had planned to vote against Blanchard because he took her off the ticket. Griffiths said Blanchard officials never took her up on an offer to campaign for the two-term governor.\r\n'),(668,2,'An out of control stock car flew through a fence and into the bleachers during a race, killing one spectator and injuring 13 others, authorities said. The driver, who estimated he was traveling at 50 mph, was able to walk away from Sunday\'s crash at Lakeside Speedway. The car, which landed in an open space between the guard rails and the grandstands after tearing through a chain link fence, ``looked like it had gone through a compactor,\'\' said Lakeside police Sgt. Bob Wall. Those injured were sitting in the front row, said spectator Mike Garrison of Thornton. Another race driver, Don Cash, said he was about five lengths behind the car driven by Gary Burton when Burton lost control. ``He hit the wall and got airborne,\'\' said Cash. ``I looked again and it (the car) just went around like a helicopter.\'\' Burton, 22, got out and walked away after the crash, Cash said. Burton was taken to a hospital shaken but uninjured, authorities said. Burton said the track was slick. ``The car got loose and tagged the guardrail. I got a little too close to the guardrail,\'\' said Burton. Kristy Carlson, 26, of suburban Arvada, was pronounced dead at St. Anthony Hospital late Sunday, said spokesman Randy Shook. Twelve others were injured and taken to hospitals, but only a 4-year-old girl with a broken arm and head injuries was admitted for observation. The accident occurred midway through the 25-lap main event on the fifth-mile paved oval, Cash said. Lakeside is a tiny incorporated town between Denver and Wheat Ridge with a population of about 15 residents.\r\n'),(669,2,'Here is a brief rundown of developments Tuesday in the financial crisis facing Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.:\r\n'),(670,2,'Grape stompers can cast off their shoes and squish for charity at Stone Hill Winery. For the 13th year, the winery is sponsoring a Grape Stomp on Saturday to raise money for a workshop for the disabled, and hundreds of contestants were expected to have a go. Last year, the event raised $1,900. Contestants paying a $3 entry fee get 30 pounds of red grapes and two minutes to show their stomping style, said Betty Held, co-owner of the 143-year-old winery. ``They will be stomping to the music of Otto\'s Polka Band from St. Louis,\'\' she said Thursday. ``The judges will grade them 80 percent on the amount of juice the stomping produces and 20 percent on their style.\'\' Age groups for contestants range from pre-teen to over 55. The best stompers will get prizes, and all contestants may keep the juice from their efforts. Hermann is on the Missouri River about 60 miles west of St. Louis.\r\n'),(671,2,'Despite greater awareness of exercise and healthy foods, many Americans remain ``significantly overweight,\'\' according to federal researchers who say most government nutritional goals are unlikely to be met. ``Everybody knows what is required to lose weight, yet the prevalence of overweight doesn\'t seem to change much,\'\' said Dr. Marion Nestle of the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Washington. The national Centers for Disease Control, in Atlanta, reviewed the progress toward the government\'s 15 top-priority goals for American nutrition in 1990, including raising public knowledge of the effects of salt and lowering average blood-cholesterol levels. ``Substantial progress\'\' has been made in several areas, and three of the goals will be fully met, researchers said. But despite the progress, Americans will probably fall short of eight major goals, including that of getting people to lose weight, said Ms. Nestle, whose office helped prepare the report. ``The research that relates (poor) diet to disease is now incontrovertible,\'\' she said. ``It\'s really time now to start looking at ways to implement the recommendations that everybody is familiar with _ ways to improve the nutritional status of the population.\'\' The goals that will likely not be met, she said, are: _ Having less than 10 percent of American men and 17 percent of American women over the ``significantly overweight\'\' level, defined as more than 20 percent over desired weight. _ Having 50 percent of the overweight population on a weight-loss program combining diet and exercise. The CDC said recent surveys show half the nation\'s overweight people are indeed trying to lose weight _ but only half are using both diet and exercise. _ Cutting the average adult level of harmful serum cholesterol below the 200 count. In a 1976-80 survey, average cholesterol levels were 211 for women and 215 for men, down from 214 and 217 in 1971-74. ``That rate of decline is not as fast as it should be,\'\' Ms. Nestle said. _ Having at least three-fourths of all mothers breast-feeding their babies at the time they leave the hospital. A 1984 survey put the figure at 61 percent, up from 45 percent in 1978. _ Having all packaged foods labeled with ``useful calorie and nutrient information.\'\' Such is the case in 55 percent of packaged foods, up from 42 percent in 1978, Ms. Nestle said. _ Including nutrition education in the required school curriculum in all states. By 1985, only 12 states had such a requirement, the CDC said. The three objectives that researchers think will be fully met, she said, are: _ Having more than 75 percent of the population aware of nutritional risks for conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure (fats and salt) and tooth decay (between-meal sweets). Awareness already runs as high as 90 percent in some categories, the CDC report said. _ Having 90 percent of U.S. adults aware that to lose weight they must eat fewer calories or increase physical activity, or both. The percentage was 73 in 1985 and is rising quickly, Ms. Nestle said. _ Implementation of a comprehensive national nutrition status monitoring system. It is already in place, the CDC reported.\r\n'),(672,2,'An air force officer arrested for taking part in a coup attempt was fatally wounded by guards today as he tried to scale a wall of his military prison, the armed forces said. Lt. Col. Francisco Baula, accused in a 1987 attempted coup that left 53 people dead and more than 300 wounded, died at a military hospital about nine hours after his bid to escape from the suburban Camp Crame stockade, military officials said. Last year\'s military uprising, led by former Lt. Col. Gregorio ``Gringo\'\' Honasan, was the most serious effort to oust the government of President Corazon Aquino. She came to power in February 1986 after a military-civilian uprising ousted President Ferdinand Marcos, who fled to Hawaii. Maj. Gen. Ramon Montano, commander of the Philippine Constabulary, said Baula was shot and wounded three times after he refused to halt and ignored warning shots. The stockade is located at the constabulary. Montano said Baula slipped into a dark corner of the stockade shortly after midnight and tried to climb over the wall with a makeshift ladder. Percival Adiong, the Camp Crame commandant, said Baula used wooden slats and the two frames of his double-decker bed to make the ladder. ``Our investigation shows that there were no others who tried to help him,\'\' Montano said. Baula was arrested Oct. 3 with two other military men sought in connection with the coup attempt on Aug. 28, 1987. Honasan remains at large. He was jailed last December but escaped from a prison ship in Manila Bay the following April.\r\n'),(673,2,'The crash of an jetliner in Newfoundland three years ago that killed 256 U.S. soldiers and crew members resulted in part from the exhaustion of the flight crew, who ignored ice on the plane\'s wings, according to a preliminary Canadian report. A still-unreleased draft report by the Canadian Aviation Safety Board noted the crew had flown a grueling schedule in the two weeks before the accident. Had they finished the trip, the captain would have been awake 24 hours. ``I think these people were tired,\'\' Dr. Stanley Mohler said in an interview with The Associated Press. ``They had been on a series of flights prior to that, which were fatiguing. I just think they needed a good night of sleep.\'\' Mohler, head of aerospace medicine at Wright State University, advised the Canadian board on fatigue factors in the crash. The plane, an Arrow Air charter, crashed Dec. 12, 1985, while taking off from a refueling stop at Gander International Airport, killing everyone aboard. The plane was ferrying U.S. troops from peace-keeping duties in the Sinai peninsula to Fort Campbell in Kentucky. The preliminary report lists ice on the wings of the plane as the principal cause of the crash. But it says that a too-slow takeoff speed and flight-crew fatigue were contributing factors. Spokesman James Harris said the board hopes to release a final version of the report in early December. ``It may bear no similarity to the draft report,\'\' he said. ``In fact, it won\'t. It will be quite different.\'\' He said he did not know whether fatigue would still be listed as a contributing cause. The draft report said that twice in the two weeks before the crash, the crew had flown longer than allowed by U.S. regulations. According to federal rules, no crew member may be on duty aloft for more than 12 hours in any 24-hour period. If the flight had made it to Oakland, Calif., its final planned stop, the crew would have flown about 15 hours and been on duty for 20. However, because the plane would have carried no passengers on its final leg, this trip would not have violated federal limits. The board could not determine with certainty whether the pilot, co-pilot or flight engineer were truly fatigued. However, it cited Mohler\'s testimony that ``in the 12 days leading up to the accident, the flight crew had been consistently exposed to work patterns and fatigue-producing factors which were highly conducive to the development of chronic fatigue.\'\' These included short layovers, night departures, multiple time-zone crossings and almost 57 hours in the air in the previous 10 days. In one 48-hour period that month, the crew flew for more than 22 hours, then were back in the cockpit seven hours later. The report said that at Gander the crew failed to notice ice on the wings, which prevented the plane from gaining altitude after it lifted off, and they set the wrong takeoff speed. ``Each of those would be consistent with tired pilots,\'\' Mohler said. ``Tired pilots do things like that. They omit things. They make mistakes.\'\'\r\n'),(674,2,'The all-male Cosmos Club, whose members once included Supreme Court Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis D. Brandeis, is about to vote for the third time in its 110-year history on admitting women. But for the first time, the leadership of the club has unanimously endorsed the idea. Members of the club are scheduled to vote Saturday afternoon, and although no one will say for certain how the vote will come out, club President Tedson J. Meyers said the question of whether to admit women has become the main topic of conversation among members. Meyers, a lawyer and former member of the City Council in Washington, said that the club currently has about 3,000 to 3,100 members, down several hundred in the past few years. But Meyers denied that the vote on admitting women has anything to do with the decline in membership. ``Membership seems to go up and down,\'\' he said. Meyers also denied that the vote Saturday is a direct result of a ruling last fall by the Washington Human Rights Office that ``there is probable cause to believe\'\' that the club\'s men-only policy violates the city\'s anti-discrimination law. The office is ready to order public hearings on the case, which could result in the loss of all city licenses and permits, if the all-male policy stays in place. ``It\'s a matter the club would have taken up in any event,\'\' Meyers said, although he acknowledged that the Human Rights Office\'s action did act as a catalyst. And while Meyers confirmed that a Committee of Concerned Members, formed in 1980 to advocate the admission of ``distinguished women,\'\' still exists, he said that it was not the committee that had put forth the latest proposal to admit women. ``This is the first time the officers and the board of directors brought the proposal forward,\'\' Meyers said. ``They unanimously endorsed it. They always opposed the idea before.\'\' The club, located in a mansion on the city\'s so-called Embassy Row, first voted on whether to admit women in 1973, after 61 members signed a petition proposing that women be allowed to join. The proposal was killed by a 274-203 vote. Again, in 1974, 50 members called for a vote on admitting women. The vote in this round was 407-204 against the proposal. A two-thirds majority is needed to change the club\'s bylaws, Meyers said. He pointed out that women can, and do, use the club. Female guests of members, as well as wives and widows of members and former members, are allowed to dine in the downstairs dining rooms. But women are not allowed in the second-floor members dining room, except on Thursday and Friday evenings and weekends. Members of the club have included Cabinet members, Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Peace Prize winners. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun was a member for 18 years, but resigned last winter. The club was founded by geologist John Wesley Powell in 1878 and originally met in Powell\'s living room. It now charges a $900 initiation fee and $900 in annual dues.\r\n'),(675,2,'After four months of patching streets, sweeping gutters and mowing lawns, inmates at a National Guard armory have repaired something even bigger: their image. County Sheriff Michael Ashe said Wednesday he\'s not surprised that Holyoke, which greeted the surplus prisoners from nearby Springfield with trepidation and a lawsuit, has been won over by good behavior. ``I\'m just pleased that things are going well,\'\' said the mild-mannered lawman. He catapulted into national news in February when he solved his overcrowding problems by commandeering an armory in Springfield and refusing to budge until suitable quarters were found for his inmates. Ashe and state officials compromised by moving the prisoners 10 miles to a vacant National Guard armory in this western Massachusettes town. The agreement was met with horror by Holyoke residents, who feared the inmates would upset the neighborhood and could pose a problem for a preschool center across the street. But those fears haven\'t materialized, said Mary E. Kates, director of Holyoke\'s library, a few blocks from the armory. ``I was a little apprehensive, especially when I heard it was being located so close to the Early Childhood Learning Center,\'\' said Kates. Now, she is full of praise for her new neighbors. ``They sweep the curb and get rid of that and then they\'ve been sweeping our walks, picking up any trash that\'s been disposed of in the park and they\'ve been edging and removing weeds,\'\' she said. ``I\'ve got loads of projects.\'\' The saga began Feb. 16 when Ashe dug up a 17th-century statute allowing sheriffs to demand aid and assistance and marched into a National Guard armory in Springfield, the main city in Hampden County. Stunned guard officials watched as the sheriff installed about a dozen prisoners. State officials eventually decided that Ashe was justified in taking extraordinary measures. Ashe\'s century-old jail was built to hold 279 inmates, is under federal orders to hold no more than 500 and had a waiting list at the time of the seizure. When the compromise was reached, angry Holyoke officials filed a lawsuit trying to block the transfer, but Ashe prevailed, moving in quietly in April. Holyoke Mayor Martin Dunn said Wednesday he\'s still not thrilled with the location of the temporary jail, scheduled to be used until a new, permanent jail is built in the county. But he said he\'s dropped the lawsuit and intends to keep using the inmates for such projects as park renovation. ``We\'ve had them cleaning city lots, filling potholes,\'\' he said. ``Basically it\'s been going very well. It\'s been a productive experience.\'\' Ashe, who has a master\'s degree in social work, has won accolades for his innovative jail and community programs, including his pre-release program and a jail garden project teaming inmates and senior citizens. Inmates sent to the Holyoke center are those who are close to the end of their sentences and are serving for minor offences. From the beginning, Ashe called the Holyoke armory a ``Community Service Center,\'\' and assured residents the inmates would bring nothing but good to their neighborhood.\r\n'),(676,2,'Stock prices fell in light trading today, starting off the final quarter of 1988 on a wary note. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, down 6.40 on Friday, dropped 21.52 to 2,091.29 by 2 p.m. today on Wall Street. Losers outnumbered gainers by 3 to 1 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 359 up, 1,079 down and 414 unchanged. Wall Streeters were generally resigning themselves to a sluggish week, expecting investors to back away from stocks before the government issues its monthly report Friday on the employment situation. Analysts look for the data to show a pickup in payroll employment growth for September after relatively modest increases in July and August. If those estimates prove correct, it would come as a setback to hopes that the economy was slowing to a pace that would satisfy the Federal Reserve, which is seeking to keep inflation from heating up. The Commerce Department reported today that new factory orders rose 3.1 percent in August. Losers among the blue chips included Exxon, down | at 44[; International Business Machines, down 1 at 114]; American Telephone & Telegraph, down \\ at 25}, and Coca-Cola, down 1[ at 42|. Technology issues were notably weak. Digital Equipment fell 1{ to 92], and Hewlett-Packard 1 to 48~, while in the over-the-counter market Intel lost 1} to 25} and Apple Computer was down 1\\ at 42. Middle South Utilities bucked the downtrend, rising [ to 15[ in active trading. On Friday the company declared its first common-stock dividend in three years. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks dropped 1.22 to 152.35. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was down 1.97 at 299.66. Volume on the Big Board came to 88.55 million shares with two hours to go.\r\n'),(677,2,'L.L. Bean is delaying plans to build a large distribution center because 1989 sales fell below expectations, a company spokesman said. The Freeport, Maine-sporting goods outfitter bought a 200-acre site in Hampden and announced in June 1988 that it would build there. Initial plans called for the center to be operational by 1992, and to employ 2,500 full-time workers and 200 to 300 seasonal workers during the Christmas shopping period. But plans have been put on hold, said spokesman D. Kilton Andrew Jr. ``Now we\'ll sit tight and see the lay of the land as far as our business growth goes,\'\' said Andrew. The distribution center in Hampden definitely will be needed at some point, he said. ``When we\'re ready, Hampden will be sitting there waiting,\'\' Andrew added. Andrew told the Bangor Daily News that Bean would do nothing at the site during 1990 and that he could not specify when development might occur. The Hampden site occupies the southern half of the 500-acre Ammo Industrial Park. Access to the site would be from a proposed road off U.S. Route 202 in Hampden. A 500,000-square-foot building planned for the site, which would cover about 11 acres, would be used to help handle Bean\'s mail-order business. Bean President Leon A. Gorman said previously that several factors led to selection of the Bangor-area site. ``The Hampden site has been developed for regional industrial use and is one of only a few in the state large enough for our facility,\'\' Gorman said. ``The site also has access to I-95 and to Bangor International Airport for expeditious receipt of merchandise and for rapid shipment of customer orders by truck or air.\'\'\r\n'),(678,2,'Share prices finished higher on London\'s Stock Exchange Friday after a calm session. Prices moved up on a good performance in the stock index futures market, but investors then became reluctant to take positions as the weekend approached, dealers said. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index was up 5.9 points, or 0.3 percent, at 2,183.4. The Financial Times 30-share index was up 5.9 points at 1,723.8. The Financial Times 500-share index rose 2.46 points to close at 1,152.52. Volume came to 521.3 million shares, compared with 559.3 million shares Thursday.\r\n'),(679,2,'Curiosity didn\'t kill a cat trapped in the trunk of a Mercedes-Benz for 10 days, but it nearly drove him to catatonia. Kitty, the 11-year-old orange cat, apparently jumped into the Mercedes when it was being serviced Jan. 17 at his owner\'s shop, Richie\'s Auto Radio. The proprietor, Richard P. D\'Auteuil, placed ads in the newspaper, made daily calls to the Animal Rescue League and tried to contact customers who visited his store on that day. ``The only customer I didn\'t contact was the only one I didn\'t have a slip for,\'\' the owner of the Mercedes, D\'Auteuil said. The Mercedes was brought back in 10 days later, and a worker opened the trunk when he heard mewing inside, D\'Auteuil said. Out jumped the desperate Kitty, thin and thirsty but basically healthy. Kitty\'s strong constitution, and the relative warmth of the car, stored in a garage, probably saved his life, said Lawrence A. Shinnamon, a veterinarian at Anchor Animal Hospital.\r\n'),(680,2,'Former archenemies Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday discussed Arab and African issues, Egypt\'s government-run news agency said. It was the leaders\' fourth summit meeting since relations between their neighboring north African countries started improving last year. However, Libya remains the only Arab state that has not officially resumed diplomatic relations with Egypt, severed in 1979 to protest the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. The Middle East News Agency quoted Information Minister Safwat el-Sherif as saying the leaders met privately for two hours and then had a working lunch. El-Sherif said they discussed ``Arab issues, especially the developments of the Palestinian issue ... also the deteriorating situation in Lebanon ... (and) African issues.\'\' Following the talks, Mubarak said he would present an Egyptian suggestion for the resettlement of Soviet Jews during his meeting next month with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Mubarak did not elaborate but said the issue would top his agenda for the meeting. Israel\'s settling of Soviet Jews in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip _ which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war _ has angered Arabs. Many believe the influx of Soviet Jews, expected to reach 300,000 over the next three years, will drive Palestinians out of their land and damage chances for peace. ``This land is Arab land and is under dispute, it is very wrong of Israel to act on its own concerning this subject,\'\' the news agency quoted Mubarak as saying. Mubarak said he has sent messages on the issue to Gorbachev and to President Bush, as has Egypt\'s Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel-Meguid to his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Arens. Mubarak and Gadhafi met again later Sunday with other officials from both countries. The Middle East News Agency said Mubarak welcomed Gadhafi in the southern resort city of Aswan, 580 miles south of Cairo. The Libyan leader was given an official welcoming ceremony at the airport, followed by a popular welcome by Egyptians who cheered him and Mubarak as they drove to the Soviet-built Aswan High Dam. The Mubarak and Gadhafi summits have taken place outside their countries\' capitals since the Libyan leader refuses to visit Cairo as long as the Israeli flag flies over it. Egyptian media reports had said this summit had been scheduled to take place in the Sinai peninsula. Officials have declined to comment on the reason for the change of venue, but the opposition newspaper el-Wafd said Saturday the plans were changed for security reasons after an armed attack two weeks ago on an Israeli tourist bus en route from Israel through the Sinai to Cairo. Nine Israelis were killed and 21 were wounded in the attackm, which authorities say is linked to Palestinian terrorists. The news agency said Mubarak and Gadhafi would visit the Sinai briefly Monday after spending the night in Aswan. Gadhafi\'s trip was expected to last 24 hours. Following a meeting in December, Egypt and Libya agreed to build roads connecting oases, share television programs and cooperate in agricultural and industrial projects. Egypt and Libya had been bitter enemies since Mubarak\'s predecessor, Anwar Sadat, refused a bid by Gadhafi to unify their countries in 1972. Relations continued to deteriorate and the countries fought a brief border war in 1977.\r\n'),(681,2,'Salim Fakhri, a prominent exiled opponent of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, has died. He was 69. Fakhri died after collapsing at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Thursday. Scotland Yard police headquarters said Saturday he died of natural causes. ``There is no suspicion of any crime and there is no inquiry,\'\' it said. Newspapers reported that Fakhri was a potential target of the Saddam regime, which invaded Kuwait Aug. 2 and since has been squeezed by an international economic embargo. The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said its reporter Nicholas Farrell was interviewing Fakhri when he collapsed. Farrell said Fakhri had spoken with him before going to a meeting of Iraqi opposition groups and then returned for further conversation minutes before he collapsed. He described Fakhri as a retired Iraqi army colonel who became a liberal democrat and secretary of the Democratic Rescue Movement, which was aimed at establishing a Western-style democracy in Iraq. Farrell said Fakhri had been instrumental in engineering a coalition of secularist groups such as his and the two main Iraqi Shiite fundamentalist groups. He quoted Fakhri as having said, ``The Iraqi opposition is powerful. With time we can topple him. It\'s probably within months rather than years.\'\'\r\n'),(682,2,'Sixty-four percent of major U.S. companies are not happy with the reading, writing and reasoning abilities of high school graduates entering the work force, a poll of business executives said. The National Alliance of Business survey found that 72 percent of executives polled also thought new employees\' math skills had worsened in the last five years. Sixty-five percent said reading skills decreased over the same period. Alliance President William Kolberg said the poll results should worry everyone _ parents, students, educators and employers. ``We are on a collision course with the reality that America is developing a second-class work force whose best feature in the future compared with other nations will be low pay,\'\' Kolberg said last week in an interview to discuss the survey results. ``Low skill means low pay.\'\' Kolberg said new attitudes and approaches were needed to prepare Americans for work who do not attend college. ``We have abandoned the millions of kids who don\'t plan to attend college,\'\' he said. ``Somewhere along the way, we lost respect for the skills we now so desperately need in our factories and on the front lines of our service industries.\'\' Kolberg said about 82 million U.S. jobs don\'t require a college degree, and filling those jobs may become impossible unless the educational system is changed. ``The entire school enterprise needs to be restructured, rethought and taken much more seriously,\'\' he said, pointing to the national education goals established by President Bush and the nation\'s governors. Kolberg was an assistant secretary of Labor and administrator of the Employment and Training Administration from 1973-77. The poll, described by the alliance as the first to survey officers either directly or indirectly responsible for the recruitment of workers at the 1,200 largest U.S. corporations, said only 36 percent of the officers were satisfied with the competency of new employees entering the work force. Kolberg defined competency as being able to read beyond the seventh grade level and compute math at higher than a fifth grade level. The survey indicated companies _ many of which have more challenging blue collar and secretarial work than in the past _ have to interview seven to eight applicants on average to find just one acceptable employee. Personnel officers also said many of those who are hired require too much training to become effective in their jobs. Forty-eight percent were satisfied with the ability of new hires to be retrained. Only 16 percent were satisfied with the educational training of new employees. Kolberg said the survey documents much of the anecdotal evidence discussed over the last few years. ``Most American companies, particularly smaller companies, have not been able to adopt new forms of work organization because they can\'t afford to spend money upgrading worker skills,\'\' Kolberg said. ``Our competitors in Europe and Asia have increased productivity by using these new methods of work. Our only response to this competitive situation has been to lower wages.\'\' The business alliance predicts that by the year 2000, an estimated 5 million to 15 million manufacturing jobs will require skills other than those being used today and that an equal number of service jobs will be obsolete. Kolberg said parents must make sure their children attend school and are prepared physically and emotionally to learn. Parents and teachers must raise their expectations of student achievement. The weekly wages of high school graduates dropped from $387.24 in 1969 to $335.20 in 1989. The alliance attributes the 12 percent drop to a loss in productivity by so-called frontline workers. It compares with a wage gain of about 8 percent for a college graduate. The research was conducted in late April by North Coast Behavioral Research Group of Cleveland, involving 500 of the largest manufacturing firms in America, the largest 500 service firms and the largest 200 privately owned companies. The poll had a margin of error of 6 percentage points. The NAB was founded in 1968 under the direction of President Lyndon Johnson and Henry Ford II to link businesses in a partnership with education, labor, government and community-based groups to help build a quality work force for the future.\r\n'),(683,2,'Senate Republican leader Bob Dole says he does not expect President Bush to propose an increase in income tax rates, but rather to back higher oil import fees and taxes on alcohol and tobacco. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., countered Sunday on ABC\'s ``This Week With David Brinkley\'\' that such an approach would not raise enough money to reduce huge budget deficits. Moynihan said Democrats are prepared to force a $100 billion spending cut Oct. 1, as required by the Gramm-Rudman deficit spending law, if Bush does not increase income taxes and reduce the Social Security payroll deduction. New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, meanwhile, said on NBC\'s ``Meet the Press\'\' that the top tax rate should be raised from its present level of 28 percent to reduce the budget deficit, mentioning 33 percent and 35 percent as possibilities.\r\n'),(684,2,'A fire in a village in the central Blue Nile region killed four people and left more than 500 families homeless, the state-run Sudan News Agency said Sunday. A woman and three children were killed when the fire raged through Bott, a village of 2,500 people, the report said. The blaze destroyed the families\' homes, burned the local market and killed scores of domestic animals, the news agency said. It did not say when the fire broke out or how it started.\r\n'),(685,2,'The stock market was unchanged early today as prices steadied after being hit recently by waves of billion-dollar takeover proposals. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials was off .18 at 2,170.16 in the first half hour of trading. Losers kept pace with gainers in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 443 up, 443 down and 512 unchanged. Volume on the Big Board came to 22.89 million shares as of 10 a.m. on Wall Street. Analysts are quick to note that two different markets currently are functioning _ one that involves takeover and buyout issues and another that involves the remaining equities untouched by either actual deals or speculation. ``The deal market can erupt anytime\'\' and propel the Dow Jones average higher, noted Larry Wachtel, first vice president at Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. ``All it takes is one announcement of another mega-deal and it\'s off to the races,\'\' he said, referring to recent billion-dollar bids for RJR Nabisco, Pillsbury, Kraft, West Point-Pepperell and Chicago Pacific. The rest of the market, however, is not awash with excitement. ``The broad market looks tired and overbought,\'\' Wachtel said. Some analysts believe the broader market is due for some consolidation. Among actively traded Big Board issues, Ford was up ] at 54; takeover target Nabisco was up 1| at 85|; Kraft fell 1} to 100\\, and Pepsico was up \\ at 43{. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks rose .04 to 158.89. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was off .41 at 304.54. On Monday the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 13.16 to 2,170.34. Declining issues outnumbered advances by about 7 to 5 on the NYSE, with 593 up, 863 down and 503 unchanged. Big Board volume totaled 170.59 million shares, against 195.41 million in the previous session.\r\n'),(686,2,'A Washington woman was convicted Tuesday of bilking two investors out of $55,000 by posing as a Treasury Department official who could help them get loans. Carrye E. Maxwell, who was linked to money laundering and fraud charges against five men scheduled to stand trial in January, was convicted of two counts of wire fraud and three counts of impersonating a federal official. Ms. Maxwell could receive a maximum sentence of 16 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Louis Oberdorfer scheduled sentencing for Feb. 1. The jury found Ms. Maxwell guilty of posing as a special consultant to a non-existent Treasury Department program she said had access to foreign funds for loans. The May 6, 1988, indictment charged that she prepared bogus letterheads and put fake seals on documents to deceive investors into believing she was a consultant to the ``United States Recycle Program.\'\' The scheme is also the subject of a related indictment against a Miami businessman, Walter E. Johnson, and four co-defendants who are scheduled to stand trial on money laundering and fraud charges on Jan. 10. Ms. Maxwell was convicted of bilking Robert M. Capuano, operator of a local pizza restaurant, out of $30,000 in 1985 by saying she needed the money to help him get a multimillion-dollar loan he never received. She was also convicted of inducing James A. Whatley in 1985 to pay her $25,000 out of his bank account in Nashville, Tenn., as a bogus loan fee. The indictment against Johnson and his four co-defendants charges that the conspirators showed officials from a suburban Philadelphia company a letter Maxwell wrote on bogus Treasury Department stationary to bolster their scheme to bilk the firm out of $100,000.\r\n'),(687,2,'The challengers President Bush most wants to see elected to the Senate were among the first to break with the president on the budget agreement he negotiated with Congress. ``Muggers in pin-striped suits,\'\' cried Rep. Lynn Martin, the Republican trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Paul Simon. ``They\'re back at your pocketbook again.\'\' ``Throw out the leadership of Congress,\'\' said Martin, apparently excluding Bush from the gang of ``muggers.\'\' The plan would enact permanent tax increases while leaving spending cuts up to Congress to enact in the future, complained Rep. Newt Gingrich, one of Congress\' leading conservatives. Gingrich, R-Ga., also was upset that the plan did not contain enough measures to help businesses. ---&equals; WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush says he\'d consider going on television to ask the public to accept the $500 billion deficit-cutting plan, a boost congressional leaders may need to win enough support from worried lawmakers. Bush and leaders of the House and Senate continue searching for votes today for the package, which was unveiled Sunday. In its two-day life span, the plan has drawn barbs from lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans, wary of voting for a record amount of tax increases and spending cuts in an election year. ``Everybody knew this deficit-reduction agreement was an ugly duckling,\'\' said Sen. James Sasser, D-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. ``Nobody expected it to sprout wings and fly like a swan.\'\' But Bush put an optimistic face on prospects of approval. ``It will all work out. Everybody will do what\'s right,\'\' he told reporters. ---&equals; WEST BERLIN (AP) - East and West fade out today as official ways to describe Germany. Old military occupiers\' power will be handed over and scores of foreign diplomats will lose their host country. The new united Germany of almost 78 million people arising at midnight will have to rely on considerable strengths to cope with difficult tasks. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl told a convention of his Christian Democratic Union in Hamburg on Monday that Germany now faces three immense tasks: the reconstruction of formerly Communist East Germany, the completion of European integration and the taking on of a greater international role. ---&equals; NEW YORK (AP) - Women who took at least two alcoholic drinks a day were three times more likely than abstainers to die before age 65, a study found. The difference was nearly two-fold for men in the study, which was based on a national sample of people who died in 1986. For women, 40.7 percent of so-called heavier drinkers died before age 65 versus 13.2 percent of abstainers. For men, the figures were 42.3 percent versus 22.4 percent. Even people classified as moderate or light drinkers showed higher death rates than the abstainers. ---&equals; SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The strategically located Korean peninsula is in the vortex of rapidly developing new relationships that may change the political landscape of Northeast Asia. For he first time since the end of World War II, countries that have been bitter adversaries and battleground enemies are talking to one another. Delicate relations are being slowly, cautiously realigned. Northeast Asia is unique in that it engages the vital interests of four of the world\'s great powers: the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan and China. The tense and bitterly divided Korean peninsula sits at its geographical heart. All four countries are involved in, and will be affected by, changes in Korea. All four governments have an interest in security and peace on the peninsula and all four have economic reasons for wanting to encourage friendly ties between North and South Korea.\r\n'),(688,2,'Violeta Chamorro\'s presidential victory in Nicaragua brought elation on Capitol Hill on Monday but also heightened Congress\' problem of finding foreign aid money for new democracies. ``We must provide her new government with aid, and let\'s not kid ourselves _ it will take big bucks,\'\' said Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan. ``She needs our help and she deserves it.\'\' ``Nobody said democracy was cheap,\'\' added Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Dante Fascell, D-Fla. House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., while not mentioning a specific aid figures, said the United States might start by sending amounts similar to past aid to the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels. Estimates ranged from $100 million to $300 million as the U.S. share of a multilateral package that could provide $1 billion for Nicaragua. But others cautioned that with a growing line of potential new foreign aid recipients _ Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Panama and others _ it would be difficult to promise new money when the budget already is falling short. ``It\'s not realistic to expect the result of all this is going to be a tripling of foreign aid,\'\' said Rep. Mickey Edwards, R-Okla., the senior GOP member of the foreign aid subcommittee. ``The American people aren\'t going to support it.\'\' This year, the United States will send about $9.8 billion in military, economic and development aid to several dozen friendly countries around the globe. The lion\'s share, $5.1 billion, goes to Israel and Egypt as a reward for entering into the Camp David peace process. The Bush administration has asked for a slight increase in the total, to $10.1 billion, for 1991. Rep. Stephen Solarz, D-N.Y., said he hoped the United States could come up with $200 million to $300 million as a contribution to a billion-dollar international emergency aid program for Nicaragua, similar to those aiding the Philippines and emerging democracies in Eastern Europe. The money should be taken out of the U.S. defense budget, he said. Dole used the occasion of Chamorro\'s win over leftist Sandinista President Daniel Ortega on Sunday to renew his proposal to alter the nation\'s foreign aid priorities, beginning with the two largest recipients, Israel and Egypt. ``The only way we\'re going to pay for new aid to Nicaragua, Panama, Czechoslovakia _ is to look to the foreign aid budget that now exists, and make some tough calls,\'\' Dole said in a Senate floor speech. But that proposal has so far met with stiff opposition, and Foley cautioned that Nicaragua should not automatically be given priority over current recipients of U.S. aid. Lawmakers overwhelmingly supported President Bush\'s call for a speedy lifting of trade sanctions, and many called for the immediate sending of a U.S. ambassador to Managua. The sanctions were imposed in 1985, and the American ambassador was sent home in 1988. Many of the legislators observed that Chamorro\'s win had accelerated an already breathtaking downfall of communism around the world. Asked his reaction, Edwards said, ``It was astonishment... It\'s happening from one end of the world to the other, the tyrants are being swept out.\'\' ``It is yet another example of the desire for democratic government that is being courageously expressed by people throughout the world living under totalitarian regimes,\'\' said Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine. Several members of Congress also noted that the demise of the Sandinista government could have an added benefit in nearby El Salvador, where leftist FMLN guerrillas fighting the elected government have relied on Managua for weapons and support. At the same time, the lawmakers warned that Chamorro faces a difficult road in rebuilding her nation\'s economy, moving her country out of war and maintaining her political coalition. ``Much remains to be done before democracy can be said to have been established in Nicaragua,\'\' said House Minority Leader Robert Michel, R-Ill., ``but this victory is a splendid beginning.\'\' From the other side of the political spectrum, Rep. Sam Gejdenson, D-Conn., called the outcome ``an amazing step forward for the Western Hemisphere\'\' and long overdue. Gejdenson, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, attributed Chamorro\'s victory to her call for an end to the military draft; the country\'s economy, devastated by a decade of civil war and U.S. economic sanctions, and a popular belief that she could best demobilize the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels.\r\n'),(689,2,'Here is a transcript of the speech delivered by former Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Hanford Dole at the Republican National Convention on Monday. Thank you. Thank you very much. Theresa. You\'re an outstanding member of the North Carolina Legislature, and I know that you\'re going to have a resounding re-election victory in November. Thank you so much. Peace, progress, opportunity. That\'s what we\'re here to celebrate. That\'s the legacy of a great president, Ronald Reagan. And that will be the living legacy of the next president of the United States, George Bush. First, let me thank the Democratic Party leaders for televising their Convention. What I saw and heard reminded me and millions of other former Democrats why we\'re proud to be Republicans. The Dukakis convention speech was just like the Democrat platform, hedging on defense, hedging on taxes, hedging on spending. We\'re not running against Bentsen and Dukakis, we\'re running against Bentsen and Hedges. ``Governor Hedges,\'\' ``Governor Hedges,\'\' ``Governor Hedges\'\' tried mightily to paint over his liberal policies with pretty rhetoric. But the make-up job failed. As an old federal trade commissioner, I want to know -- whatever happened to truth in advertising? But we\'ve come to New Orleans not to pin the tail on the donkey. We\'re here to pin our hopes on the American future. And we\'re not buying the Dukakis deception. Despite what he says, this election is about ideas and ideology. They do matter. They will matter to Americans who face a choice this year as stark and dramatic as any in memory. We Americans faced a similar choice in 1980. And what did we get for our choice? We got a president who doesn\'t apologize for American interests _ he asserts them. We got a breakthrough in Soviet relations and the INF treaty. We got the longest economic boom in peacetime history. It was my privilege for seven years to serve the man who made this happen _ one of America\'s greatest presidents, Ronald Reagan. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President, for that opportunity. Today\'s strong economy means stronger families. And we affirm the woman who chooses to work in the home. But our strong economy has also provided needed jobs for millions of women, and let me say to the women of America: I respect the fact that some of you have questions. I also ask you to have an open mind. You know better then anyone that a job _ a good job _ is absolutely basic to a family\'s happiness and stability. That\'s our freedom. Are we going to let them take it away? (Crowd yells, ``No.\'\') In the past eight years, President Reagan has created an incredible jobs machine _ more jobs for more Americans than ever before. And two-thirds of the 17 million new jobs created since 1982 went to women. Good jobs, not bad jobs. Real work, not make work. That\'s our freedom. Are we going to let them take it away? (Crowd yells, ``No.\'\') You did it. You were the expansion. You, the women of America _ who are holding jobs as never before, who\'ve started businesses as never before, who have invested as never before. This expansion _ it\'s your triumph. But it was Ronald Reagan and George Bush who set in motion the forces which allowed that growth to occur and the economy to bloom. That\'s our freedom. Are we going to let them take it away? (Crowd yells, ``No.\'\') America is on a roll. If this great economic upsurge is stopped, if we have a President who raises taxes again and in creases regulation again and stifles growth again _ and believe me, that\'s what Michael Dukakis will do _ if we let the liberals back in, we lose all that progress _ your progress.\r\n'),(690,2,'The Environmental Protection Agency has failed to act against tens of thousands of violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act by local water systems, the National Wildlife Federation said Thursday. ``There has been a major breakdown\'\' in administration of the 1974 law, said Jay Hair, executive vice president of the federation, at a news conference. The federation, whose 5 million members make it the nation\'s largest environmental organization, released a report of an 18-month examination of 15,000 pages of EPA computer printouts for the 1987 fiscal year that showed 36,763 water systems committing 101,588 violations of the act. The nation has over 200,000 water systems. Though the law requires that every violation be reported to customers of the system, only 5,867 notices were issued. The federation did not count failure to issue notices in its survey of violations. If it had, they would have numbered 197,309. Of the violations, said Norman Dean, federation staff lawyer and principal author of the report, 17,506 were violations of enforceable contaminant standards and the rest were monitoring and reporting violations which both he and the agency consider potentially more serious. Monitoring and reporting requirements are ``the heart of the law,\'\' the study said. ``They enable the identification and correction of public health risks before they blossom into crises.\'\' Seventy percent of the contaminant violations were for exceeding bacteriological standards, 20 percent involved inorganic chemicals or substances like metals or arsenic, 0.6 percent were organic chemicals such as pesticides, 0.9 percent were radioactivity violations, and 7.7 percent were turbidity _ sediment _ violations, according to Dean\'s figures. ``There\'s no excuse for a public water system to be distributing water that exceeds the bacteriological standards,\'\' said Dean, since bacteria are easily killed by cheap, well-understood chlorination. The law permits states to run drinking water protection programs approved by EPA if their standards and procedures are as tough as the federal standards. Only Indiana, Wyoming and the District of Columbia have opted to leave EPA with direct authority in those jurisdictions. Dean said a 1982 report on lax enforcement by the General Accounting Office led Congress to remove enforcement discretion from EPA in 1986, changing the statute to read that EPA ``shall\'\' take enforcement action against every violation if the state does not do so in 30 days. Before, the law read that EPA ``may\'\' act. But what action is needed is left to EPA. The maximum penalty is a fine of $25,000 a day for each violation, rarely imposed. Peter Cook, deputy director of EPA\'s Office of Drinking Water, said, ``All regulatory agencies must have enforcement discretion.\'\' When EPA finds a violation, ``It is our position that it need not be an enforcement action\'\' that follows. ``It\'s important to understand that if enforcement actions are not taken, the states are aggressive in protecting the public health\'\' through ``boil water\'\' announcements, requirements for provision of bottled water and similar measures, Cook said. Small systems _ almost two-thirds of the total serve fewer than 500 people _ may have difficulty raising money, Cook said. ``It may take some time for this community to float a loan\'\' to upgrade treatment systems. ``You\'re talking about years. It doesn\'t make a lot of sense, if you have a cooperative community which is moving ahead, to beat them over the head with penalties that they can\'t afford anyway.\'\' Hair said ``there is no question discretion must be used,\'\' but the agency must do something. ``For a first-time violator and a minor violation,\'\' no fine would be appropriate, Dean said. ``A simple compliance order and a public admonishment\'\' would suffice. ``We\'re not talking about calibrating the enforcement dial a little bit,\'\' said Hair. ``We\'re talking about tens of thousands of violations.\'\' Hair said the federation made no attempt to assess health risks to the public from the violations, but he and Dean noted that EPA had estimated that 110,000 illnesses arose in the population between 1971 and 1985 from waterborne disease, and some experts believe there may actually have been 25 times as many cases. People worried about their water may get it tested by a private lab, but a full rundown on organic and inorganic chemicals can cost more than $200, ``more than the average person should be asked to do,\'\' Hair said. EPA established a toll-free telephone number 15 months ago to answer question about drinking water (800-426-4791,) and Jeremy Rowland, the contractor operating it, said calls now run about 200 a day. About half come from local and state government agencies and water systems seeking information and half from the general public. Of the public callers, he estimated three quarters were worried about water quality and a quarter were people saying, ``We\'re overregulated and our water bills are too high.\'\' At the American Water Works Association, the trade association of private and publicly operated water supply systems, deputy executive director Jack Sullivan said he did not doubt the federation\'s figures, and also did not doubt that many violations that should have been punished were not. But Sullivan echoed Cook\'s comment that many systems were financially strapped. ``We\'re going to have to say to some of these smaller systems, `You\'re going to have to have financial capability, or we\'re going to force you into a regional system,\'\'\' something the state of Connecticut is doing, Sullivan said.\r\n'),(691,2,'Savings institution depositors withdrew more money from their accounts than they deposited in May for the first time in seven months, while losses continued to erode the ailing industry\'s capital, the government said Monday. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board said net withdrawals at the nation\'s 3,102 federally insured S&Ls totaled $941 million in May. But the decline came after seven consecutive months of net deposit gains totaling $28 billion. Through the first nine months of last year, thrift institutions were troubled by what industry analysts called a ``slow-motion run\'\' as uncertain depositors withdrew their money. However, after the October stock market crash, investors pulled their money out of risky stock investments and put it into insured S&L and bank acounts. James Barth, chief economist at the bank board, said there was no obvious explanation for the May deposit drain, but he noted that commercial banks and money market mutual funds experienced a similar decline. Bert Ely, an Alexandria, Va., industry analyst, said S&Ls appear to be trying to resist the rise in interest rates and thus are attracting fewer deposits. Meanwhile, thrift institutions\' capital _ the difference between what they owe in liabilities and own in assets _ shrank by $303 million in May after falling $392 million in April. Capital numbers are closely watched because they can provide a good indication of industry losses, which totaled a post-Depression record $7.6 billion last year and $3.8 billion for the first three months of this year. The May capital shrinkage was smaller than declines in all but one of the previous 12 months, but Ely noted that capital tends to shrink the most in the third month of every quarter when many institutions credit interest earnings to depositors. ``We\'re not going to get a read on the second quarter until we see how June turns out,\'\' he said. Savings institutions closed $21.1 billion in mortgage loans in May, up from $19.1 billion in April but down sharply from $24.6 billion a year ago. Barth attributed the decline to a drop in refinancing activity.\r\n'),(692,2,'Here is a list of major earthquakes of the 20th century. The location is followed by the Richter scale magnitude and the number of dead. Sept. 19, 1985, Mexico, 8.1, 9,500. Oct. 30, 1983, Turkey, 7.1, 1,300. Dec. 13, 1982, North Yemen, 6.0, 2,800. Nov. 23, 1980, Italy, 7.2, 4,800. Oct. 10, 1980, Algeria, 7.3, 4,500. Dec. 12, 1979, Colombia and Ecuador, 7.9, 800. Sept. 16, 1978, Iran, 7.7, 25,000. March 4, 1977, Romania, 7.5, 1,541. Nov. 24, 1976, Eastern Turkey, 7.9, 4,000. Aug. 17, 1976, Philippines, 7.8, 8,000. July 28, 1976, Tangshan, China, 7.8 to 8.2, official figure: 242,000. unofficial estimates: as many as 800,000. May 6, 1976, Italy, 6.5, 946. Feb. 4, 1976, Guatemala, 7.5, 22,778. Sept. 6, 1975, Turkey, 6.8, 2,312. Dec. 28, 1974, Pakistan, 6.3, 5,200. Dec. 23, 1972, Nicaragua, 6.2, 5,000. April 10, 1972, Iran, 6.9, 5,057. May 31, 1970, Peru, 7.7, 66,794. March 28, 1970, Turkey, 7.4, 1,086. Aug. 31, 1968, Iran, 7.4, 12,000. Aug. 19, 1966, Turkey, 6.9, 2,520. July 26, 1963, Yugoslavia, 6.0, 1,100. Sept. 1, 1962, Iran, 7.1, 12,230. May 21-30, 1960, Chile, 8.3, 5,000. Feb. 29, 1960, Morocco, 5.8, 12,000. Dec. 13, 1957, Iran, 7.1, 2,000. July 2, 1957, Iran, 7.4, 2,500. June 10-17, 1956, Afghanistan, 7.7, 2,000. March 18, 1953, Turkey, 7.2, 1,200. Aug. 15, 1950, India, 8.7, 1,530. Aug. 5, 1949, Ecuador, 6.8, 6,000. June 28, 1948, Japan, 7.3, 5,131. Dec. 21, 1946, Japan, 8.4, 2,000. Dec. 26, 1939, Turkey, 7.9, 30,000. Jan. 24, 1939, Chile, 8.3, 28,000. May 31, 1935, India, 7.5, 30,000 Jan. 15, 1934, India, 8.4, 10,700. March 2, 1933, Japan, 8.9, 2,990. Dec. 26, 1932, China, 7.6, 70,000. May 22, 1927, China, 8.3, 200,000. Sept. 1, 1923, Tokyo, Japan, 8.3, 100,000. Dec. 16, 1920, China, 8.6, 100,000. Jan. 13, 1915, Italy, 7.5, 29,980. Dec. 28, 1908, Italy, 7.5, 83,000. Aug. 16, 1906, Chile, 8.6, 20,000. April 18-19, 1906, San Francisco, 8.3, 452.\r\n'),(693,2,'A senior United Nations official predicted Washington would ignore a World Court ruling that said the United States violated a U.N. treaty by trying to close the PLO\'s New York office. In an advisory opinion issued Tuesday, the International Court of Justice, as the court is formally known, ordered the United States to submit to arbitration in its dispute with the United Nations over the Palestine Liberation Organization\'s observer mission to the United Nations. The court is the judicial arm of the United Nations. It has no enforcement powers and depends on voluntary adherence to its rulings. The Reagan administration\'s dispute with the U.N. arose from legislation signed into law by the U.S. Congress in December that classifies the PLO as a ``terrorist organization\'\' and bars it from operating on American soil. The U.S. government maintains that the anti-terrorist law takes precedence over any international agreements. Carl-August Fleischhauer of West Germany, the U.N. undersecretary-general for legal affairs, told reporters after Tuesday\'s ruling that he doubted the United States would submit to arbitration. ``We want harmonious relations with our host country,\'\' Fleischhauer said. ``We are ready to go to arbitration. It is now basically for the United States government to decide what conclusions it draws from this ruling.\'\' ``It is a pleasure to be proved right,\'\' Fleischhauer\'s boss, U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, said of the ruling during a press conference in New York. Although the court took pains to dodge the question of whether Washington\'s attempt to close the PLO office is legal, the ruling was seen in Vienna as an implicit condemnation of the U.S. effort. The court said the U.S. Justice Department\'s shutdown order violated the Headquarters Agreement by not submitting the issue to arbitration first. That 1947 pact between the Truman Administration and the U.N. guarantees diplomats unimpeded access to U.N. headquarters in New York. ``The United States is bound to respect the obligation to have recourse to arbitration,\'\' said the court\'s 15 judges. The Headquarters Agreement mandates independent arbitration of any disputes arising from it, but the United States has rejected any such arbitration. The opinion marked the second time in two years the court has ruled against the United States. In the previous case, brought by Nicaragua, the United States boycotted the proceedings and ignored the court\'s order to halt its support for rebels trying to overthrow the Managua government. The PLO was granted permanent observer status by the U.N. General Assembly in 1974, and its U.N. mission has been operating ever since out of an office in Manhattan. Its information office in Washington, D.C., was closed prior to the passage of the anti-terrorist legislation. Early this year, the U.S. government said arbitration of the PLO mission issue was premature, and noted that the anti-terrorist law would only come into force on March 22. When the PLO refused to comply with U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III\'s March 22 order to close its New York operation, the U.S. government filed suit in a New York federal court. That lawsuit is pending. Washington\'s attempt to close the PLO office has been condemned by every U.N. member nation except Israel.\r\n'),(694,2,'Earrings probably won\'t become de rigueur among the ranks of Portland\'s Finest, but policemen wishing to adorn their ears with dainty pieces of precious metal may now do so. The city attorney\'s office has advised the police to allow male officers to wear earrings after a policeman filed a labor grievance recently. The office got involved because of a grievance filed by an officer whose name is being withheld, said Stan Peters, president of the Portland Police Association said. The grievance challenged rules on proper attire that specified female officers must wear small, non-dangling earrings, but didn\'t really address the question of ear decorations for males. Police officials say they\'ll follow the city attorney\'s advice, but they don\'t have to like it. ``I don\'t think the public is prepared to see a male police officer wear an earring,\'\' said Capt. Wayne Inman. ``But I do see a shift in public attitudes to allow police officers to mirror society\'s dress code.\'\'\r\n'),(695,2,'Michael Dukakis accused Republican George Bush today of campaigning with ``a warmed-over call to selfishness\'\' and said a Democratic White House would seek prosperity for all Americans, not just the wealthy. The Democratic presidential nominee said Bush does not understand that GOP economic policies have not spread their benefits across the economy but had served people who already have good jobs _ or inherited wealth. ``But most Americans aren\'t satisfied, and neither am I,\'\' the Massachusetts governor told an invitation-only campaign rally. In a line borrowed from John F. Kennedy, Dukakis said he means ``to get America moving again,\'\' restoring strength to all parts of the economy and all sections of the nation. He said the next president will face ``a sea of Republican red ink that not even Moses could part.\'\' In his prepared speech, Dukakis said federal resources are limited but problems cannot be shrugged away. ``And we can\'t afford leadership that says over and over again that it\'s morning in America and then suggests that all we Americans have to do is roll over and go back to sleep,\'\' he said. Dukakis said Bush is the candidate of a complacent party that ``seems to have exhausted its reservoir of ideas\'\' for dealing with the economy. ``In their hearts they know that four more years of Reaganomics would be bad for the country, and that four more years of Reaganomics without Reagan would be a disaster.\'\'\r\n'),(696,2,'Kurdish guerrillas claimed today they have killed or wounded 7,000 Iraqi soldiers in fierce fighting in northeastern Iraq. They said nearly 2,000 civilians also died. The guerrillas acknowledged several of their bases have been overrun. They said the bases fell after repeated poison gas attacks. There was no independent confirmation of the Kurdish claims. Turkish officials said that about 90,000 Kurds, including some wounded guerrillas, have fled across the frontier in recent days. ``Most of the Kurdish civilian casualties are from constant Iraqi poison gas attacks on their villages and settlements,\'\' a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Party told The Associated Press by telephone. ``Iraqi troops has overrun our bases in Zakho and Dahok provinces, but our guerrillas are still engaged in fierce fighting inside Iraq to save our civilian population from severe Iraqi reprisals,\'\' he said. The spokesman, based in a West European capital, has given information to the AP on several other occasions. He declined to give his name for security reasons. Iraq\'s 3.5 million Kurds have been waging their separatist struggle on and off for 50 years. Kurdish officials said many of the refugees were injured in mustard gas attacks, but there was no official Turkish confirmation. Kurdish guerrillas are battling an estimated 60,000 Iraqi troops who are supported by tanks, artillery, fighter-bombers and helicopter gunships. The Iraqis launched a major offense Aug. 26 against the rebels. The guerrillas claimed the Iraqis have carried out scores of poison gas attacks in recent weeks against Kurdish villages and guerrilla bases. Iraq has denied using chemical weapons, outlawed under a 1925 Geneva treaty. The spokesman stressed that Kurdish ``resistance is continuing\'\' in the Amadiyah and Sherwan regions. He said the guerrillas were trying to avoid set-piece battles with the heavily armed Iraqis and were ambushing military columns in coordinated hit-and-run attacks. He said guerrillas shot down four Iraqi helicopter gunships in the last few days and killed or wounded 7,000 government troops in recent fighting. Kurdish casualties were listed as 250 guerrillas and 1,900 civilians killed, with 5,000 civilians wounded. The spokesman said the Iraqis have not been able to seal off the border with Turkey. This is the only escape route for civilians. In a separate statement, Kurdish Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani denied press reports that he had sought asylum in Turkey. ``Our decision is to remain with our beleaguered people ... and to continue our resistance for the survival of the Kurdish people.\'\' About 20 million Kurds lived in the mountainous region where the borders of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria meet. Kurdish rebels joined forces in November 1986 and launched an increasingly effective campaign against Baghdad. Iraq\'s intensified operations against the Kurds came after an Aug. 20 cease-fire with Iran took effect.\r\n'),(697,2,'Kidnappers holding U.S. Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins said in a statement released Monday they have sentenced him to death as a spy for Israel. ``We have issued the irrevocable sentence to execute this American spy,\'\' said the typewritten Arabic statement signed by the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth. ``The spy has been turned over to those responsible for executing this just and revolutionary verdict,\'\' said the statement delivered to the Beirut newspaper An-Nahar. The statement did not give a date when the sentence was to be carried out. A photocopy of a photograph purporting to show Higgins in a dark sweater was pasted to the bottom of the 15-line statement. Captors of foreign hostages in Lebanon usually provide a photograph to authenticate their statements. Higgins, 43, of Danville, Ky., was head of a 76-man observer group attached to the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon when he was kidnapped near the southern port city of Tyre on Feb. 17. ``It has been proven by clearcut evidence that he and his American team of observers are guilty of providing the Zionist enemy with accurate and detailed military and security information about our resistance fighters, their positions, movements, supply routes and the quantity and quality of their weaponry,\'\' the statement said. It said the decision to kill Higgins was a retaliation for Israeli attacks against ``our people in occupied Palestine\'\' and predominantly Shiite south Lebanon. The statement also said Higgins was sentenced to die in ``revenge for the blood of the martyrs of the latest Israeli raid\'\' on a Palestinian guerrilla base nine miles south of Beirut. Nine guerrillas were killed Friday in the Israeli attack. An Israeli officer also died. Fifteen foreigners are missing and presumed kidnapped in Lebanon. They are nine Americans, three Britons, one Irishman, one Italian and a Swiss. The longest held is American Terry A. Anderson, 40, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, who was kidnapped March 16, 1985. Higgins, 43, a decorated Vietnam veteran, is married to Marine Maj. Robin Higgins and has a 17-year-old daughter. He graduated from high school in Louisville, Ky., and from Miami University of Ohio on ROTC scholarship in 1967. He earned master\'s degrees in human resources management at Pepperdine Univiversity in California and in political science at Auburn in Alabama.\r\n'),(698,2,'A couple accused of taking a premature baby from a hospital were arrested after they showed off the infant to relatives who became suspicious and called police, authorities said. Sharon and Robert Newkirk were arrested Saturday on charges of kidnapping 2{-month-old Debra Lynn Moore on Friday evening from her crib at C.S. Mott Children\'s Hospital in Ann Arbor. They were to be arraigned later today. The Newkirks on Friday took a child to the home of Robert Newkirk\'s sister and brother-in-law, Judy and Gerald Edmundson. ``Robert was so excited,\'\' Judy Edmundson said. ``He held her and said, `Daddy loves you.\'\'\' But in retrospect, ``We had a funny feeling about it,\'\' Gerald Edmundson said. ``The next day, we heard the report on the news that a baby had been kidnapped. We put two and two together.\'\' Police picked up the Newkirks as they pulled into the driveway of their home in Howell, about 20 miles away. Police said they found the baby in the couple\'s car. The baby was returned to C.S. Mott, where her twin brother also is a patient, and was listed in good condition. Police Sgt. Jim Tieman said authorities did not know a motive for the abduction.\r\n'),(699,2,'Jesse Jackson expressed confidence Monday that he could rally his supporters behind certain Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, even if Dukakis doesn\'t pick him as a running mate. But Jackson continued to stress that he is entitled to ``serious consideration\'\' for the No. 2 spot on the ticket. Even if Dukakis picks someone else, Jackson told reporters here, the Massachusetts governor could expect backing from him ``so long as our agreements are rational, fair and consistent.\'\' Jackson sought to put the focus on harmony with the Dukakis camp, citing the weekend agreement that South Africa shuld be branded a ``terrorist state.\'\' Jackson had strongly pushed that view, and, at a preliminary platform-drafting meeting in Mackinac Island, Mich., the Dukakis forces went along. The South Africa position ``is a step in the right direction for America because we must regain our credibility and our moral authority in the third world as leader of the free world,\'\' Jackson said at an impromptu sidewalk news conference here. Dukakis has backed strong sanctions and a divestiture of U.S. industries in South Africa to protest its apartheid policies of racial segregation. But the Massachusetts governor had resisted branding South Africa a ``terrorist state\'\' in the same category of states as Libya and Iran. ``Our agreeing to declare South Africa a terrorist state and thereby pointing to apply anti-terrorist legislation to South Africa is a real hope to people throughout the world who seek fairness and justice,\'\' said Jackson. He said there was ``a good tone\'\' to the negotiations with the Dukakis camp. ``So far they (the talks) are having an impact on broadening and strengthening the Democratic Party,\'\' he said. But Jackson noted that major differences remain, including Dukakis\' refusal to support the freeze on military spending that Jackson has called for, and the Dukakis forces\' resistance to the tax hikes Jackson wants. Jackson was in Chicago for a weekend of meetings with members of his national staff to discuss plans for the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta next month. Jackson said he planned to deliver several major policy speeches before the convention outlining his programs for health care, education, the war on drugs, and foreign and defense policy. He also met Monday with the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune and with officials of Johnson Publishing Co., publishers of Jet and Ebony magazines.\r\n'),(700,2,'When lawyers displease him _ by being late, stubborn or sloppy _ Judge J. Leonard Fleet sentences them to the supermarket to buy food for the poor. ``It keeps them on their toes,\'\' the Broward County Circuit judge said of his reprimand, which he calls Fleet\'s Food Brigade. ``When lawyers do what they\'re supposed to on time, it eases the burden on the justice system and saves the taxpayers money. At the same time, the program is helping people. It\'s had some beautiful spinoffs,\'\' Fleet said. The judge orders the lawyers to deliver cans of food to him. Then he gives the food to non-profit organizations around the county. ``Judge Fleet has found a very creative way to help us,\'\' said Jeanne Miley, executive director of Kids in Distress, one of the beneficiaries. Since he started the program five years ago, Fleet has collected more than 15 tons of food from at least 300 lawyers, he said. Most lawyers laugh when he hits them with a food fine, and some bring food whenever they appear before the judge. ``Every time I go over there for a trial I figure he\'s going to do it to me at least once, no matter what I do,\'\' said James Dawson, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who had to buy 24 cans of sliced pineapple last fall. ``Some guys might resent it, but the program is a lot of fun, and it does a lot of good,\'\' said Dania City Attorney Frank Adler, who was ordered to donate 24 cans of lentil soup after he got into an argument with an opposing lawyer.\r\n'),(701,2,'John Poindexter says former President Reagan\'s testimony is favorable to his case, but the former national security adviser wants to delay its release until after a jury is sworn in for his Iran-Contra trial. Twelve news organizations on Tuesday suggested in a court filing that the videotape and transcripts of Reagan\'s testimony Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles be made available as soon as possible. Iran-Contra prosecutors told U.S. District Court Judge Harold Greene, who is presiding in the case involving Poindexter, that they have ``no objections\'\' to releasing the videotapes and transcripts of Reagan\'s deposition now. But Reagan\'s lawyers filed court papers asking that the tapes be withheld until the end of the trial. Poindexter\'s lawyers maintained in court papers that Reagan\'s testimony ``is favorable to the defense.\'\' But the former president did not support Poindexter in connection with key portions of allegedly false letters which Poindexter sent to Congress in 1986, according to sources familiar with Reagan\'s testimony who spoke on condition of anonymity. Poindexter\'s letters embraced the White House\'s denials the previous year that National Security Council aide Oliver North was raising money or providing military advice to the Contras. In his initial answers about the letters, Reagan focused on portions which stated the NSC staff was complying with the spirit and the letter of the Boland Amendment barring U.S. intelligence agencies from providing military aid to the Contras. Reagan, in his deposition in Los Angeles, supported those sections of the letters. The ex-president has said publicly he did not regard the NSC as being subject to the restrictions of the Boland Amendment. However, under cross-examination by Iran-Contra prosecutor Dan Webb, Reagan\'s attention was drawn to other statements in Poindexter\'s letters referring to the earlier information provided to Congress. That information included the denials that North was fundraising or supplying military advice. Reagan agreed with Webb he didn\'t recall seeing those earlier responses at the time Poindexter\'s letters were sent to Congress, according to the sources. The earlier responses led to a guilty plea by ex-national security adviser Robert McFarlane to misdemeanor charges of withholding information from Congress. Poindexter\'s lawyers maintained in court papers that publicizing Reagan\'s testimony now would have an ``incalculable impact\'\' on prospective jurors. Disclosing Reagan\'s testimony prior to the March 5 trial date could result in Iran-Contra prosecutors rejecting prospective jurors who otherwise would be favorable to the defense, lawyers for Reagan\'s former national security adviser said. They also said the testimony should be made public only ``after the jury in this case has been sworn and instructed regarding trial publicity.\'\' Alternatively, Poindexter asked that the media before the trial be provided only with a transcript of Reagan\'s testimony and that access to the videotape be deferred until the jury is sworn in. In their own filing, Reagan\'s lawyers asked that copies of the tape not be disseminated until the end of the trial, and that public access to Reagan\'s testimony ``be limited to reviewing the videotape at a location under control of the court.\'\' Any earlier distribution of copies of the tape ``goes far beyond the requirements of the First Amendment and may damage irreparably the rights of the defendant and the former president,\'\' the former president\'s lawyers argued. The news organizations told Greene that Cable News Network Inc. would act as pool representative for distribution of copies of the videotape to the news media. In addition, the news organizations suggested, transcripts should be released at the same time as the videotape through a commercial copying center selected by the news media.\r\n'),(702,2,'Retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, who took power after a 1982 military coup but was overthrown a year later, has signed up as a presidential candidate in a November election. His action Thursday conflicts with Supreme Court and congressional rulings that he is ineligible to run because of the military coup. Rios Montt, a born-again Christian who as military ruler sent more than a dozen convicted leftists before the firing squads, is campaigning as a law-and-order candidate. Human rights workers and others are worried that Rios Montt\'s eye-for-an-eye brand of justice will lead to further human rights abuses in a country already plagued with them. Polls show him among the leading contenders to replace President Vinicio Cerezo. Rios Montt took power after the coup ousted Gen. Romeo Lucas Garcia on March 23, 1982. Rios Montt, in turn, was removed by Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores on Aug. 8, 1983. The Supreme Court, in a non-binding opinion sought by Congress last year, said Rios Montt cannot be president or vice president because of a constitutional ban on the holding of those posts by people who assumed power in a coup. Last month, the Association of National Dignitaries, made up of people who drew up the current constitution, arrived at the same conclusion. Rios Montt is running with the backing of three of Guatemala\'s 19 registered parties. Nine candidates have signed up for the presidency, including Jorge Carpio Nicolle, a journalist defeated five years ago by Cerezo. There will be a runoff on Jan. 6 if no candidate wins a majority in the Nov. 11 election. If Guatemala\'s elections registry refuses to accept his candidacy, Rios Montt can appeal through the court system.\r\n'),(703,2,'Five prominent conservatives on Friday accused President Bush of abandoning his conservative electoral base and urged him to return to the fold lest he weaken the Republican party and its candidates. If he doesn\'t, Bush will face an ``almost certain\'\' challenge from a conservative candidate in the 1992 primaries, one of them warned. Another, Richard A. Viguerie, said Bush ``took a sharp turn to the left\'\' shortly after his election. ``It is the conservatives in the Republican Party that have produced the money, the workers and the votes all these years,\'\' said Viguerie, president of the United Conservatives of America. ``Whenever there\'s a close presidential race and the Republican nominee abandons his conservative voters, they lose,\'\' Viguerie said. He cited as examples the races of 1948, when New York Gov. Thomas A. Dewey lost to President Truman; 1960, when Richard Nixon lost to John Kennedy and 1976, when President Ford lost to Jimmy Carter. Viguerie and four other leaders of the conservative movement joined together at a news conference to cite issue after issue as grounds for their concern. Topics ranged from trade concessions for China to support for government-financed art that may be considered obscene, but it was clear their biggest complaint was with the president\'s abandonment of his ``no new taxes\'\' pledge. Politicians may change their minds but ``when a politician does that on a core defining issue he used to get elected, he sells out not just his followers but he weakens the system,\'\' said David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. Bush has ``dealt a crippling blow to his own credibility,\'\' Keene said. The conservatives\' news conference was timed to coincide with a meeting of the Republican National Committee in Chicago. RNC spokeswoman Leslie Goodman in Chicago said she was unfamiliar with the conservatives\' comments and declined to respond. The five conservatives released a letter to party Chairman Lee Atwater protesting that the administration had showed ``that it does not intend to honor the commitments made to the American people in the 1988 presidential campaign.\'\' The conservative leaders showed some differences among themselves. Viguerie said he thought Bush had sailed under a ``false flag\'\' of conservatism in 1988, and now was reverting ``to the big-business, country-club kind of Republican he was in the \'60s and the \'70s.\'\' Keene, however, said Bush did not sail under any false flags, but rather had been seduced by high poll ratings. The president appears not to know that ``success in the polls has a history of breeding failure,\'\' he said. Howard Phillips, chairman of the Conservative Caucus, said ``It is too early to tell what any of us is going to do.\'\' But Phillips said that if Bush ``stays in his present course he will be challenged in 1992, almost certainly in the Republican primaries and certainly in the general election.\'\' Also participating in the news conference were L. Brent Bozell III, executive director of the Conservative Victory Committee, and John Cregan, president of the U.S. Business and Industrial Council.\r\n'),(704,2,'Police seized 15 tons of hashish in a specially built tunnel between two Mediterranean resort towns and made seven arrests, the civil governor\'s office said Monday. The office called it the largest drug haul ever in Spain. Among those arrested was Jacques Antoine Cannavaggio, 51, from Corsica, who was said to be the brain of an international drug trafficking organization. He was wanted by the French police. According to police in Barcelona, Cannavaggio had operated in southern Italy and France before moving a few years ago to L\'Escala, a village on Spain\'s northeastern Costa Brava. Police said a French national, a Portuguese and four Spaniards also were arrested. Police found the 15 tons of hashish Sunday in a tunnel between the towns of Lloret de Mar and Tossa de Mar on the Costa Brava. The tunnel was equipped with a special ventilation system and police estimated the tunnel cost $1 million to build. Police said they also seized a yacht and a motorboat allegedly used to transport the hashish to Spain from Morocco. Police also seized six submachine guns.\r\n'),(705,2,'James Curtis Barden, a retired vice president and chief financial officer of Media General Inc., died of a heart attack July 3. He was 59. Barden retired this year from Media General, parent company of Richmond Newspapers Inc. and other media holdings. A certified public accountant, Barden was named assistant controller of the company in 1967. He became vice president 10 years later and was appointed chief financial officer in 1983. He is survived by a son and a sister.\r\n'),(706,2,'President Mikhail S. Gorbachev moved to boost the output of Soviet businesses on Thursday by allowing them - with certain restrictions - to negotiate their own wholesale prices. A presidential decree on prices, released by the Tass news agency, was billed as a step toward a market economy. It was Gorbachev\'s second decree since the Soviet legislature on Sept. 24 gave him sweeping new powers to rescue the collapsing economy and maintain law and order. Economists have said freeing prices to respond to market forces, rather than having them set by the government, is essential to curing the economy. It is unclear, however, whether the decree frees prices enough to make a difference. The decree says businesses can sign contracts with each other for 1991 using negotiated wholesale prices. But it then adds three restrictions. It says the prices must be based on those outlined by the Council of Ministers in June 1988, that profits over a state-set limit will be taxed and that wholesale prices of some goods will remain fixed. Finance Minister Valentin Pavlov told Soviet television the decree was a compromise but did not say what the differences had been. A correspondent for the nightly TV newscast ``Vremya\'\' said the decree should put more goods into the stores, by offering price incentives for increased production. Shortages have left many stores nationwide bare of such essential goods as flour, matches, cheese and bread. Pavlov insisted the decree has no direct relation to retail prices and assured viewers that state subsidies will continue. But it appeared stores would have to raise retail prices if they had to pay more to receive wholesale stocks. The finance minister said the decree was necessary so businesses can know now what prices they will be able to charge - and therefore how much product to plan - in 1991. In his first decree, issued one week ago, Gorbachev ordered businesses to fulfill supply contracts and the government to ensure distribution in 1991. He threatened businesses with fines if they did not fulfill supply contracts to government retailers. Many workers and businesses are uncertain how they will fit in the market economy Gorbachev is trying to establish and find it more profitable to trade goods on the black market, rather than distribute them in the established structure. The Supreme Soviet legislature is to choose a plan for switching to a market economy on Oct. 15. The most radical blueprint, written by economist Stanislav Shatalin, calls for junking the central planning system and moving to a market economy within 500 days by selling factories to private owners and breaking up collective farms.\r\n'),(707,2,'Former college football star Bobby Hoppe will not be retried in a 31-year-old slaying because there is no new evidence in the case, a prosecutor said today. ``We have gone to great extremes to try to find new proof in this case ... There is no new proof. There is nothing different than what we had initially,\'\' said District Attorney General Gary Gerbitz. Hoppe, 53, went on trial last month for the July 20, 1957, shotgun death of moonshine runner Don Hudson, but a mistrial was declared when the jury deadlocked 10-2 for acquittal. The state contended that Hoppe, then a 22-year-old college student, killed Hudson because Hudson, 24, had beaten Joan Hoppe Voiles, Hudson\'s ex-girlfriend and Hoppe\'s sister. Hoppe claimed self-defense, testifying that he fired a shotgun at Hudson only after the bootlegger drove up beside his car on a dark street and pointed a pistol at him. The prosecutor said the state was handicapped because it could try Hoppe only for first-degree murder, since the statute of limitations for lesser degrees of homicide has expired. ``If this case would have gone to the jury under a first-degree, second-degree, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter option, the outcome may very well have been different in June,\'\' he said. Nevertheless, Gerbitz said, the state was pleased that it had finally answered the question of who had killed Hudson. ``For 31 years, the Hudson family lived with the fact that they didn\'t know who killed their son and their brother,\'\' he said. ``They know now who killed him. And even though his admission is one of self-defense, it was an admission.\'\' At the time of the slaying, Hoppe was preparing for his senior year at Auburn, where he was a halfback on the football team. That fall, the Tigers went 10-0 and won their only national championship. Although Hoppe was questioned about the slaying in 1957, no charges were filed until March 2, 1988, when he was indicted after a 14-month investigation that began when Hudson\'s mother, Georgia Hudson, asked police to reopen the case.\r\n'),(708,2,'Former Mayor Jane Byrne, spurned in her last three election bids, has signed with a New York agent and says she will write her autobiography. ``There are a lot of people who would pay me a million dollars not to write the book,\'\' Mrs. Byrne said Wednesday. ``I might as well write the book.\'\' Gerard McCauley, a former senior editor for Little, Brown & Co. and Alfred A. Knopf, has been hired to represent her. There is ``substantial interest\'\' on the part of New York publishers in a book by the former mayor, McCauley said. In it, Mrs. Byrne, 54, said she will discuss her tenure as mayor from 1979 to 1983 as well as her early life, her membership in former Mayor Richard Daley\'s cabinet, her association with the Kennedy family and her roles in local, state and national Democratic politics. Mrs. Byrne lost a primary race to former Mayor Harold Washington in her bid for re-election in 1983. She lost the Democratic mayoral primary again last year. Earlier this year, she lost a bid for the office of clerk of the circuit courts for Cook County.\r\n'),(709,2,'Here are excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad. --- Nov. 2 The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, on presidential war powers: As a rule the federal courts have been reluctant to horn in on disputes between the executive branch and Congress. So it seems unlikely that the lawsuit brought by 45 House Democrats will impede the slide toward war in the Persian Gulf, if war is what George Bush has in mind. The plaintiffs may stand athwart the road to Armageddon, but the courts will be reluctant to stand with them. Twice before in recent years ... members of Congress have sought to define the president\'s war-making authority. In each case the courts have run for cover. ... Bush makes no secret of his objectives in the gulf, and they offer scant comfort to those who define America\'s interests narrowly. His stated goals continue to include the restoration of the Kuwaiti monarchy - of marginal interest to Americans at best - and ``unconditional withdrawal of all Iraqi forces,\'\' though a negotiated withdrawal might save countless lives and much treasure. If war is his intention, the president is among a shrinking minority. According to the latest polls, 70 percent of the American people resist the idea of military action against Iraq - this before the body bags start arriving home. Enthusiasm for a shooting war also is absent in Congress, even among the president\'s own loyalists. If ... Bush turns his back on such realities, he will face the same icy blast that finally swept Lyndon Johnson out of office. --- Nov. 22 Enterprise-Journal, McComb, Miss., on the Persian Gulf: Is the United States going to war in the Saudi Arabian-Kuwait desert? As U.S. military forces continue their buildup - it surely looks that way. Immediately after Iraq\'s invasion of oil-rich Kuwait, American applauded President Bush\'s decisive response and his tough stance. But as the crisis drags out, apprehension in Congress and throughout the nation grows. Do we really want American boys to die in the desert for Kuwait? Do we want them to die over the price of gasoline? To boot out Saddam Hussein, a vicious, cruel ruler? For Arab states like Iran or Syria, whose actions have been as bad as Iraq\'s? We are confident, if war comes, the United States and its allies would prevail. But at what price in U.S. casualties? Twenty thousand, 50,000, 100,000? And what price in civilian casualties to Iraq should Iraqi cities get caught in U.S. air attacks? Hundred of thousands? Millions? We wonder, too, what would be the ultimate effect of such a war on the Middle East? Would Arab nations become even more hostile to the United States as U.S. aircraft killed Arab men, women and children? And who would be the ultimate gainer? Probably not the United States. Probably Iran and Syria, no friends of ours. Moreover, should such a war not end quickly, and as U.S. casualties mounted, American public opposition would surely grow. That leads us to hope that Bush won\'t get impatient and pursue a military solution before exhausting all avenues of negotiation. It\'s hard to figure how Saddam can hold out against such united condemnation. Even though it might take a little longer, U.S. troops bivouacking in a hot desert, is much preferable to the body bags we recall from Vietnam. --- Nov. 23 Capital Journal, Pierre, S.D., on the Persian Gulf: Congressmen on both sides of the aisle are asking for a bigger role in the United States\' military buildup in the Persian Gulf. The word from the White House is that President Bush doesn\'t need any help, or vindication, from Congress. As the massive U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia drags on, what this country needs is debate about the buildup and its future. Letting the fate of 400,000 troops hang on the decisions of one man is scary, even if that man is the president of the United States. Bush has already gotten this country into a desert stalemate half a world away. His best course of action is to court Congress and seek some sort of joint official action rather than shutting out its members. If he insists on making all the decisions himself, he may face another protracted deadlock right in Washington, D.C. --- Nov. 22 Statesman Journal, Salem, Ore., on holidays and war: Last year we had big news to celebrate at Thanksgiving: Peace had broken out. For the first time in 45 years, the superpowers no longer faced each other with nuclear-tipped missiles while threatening to blow themselves and the rest of the world to smithereens. We looked forward to a year of peace in the world and progress at home, and we hoped by this Thanksgiving to see as much progress at home as we had seen overseas. That didn\'t happen. Thanks to Saddam Hussein, a year that started out with great hopes ended up as so many others had: in war or war preparation. Our money, our resources and our hopes for a changed world and a rebuilt United States now are stuck in the sands of Saudi Arabia. It\'s easy to be thankful when everything is going well, as it was last year. What takes devotion and optimism is to be hopeful when you feel the disappointment of failure. Fortunately, we still have optimism. Let us give thanks for what we can still do to try in the Middle East the key that brought peace in Europe. There is still time to avoid the ruins of war. Let us give thanks that although disappointed, we still have endless blessings ourselves, and we can still share them with those around the world nnd at home who need our help. Every year brings new problems and new opportunities. Though disappointed by lost opportunities of the past year, we must recognize our good fortune in what we have ourselves and in what we can do between now and next Thanksgiving for our country and our world. ---\r\n'),(710,2,'A former KGB counterintelligence chief has been stripped of his military rank and decortions after telling foreign and Soviet media that the spy agency should be abolished, Tass said Saturday. Oleg Kalugin, a major-general and top spy in the United States during the 1960s, said in interviews two weeks ago that he was hounded out of the KGB because of his reformist political views. Kalugin, 55, spoke to foreign and Soviet journalists and appeared on Soviet television saying the KGB had too much power and should be disbanded. ``By decision of the president of the U.S.S.R., at the request of the KGB, Oleg Kalugin was deprived of all state decorations for actions compromising the honor and dignity of the state security organs,\'\' the state news agency said. ``By decision of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R., he was deprived of his military rank of major-general (reserve) for the same actions,\'\' it said. Tass said he also was stripped of all departmental decorations. Kalugin said KGB agents are still tapping telephones, infiltrating the Russian Orthodox Church and labor unions, and carrying out other actions. Kalugin, a member of the Democratic Platform reform movement, said he was drummed out of the intelligence agency this year after being demoted to reserve status because of his reformist leanings. Kalugin said he was seeking publicity, not only to speak out on political issues, but partly to protect himself from repercussions for his reformist views. ``The KGB has too much political power, and this way will remain a threat to democracy,\'\' he said. ``I would abolish the KGB as such.\'\' The KGB said in a news release Kalugin was trying to launch a political career and was using the domestic and foreign media to become a public figure. ``Kalugin\'s personality is well known to us. His pronouncements, with gross distortions and hostile remarks about the activity of the present state security agencies, logically follow from his acts and conduct during his work with the KGB agencies,\'\' the KGB said. The former agent, who speaks English well, said he worked as an spy in the United States from 1958-70, first under the cover of a Radio Moscow correspondent, then as a first secretary in the Soviet Embassy in Washington. Kalugin said he returned to the foreign counterintelligence department in Moscow, and led it for seven years before he was demoted for speaking out in favor of reforms.\r\n'),(711,2,'A woman who once claimed she was David Letterman\'s wife was charged Monday with breaking into the talk-show host\'s home for a sixth time _ two days after her release from prison for an earlier break-in. Margaret Ray, 37, of Crawford, Colo., was arrested at 12:46 a.m. Monday and charged with first-degree trespassing when she was found near the tennis court on Letterman\'s property, said police Sgt. Nick Warren. Letterman called to report seeing her in the hallway of his home, Warren said. Warren said Ray had also been there the day before. Letterman had called Sunday to report a broken window, and when police went to investigate, they found her in the house, escorted her off the property and warned her not to come back. Ray was held overnight on $1,000 bond and taken to Norwalk Superior Court on Monday afternoon, where a psychiatric evaluation was ordered, said a spokeswoman in the public defender\'s office. Ray was taken to the Niantic State Prison for women and is due back in court April 4. It was Ray\'s sixth arrest in two years for bothering the host of NBC\'s ``Late Night with David Letterman.\'\' She was released last Friday from the Niantic prison, where she had served seven months of a nine-month sentence for trespassing at his home last August, said William Flower, a Department of Correction spokesman. An NBC publicist, Rosemary Keenan, said Letterman had no comment on the arrest. Ray, who last year described Letterman as the ``dominant figure in my life,\'\' was first arrested in May 1988, when she was stopped driving his Porsche near the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City. She identified herself as Mrs. Letterman and her son as David Jr. when she was unable to pay the $3 toll. Authorities said she took the car after breaking into his house and setting up housekeeping. Letterman initially declined to press charges, but she was charged with trespassing when she returned a second time. Ray was arrested again on Feb. 24, 1989, and four days later when she was found again on the property. She pleaded guilty in June and was sentenced to three years\' probation, to be served in Colorado. But police nabbed her a fifth time on Aug. 24. The following day, she was sentenced to nine months in Niantic for violating her probation.\r\n'),(712,2,'Many Communist Party congresses have come at historic junctures and indicated the road the Soviet Union would follow. Here is a look at some that preceded the 28th, which begins Monday: 1st, 1898 _ Emigre Russian Marxists met in Minsk, capital of Byelorussia, and formed the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, forerunner of the Communist Party. 2nd, 1903 _ In Brussels, Belgium, Vladimir I. Lenin pushed through his party program and charter and asserted tight personal control over party affairs. The party split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. 7th, 1918 _ The Bolsheviks, now in power, met in Petrograd, formerly St. Petersburg and later to be named Leningrad. 10th, 1921 _ At the first party congress in Moscow, site of all future congresses, factions were banned and freedom of opinion limited. It marked the beginning of the New Economic Policy, which allowed some private enterprise. 11th, 1922 _ Josef Stalin became head of the party. 12th, 1923 _ With Lenin seriously ill, Stalin stepped up his campaign against Leon Trotsky and other rivals. 14th, 1925 _ Stalin, now in charge, began his crash industrialization program. 15th, 1927 _ This congress set the stage for the sweeping collectivization of agriculture Stalin ordered two years later. Millions of people died from famine. 17th, 1934 _ The ``Congress of Victors\'\' showed signs of moderation from Stalin\'s radical course, but was followed by purges in which millions of people were killed. 20th, 1956 _ Nikita S. Khrushchev, in a secret speech, exposed many of the evils of Stalin\'s reign and began ``destalinization.\'\' 25th, 1976 _ The congress was considered the height of what now is called Leonid I. Brezhnev\'s ``stagnation period.\'\' 27th, 1986 _ Mikhail S. Gorbachev laid out his program for ``perestroika,\'\' to democratize the political system and introduce modest economic reform.\r\n'),(713,2,'By this point on the political calendar, New Hampshire\'s campaign veterans are accustomed to seeing would-be presidential nominees at work in the first primary state, in person or by proxy. But a year before first primary of the next presidential election campaign, nothing is stirring. A few potential candidates visited in 1989 and early 1990, but not one candidate or campaign worker has set up shop in what should be prime time to prepare for 1992. ``It\'s been amazingly quiet,\'\' says Dennis Murphy, chairman of Illinois Sen. Paul Simon\'s 1988 primary campaign. ``I haven\'t heard from anyone, haven\'t talked to anyone even remotely representing a presidential candidate.\'\' By contrast, Democrats Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona governor, and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, the House majority leader from Missouri, campaigned in New Hampshire two years before the 1988 primary. Other candidates, including then-Vice President George Bush, had campaign workers in the state at this time in 1986. Bush and Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, the eventual nominees, won their party primaries here in 1988. Since the current primary system was instituted, no president has been elected without winning in New Hampshire first. In Iowa, site of the first presidential caucus, the political scene is equally quiet. What\'s the story? Some say candidates have abandoned long primary campaigns because they are too grueling, can lead to burnout, and have turned off many voters. They also point to Gephardt, who withdrew before the national convention in 1988, as evidence that candidates who get the jump on their competition often end up losing anyway. Others say candidates don\'t want to tip their hands too early. ``After even one trip here, no one can say anything on their minds anymore because it will be viewed as being motivated by presidential politics,\'\' says Ned Helms, the state Democratic chairman. Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia recently turned down an invitation to speak in New Hampshire in February. ``I am not ready to have everyone in the country say that Sam Nunn has decided to run for president,\'\' he explained. The 1988 primary was for an open presidential race, with Ronald Reagan retiring. Bush will be up for re-election in 1992. State Republican Chairwoman Rhona Charbonneau said Gov. Mario Cuomo\'s narrowed margin in a three-way New York election, and Sen. Bill Bradley\'s close call victory in New Jersey hurt two of the Democrats\' most appealing potential candidates. Other Democrats mentioned as possible entries include Nunn; Sens. Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, Lloyd M. Bentsen of Texas, Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska; Govs. Douglas Wilder of Virginia and Richard Celeste of Ohio; and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The speculation about a possible conservative challenge to Bush in a Republican primary comes up short of likely candidates. Former Delaware Gov. Pete du Pont has set up a political action committee, but he quickly told a New Hampshire newspaper that it wasn\'t to finance a second presidential bid. Du Pont ran in 1988. He said his Committee for Republican Leadership is to fight tax increases, not to launch a presidential bid. Thomas Rath, who led Sen. Bob Dole\'s 1988 New Hampshire primary effort, says Bush\'s enormous popularity for most of his first term, and the Persian Gulf crisis, are reasons for the political inactivity. ``For an extended period of time Bush\'s numbers were so high, they maybe scared off challengers,\'\' Rath says. ``And the Middle East has had a big impact. I don\'t think anyone wants to look like they\'re using it for their own political gain.\'\' Some welcome the change from two-year primary campaigns. `I\'m not disappointed at all,\'\' Murphy says. ``I\'ve never been a fan of the first-in-the-nation primary. What happens in the statehouse is much more important.\'\' Mary Chambers, Democratic leader of the New Hampshire House, also believes less is better in primary elections. ``Nobody is even thinking about it - they\'re too busy with other things,\'\' she says. ``They are going to stay (in Washington) and take care of business as long as it\'s so questionable about what will happen in the Middle East.\'\'\r\n'),(714,2,'Disruptive children can cause parents to drink more, a Florida State University study released Friday shows. ``I\'m not suggesting we blame children for the alcoholism of their parents, because those who grow up in alcoholic homes have suffered enough already,\'\' said Dr. Alan Lang, an associate professor of psychology at Florida State. ``Nonetheless, particularly difficult children can cause distress for parents and, in some cases, this may contribute to increased alcohol use.\'\' Contrary to the teachings of self-help groups, who place the onus on parents and tell children of alcoholics they aren\'t to blame, the Florida State study may provide the first documented evidence that children actually can cause their parents to drink more. Lang teamed with Dr. William Pelham of the University of Pittsburgh to conduct the research. ``Our studies show how the destructive role of alcohol in parent-child interactions is a two-way street,\'\' Lang said. ``Problem drinkers make poor parents, but problem children may also drive parents to drink.\'\' He said the findings are similar to those of studies that show children who are mentally retarded or have serious behavioral problems are abused more often than normal, obedient children. ``The point is that while we usually think of parents as influencers of children, children can affect parents as well,\'\' Lang said. ``And the outcome is not always favorable.\'\' Dr. Robin Room, scientific director of the Alchohol Research Group of the Medical Research Institute of San Francisco, wasn\'t surprised by the findings but said it was important to look into the cause of drinking among parents, ``rather than give in to the bumper sticker-type humor that says children cause their parents to drink. ``It\'s important to understand that parental drinking patterns can later influence their children\'s drinking patterns,\'\' Room said. The Florida researchers, under a grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, asked 120 parents with 5-to-12-year-old sons to interact with an unfamiliar boy of a similar age. The parents were then given an opportunity to drink as much or as little alcohol as they wanted, while anticipating a second interaction with the same child. Half of the parents in the study had difficult children of their own with short attention spans, hyperactivity, conduct disorders, or some combination of the three. The other half had only children without behavior disorders. But the researchers stacked the deck. Half the parents had initially interacted with boys who behaved normally, while half had faced boys trained by the researchers to behave in an overactive and disruptive way. Among parents of normal children, those who interacted with disruptive boys drank one-third more than those who interacted with a cooperative child. ``I feel justified in suggesting that these results indicate that drinking is a parental behavior that can be influenced by the characteristics and behaviors of children,\'\' Lang said. Parents with disruptive children at home responded differently to the study, however, depending on the drinking patterns of their own parents. Those who had a family history of drinking problems drank 50 percent more after interacting with a deviant child-actor, while those with no such family history drank less. ``This suggests that people differ in their vulnerability to increased drinking in response to the stress of interactions with a difficult child,\'\' Lang said.\r\n'),(715,2,'Wheat futures prices dropped and cattle futures climbed Thursday as an intense winter storm system muscled into the Southern Plains, bringing badly needed moisture to the winter wheat crop and slowing livestock marketings. On other commodity markets Thursday, orange juice futures fell sharply; most energy futures rose; and precious metals retreated. Meteorologist Harvey Freese of Freese-Notis Weather Inc. in Des Moines, Iowa, said the winter storm was likely to bring the largest snowfall amounts in two years to the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. Snow amounts of up to five inches were already reported in Texas on Thursday afternoon and the precipitation was expected to continue into Saturday, Freese said. Snow and rain was expected to spread over a wide area, including western Kansas and western Nebraska, before the system pushes north and east into the Midwest. The heavy downfall will help relieve the unusally dry conditions that have prevailed in winter wheat country since late autumn. ``This is the biggest rain event since September,\'\' said Katharina Zimmer, a grain-market analyst with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Inc. ``They are likely to get as much snow today, tonight and tomorrow as they usually get in January or February,\'\' Wheat futures settled 1{ cents to 3\\ cents lower on the Chicago Board of Trade with the contract for delivery in March at $3.97} a bushel, its lowest close since Sept. 28. Corn futures finished { cent to 1} cents higher with March at $2.42 a bushel; oats were { cent to 1{ cents lower with March at $1.38\\ a bushel; soybeans were 1} cents to 3{ cents higher with January at $5.60} a bushel. Expectations for a storm-related slowdown in cattle marketings helped to boost live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where contracts for February and April delivery posted new life-of-contract highs. Live cattle settled .05 cent to .58 cent higher with February at 78.80 cents a pound; feeder cattle were .15 cent lower to .20 cent higher with January at 83.77 cents a pound; live hogs were .18 cent lower to .30 cent higher with February at 49.60 cents a pound; frozen pork bellies finished 1.35 cents lower to .08 cent higher with February at 55.52 cents a pound. Orange juice futures plunged on the New York Cotton Exchange amid profit-taking by speculators who participated in the market\'s spectacular 60 percent runup following the Christmas freeze in Florida\'s citrus belt. ``It\'s about time we have a correction after a 75-cent move\'\' to $2 a pound, said analyst Celeste Georkakis of Cargill Investor Services Inc. Frozen concentrated orange juice futures finished 1.7 cents to 5.5 cents lower with January at $1.907 a pound. Petroleum futures ended mixed in volatile trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange as crude and heating oil bounced back from Wednesday\'s losses. West Texas Intermediate crude oil settled 6 cents to 66 cents higher with February at $22.76 a barrel; heating oil was .56 cent to 1.32 cents higher with February at 61.84 cents a gallon; unleaded gasoline was .71 cent lower to .91 cent higher with February at 60.71 cents a gallon. Gold and silver futures sank on selling that analysts attributed to abundant silver supplies and perceptions of an industrial slowdown, which would reduce demand for silver in industrial applications. Gold settled $1.80 to $2.50 lower with February at $411.20 a troy ounce; silver was 5.4 cents to 6.8 cents lower with March at $5.24 a troy ounce.\r\n'),(716,2,'Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., said Thursday that a Taiwan court has found a book company in that country and two of its officials guilty of pirating Britannica\'s published works. In a statement, the Chicago-based Britannica said the Criminal Division of the Taipei District Court returned guilty verdicts Tuesday against the Tan Ching Book Company, its president, Tu Chich-hsiang and its chairman, Chang Yu-ping, for pirating the 10-volume Concise Encyclopaedia Britannica. The CEB, first published in Beijing, is a condensed Chinese translation of Britannica\'s Micropaedia, the ready-reference section of Encyclopaedia Britannica\'s 15th Edition, the company said. Tu and Chang each was sentenced to one year in prison and fined, Britannica said. ``We are gratified that the Taiwan court has upheld Britannica\'s ownership rights and respected its copyright by enforcing Taiwan law,\'\' said Frank Gibney, vice president of Britannica\'s Board of Editors, in the statement. ``This is a great step forward in protecting intellectual property rights on an international level throughout the Pacific Basin,\'\' he said. Last year, the company charged the Tan Ching Book Company with producing an unauthorized Chinese-language edition of the Britannica. The publisher not only refused to stop production, but advertised the edition heavily in Taiwan newspapers, Britannica said. Britannica filed a complaint against Tan Ching in February, and Taiwan police conducted a raid in which more than 56,000 bindings and thousands of complete volumes of a pirated verision of the Chinese-language CEB were seized. Britannica reached agreement in late 1987 with Chung Hwa Book Company of Taipei to publish the authorized version of the CEB in Taiwan, the company said, and Chung Hwa already has issued five volumes of the 20-volume CEB.\r\n'),(717,2,'Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev will hold a news conference during his summit next week with President Reagan, a Soviet source said Friday. It would be the first time that a general secretary of the Communist Party submitted to such a session in the Soviet capital. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gorbachev\'s news conference would be on Wednesday, the same day that Reagan plans to take questions from the media. A Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that no general secretary has held a general news conference in the Soviet capital in the past, but said he could not confirm the date that Gorbachev plans to face reporters. Gorbachebroad range of questions from reporters during his trips abroad, holding news conferences at the conclusion of his summits witv has fielded a h Reagan in Geneva, Reykjavik and Washington. The Soviet leader also has given a handful of private interviews to foreign reporters since he became Kremlin boss in March 1985. The Foreign Ministry spokesman, who did not want to be identified, said information about Gorbachev\'s summit schedule would be made public at a later date. On Thursday, Nikolai Shishlin, deputy head of the Central Committee\'s information department, was asked at a news conference wheteral owns a number of daily and weekly newspapers, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Richmond News Leader, as well as several television stations and cable television operations.\r\n'),(718,2,'A grieving Indian man went from corpse to corpse, searching for five relatives in the dimly lit refrigerated warehouse used as a morgue for victims from the Iran Air jetliner downed by U.S. Navy missile fire. Iranian guides removed the lids from rough wooden coffins and unwrapped the plastic from around several bodies to display the corpses, many of them mutilated by the crash. ``Its a terrible thing that the superpower has done,\'\' said the weeping Indian to a group of Western journalists. He would give his name only as Farid. While morgue employees were preparing the bodies of at least 38 foreign victims to be returned home, those of most of the Iranian victims were flown to Tehran for a mass funeral Thursday. In Tehran, tens of thousands of people lined up behind the coffins, which were draped with Iranian flags and borne on pallbearers\' shoulders to Martyrs\' Cemetery. The streets reverberated with cries of ``Revenge, revenge!\'\' and ``Death to America!\'\' as the cortege wound through the city. To visit the morgue, reporters flew to Iran from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down Sunday while flying in the opposite direction. Several guides wore handkerchiefs around their faces to keep out the stench of death in the makeshift morgue. The refrigerators of the Mostaan Cold Storage Depot, which held 100 bodies, could not totally conceal the odor. As reporters talked with the Iranians, Farid looked at the face of each body. He finally discovered those of his sister and brother-in-law. He sobbed as he touched their faces and arms.\r\n'),(719,2,'A teen-ager who required 110 stitches after a shark attack in southeastern Australia said Friday that his surfing days are over. Murray Taylor, 15, said the ``huge shark\'\' dragged him from his surfboard and bit him repeatedly. Murray said he escaped by punching the shark on the nose and trying to gouge its eyes. The attack occurred Thursday at Moana Beach, 30 miles south of Adelaide. ``When he reached the shore he actually walked up the beach on his own,\'\' said Murray\'s mother, Wendy Richardson. ``Murray said he wasn\'t sure how big the shark was, but he said its head was at least a foot wide.\'\' The teen-ager was recuperating at Flinders Medical Center in Adelaide.\r\n'),(720,2,'For an image-obsessed outfit like the Walt Disney Co., the soiled Mickey Mouse disposable diapers scattered throughout garbage dumps don\'t exactly proclaim environmental activism. MCA Inc. is making points with a company recycling program and earth-friendly television shows, movies, videos and records. But some critics say the entertainment conglomerate is mismanaging Yosemite National Park, which an MCA subsidiary oversees. Industrial giants from Exxon Corp. to Union Carbide Corp. present fat targets for environmentalists. But the reach of the green movement has grown so much that even Disney and MCA, home of such squeaky clean characters as Snow White and E.T., now must answer to the ecological accountants. Not long ago, the world looked to Hollywood for escapism. In recent years, however, public pressure has led the entertainment industry to reexamine its depiction of alcohol abuse, violence toward women, birth control and bigotry. Now that the environment has become the hot issue, Hollywood once again is trying to set an example. NBC\'s ``ALF\'\' is among the most environmentally conscious TV shows. One recent episode had the furry alien battling chlorofluorocarbon polluters. NBC distributed note pads of recycled paper to advertise the show. The episode reflected well on NBC and its parent, General Electric Co. But GE isn\'t ranked too highly by environmental groups. At GE\'s annual meeting April 25, for example, shareholder activists have resolutions on the agenda urging the company to devise a plan to stop producing hazardous wastes and cut its own chlorofluorocarbon pollution. These days, the entertainment industry is not content generating ecological programs, such as The Disney Channel\'s presentation this month of anti-pollution shows. Instead, many Hollywood companies are practicing their own environmentalism. Disney and MCA, for example, say they\'re motivated by genuine concern. ``We\'re not out to publicize our efforts,\'\' said Garrett De Bell, MCA\'s environmental consultant. Last month Disney appointed a new environmental czar, Kym Murphy, who reports directly to company chieftains Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, and says they realize ``the amazing responsibility we have.\'\' ``Our ability to influence is remarkable, and the perception people have of us is really hard to live up to,\'\' Murphy said. Has Disney done so? Not entirely, he acknowledged. ``I think if you ask people, `Does Disney recycle,\' they would say, `Gee, they must if anybody does.\' \'\' In fact, Disney does not. Disney is anxious to start a better program, he said. One of Murphy\'s first chores was contacting the Procter & Gamble Co., which buys licenses rights to print little Disney characters on the adhesive strips that hold Disney Babies disposable diapers to infant bottoms. Disposable diapers are among the fastest-growing components of landfill rubbish. About 16 billion are dumped each year. Environmentalists say they can take decades to decompose. Murphy said Procter & Gamble researchers are ``pulling out all the stops\'\' to make their products more environmentally safe. His other chief environmental headache has been Disney\'s quasi-city government that exercises near-total power over 27,000 acres surrounding the company\'s Florida operations, home of Walt Disney World and other fun parks. For the past two years, Disney has come under heavy criticism from some local community leaders who say it doesn\'t pay the environmental costs generated by millions of tourists. Disney finally agreed to pay $14 million in additional property taxes, but then angered locals even more by announcing construction of seven more hotels, 29 new attractions, a fourth amusement park and 19,000 more workers. ``They can go out there and pave over anything they want to do without going through any kind of environmental review,\'\' said Bill Donegan, an Orange County, Fla. commissioner who\'ss led an effort to make Disney more accountable. ``We don\'t know the real impact environmentally. We don\'t know how many woodpeckers\' nests have been destroyed, how many eagles, how many ospreys.\'\' MCA has been trumpeting its attention to the environment, both on the Universal Studios lot and in film and TV. At MCA offices in Universal City, the company began a company-wide recycling program using containers decorated with a Woody Woodpecker logo. The staff at MCA subsidiary Universal Television met last fall with representatives of the Environmental Media Association, an organization that promotes earth-friendly messages in the entertainment industry. Andy Spahn, EMA director, said producers asked how recycling themes could be incorporated into storylines. ``This is not a problem that can be solved by government action alone,\'\' he said. ``Through film, television and music, the industry is in a unique position to reach millions of people and show them they can make a difference.\'\' Others say the real test of a company\'s commitment to the environment is not whether it makes shows about recycling. More important, they say, is whether a company\'s decisions do more for the planet than for profits. ``High profile companies cannot change the world single-handedly, but they can set an example,\'\' said Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways and a long-time environmental activist. ``It\'s so often people will talk about causes without doing something that actually affects themselves or their business,\'\' said Branson. Sleeves for Virgin\'s records (artists include Paula Abdul, Soul II Soul) are recycled paper. Virgin Atlantic says it will plant a tree for every passenger flying between London and Los Angeles in the next 12 months. At the Hard Rock Cafe chain, employees sort waste paper and beverage bottles, said founder Peter Morton. ``We\'re not suddenly converts to the environmental movement now that it\'s fashionable,\'\' he said, noting that the phrase ``Save the Planet\'\' has been part of the company\'s logo for 10 years. Despite earning millions of dollars at Yosemite on a concession fee of $600,000, MCA\'s Yosemite Park and Curry Co. is as committed to the park as it is to shareholders, the company says. Environmental consultant De Bell, who lives in Yosemite, said that when Yosemite switched from polystyrene cups to recyclable paper containers, it cost MCA about $20,000. ``We want to do good business and improve the environment as much as possible,\'\' De Bell said. Dan Jensen, executive vice president of MCA\'s Curry unit, said the subsidiary declined an offer worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from a automobile maker wanting to call itself Yosemite\'s official car. ``We would have been preying on the name Yosemite which is not ours to own,\'\' Jensen said. Environmental critics say MCA has spent too much marketing the California park and doesn\'t spend enough money maintaining it. De Bell said the criticisms have been blown out of proportion because ``Yosemite is a shrine of the environmental movement.\'\'\r\n'),(721,2,'Jewish and Roman Catholic leaders from 16 countries have agreed that a major inititiative is needed to combat anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, the New York Times reported in Thursday editions. The agreement came in Prague, Czechoslovakia, at the first formal meeting in five years of the Vatican Commission on Religious Relations with the Jews and the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations. The four-day meeting was scheduled to end Thursday. Archbishop William H. Keeler of Baltimore told the Times the conference\'s closing statement would call for Catholic repentance and stress that anti-Semitism ``is a sin against God and humanity.\'\' It also will recognize ``the special problems of anti-Semitism in Eastern and Central Europe,\'\' said Rabbi Jack Bemporad, chairman of the Interreligious Affairs Office of the Synagogue Council of America. Open anti-Semitism is said to be on the rise in the region, as the fall of totalitarian Communist regimes allows people to express their views more freely. Participants at the meeting recommended that other Eastern European countries follow the lead of Poland and Czechoslovakia in setting up Catholic-Jewish liaison committees. It also urged rapid translation and dissemination of recent Vatican statements on Catholic-Jewish relations. Eastern European churches lacked either permission or resources to publish these documents. Also recommended by participants are systematic efforts rid textbooks of religiously or racially divisive material, establishment of seminary courses and training programs for priests to counter anti-Semitism, and new efforts to defend religious liberty and monitor any outbreaks of anti-Semitism. Vatican officials also reaffirmed their intention to prepare a major document on the church and the Holocaust, a project pledged in 1987 but delayed. Catholic-Jewish relations are ``back on track,\'\' Seymour Reich, chairman of the Jewish committee, told The Times. The Jewish committee was established in 1967 as an umbrella group for discussions with the Vatican. Its membership includes the Synagogue Council of America, B\'nai Brith International and the World Jewish Congress.\r\n'),(722,2,'Convicted child-killer Arthur Gary Bishop, having fired his attorneys and abandoned appeals of his death sentence, expressed sorrow for his crimes Friday as a judge scheduled his execution June 10. Third District Judge Frank G. Noel signed the death warrant after Bishop read a brief statement explaining why he had decided to forego appeals of his convictions for the sex-related abductions and slayings of five boys from 1979 to 1983. ``In reflecting back on my life, I remember a lot of good things, but these are overshadowed by the things I have done,\'\' Bishop said. ``I wish I could make restitution somehow, but I don\'t see how I can.\'\' Bishop, 38, was allowed to fire his attorneys and drop appeals last month after he was found competent to decide his fate. Bishop, his hands shackled in front of him as he stood to read his hand-written statement, said his apology to his victims\' families following his 1984 conviction may not have been as sincere as it should have been. Near the conclusion of the 10-minute hearing, he said he was restating his apology with ``heartfelt empathy. ... Again, I say I am truly sorry for all the anguish.\'\' ``I wish I could go back and change what happened, or that by giving my life these five innocent lives could be restored,\'\' said Bishop, his voice low but steady. Utah law provides for execution by lethal injection or firing squad. Bishop previously had indicated he preferred lethal injection. Bishop was convicted on five counts of first-degree murder, five counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of sexual abuse of a minor following a six-week trial in 1984. In a confession to police, Bishop said he killed the boys, ages 4 to 13, to prevent exposure as a child molester. On Monday, the Utah Supreme Court lifted Bishop\'s stay of execution and remanded the case to district court for the setting of the execution date. Should Bishop change his mind about seeking execution, any federal appeals must be filed by late May, three months after the Utah Supreme Court\'s Feb. 29 denial of a petition for rehearing filed by Bishop\'s former attorneys.\r\n'),(723,2,'British army reinforcements arrived in Northern Ireland today to combat an expected Christmas season terrorist campaign, the army said. The army headquarters in Northern Ireland said the extra 600 troops were being deployed to help the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the province\'s police force. It is the first time in four years that reinforcements have been sent to the British-run province, the army said. ``This is not a reactive measure but part of a prudent management of security force activity,\'\' an army spokesman said. ``They will be retained in Northern Ireland as long as it is absolutely necessary.\'\' The constabulary said intelligence reports indicated that both the outlawed Irish Republican Army, which is mainly Roman Catholic, and Protestant paramilitary groups planned an increase in attacks in the coming weeks. A spokesman refused to say where the troops will be based, but sources said they would be spread throughout the province, increasing patrols and roadblocks. Seventy-two people have been killed in terrorist incidents in 1990, 27 of them since October. In 1989, 62 people were killed. The reinforcements bring the number of British troops in Northern Ireland to about 11,000, the Ministry of Defense said. Britain sent troops to Northern Ireland when sectarian and political violence erupted in August 1969. Since then, nearly 2,900 people have died in the violence.\r\n'),(724,2,'The Soviet Union announced today that it will stop making a rail-based mobile intercontinental ballistic missile, but did not commit itself to removing those already in place. Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze made the announcement after two days of talks in this eastern Siberian city with Secretary of State James A. Baker III and before reporters had learned of Iraq\'s invasion of Kuwait. Both officials told reporters outside a guest house where they met that their 10 hours of discussions produced no major breakthroughs on what had been expected to be their main focus, the 12-year-old civil war in Afghanistan. But the announcement about the Soviet SS-24 missile indicated they had made some progress on arms control. The meeting, the 11th this year between Baker and Shevardnadze, was the most informal. The diplomats cruised the Angara River and went fishing. Shevardnadze landed a trout, but Baker came away empty-handed. Shevardnadze, standing along with Baker on a patio, said the Soviet military would cease production of the missiles on Jan. 1. He said the Soviet military would continue to deploy until 1991 ``not many\'\' of the missiles it has already produced. The removal of missiles already in place, he said, was a subject of negotiations between U.S. and Soviet teams in Geneva. According to the 1989 edition of the annual U.S. Defense Department publication ``Soviet Military Power,\'\' the Soviet Union began deploying the rail-based version of the SS-24 missile in 1987 and had about 58 of them. The SS-24 carries 10 warheads and has a range of abut 6,200 miles. Limits on mobile land-based missiles were one of the outstanding issues in START talks on slashing the superpowers\' stockpiles of long-range nuclear weapons. Other bigger sticking points in the negotiations are curbs on modernizing the Soviet Union\'s biggest strategic missile, the SS-18, and the Backfire bomber, and on transfers of missiles to third countries. Shevardnadze did not say why the Soviet Union was taking the step, but the Kremlin is under pressure to cut its defense budget so it can spend the money on solving chronic economic problems. ``We welcome the announcement,\'\' Baker said before flying to Mongolia for the last stop on his four-nation Asian tour. He added, however, that ``It doesn\'t at this point, at least, change our negotiating position in START.\'\' U.S. officials indicated earlier this year that they might offer to give up plans for a rail-based MX missile if the Soviets give up the SS-24. Baker and Shevardnadze discussed the war in Afghanistan on Wednesday night and this morning, but the Soviet envoy told reporters, ``I cannot say we can report any kind of breakthrough on Afghanistan.\'\' The Soviets arm the Afghan government, while the Americans supply the guerrillas fighting it with military aid. Baker told reporters there were two main stumbling blocks to a settlement: _The makeup of a commission to ensure ``free and fair\'\' elections. _Which powers the current government, headed by pro-Soviet President Najibullah, might transfer to an interim government during elections so candidates are ensured a ``fair shake.\'\' Baker said Soviet and American experts will try to resolve differences over these points when they meet in Washington. He did not say when the meeting would take place. U.S. and Soviet officials reportedly have been working on a plan for Najibullah to hand over some power to a council of Afghan forces as a run-up to a nationwide election. The composition of the council is now in dispute. U.S.-backed Afghan rebels disagree about who should be on the council. Baker alluded to that at the news conference. ``We are moving closer together on Afghanistan. Having said that, I don\'t think you should take that to mean necessarily that those whose interests we have been allied with in the past are necessarily moving together,\'\' he said. In three meetings, including one Wednesday night in a river-side fishing lodge in the Siberian wilderness, Baker and Shevardnadze also discussed preparations for a third summit meeting between Bush and Gorbachev. Shevardnadze said not date had been decided for the summit, but that it would be held in Moscow. He also announced that Baker, U.S. Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher and leading American businessmen would travel to Moscow in September for talks on U.S.-Soviet economic cooperation. Baker indicated this primarily would involve ways of stimulating U.S. business investment in the Soviet Union, in dire need of Western help to cure its ailing economy. A Soviet source said that during their Wednesday morning meeting, Shevardnadze gave Baker a 15-page outline of areas for economic and scientific cooperation. The envoys meet next in Moscow on Sept. 12.\r\n'),(725,2,'The government-besieged Teamsters union is celebrating an end to its 32-year marriage of convenience with Republican presidential candidates, and has chosen to dance with a new partner at the Democratic National Convention. Even though the union\'s new president is an Irish Catholic Bostonian who supported Michael Dukakis\' opponents in previous elections, the Teamsters hosted a party here Sunday night symbolizing a return to the labor movement\'s half-century courtship with Democrats. William J. McCarthy\'s upset election last week to succeed the late Jackie Presser as the Teamsters\' president had cast doubts among some union leaders that organized labor could unite behind the Democratic presidential nominee for the first time since 1956. McCarthy, 69, had supported Edward King in both his 1978 upset of the incumbent Dukakis for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Massachusetts and had opposed Dukakis\' successful challenge of King four years later. ``That sort of personalizes it,\'\' one official of another union commented. McCarthy is known among other labor leaders to have opposed the Teamsters\' reaffiliation with the AFL-CIO last October. Implicit in the reunion was an understanding that the Teamsters would go along with the labor federation\'s Democratic presidential endorsement. Commanding a fourth of the delegates at this week\'s convention, labor leaders have openly wondered whether the new Teamsters chief would abide by Presser\'s promise to work with the rest of labor ``to create the biggest political giant this country has ever seen.\'\' With the largest political campaign chest of any group in the country, the question is not academic. At the end of March, the Teamsters\' DRIVE (Democratic, Republican, Independent Voter Education) political action committee had $5.5 million _ $1.5 million more than the American Medical Association and $1.8 million more than the National Association of Realtors. Teamster political operatives sought to assure more than a dozen presidents of other unions here Sunday that McCarthy\'s upset election last Friday over Dukakis supporter Weldon Mathis, Presser\'s designated heir, will not return the union to the GOP camp. ``There\'s about as much chance of us endorsing George Bush as there is it snowing in Atlanta tomorrow,\'\' said one senior Teamster official. The Teamsters generally had courted Republican presidential candidates ever since Dwight Eisenhower\'s bid for re-election in 1956. Presser had been the only major labor leader in the country to support Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 1984 elections, saying then the AFL-CIO was out of touch with workers in its endorsements of Democrats Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. But Presser, who died July 9, began grumbling about the Reagan administration more the four years ago, first over its appointees to the National Labor Relations Board and then over his indictment in 1986 on labor racketeering and embezzlement charges. The final straw, according to Teamster officials, was the government\'s suit to wrest control of the union from its leaders on a claim they are puppets of organized crime. McCarthy was notably absent from Sunday\'s reception. Teamsters and other labor leaders said that is characteristic of the low priority he places on national presidential politics. Upon taking over the union\'s reins last Friday, McCarthy said he would have no comment on a Teamsters presidential endorsement ``until after both conventions, Democratic and Republican\'\' _ the same position taken officially by the AFL-CIO. But a Teamster official noted that, despite his endorsement of Dukakis\' opponent in Massachusetts gubernatorial races, McCarthy had served on the governor\'s labor-management council. And a senior AFL-CIO official acknowledged that the Teamsters were not alone in abandoning Dukakis at the end of his first time as Massachusetts\' governor. ``About half the labor movement was against him then,\'\' the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. ``He messed up his first term.\'\' Another Teamster official also noted that Dukakis _ although he was the last of the Democratic presidential candidates to do so _ had spoken against a Justice Department suit to take over the 1.6-million-member union on a claim its leaders are puppets of organized crime. ``George Bush is the only candidate out there now who has not spoken against the suit,\'\' said Tim O\'Neill, a spokesman for the union. Asked if the Teamsters planned a similar reception at the GOP convention next month in New Orleans, another official commented coldly: ``We see no reason to be there.\'\'\r\n'),(726,2,'The failure of the world\'s second-largest diamond to sell at auction is no indication that the diamond market is weakening, officials at Christie\'s auction house said. The flawless golden-hued diamond, weighing 407.48 carats and the size of an egg, was withdrawn from the auction block by its owners Wednesday after they rejected a record bid of $12 million, officials said. It was the second time in as many days that a precious stone expected to sell for a record amount was pulled off the block. On Tuesday, Sotheby\'s was forced to withdraw the 48-carat royal red Mandalay Ruby, which carried a pre-sale estimate of $15 million, when a high bid of $7.6 million was rejected as insufficient by the gem\'s owner. The giant diamond was offered for sale by New York jewelry dealers Marvin Samuels and Louis Glick and the Zale Corp., a Dallas-based jewelry retail chain. Zale purchased it as an uncut 890-carat stone in August 1984. The $12 million bid, the highest ever at an auction for a gem, was made by Theodore Horovitz, a Geneva-based jeweler, according to Christie\'s. ``The fact that the diamond didn\'t find a buyer is no reflection on the state of the diamond market, which is extremely strong,\'\' Francis Curiel, head of Christie\'s jewelry department, said in a statement. The gem was described as the largest ever offered at a public auction. It is second in size only to the 530.20-carat Cullinan I, which is set in Britain\'s Imperial Sceptre as part of the Crown Jewels. Christie\'s had resisted estimating how much the diamond would bring, although Curiel noted that an 85.91-carat white diamond was auctioned April 19 for $9.31 million _ a record for any gem.\r\n'),(727,2,'Efforts to reshape South Korea\'s faction-ridden politics took a new turn today when President Roh Tae-woo\'s governing party indicated it would dissolve itself to form a new ``grand\'\' conservative party. The move by the governing Democratic Justice Party, coupled with strenuous efforts by the two centrist opposition parties to merge, made the country\'s political picture complex. ``We will actively respond to moves by the two opposition parties to merge,\'\' said the governing party\'s secretary general, Park Jun-byung. Another Democratic Justice official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, ``It is possible that we would consider forming a new pan-national, centrist party representing all democratic groups.\'\' If the new conservative party is formed, the governing party could be folded and its leader, Roh, would give up party membership and stay neutral, the same official said. Kim Young-sam, head of the No. 2 opposition group, said today that he would firm up plans next month to merge his Reunification Democratic Party with the No. 3 opposition group, the New Democratic Republican Party, led by former premier Kim Jong-pil. The two opposition leaders earlier agreed in principle to merge their parties possibly before local elections, scheduled in the first half of this year. ``It would not be a simple merger of two parties. The new party to be born would be a central force comprising all conservative groups,\'\' Kim Young-sam told reporters. Kim said his ultimate goal is to make the present four-party system into a bipartisan setup. If the two parties merge, it would become the largest opposition group, replacing Kim Dae-jung\'s Party for Peace and Democracy. The emergence of a centrist opposition party would be welcome news for the governing party, which has been trying to isolate and discredit Kim Dae-jung\'s liberal, pro-reform party. Kim Dae-jung, holding a news conference today, vehemently opposed the planned merger by his opposition rivals, contending an artificial restructuring of the present four-party system would only benefit Roh\'s governing party. He said the government camp would try to use the planned opposition merger to seek a conservative alliance, through which it would try to remain in power beyond 1993, when Roh steps down at the end of a single five-year term. Many politicians believe the government camp also favors a political realignment that would enable it to hold onto power as Japan\'s governing Liberal Democratic Party does. If its plan to merge or seek alliance with opposition moderates is successful, the government camp, assured of enough votes in the Assembly, would propose a constitutional amendemnt to change the present presidential system into a Cabinet setup headed by a prime minister, they said. The governing party, with 127 seats in the Assembly, is currently far short of a two-third majority required for a constitutional amendment. South Korea\'s politics are currently controlled by four main parties, neither of which has a controling majority in the 299-member National Assembly. The three main opposition parties have a combined majority in the single house but intense rivalry makes it difficult for them to cooperate. At his news conference, Kim Dae-jung said he would try to rally support from ``centrist democratic forces\'\' to counter moves by his rivals to merge or seek alliance. However, his proposal lacked details. He also reiterated that his party would, if the government endorses the plan, send delegates to communist North Korea in the first half of this year to discuss national unification. If the dispatch of the party delegation is proven successful, Kim said he would visit Pyongyang with government approval to meet with North Korean leader Kim Il Sung He said President Roh responded favorably when he raised the issue last week. But presidential and government officials said the opposition plan to send delegates to the north was premature.\r\n'),(728,2,'Here is a chronology of major developments in the story involving Attorney General Edwin Meese\'s wife, Ursula, and the Bender real estate transaction. Aug. 8, 1984: Congress approves a Reagan administration plan to move some Justice Department workers from the Chester Arthur Building and to give up 37 percent of its space when the lease expires in March 1986. March 1, 1985: Howard Bender, a Washington real estate developer, heads a partnership which completes purchase of the Chester Arthur Building for $37.5 million, nearly twice the assessed value and three times its purchase price about five years earlier. June 6, 1985: The administration notifies Congress the Justice Department intends to stay in the Chester Arthur Building, instead of moving out some employees. June 1985: Officials of the Justice Department\'s Immigration and Naturalization Service, the major tenant in the building, forward complaints to the General Services Administration _ the government\'s housekeeper _ that the building\'s air system is causing illness among workers. Fall 1985: Officials at WWDC, a rock-and-roll radio station owned by the Bender family, offer Attorney General Edwin Meese\'s wife, Ursula, a position as a public affairs commentator. She declines the offer. Sept. 26, 1985: Assistant immigration commissioner James Kennedy formally requests an environmental inspection of the air system at Chester Arthur. October 1985: The Bender Foundation, a family-owned philanthropy, makes known that it is willing to donate money to pay Ursula Meese as a development director of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, where she has been a volunteer. Howard Bender\'s wife, Sondra, is president of the foundation and serves on the MS society board. Jan. 1, 1986: Mrs. Meese begins a $40,000-a-year job, under the Bender Foundation\'s three-year grant. July 2, 1986: Environmental inspectors report ``many offices in the Chester Arthur Building which exhibited high complaint rates and above-average sick leave occurences contained viable aero-allergens in concentrations which could easily produce these effects.\'\' May 14, 1987: The GSA signs a $50 million, 10-year lease for Justice Department workers to stay in the Chester Arthur Building after the Bender partnership promises to clean the air system. The rent jumps more than three-fold. May 27, 1987: The partnership headed by Howard Bender sells the Chester Arthur Building for $60.1 million cash _ a $22.7 million profit over two years _ to an Illinois-based partnership.\r\n'),(729,2,'President Bush on Thursday hailed a trade reform agreement with Japan as ``an important framework\'\' for reducing the $49 billion U.S. trade deficit with Tokyo. The president said he welcomed the joint report Thursday by U.S. and Japanese negotiators in Tokyo. In it the two countries identified internal economic practices that hinder open trade, took corrective actions, and ``made commitments to take further steps to resolve a wide range of structural problems,\'\' Bush said in a written statement. ``We expect that the structural policy actions to be taken will have a positive effect on our economies, encouraging open and competitive markets, promoting sustained world economic growth, contributing to a reduction in global payments imbalance, and enhancing the quality of life in both Japan and the United States,\'\' he said. Further, the president said in the statement, the U.S.-Japan agreement will benefit ``the entire world.\'\' Bush was expected to discuss the matter further on Saturday when he meets with Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu in Houston where both are attending the economic summit of industrialized nations. The agreement Thursday emerged from a series of complex negotiations called the Structural Impediments Initiative, or SII, involving the removal of barriers to open trading. The joint report in Tokyo followed Bush\'s acknowledgment this week that new taxes may be needed to reduce the U.S. federal deficit, a key factor in getting the agreement, officials said. The announcement that the president would consider such taxes was followed by a Japanese compromise Wednesday to increase planned public works spending. That might help reduce the trade imbalance by increasing sales of U.S. products and construction services in Japan and soaking up some excess Japanese savings and investment funds. ``As Japan tackles its structural problems,\'\' Bush said in his statement, ``so must the United States.\'\' The president said he wants to work closely with Congress in the ongoing budget negotiations to strengthen public and private savings and lower the deficit. ``Both our governments recognize that further effort will be necessary in order to address fully these structural problems and to maintain the momentum of our adjustment efforts,\'\' Bush said. Bush lauded Kaifu for his personal efforts in fashioning the agreement and for ``strong and courageous political leadership.\'\'\r\n'),(730,2,'``Halloween 5 _ The Revenge of Michael Myers\'\' (CBS-Fox Home Video. VHS-Beta. Rated R. For rental market.) This is a really inferior film. Like others of the teen-age slice-and-dice genre, ``Halloween 5\'\' requires a knowledge of the series to know what\'s going on. It never really suggests what the heck it is Michael\'s avenging. No great loss, for the cinematic slaughter of sexually precocious teen-agers has become as stylized as Jacobean tragedy. ``Halloween 5\'\' is set in the curiously empty suburb that has more than its share of nubile teen-agers with too much disposable income. It opens with a flashback of Michael being run over by a car and blown down a handy abandoned mineshaft, his chest full of buckshot from the shotguns of the never-prompt police. ``One Year Later\'\' the subtitle says, and we dissolve to waiflike 9-year-old Jamie, a traumatic mute and inmate of the local home for disturbed children. She is reliving the psychological domination of Michael, her uncle and, um, psychic twin, that drove her to juke her step-Mommy in the bathtub. Her visitors are perky, attractive teen-age girls who are friends or relatives or something, blithely preparing for a teen Halloween party. That\'s right, a Halloween party in a town that has seen so much annual slaughter on the night that anywhere else the streets would be crowded with police, National Guardsmen and reporters angling for the ``Haddonfield: One Year After Slaughter\'\' story. Ah, but we\'re not here for logic. We\'re here for the numbingly predictable series of false starts, cheap frights and intermittent, painstakingly overdubbed stabbings that lead up to Michael\'s real horror. In ``5,\'\' as in ``1,\'\' ``2,\'\' ``3\'\' and ``4,\'\' Michael\'s task is to murder teen-agers who indulge in casual sex. That\'s the point of this movie, kids. Make love and you die. Kiss, kiss, hack, hack, stab, chop, die. This is the 1990s, though, and the socially responsible filmmakers of ``Halloween 5\'\' give us this line at an intimate moment: She says, ``I didn\'t ... BRING ... anything ...\'\' and he produces a condom. ``Halloween 5\'\' was written by Michael Jacobs, Shem Bitterman and Dominique Othenin-Girard, and directed by Othenin-Girard. Maybe Michael could go after them in ``Halloween 6.\'\' What\'s alarming about this unfrightening, stupid teen screamer, though, is that its real heroine is a 9-year-old girl. And that means the makers of this product are relying on cable and the ubiquitous videocassette to get ``Halloween 5\'\' before an even younger audience. Now THAT\'S scary.\r\n'),(731,2,'A British man in custody here for allegedly trying to smuggle helicopters to Iran claims federal agents turned the single sale of one aircraft into a major crime, his attorney said Thursday. Colin Breeze, 33, of Manchester, England, is charged with violating U.S. export laws by trying to secretly deliver 10 military-type Sikorsky helicopters to Iran with the help of that nation\'s ambassador to Spain. Customs officials also said a suspect in the case is a man said to be a member of the Spanish royal family. In Spain, the Iranian Embassy said Thursday it had no information on the case, and that Ambassador Hadi Soleimanpour was unavailable for comment. Henry M. Bugay, a public defender representing Breeze here, Thursday blamed the U.S. Customs Service for trying to turn the small-time broker into an international smuggler. ``Breeze is a fixed-wing aircraft broker who works out of his home in Manchester,\'\' with no expertise in helicopter sales, Bugay said. Bugay said the case began when Breeze agreed to sell one helicopter ``for tourist, sight-seeing purposes\'\' to Juan Perez de Guzman, whom he identified as a nephew of Spain\'s King Juan Carlos II. Perez de Guzman, ``said to be a relative of the King of Spain, is a major suspect in the case,\'\' confirmed Patrick O\'Brien, head of Customs here. However a spokesman for the royal household in Madrid told The Associated Press they have no record of Perez de Guzman, and O\'Brien said Customs had not established if the man was indeed a relative of the king. Bugay said that when Breeze unknowingly approached a confidential informant for the Customs service about the helicopter, the informant pushed him to expand the deal, eventually raising it to 10 helicopters with Perez de Guzman\'s cooperation. Breeze ``was led down the garden path,\'\' said Bugay. ``The original deal was concerning one single helicopter ... the whole case, we believe, borders on entrapment.\'\' The attorney refused to say whether Breeze knew Iran was the eventual buyer of the helicopters, but acknowledged his client understood the deal was ``bordering on a gray area.\'\' Customs accuses Breeze of knowingly arranging the sale of the 10 Sikorsky helicopters to a European company secretly owned by Iran, and O\'Brien said investigators have tapes of many conversations about the deal. The helicopters were on sale in Jordan for $6.8 million, but the final price for the sale and delivery to Iran was to be $30 million, Customs said. Soleimanpour was to take a cut of the deal, although at the last minute he delayed the sale by trying to raise his percentage, said O\'Brien. O\'Brien said although Breeze was unaware of it, Customs had discovered that the deal was falling through because someone else had made a higher bid. They arrested Breeze at the Fort Lauderdale airport Tuesday because they feared he would not return to the United States when he discovered the deal was off. Breeze is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center south of Miami, and goes before a magistrate Friday for a full bond hearing.\r\n'),(732,2,'We have a pretty good idea what remarkable images Americans will see during the upcoming Moscow summit: Reagan toasted in the Kremlin, embracing dissidents and Bolsheviks, chatting with Christian monks, talking shop with Russian filmmakers. Not to mention Nancy at the Monument to the Defenders in Leningrad. To capture this presidential tour de force, there will be more American TV technicians in Moscow than spies and diplomats combined. What with the eight-hour time difference, Reagan appearances will be beamed back to the United States in plenty of time for morning newscasts. Breakfast at Wimbledon? This will be breakfast at the Hall of Facets. But what about the Soviet people? What will Gostelradio, the Soviet radio-and-television monopoly, show of the summit? Will Reagan and the refuseniks lead off Vremya (the evening news)? Already, Soviet TV has taped a interview with Reagan for broadcast on Friday. But it was a simple ``talking head\'\' session, 30 minutes of question-and-answer _ with none of the adventure or significance of next week\'s Reagan tours around Moscow. American experts believe Soviet television will broadcast excerpts from the president\'s address at Moscow University in the Lenin Hills, as well as ceremonial exchanges between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the Kremlin. If there are agreements to be signed, the klieg lights will be set up in Vladimir\'s Hall. And surely there will be footage from the Bolshoi, where the Gorbachevs host the Reagans for a 90-minute ballet sampler. But will Soviet officials air highlights from the Danilov Monastery, where Reagan will discuss religious freedom with monks who work restoring Orthodox icons? How much will be broadcast from Reagan\'s dialogue on artistic freedom with Soviet intellectuals at the Union of Writers club? And what of the first lady\'s visit to Leningrad _ will she be shown touring the Hermitage, much as Raisa Gorbachev was shown on American TV touring the Smithsonian galleries? Just what images will Glasnost permit? Will Soviet television let Reagan be Reagan? `It\'ll be very interesting to see what they show on television the week before the summit,\'\' former Ambassador Arthur Hartman said last week, wondering whether Gostelradio will ``show the bum on the grate.\'\' Soviet TV loves to broadcast pictures of hapless vagabonds reduced to sleeping on the heat grates near the White House; it\'s a sad and pathetic side of the American dream and many viewers of Soviet TV probably have come to believe it\'s an accurate snapshot of life in America. But certainly something is afoot on the Gostelradio side of Glasnost. Just last week, Soviet TV viewers got a glance of Michael Jackson\'s Pepsi performance, a glimpse of a Visa card and a sales pitch for the quality of Sony TVs. Never mind that you can\'t get a Sony TV in the USSR. Commercials for Pepsi, Visa and Sony were aired last week in the midst of a five-part Soviet series on life in the United States. Estimated audience: 120 million people. ``I expect we might get some angry letters from people saying, `Why are you advertising Sony TVs when we can\'t buy any?\'\'\' TV personality Vladimir Posner said at a news conference announcing his series. To hear him tell it, the decision to air the commercials was less Glasnost than Perestroika (the Gorbachev campaign for economic reform). ``We on our part can make some money out of this, which in our day and age when we are becoming economically self-supportive and self-sufficient, also makes sense,\'\' Posner said. Reports in the United States said the Soviet broadcast agency Gostelradio received $10,000 for each 30-second ad. Profit motive. That\'s the American way.\r\n'),(733,2,'Michael Dukakis was on the receiving end of the Andreas family\'s generosity on May 25, 1988 _ to the tune of $8,000. The eight $1,000 donations to the Democratic presidential candidate\'s campaign from members of the family came just a day after nine members contributed $1,000 each to another party cause, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Those checks would barely have time to clear before the Republican Party got a $35,000 share of the Andreas family\'s wealth. On June 1, seven family members made $5,000 donations to the Republican National Committee. For the Andreas family, the bipartisan generosity was not at all unusual. Led by Dwayne Andreas, chairman of the grain-trading giant Archer Daniels Midland Co., family members are prolific donors to campaigns and causes associated with both major political parties, giving more than $500,000 in the past decade alone. The family\'s coordinated approach to campaign contributions is a textbook example of how major donors can enlist their families to broaden their political impact. Critics of the campaign finance system complain that these coordinated donations allow rich donors to circumvent contribution limits adopted after Watergate to lessen the influence of the wealthy. Indeed, even with contributions flowing from other members of the family, both Dwayne Andreas and his wife, Dorothy Inez Andreas, in the 1988 election cycle exceeded the $25,000 limit on contributions to federally regulated campaigns, according to an Associated Press review of FEC records. The AP review of FEC records for the past decade shows Dwayne Andreas exceeded the $25,000 limit in the last four election cycles _ 1981-82, 1983-84, 1985-86 and 1987-88 _ and is nearing the cap with six months left in the current two-year cycle. Andreas and his wife are by no means the only wealthy Americans to exceed the $25,000 limit, exposing what critics call a glaring weakness of the FEC\'s enforcement efforts. ``It is a difficult provision of the law for us to monitor,\'\' said commission spokeswoman Sharon Snyder. ``We don\'t always have the resources for that kind of audit work, particularly in election years.\'\' In fund-raising circles, Dwayne Andreas ranks among the elite of the ``switch-hitters,\'\' influential donors who spread their contributions among both major political parties. In business circles, he is a legend for his friendships with Washington\'s power brokers, including presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and more recently his private meetings with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Asked for comment, Claudia Madding, an aide to Andreas said: ``We do not discuss personal donations made by members of the Andreas family.\'\' Andreas himself did not immediately return a telephone message Ms. Madding said she would forward to him. Dwayne Andreas, once a major backer of Democrat Hubert Humphrey, more recently has emerged as a major supporter of Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to Dole\'s campaigns, political action committee and tax-exempt foundation. When Dole was seeking the presidency in 1988, Andreas, his wife, children and their spouses gave $10,000 to the Dole effort but also contributed $30,000 to six other presidential hopefuls. The contributions included $9,000 to fellow Greek-American Michael Dukakis and $1,000 to the man who defeated Dole for the Republican nomination _ George Bush. Andreas later was among the $100,000 donors to the GOP\'s so-called ``soft money\'\' campaign. Archer Daniels Midland\'s political action committee also gave to four of the presidential candidates. FEC records show Andreas family members donated at least $550,000 to House, Senate and presidential candidates and political party organizations involved in elections over the last decade. The giving appeared to cross party lines indiscriminately while perhaps favoring lawmakers in states where Archer Daniels Midland has major plants, such as Illinois. One of that state\'s favorite sons, House Republican Leader Bob Michel, was the Andreas family favorite last Sept. 6. Seven family members in three states each donated $1,000 that day to the Michel\'s 1990 re-election. Before the day was out, another $7,000 came into Michel\'s coffers in $1,000 donations from seven Archer Daniels Midland officials. Three weeks earlier, the company\'s PAC had donated $2,000 to Michel, whose district abuts ADM\'s headquarters in Decatur, Ill. For Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a Democrat, his day as the family favorite would come two months after Michel\'s, on Nov. 10, 1989, when eight family members donated $500 each to his campaign. That $4,000 was dwarfed by the $14,000 received by Massachusetts Democrat Joseph Kennedy from the family on April 28, 1986. Kennedy, facing a primary race in his successful attempt to take retiring Speaker Thomas P. O\'Neill\'s seat in the House, received $1,000 donations from 14 members of the Andreas family.\r\n'),(734,2,'Britain\'s commercial banks, heeding a signal from the Bank of England, on Tuesday announced a half percentage point increase in their base lending rate to 9.5 percent. A rise in the benchmark lending rate, the fourth this month, was expected following a government report Monday of a sharply wider, record merchandise trade deficit, which sent the pound and the London stock market reeling. The report, and the markets\' reaction, fueled speculation that the government would push up interest rates to cool the economy\'s growth, by discouraging consumer buying, and to counter inflation. Some analysts had expected the central bank to go as far as signaling a one percentage point gain. Another half-point increase might follow shortly, analysts said. The central bank signaled the half-point increase at midday by raising a key money market intervention rate of its own. Major banks, such as Barclays Bank PLC, Midland Bank PLC, National Westminster Bank PLC and Lloyds Bank PLC, announced they were increasing their rate. The banks also increased the base lending rate half a percentage point on June 2, June 6 and June 22. Corporate borrowers can obtain loans at a percentage point above the base rate. Britain\'s merchandise trade deficit soared to a record 1.705 billion pounds, or $2.9 billion, in May, with imports running at their highest level since last summer, the government said in its Monday report. The pound, which plummeted 4 cents Monday to $1.7030 from $1.7430, was quoted at $1.7260 after the rate increases Tuesday. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index was down around 3 points at the 1,838 level by midday Tuesday. It fell 29.8 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,841.5 in the previous session.\r\n'),(735,2,'A Republican candidate for Potter County commissioner who died with his name still on the ballot won overwhelming election over both his Democratic opponents, one of whom faces vote fraud charges. Republican Paul Roberts died in September after the deadline for removal of names from the ballot had passed. He received 4,076 votes Tuesday, while Jay Kirkman II got 1,879 votes and write-in candidate Harold Cliver received 521 votes. County Judge Elisha Demerson will decide who must fill the dead man\'s seat, which had been vacated by a retiring Republican. Asked how he felt about finishing second to a dead man, Kirkman replied, ``I\'m not dissatisfied. I think it\'s a trend down the whole ballot from the national ticket. Everybody voted straight Republican.\'\' Six days before the election, Kirkman was indicted by a county grand jury on charges of forgery and illegal acceptance and spending of campaign funds. If convicted, Kirkman faces a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine in each of three counts.\r\n'),(736,2,'Negotiators for Chrysler Corp. and the United Auto Workers will sign their new 66,000-worker, two-year contract on Monday, the last flourish on a pact that has been in effect since May 16. UAW President Owen Bieber, UAW Vice President Marc Stepp and Chrysler Vice President Anthony St. John, along with the elected 10-member UAW bargaining committee, will sign the contract in a 4 p.m. ceremony at Chrysler\'s Highland Park headquarters, company and union officials said. In ratification voting May 11, the contract was approved by a slim 54 percent of those voting overall and rejected by Chrysler\'s 10,000 skilled trades workers. But the contract was ratified later that week by the UAW\'s executive board following a skilled trades council meeting in Chicago because the skilled trades objections were not based on issues that applied solely to them. The contract has been in effect since May 16, replacing a three-year pact that would have expired Sept. 14, St. John said. Like the General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. pacts on which it is based, the contract guarantees a set number of jobs at each plant, warehouse or office except in cases of cuts in production volume because of slow sales. It also requires the corporation to recall or hire one worker for every two who quit, retire or die. In turn, UAW leaders agreed to end their resistance to plant-level agreements that organize workers into teams. Chrysler has begun taking its initial snapshot of guaranteed jobs at most locations; local union officials will be given lists of workers\' names for approval and discussion, St. John said. Unlike the Ford and GM pacts, the Chrysler contract also covers salaried workers including engineers, office and clerical employees and nurses. The two sides began early negotiations April 18 in an effort to ease building tensions sparked by Chrysler\'s consideration of a $2 billion offer to sell its 28,000-worker Acustar Inc. parts subsidiary and Chrysler\'s decision to close a 5,500-worker assembly plant in Kenosha, Wis. Chrysler backed down from the sale and agreed to early talks in March. Despite several disruptions that nearly prompted the UAW to break off talks, Chrysler and the union reached a tentative agreement May 4. The early settlement eliminated the chance of a strike in September, which observers said would have been very likely because of the accumulating anger among Chrysler workers. The new contract expires in 1990, making it the first Chrysler contract in a decade to expire simultaneously with the Ford and GM pacts.\r\n'),(737,2,'Steel importers said today that the United States\' steel quota program was preferable to the expense and uncertainty of trade lawsuits, and they proposed modifying it since the Bush administration seemed intent on renewing it. ``The current Voluntary Restraint Agreements on imported steel have, over the past four years, brought about market shortages and price increases, reduced net manufacturing employment ... and diminished the potential for the export of steel-intensive products,\'\' the importers said. But modifications were endorsed by the American Institute for Imported Steel, the Texas Association of Steel Importers and the West Coast Metal Importers Assocation. The institute says any renewed quota plan should be flexible enough to avoid the shortages steel users experienced for certain products under the current plan. They say the more flexible program could also lessen the sometimes sharp price hikes on some products. Meanwhile, steel-consuming manufacturers who complain about tight supplies and sharp price increases go further by saying American steel producers are looking a little too prosperous to be demanding an extension of trade protection. Those steel users are raising their voices in opposition to a renewal of the five-year Voluntary Restraint Agreements, or import quotas, due to expire in September. ``Our guys would kill to be making the profit on sales that they\'re making right now,\'\' said Greg Estell, spokesman for the 1,000 member companies of the Precision Metal Forming Association. The Cleveland-based association employs about 80,000 of the estimated 350,000 American workers who bend, stamp and cut steel into parts for cars, appliances and a variety of industrial and consumer equipment. That niche of the steel-using industries alone surpasses the approximately 170,000 employees of the nation\'s 300 steelmaking companies. ``We\'re not in the same situation here in 1988 that we were in 1984,\'\' Estell said about the steel industry. The numbers back him up. The 25 steel producers who represent 80 percent of the nation\'s raw steel production earned around $1 billion in 1987, the first full year of recovery after a gruesome recession. They more than doubled that figure, to nearly $2.5 billion, in the first nine months of this year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. ``The steel industry has returned to substantial profitability and can look forward to another good year in 1989,\'\' said Inland Steel Industries Inc. Chairman Frank W. Luerssen. That is what\'s bothering steel users like Caterpillar Inc., Deere & Co., who see steelmakers raising prices in line with tighter supplies while at the same time lobbying President-elect George Bush to extend the import quotas for another five years. Steel users say the quota program should be scrapped and a fair steel trade system negotiated either country-by-country or worldwide through the mechanisms of the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade. Steelmakers say GATT does not work, and that the VRAs have proved themselves as the best solution to the predatory pricing that foreign producers employ because of excess world capacity. Caterpillar trade specialist William Lane suggested the steelmakers want to have their cake and eat it too. ``They\'re saying they need protection because of surplus world capacity, but the reason prices are increasing is tight world supply,\'\' he said. Estell said the metal forming association has tracked price increases of up to 40 percent for hot-rolled steel and 12 to 13 percent for cold-rolled. The users say the VRAs are at least partially to blame for higher prices because the import quotas reduce the supply in relation to demand. Steel producers say the VRAs have nothing to do with prices. The users also complain that delivery times were stretched and some mills were allocating shipments early this year because of tight supplies. In contrast to the tarnished reputation of American steelmakers when recession hit with vengeance after 1981, ``the U.S. steel industry is considered the low-cost producer in the world,\'\' Lane said. ``We would certainly agree with that. They\'ve done a remarkable job of reducing costs and improving quality.\'\' ``They say they are world-class competitors, and we tend to agree, and if that\'s so then they should act like world competitors,\'\' said Estell. For the nation\'s steel forgers, higher prices are less troublesome than short supplies. They want their prime raw material, special quality bars and billets removed from the VRA program because ``forgers can\'t get what they need domestically ... and VRAs prevent them from getting it from offshore,\'\' the Forging Industry Association said. ``It is unfair for the U.S. government to support one segment of the U.S. economy to the detriment of other segments,\'\' the Cleveland-based group said. The American steelmakers say they deserve another round of quota protection because they have not fully recovered from losing $12 billion during a 5-year recession. ``It will take much more than a few quarters of profitability to offset the financial damage of the 1982-86 recession years,\'\' Washington-based AISI said. The U.S. producers also claim their prices in general have not risen drastically. Average steel prices rose about 3 percent from 1980 to 1987, while average prices of construction equipment rose 6 percent and the price of agricultural machinery rose about 20 percent, AISI said. By the second quarter of this year, prices were around 7 percent higher than they were in the fourth quarter of last year and roughly 2 percent higher than when the VRAs were instituted in late 1984. The AISI calls that ``hardly a spectacular increase, given the rate of inflation in the 1981-87 period and the tight supply-demand situation worldwide that existed in the first half of this year.\'\'\r\n'),(738,2,'President Reagan should show his support of the Nicaraguan cease-fire agreement by refraining from pushing for renewed military aid for the Contra rebels, a House Democratic leader said Saturday. ``Old policies _ like old habits _ die hard. We must resist the temptation to say `we know better\' by approving military aid before the peace plan has a chance to succeed,\'\' Rep. Tony Coelho, D-Calif., said in the Democrats\' weekly radio address. Coelho, the assistant House majority leader, said: ``The burden on President Reagan is to recognize that diplomacy works ... and make peace his highest priority.\'\' The president, commenting Friday on the cease-fire accord reached Wednesday, said ``there is reason to have caution\'\' about whether Nicaragua\'s Sandinista government will abide by the pact. The Sandinistas ``have a past record that indicates that we should be\'\' cautious, Reagan told reporters. The administration is pushing for approval of a package of humanitarian aid to the Contras before Congress recesses for Easter. Coelho said House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas is ready to schedule a vote this week. ``If our Republican colleagues help us write and pass a plan, we can speed humanitarian aid to the Contras. And the chance for a truly bipartisan policy toward Central America would be at hand,\'\' Coelho said. Earlier this month liberal Democrats opposed to any aid for the Contras and conservative Republicans pushing for military aid teamed to defeat a humanitarian aid bill offered by Wright.\r\n'),(739,2,'The huge losses to 1988 harvests came mostly in June and July, when drought and searing heat shriveled corn and soybean yields across much of the nation, new Agriculture Department estimates show. Assistant Secretary Ewen M. Wilson, the department\'s chief economist, said total grain production this year is expected to drop to 191 million metric tons, down 31 percent from 1987. Total supplies of grain for 1988-89, which include inventories at the beginning of the season, are forecast at 366 million tons, down 24 percent from last year. Wilson said at a news conference Monday that ``crop development now has progressed to the point where production can be forecast with a reasonable degree of confidence.\'\' The corn yield, for example, was estimated at 78.5 bushels per harvested acre, down from 119.4 bushels last year, the largest drought-induced reduction in yield on record, he said. From 1965 to 1987, the September estimate overstated corn production on nine occasions and understated it on 14 occasions, Wilson said. In the case of soybeans, the September estimate overshot final production in 12 years and understated it in 11. Wilson said rainfall in the last month ``has improved the conditions of pastures and ranges, although more precipitation is needed to restore them to normal.\'\' Wilson said he is holding to an earlier prediction that consumer food prices will go up an average of 3 percent to 5 percent this year, with about 1 percent of the rise caused by drought. A further increase is expected in 1989. The new USDA estimates showed the corn harvest, which is under way, is expected to be at a five-year low of 4.46 billion bushels, down 37 percent from 7.06 billion bushels harvested in 1987. Even so, that was down by less than 1 percent from the forecast a month ago. In May and June, before the drought tightened its grip, USDA projected the corn harvest at 7.3 billion bushels, based on trends and an assumption of normal weather. Those projections were revised downward in July to 5.2 billion bushels, assuming farmers got normal weather the remainder of the season. In August, the forecast was lowered to 4.48 billion bushels, the smallest harvest since 1983, when drought and federal acreage curbs reduced output to 4.17 billion bushels. The soybean harvest was estimated at a 12-year low of 1.47 billion bushels, down 23 percent from 1.9 billion bushels produced last year but virtually unchanged from the August forecast. Estimates last spring called for about 1.88 billion bushels, and the July projection was 1.65 billion bushels. Production of all wheat was projected at 1.81 billion bushels, down 14 percent from 2.1 billion produced in 1987 and 1 percent below the August forecast. In May and June, USDA forecast this year\'s wheat output would be up slightly. The July projection was 1.84 billion bushels, and the August forecast was 1.82 billion bushels. Corn is the largest and most important crop grown by American farmers and, as a feed ingredient, is essential to the production of meat, poultry and dairy products. Soybeans, which provide high-protein meal and quality vegetable oil used in food processing, also are vital to U.S. food production. No new estimate of winter wheat production was included. Last month\'s forecast, which was carried forward into the September report, was 1.55 billion bushels, down 1 percent from last year. New estimates for spring planted wheat included durum, 49.2 million bushels, down 47 percent from 1987 production and the smallest harvest since 1961. The new estimate was also down 10 percent from August. Other spring wheat was estimated at 206 million bushels, down 54 percent from last year and 3 percent below the August forecast. Cotton production was estimated at 14.7 million bales, down 2 percent from August but only slightly below the 1987 crop. The crop was projected at 13.7 million bales in July. Overall, the department\'s Agricultural Statistics Board said U.S. crop production this year is expected to drop to 88 percent of a 1977 base used as a comparison. That would be the lowest since 1983. Crop production last year averaged 106 percent of the base year. The record was 117 percent reached in 1985, 1982 and 1981.\r\n'),(740,2,'The Washington attorney who ditched his plane in the Atlantic Ocean last summer was ordered Friday to show why he shouldn\'t be disbarred from practicing before the Federal Communications Commission. In the interim, Thomas L. Root has been suspended from practicing law before the commission, the FCC said. The commission said it had acted because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia entered an order April 12 disbarring Root by consent. FCC rules require that attorneys practicing before it not be under any disbarment order. Telephone calls to Root\'s office Friday went unanswered. In March, Root was indicted on 33 counts of fraud and other crimes involving radio stations he was representing before the FCC. The federal indictment accused Root of defrauding the government and five clients in FCC proceedings on permits to construct FM radio stations throughout the United States. Root gained notoriety last July when his single-engine plane ran out of fuel and plunged into the Atlantic off the Bahamas following a six-hour, 800-mile flight that began near Washington. He told authorities that he had been unconscious for most of the odyssey, but Navy fighter pilots flying alongside the plane reported seeing him move in the cockpit. When he was taken to a Florida hospital, Root was found to have suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Less than a week after the crash, Sonrise Management Services of Columbus, Ga., sued Root for $584,000, claiming he failed to perform work and double-billed a client. Root filed for bankruptcy court protection from creditors in October 1989, claiming he had $1.64 million in liabilities. The federal indictment charged Root with 20 counts of wire and mail fraud, seven counts of filing false legal documents with the FCC, four counts of using counterfeit and altered federal documents, and one count each of forgery and obstruction of the grand jury\'s investigation.\r\n'),(741,2,'The Nikkei Stock Average closed at 30,945.61, down 24.97 points, or 0.08 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Wednesday.\r\n'),(742,2,'Pope John Paul II has appointed Bishop Adam J. Maida of Green Bay, Wis., as the new archbishop of Detroit, the Vatican reported today. He succeeds Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka, who was named to a top financial post at the Vatican in January. The 60-year-old Maida, born in East Vandergrift, Pa., was promoted to the Green Bay post in November 1983.\r\n'),(743,2,'Organic coffee and ``retro-chic\'\' appliances will be big hits in 1991, but the popularity of New Age religions and baseball doubleheaders will fade, ``The American Forecaster 1991\'\' predicts. Other anticipated hits are ``success surgery\'\' for executives, field trips for kids and ``gourmet\'\' ice. Home videos and the Southwestern interior design style will bomb. Kim Long, 41, of Denver, began compiling the book on what\'s in and what\'s out in 1983. It sells about 10,000 copies a year. Organic coffee, grown without pesticides, ``has all the makings of a major food fad,\'\' Long said. ``People are becoming a lot more literate about what they put into their mouths,\'\' he said. ``They\'re willing to spend more money for the details.\'\' He predicts that the boxy appliances that marked the dawn of the post-World War II era will reappear next year. ``It\'s the visual appeal, so solid and heavy - the beginning of the atomic era,\'\' he said. Long says more executives will have cosmetic surgery and workers will eat at their desks so they can be more productive, signs of Americans\' intensified interest in their work. The ideal look will be ``relatively small noses, not a prominent chin, but a chinless look is unacceptable, and wrinkles would be out,\'\' he said. However, 1991 will not be the year for workaholics. ``I think the \'90s is going to be a fun decade,\'\' said Long. ``Most people in the big `baby boom\' age group will be in their 40s and 50s. They will have earned a living and raised families. I think that equates to a potential situation where people will look to do fun things, to worry less about what the neighbors think or families think.\'\' A trend that has hit Japan and is expected in the United States is the popularity of ``gourmet\'\' ice. The ice, reportedly up to 10,000 years old, is chipped from Alaskan ice floes and valued for its purity. Next year will bring a reduced interest in New Age religions: ``It won\'t die. But my observation is that it will just be less faddish.\'\' Long predicts a revival of interest in millenialism as the year 2000 approaches, generating a fascination with ``crackpot religions.\'\' Interest in home videos, a fad that soared this year with the success of television\'s ``America\'s Funniest Home Videos,\'\' will also wane, Long said. The Santa Fe fashion look, including laughing coyotes and cactus cutouts, has been overmarketed and will no longer be hip, the Forecaster says. Long, a newspaper columnist, said he researches trends by reading numerous newspapers and magazines, keeping files on particular topics, and monitors computer data bases.\r\n'),(744,2,'The defunct Mustang Ranch bordello remained in government hands after a federal judge on Tuesday denied the owners\' request to sell the property to a group of private investors. The ruling by a federal bankruptcy judge clears the way for the Internal Revenue Service to auction off the ranch to pay off its owners\' back taxes. Lawyers for the owners, Joe and Sally Conforte, sought permission from a federal bankruptcy judge to immediately sell the 440-acre ranch that once was America\'s best-known legal bordello. The IRS opposed a private sale, saying the property would bring a higher price later. An IRS auction is scheduled for Nov. 13-14. Earlier this month, Storey County commissioners revoked the Mustang\'s permit to operate as a brothel, which means it can\'t re-open as a legal house of prostitution no matter who gets title. Austin Cooper, one of the Conforte\'s lawyers, said they had a buyer willing to immediately put down $500,000 and pay a balance of $1.6 million within three years. He argued the property is depreciating rapidly and taxpayers would receive more from the sale if it went through immediately on the Confortes\' terms. The IRS said the couple no longer had claim to the property. The 105-room ranch operated as a legal brothel for 35 years. ``We felt the auction was not properly advertised to maximize the number of bidders who might be interested,\'\' said Dierdre Pagni, an IRS manager. The Mustang closed Sept. 18 when it was forced into liquidation under Chapter 7 of the federal bankruptcy code. For three days, bankruptcy trustees sought to reopen the bordello to recoup about $13 million in federal taxes owed by the Confortes, who did not attend Tuesday\'s hearing. The IRS seized and padlocked the ranch Sept. 21 when the trustees\' efforts were hampered by cash flow and other problems. Rollin Thorley, representing the IRS, said the government will sell the property for a minimum of $1.8 million. The ranch will be divided for auction into real estate, a trailer park and personal property.\r\n'),(745,2,'Foreigners continue to own just under 1 percent of the nation\'s agricultural land, a level that has varied little over the years, the Agriculture Department said Thursday. The department\'s Economic Research Service made its 1989 year-end review of reports under a 1978 law requiring foreigners to register U.S. agricultural land holdings. As of Dec. 31, 1989, about 12.9 million acres of agricultural land were owned by foreigners, an increase of 263,273 acres from a year earlier. ``Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land remained relatively steady from 1981 through 1989, slightly above or below 1 percent of the privately owned agricultural land in the United States,\'\' said John Lee, administrator of the agency. Of the land owned by foreign interests, 46 percent was forest land, 18 percent cropland, 31 percent pasture and other agricultural land, and 5 percent agricultural land not under cultivation. Corporations, both U.S. and foreign, owned 81 percent of the foreign-held acreage; partnerships, 10 percent; and individuals, 7 percent. The remainder is held by estates, trusts, associations, institutions and others. Japanese investors owned 2 percent of the foreign-held acreage, while about 73 percent of the total was owned by investors from Canada, Britain, West Germany, France, the Netherlands Antilles, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the report said. Maine continued to have the heaviest concentration of foreign ownership, with holdings of almost 2.1 million acres. The report said that 93 percent of the foreign-owned acreage will remain in agricultural production, according to its owners.\r\n'),(746,2,'President Reagan, welcoming Andrei D. Sakharov at the White House, said today human rights will remain an irritant in U.S.-Soviet relations until all political prisoners are released. ``We\'ve had great success,\'\' Reagan said as he praised Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev as more cooperative than any Kremlin leader before him. But, Reagan said, ``We can only wait and see\'\' if Gorbachev makes good on a promise to release all political prisoners. Sakharov told the president as they posed for pictures that ``there are only individuals\'\' left in jails. The Nobel laureate and human rights activist spoke through an American interpreter. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that during their meeting, Sakharov ``was very thankful\'\' to Reagan ``for what he had done on behalf of human rights and for him and his wife.\'\' Sakharov, however, also voiced concern about the impact that Reagan\'s ``Star Wars\'\' missile defense program would have on efforts by the superpowers to negotiate a cut in long-range nuclear missile stockpiles. These statements led Reagan to talk about the ``insurance policy\'\' concept behind development of the Strategic Defense Initiative, according to Fitzwater, who also said that the president told Sakharov that while there is a treaty to ban chemical weapons, ``we still keep our gas masks.\'\' Sakharov says the West should worry more about the possibility that Gorbachev will fail in his bid to transform Soviet society, and less about whether the changes will strengthen the communist nation. Sakharov, the Soviet Nobel Peace Prize-winning physicist and longtime spokesman for political prisoners and dissidents, told those honoring him Sunday at a National Academy of Sciences banquet that the effects of perestroika _ the ambitious economic restructuring pursued by Gorbachev _ will ripple throughout the world. He said some have suggested that the Soviet Union could pose an even greater threat to the West if the Soviet economy is strengthened. ``I always answer that question this way,\'\' he said through an interpreter. ``The threat (to the West) of perestroika doesn\'t consist of its success, but of its bloody failure. This would be a total calamity.\'\' The program pushed by Gorbachev, the Soviet general secretary, includes greater freedoms and movement away from a centrally controlled economy. ``I believe we are undergoing historic events whose significance extends beyond our country to the whole world,\'\' said Sakharov. Sakharov, 67, was sent to internal exile in the Soviet city of Gorky in 1980 after criticizing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the immigration policies of his country. Gorbachev freed him two years ago. Sakharov first made his mark as a physicist whose original concepts in subatomic particles attracted world attention among scientists. He is considered the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb. Frank Press, president of the National Academy of Sciences, told the banquet guests that Sakharov was inducted into the American academy in 1973 as an associate member. But unlike other members, Sakharov had never been allowed to come to the United States to sign the membership book. While guests applauded, the Soviet scientist strolled to the large, red-bound ledger and signed his name. Sakharov said that during his long years of exile, the American academy members ``supported me unequivocally.\'\' ``This is a fact I can never let myself forget,\'\' he said. The 100 guests who attended the banquet included other Soviet scientists, noted American physicists, physicians, arms control negotiators, human rights advocates and government officials. Sakharov is in Washington to attend the first meeting of the International Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity. The foundation was organized by U.S. and Soviet scientists to address social and scientific problems that affect mankind.\r\n'),(747,2,'Elvis Presley\'s high school buddy said Monday he has the King\'s first recording, a highly sought two-song disc Presley made for his mother in 1953. Edwin S. Leek Jr., a retired airline pilot, said in a telephone interview that Elvis left the record at Leek\'s grandmother\'s house in Memphis 25 years ago. ``I saw him a few years later in Chicago, when he was first starting to make it, and I said, `I still have that first record of yours. It\'s going to be worth a lot of money some day.\'\'\' Presley\'s reply, according to Leek: ``Just hold onto it.\'\' ``I\'ve been telling my wife, `What are we gonna do with it? All we\'ve ever done it lock it away,\'\'\' Leek said. ``Now I\'d like to find out what it\'s worth.\'\' Todd Morgan of Graceland, the Presley home and museum in Memphis, said the museum had long ``kept an eye open\'\' for the record, which he described as ``probably the single most valuable record in record collecting. It\'s the first record of the man who pioneered rock \'n roll.\'\' Presley\'s first recording led directly to his discovery, and one Elvis expert describes it as ``extremely valuable.\'\' The disc\'s existence was reported in this week\'s edition of Goldmine magazine, a journal for record collectors. ``It sounds like early Presley, slow, romantic _ it\'s not rock \'n\' roll,\'\' according to Kit Kiefer, Goldmine managing editor, who said he had listened to tapes provided by Leek. ``The sound isn\'t CD quality, but it\'s surprisingly good.\'\' Asked if the magazine suspected a hoax, he said, ``I\'ve heard a lot of Elvis imitators, and none of them go for the immature Elvis sound. Also, everything (Leek) said checks out.\'\' In 1953, Presley, an 18-year-old truck driver, wanted to make a record as a present for his mother. He went to the Memphis Recording Service, paid $4 and _ accompanying himself on acoustic guitar _ sang two ballads: ``My Happiness\'\' and ``That\'s When Your Heartaches Begin.\'\' The studio was owned by Sam Phillips, head of Sun Records, which shared the premises. One of the employees liked Presley\'s disc and called him to Phillips\' attention. The first disc was long known to have been made, but no one has been able to determine what happened to it, Morgan said. Leek said that for years he kept the Presley disc with his wife\'s records, and later placed it in a bank safety deposit box after they moved to Key Largo, Fla. Leek said he will auction off the record if he can get a reasonable price. He also hopes to sell what he said was an autographed copy of Presley\'s first Sun release, ``That\'s All Right (Mama).\'\' Leek said he met Elvis in 1945 when they shared a class in high school. He said Presley frequently visited Leek\'s grandmother, who had a piano young Presley liked to play. Leek\'s grandmother expressed an interest in the record he\'d made, and Presley brought it over and played it for her, Leek said. Presley forgot to take it with him when he left, Leek said.\r\n'),(748,2,'An enviornmental group on Thursday asked the European Economic Community to ban exports of toxic wastes to the Third World. Greenpeace claimed such exports have boomed over the past year because international regulations are too lenient. Ernst Klatte, the group\'s spokesman, called for the ban at a news conference in Luxembourg, were a meeting of European Economic Community environment ministers was being held. Greenpeace cited recent exports of toxic wastes from Europe and the United States to Africa and from the United States to Latin America and the Caribbean.\r\n'),(749,2,'Hooded gunmen opened fire on a crowd attending a wedding reception Saturday, killing seven people and wounding four others, the state-run news agency reported. The shooting occurred at 5 a.m. in San Carlos City in Pangasinan province, 100 miles northwest of Manila, the Philippine News Agency said. The agency quoted San Carlos police station chief Capt. Juanito Mangonon as saying the gunmen raked the wedding reception with automatic gunfire shortly after the groom and the bride left for the wedding ceremony at a Roman Catholic church, a few miles away. The assailants were apparently after one of the guests but opened fire on the people preparing the wedding reception after failing to find their target, Mangonon said. The gunmen fled on foot after the shooting.\r\n'),(750,2,'The world\'s largest newsprint maker, pressured by weak demand and resistance from American newspapers, said Monday it would drastically reduce and delay its latest announced price hike. Abitibi-Price Inc. of Toronto has told its customers it decided to increase prices for newspaper customers by $30 to $680 a metric ton effective Feb. 1 instead of the previously announced $695 a metric ton. But analysts said that unless two smaller U.S.-based newsprint makers announce price increases by next month, this latest rise might not occur. Last September, Abitibi announced it was raising its newsprint prices to $695 a metric ton, a 6.9 percent increase, effective Jan 1. Several other manufacturers, including Bowater Inc., the largest U.S. producer, followed suit. But newspaper officials balked, arguing that the price hikes were unjustified because of weak demand for newsprint. They said a fall in advertising meant they did not need as much paper to print their newspapers. They also said a buildup of inventories and increased capacity of paper mills starting next year meant a larger supply of newsprint would be available. ``We are obviously disappointed that our price announcement for both the U.S. and Canada have had to be modified or, I should say, has been modified,\'\' said Robert Johnson, senior vice president of marketing for Abitibi\'s sales and marketing unit in New York. ``But we are obviously aware of the realities of the marketplace.\'\' Canadian Pacific Forest Products Ltd. of Toronto was the first to announce last week that it was cutting its previously announced price increase. But analysts said Champion International Corp. of Stamford, Conn., and Kimberly-Clark Corp. of Dallas started the ball rolling on Nov. 1 when they did not notify their customers that they would follow the lead of Abitibi and other bigger newsprint companies that announced their price increases in September. Under terms of their customer contracts, both companies were required to give two months notice of price hikes. Most other newsprint makers operate under contracts that require three months notice to customers. ``The only way these companies can compete is in price,\'\' said one Wall Street analyst who did not want to be named. ``If one company increases its price and the next does not then (the company with the higher price) will lose market share.\'\' The analyst said the big newsprint makers boosted prices on the assumption that fourth-quarter demand would increase. However, that has not happened and ``that\'s why Champion decided not to increase prices,\'\' he said. Analysts said that the two companies have until Dec. 1 to meet the latest price hike for their customers. If they do not, that could mean even the lower prices might not take effect, they said. ``The handwriting is on the wall,\'\' said Eric Philo, an analyst with the investment firm Goldman, Sachs & Co. ``It looks like there will be excess capacity in the next few years.\'\'\r\n'),(751,2,'Midnight EDT: 109.\r\n'),(752,2,'Efforts to establish a monument to the Free Speech Movement are meeting resistance from the same quarters on the University of California that opposed the movement to begin with. A coalition of faculty members has suggested a commemorative piece of artwork in Sproul Plaza, the location of many rallies by the student movement that helped kick off years of protest around the country. The initial 1964 protest concerned administration rules limiting political activity on campus. Chancellor Ira Michael Heyman said in a letter to faculty Thursday that he opposes the monument. ``I am troubled,\'\' Heyman said, ``in our establishing a monument in celebration of a movement which is viewed by many in the community with negative or mixed emotions.\'\' A group of faculty members conducted a nationwide design competition that attracted more than 1,000 entries. ``I think once we come up with a brilliant piece of art, there\'s no reason to believe it will not be passed,\'\' said professor Peter Seltz, former director of the UC Art Museum and chair of the Berkeley Art Project.\r\n'),(753,2,'President Augusto Pinochet and Chile\'s other military chiefs will meet Aug. 30 to choose a presidential candidate, expected to be Pinochet, whose name will be alone on a yes-or-no ballot later this year. A decree published Monday in the government bulletin said Gen. Pinochet, who is army commander, and the heads of the air force and national police last week set the date for their August meeting. Choosing the nominee Aug. 30 indicates the referendum will be in October. Under the 1980 constitution, the vote must occur no less than 30 days and no more than 60 days after the nominee is chosen. Pinochet said in a speech July 7 it would take place in ``no more than 90 days.\'\' The 72-year-old general has been president since the coup in September 1973 that ousted the late President Salvador Allende, an elected Marxist. Pinochet\'s fellow commanders are Gen. Fernando Matthei of the air force, Adm. Jose Merino of the navy and Gen. Rodolfo Stange, national police commander. Their decision on a nominee must be unanimous, the constitution says, and if they cannot agree within 48 hours, the nomination will be made by majority decision of an eight-member National Security Council. If a majority of voters ratifies the choice, the candidate chosen will begin an eight-year presidential term in March. If not, an open election will be held in 1990, when congressional elections are planned. Opposition politicians expressed no objections Monday to a vote in October. Ricardo Lagos, a Socialist, told journalists the opposition had expected the referendum to be held Sept. 11, the 15th anniversary of the coup, and a later date provided more time to campaign against it. Lagos is co-leader of a coalition working for rejection of the military candidate. It plans to make its own count of the vote with 20,000 volunteers serving as monitors at polling stations. Patricio Aylwin, president of the Christian Democratic Party, the country\'s largest, said announcing the nomination date so far in advance ``is good news,\'\' but he and Luis Maira of the Christian Left Party said the government must take other steps to ensure a fair vote. A specific step they mentioned was lifting the state of emergency that allows the government to limit political activity and press freedom. This will be the first vote for president since Allende won the office in 1970. More than 6 million of the 8 million eligible voters have registered to participate.\r\n'),(754,2,'Airlines\' Tough Security Policies Spawn Cottage Industry\r\n'),(755,2,'A nightclub manager who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the beating death of jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius was sentenced to 21 months in prison and placed on five years\' probation. Broward County Circuit Judge M. Daniel Futch Jr. agreed to the maximum sentence possible for Luc Havan. Pastorius, 35, of Fort Lauderdale, died Sept. 21, 1987, of severe head injuries received in a beating 10 days earlier by Havan, 26, of Oakland Park, police said. Investigators said Pastorius was drunk and tried to gain entrance to the after-hours club Havan managed. In his plea, Havan contended he pushed Pastorius as he tried to enter the club. Pastorius, a three-time Grammy Award nominee, was hailed for his innovative work on the bass guitar. He worked with such performers as Weather Report, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock and Blood, Sweat and Tears.\r\n'),(756,2,'The country\'s largest labor federation says the hourly wage in Mexico has fallen to one of the lowest in the world in the past six years. Mexicans who earned the equivalent of $1.90 an hour in 1982 now earn 40 cents an hour, the Mexican Labor Federation said. The minimum wage, last raised in March, is 8,000 pesos a day, or about $3.50. The federation said high payments on the foreign debt were draining the economy. It warned that the loss of buying power generates discontent and could endanger the stability of the country. A government anti-inflation program has brought the increase in consumer prices down from a monthly rate of 15.5 percent in January to 1.7 percent in July. Inflation in 1987 was a record 159.2 percent.\r\n'),(757,2,'A technique for analyzing extremely small bits of genetic material shows promise for helping identify criminals from a single hair left at a crime scene, researchers reported today. The technique revealed which variant of a particular gene each of six people had, by analysis of a single hair each person had shed, the scientists wrote in the British journal Nature. John Hicks, deputy assistant director of the FBI laboratory in Washington, D.C., called the work ``very exciting.\'\' The technique cannot yet prove that a hair came from a particular person, but in combination with other evidence its result can be seen as ``very, very significant,\'\' he said. Further refinements may let it make identifications with more certainty, The work was conducted by Russell Higuchi and Henry Erlich of the Cetus Corp., of Emeryville, Calif., and George Sensabaugh and Cecilia von Beroldingen of the University of California, Berkeley. It focuses on DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, which forms tiny thread-like structures called chromosomes in every cell of the body. DNA consists of sequences of chemicals. Some sequences form genes, which control the activities of a cell. Details of DNA sequences vary from person to person, and researchers have exploited that fact to help solve crimes by studying such ``DNA fingerprints.\'\' In February, for example, a Florida jury convicted a 24-year-old man of rape after testimony that his DNA matched that found in semen left by the rapist. Hair that has been ripped from the body, as in a struggle, often contains enough living tissue in its root area for conventional DNA analysis. But more often, police recover hair that has simply fallen off a person at the crime scene, and that hair contains far less DNA, experts say. The California researchers overcame that problem by using a laboratory technique called polymerase chain reaction that created 100 billion copies of a particular portion of DNA. The ability to analyze a single hair is important, said Hicks, because that is typically all that is available at crime scenes. In addition, multiple hairs from a crime scene may have come from different people, said forensic hair expert Skip Palenik at McCrone Associates in Chicago. At present, a shed hair is examined microscopically for its physical appearance, Palenik said. But because different people can have similar-looking hairs, the new DNA technique ``represents a very important first step\'\' toward firm identification of people from a shed hair, he said. In the study, the researchers reported using a test to determine which of 21 versions of the ``DQ alpha\'\' gene is present in an individual. The gene plays a role in the disease-fighting immune system. In tests of six people, the researchers reported, a single shed hair correctly indicated which version of the gene each person had. More recent tests show success rates of 40 to 70 percent, Higuchi said in a telephone interview, adding that researchers plan to try an improved testing procedure. He said the next step is testing for more genetic characteristics, to allow greater certainty in linking a hair to a particular person. If the hair and a person share characteristics that fewer than one in 1,000 people possess, that would greatly help in making the link in court, he said. Standard DNA fingerprint techniques offer more definitive matches, with the chance of two people sharing the same DNA characteristics described as one in several billion. Hicks said that with further development, the new technique could well ``approach the fingerprint-type identifying capability. That\'s what we\'d be looking for down the road.\'\'\r\n'),(758,2,'The stock market was broadly lower in early trading today, pressured by ongoing concerns about this week\'s Treasury\'s refunding. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials was down 20.27 points to 2,586.04 at 10 a.m. EST, 30 minutes after the opening bell. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a margin of nearly 5 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 835 issues down, 178 up and 378 unchanged. Volume on the Big Board came to 24.08 million shares. Analysts said weakness in the bond market kept stocks under pressure. The market\'s worries stem from the Treasury\'s quarterly refunding auction and whether yields will have to be forced higher to attract Japanese investors. The three-day auction, which began on Tuesday, comprises $30 billion in notes and bonds. Tuesday\'s refunding included $10 billion of three-year notes. Today\'s refunding will include $10 billion in 10-year notes and the final part on Thursday will comprise $10 billion of 30-year Treasury bonds. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks was down 1.47 at 180.86. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index stood at 354.01, down 0.73. Among actively traded issues on the NYSE, Harcourt Brace was down &lsqb; to 2, Pan Am was off &lsqb; to 3{, AT&T was down { to 39 and American Express had slipped { to 28}. Among the Big Board gainers, Baxter International was up &lsqb; to 23&rsqb;, IBM had gained &lsqb; to 101&lsqb; and Hong Kong Telephone had advanced \\ to 20. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 16.21 to 2,606.31. Declining issues outnumbered gainers by about 3 to 2 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks, with 578 up, 909 down and 499 unchanged. Volume on the floor of the Big Board came to 134.07 million shares, only slightly ahead of the 130.95 million shares traded on Monday in the slowest session to date in the new year.\r\n'),(759,2,'Schering-Plough Corp. said it has agreed to sell its Maybelline cosmetics business for about $300 million in cash as part of its plan to concentrate on pharmaceuticals. The buyer is MBP Acquisition Corp., which consists of Playtex Family Products, members of Playtex and Maybelline management, the private investment firm of Thomas H. Lee Co. and certain of the Boston firm\'s affiliated investment funds, Schering-Plough said Tuesday. Merrill Lynch Capital Markets assisted Schering-Plough in the transaction, which requires government approval. The sale stems from Schering-Plough\'s decision to concentrate on prescription and over-the-counter drugs as well as personal care and vision care products, said Robert P. Luciano, chairman and chief executive officer of Schering-Plough. In July, Schering-Plough sold its two European cosmetics companies, Rimmel International Ltd. and Chicogo GmbH. Last December, the company announced it was seeking offers for Maybelline. In 1989, Schering-Plough recorded total cosmetics sales of about $300 million, most of which were generated by Maybelline, the company said.\r\n'),(760,2,'Shiite Moslem hijackers freed another hostage from a Kuwaiti jumbo jet Thursday after negotiators resumed their efforts to end the 10-day-old crisis. A man dressed in a white robe descended from the Kuwait Airways Boeing 747 at 9:45 p.m. (5:45 EDT), got into a car and was driven across the tarmac to the VIP lounge at Houari Boumedienne Airport. Algerian officials said the released hostage was a Kuwaiti named Djuma Abdelhak Chatti. The elderly, grizzled man was greeted by Kuwaiti officials and hustled inside the building. ``Praise to God, I am fine, but they had me tied all the time and I am tired,\'\' said Chatti, who gave his age as 70. ``They are not good people,\'\' he told reporters in the airport lounge. ``They beat me.\'\' After the release, the hijackers broadcast a message to the control tower in Arabic and English repeating their demand for the release of 17 pro-Iranian terrorists jailed in Kuwait. The statement said Chatti had been released for ``strictly humanitarian reasons.\'\' Kuwait has refused the demand of the gunmen, who seized the plane April 5 on a Bangkok-Kuwait flight and are holding at least 30 hostages. On Thursday evening, Kuwait\'s deputy foreign minister, Mohammed Al-Osaimi, reiterated that the 17 would not be freed. Al-Osaimi is head of a high-level Kuwaiti delegation on the scene. Another Kuwaiti official, speaking to reporters on condition he not be identified, said the Algerian authorities continued to put pressure on Kuwait to be more flexible in its position. ``You can see this from the fact that they are telling us that the ball is in our court,\'\' the official said. Negotiations between the hijackers and Algerian mediators resumed Thursday evening after a breakdown earlier in the day caused by the lack of progress, according to the official Algerian news agency. In Washington, lawmakers urged Secretary of State George P. Shultz to intervene because of reports that one of the hijackers might be responsible for kidnapping American journalist Terry Anderson in Lebanon. Kuwait\'s independent al-Qabas newspaper reported Wednesday that the alleged kidnapper, Imad Mughniyeh, was believed to have boarded the plane when it landed in Mashhad, Iran. Mughniyeh has been identified as one of the security chiefs in Beirut for Hezbollah, or Party of God, which is believed to be the umbrella organization for pro-Iranian groups holding foreign hostages in Lebanon. From Mashhad, the plane flew to Larnaca, Cyprus, where Palestine Liberation Organization officials negotiated with the hijackers. The gunmen have killed two passengers and freed 70. Among the remaining hostages are three members of Kuwait\'s royal family. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat accused Iran of being behind the hijacking and said some of the gunmen ``belong to the Iranian government.\'\' Egyptian Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel-Meguid echoed Arafat\'s comments Thursday in Cairo. In a radio call to the airport tower Thursday, a passenger who identified himself as Ahmed Zayed said: ``I ask my government to release the 17 Islamic Jihad prisoners. If not, they will kill us all.\'\' Islamic Jihad, or Holy War, is the group that holds Anderson, and it also is demanding the release of the 17 Kuwaiti prisoners. Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was kidnapped March 16, 1985. He has been held longer than any of the 22 foreign hostages in Lebanon. The hijackers, said to be armed with grenades and guns, have threatened to blow up the plane and kill their remaining hostages if their demands are not met. A ranking Algerian official said Wednesday that Kuwait\'s ``intransigence\'\' had created the standstill. Algeria\'s negotiating committee is divided into two teams led by Interior Minister Hedi Khediri. One team is responsible for contacts with the Kuwaitis, and the other with the hijackers. A doctor was allowed on board the plane Thursday to examine the hostages. ``I saw no sign of any illness that required hospitalization or major medicine,\'\' said Dr. Youssef Mahdi. He later told the official Algerian news agency that he prescribed some ``routine medicines\'\' that would be sent to the plane. ``The passengers I saw did not have their hands tied and displayed no signs of physical violence,\'\' Mahdi said. An airport crew also went aboard to clean up and serve hot food, the Algerian official said. In a letter Wednesday to Shultz, Sen. Daniel Moynihan and Rep. Louise Slaughter, both New York Democrats, wrote: ``We know the United States is not a primary party to the Algiers negotiations. But if Terry Anderson\'s chief kidnapper is on the Kuwaiti jet, the United States government must insure that the negotiators are aware of this fact.\'\' ``It would be a travesty for Imad Mughniyeh to go free while Terry Anderson remains a captive,\'\' they said. In Nicosia, Cyprus, government spokesman Akis Fantis said that the jetliner was refueled and allowed to leave for Algiers only after Algeria gave assurances that the remaining passengers would be freed on arrival there. The plane landed in Algeria on Tuesday night. It was moved early Thursday to the end of the runway so another jet could land. It was later returned to its original position about 400 yards from the terminal.\r\n'),(761,2,'Here, at a glance, are Saturday\'s developments in the summit talks between President Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.\r\n'),(762,2,'The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials closed down 13.29 points to 2,583.56. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by nearly 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 550 up, 1,000 down and 439 unchanged. Big Board volume totaled 159.24 million shares, against 147.30 million in the previous session. The NYSE\'s composite index dropped 0.30 to 181.07. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index fell 1.93 to 352.95.\r\n'),(763,2,'German officials in the East and West teamed up to capture the second top leftist terrorist suspect in a week, and news reports on Wednesday said more such arrests were expected. West German authorities hailed the joint effort that led to the arrest of 46-year-old Inge Viett, and East Germany\'s interior minister called it an example of ``success in German-German cooperation\'\' following decades of enmity. The East German minister, Peter-Michael Diestel, also promised to investigate the extent to which his country\'s former Communist government _ particularly its hated secret police _ had harbored West German terrorists. ``It\'s a perverse situation that in the past, terrorists were protected in the German Democratic Republic,\'\' Diestel told reporters in Bonn. The secret police, once virtually omnipresent, would have known the background of any West Germans resettling in East Germany. Many suspected the secret police, or Stasi, had provided the terrorists with new identities and other help. If so, Diestel said, it was a ``diabolical connection.\'\' The government-run East German news agency ADN said Ms. Viett, wanted in several attacks, was captured Tuesday night in the East German city of Magdeburg. It immediately led to speculation that other members of the Red Army Faction would turn up in East Germany, or that they once lived there. ``East Germany\'s chief prosecutor\'s office is optimistically looking forward to the speedy capture of other terrorists,\'\' said West Germany\'s ZDF television network. ZDF also said there are indications of ties linking East Germany\'s secret police and West German terrorists with Middle East terror groups. Law enforcement sources in Bonn, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, said there were indications that Ms. Viett had worked with Palestinian terrorists in the 1970s. Ever since the two Germanys started their rapid road to unification last fall, the question of terrorism has become increasingly important. Officials on both sides of the crumbling barriers have warned that East Germany could provide fertile territory for new leftist terrorist crimes. Joint efforts were stepped up to capture any Red Army Faction members who may have slipped across the border after a series of attacks that rocked West German industry in the 1970s and 80s. The West German federal police worked with their counterparts in East Germany to capture Ms. Viett unarmed in her apartment in Magdeburg, where she had lived for more than two years. Sources said Ms. Viett\'s neighbors notified authorities, after seeing West German wanted posters with her picture that had been put up throughout the city. East German police carried out the arrest, and West German authorities arrived in Magdeburg afterward. Ms. Viett\'s capture and the June 6 apprehension of another suspect, Sussanne Albrecht, represent some of the biggest successes against West German terrorists in years. The West German newspaper Bild said that officials in East and West were close to arresting terrorist suspect Silke Maier-Witt in East Germany. ``Every day, we are counting on seeing the news of her arrest,\'\' Bild quoted one unidentified West German official as saying. Bild is known to have close ties to government security officials in Bonn. Earlier, the Morgenpost newspaper of Dresden reported that Ms. Maier-Witt had lived in that East German city. She is suspected of having taken part in the 1977 kidnapping and murder of prominent West German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer. Ms. Viett\'s alleged involvement in terrorism goes back to 1972, when she was accused of taking part in a bombing that killed one man at a boating facility in Berlin. West German authorities have accused Ms. Viett of taking part in the slaying of prominent West Berlin Judge Guenter von Drenkmann in 1974. Ms. Viett is also wanted in the kidnapping of West Berlin Christian Democratic leader Peter Lorenz a year later, among numerous other crimes. In 1978, she allegedly took part in helping Red Army Faction member Till Meyer escape from a Berlin prison. Ms. Viett in 1981 allegedly shot a French policemen, after being stopped by authorities in Paris. The policeman was seriously injured. West German officials announced plans to seek the extradition of Ms. Viett, as they are doing in the case of Ms. Albrecht. Ms. Albrecht is wanted in the 1977 murder of prominent West German banker Juergen Ponto.\r\n'),(764,2,'If you\'ve ever dreamed of making it on to the cover of a Wheaties box, dream no more. General Mills Inc., the maker of the ``Breakfast of Champions,\'\' is inviting everyone to appear on a Wheaties box. But unlike recent box subjects like Walter Payton and the Minnesota Twins, the public will have to pay. The promotion, beginning next week, offers individualized Wheaties boxes for $18.95 and proof of purchase. Eight weeks after sending in the money and a black-and-white picture, people will receive a single, acrylic-sealed box with their picture on the cover, the company says. ``Customers have been writing letters to us for many, many years wondering how they could get their picture on the Wheaties box,\'\' General Mills spokeswoman Kathryn Newton said. The boxes also are offered for $13.95 and five proof-of-purchase coupons.\r\n'),(765,2,'China announced Thursday it had released 211 jailed pro-democracy protesters, including several prominent academics, in a move that appeared timed to head off possible U.S. trade sanctions. Those released include Dai Qing, a leading journalist; Cao Siyuan, director of a social science research institute; and Li Honglin, head of the Fujian Provincial Academy of Social Sciences. All signed petitions or otherwise showed support for the democratic reforms demanded last spring by hundreds of thousands of protesters in Beijing and other cities. The protests ended in June when the army opened fire on the demonstrators, killing hundreds and possibly thousands. The official Xinhua News Agency described those released as lawbreakers and said they were ``given lenient treatment and released upon completion of investigations.\'\' It inserted the word ``former\'\' before the titles of Ms. Dai and the others, indicating they were fired while in prison. ``Coming back home was like a dream,\'\' Ms. Dai said, contacted at home by telephone. She said she was let out Wednesday. ``After 10 months, my kitchen is like a stranger.\'\' She declined to speak further, saying she would be arrested again if she talked to a reporter without permission. ``We welcome this announcement,\'\' said State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler. ``We are pleased that the official announcement provided the names of six of those released. We believe that the interests of all parties would be best served by a full public accounting of the number and identity of those detained as well as those released.\'\' Ms. Tutwiler added that the Chinese government has not provided information to date on how many people remain as detainees or as prisoners. According to unoffical estimates, 10,000 to 15,000 were detained nationwide at some point but most have been released, she said. ``The official announcement said 431 were still under investigation by Beijing public security organs but it is not clear whether all of these are imprisoned,\'\' she said. None of the six listed by Xinhua was a student. Xinhua did not say if any student leaders were among those released. Students at Beijing University said they knew of no students who had recently been returned to campus. Campus sources in Beijing have reported that several student activists were released in the past few weeks, but none was a top leader of the pro-democracy movement. Xinhua quoted an unidentified spokesman for the Public Security Ministry as saying only 431 ``lawbreakers involved in the turmoil and rebellion are still being investigated.\'\' It said some ``are being dealt with by judicial departments.\'\' The figures still leave hundreds of people unaccounted for. China previously announced the release of 573 people during the winter. Arrests reported by the official media last summer alone totaled more than 2,000, and arrests continued during the fall and winter. Few trials have been publicized, although 20 executions have been reported in the official press. Sources have reported that several leading dissidents still in jail have finally been charged after months of detention, despite Chinese legal requirements that charges be filed within 45 days. The releases came as debate begins in the United States over whether to renew China\'s most-favored-nation trade status. The status, given to all but a handful of nations, substantially reduces tariffs on goods exported to the United States. As a socialist country, China\'s status must be renewed each year. President Bush must issue his decision by June 3, and some congressmen have said they favor suspending most-favored-nation status as a protest of China\'s human rights record. China has said suspension would set bilateral relations back 20 years. It has insisted it will not yield to foreign pressure, but last week it ended 14 months of martial law in the Tibetan capital in what was widely interpreted as an effort to placate critics. Martial law had been imposed to quell demonstrations against Chinese rule. Prominent protesters from Beijing\'s democracy movement who remain in jail include Wang Dan, a Beijing University history major who was one of the top student leaders, and seven other students named on a student most-wanted list last summer. Five students on that list are known to have escaped China, and the rest are believed still in hiding. Also still in jail are Liu Xiaobo, a university lecturer who took part in a hunger strike during the last days of protest, and Ren Wanding, an accountant who gave pro-democracy speeches during the movement. He was also jailed four years in the early 1980s for having helped lead an earlier democracy movement.\r\n'),(766,2,'An opposition lawmaker said today the government should investigate a magistrate\'s decision to impose only a small fine on a white farmer convicted of beating a black worker who died the next day. The farmer, Wilhelm Rabe, was fined the equivalent of $40 on Feb. 12 for assaulting Ekati Xaba last year on a farm near the eastern border with Swaziland. Magistrate J.D. Jacquire accepted evidence that Rabe had beaten Xaba with an electric cord, but rejected testimony that the worker also was thrown to the ground and kicked. Jacquire said there was no proof that the beating caused the brain haemmorrhage and ruptured spleen that were blamed for Xaba\'s death the day after the beating. Lester Fuchs, a Parliament member for the anti-apartheid Democratic Party, said the sentence was excessively lenient and could cause negative publicity for South Africa at a time when the government is promoting racial reconciliation. He asked that Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee account for the magistrate\'s ruling. According to The Sowetan, the country\'s largest black-oriented daily newspaper, two people who witnessed the beating had given statements to police but were never called to testify in court. The Sowetan said Xaba\'s widow and six children were forced to leave the farm after his death and now live in a one-room cardboard shack. There have been at least two other similar cases in the past three years, in which white farmers avoided prison despite being convicted of fatal assaults of black employees. Several blacks convicted of murdering white farmers are on Death Row, facing hanging if the government lifts a recently declared moratorium on executions.\r\n'),(767,2,'The Australian Orchestra says it\'s honored to host the final performances of Dame Joan Sutherland, but watching the last show will be a costly proposition. Ms. Sutherland, 63, announced in London on Wednesday that the Australian Opera\'s performance of ``Les Huguenots\'\' in September will be the swan song of her 40-year career. All eight performances already are sold out. Tickets for the final show on Oct. 2 were snapped up at the beginning of the year and a premium seat cost $390 (U.S.). She was to have brought down the curtain for the last time at London\'s Covent Garden in December and January with Strauss\' opera ``Die Fledermaus,\'\' but changed her mind due to the heavy demands of singing the part of the vivacious Rosalinde. Her husband, conductor Richard Bonynge, said Wednesday during a break in the Sydney rehearsals for ``The Gipsy Princess\'\' that ``Die Fledermaus\'\' was ``too hard on the legs _ a killer for her.\'\' ``It\'s a long, demanding role, involving dancing and costume changes,\'\' he said. ``She is on stage for the entire first act, most of the second and all of the third. ``By contrast, `Les Huguenots\' is one of her old party pieces. She\'s on for one act and a bit in a five-act opera. Joan wanted to go out on top and not tarnish the public\'s memories of her earlier performances in `Fledermaus.\' \'\'\r\n'),(768,2,'Record-breaking heat scorched both coasts Sunday, wilting several major league pitchers and sending residents in the normally cool San Francisco Bay area streaming to the beaches. The mercury soared to a record 103 degrees in downtown San Francisco. It was the city\'s highest temperature since record keeping began 125 years ago, exceeding the previous mark of 102 degrees set on Oct. 5, 1987. On the East Coast, Philadelphia hit a record high for the date of 102 degrees, which was also a record fifth day in a row of triple-digit highs. Downtown Baltimore set a record high for the date of 103 degrees. In California, the heat heightened the danger of fire and and led officials to close Mount Diablo State Park in Contra Costa County, east of San Francisco, and parts of Mount Tamalpais, northwest of the city, officials said. By noon, the parking lot at Marin County\'s Stinson Beach was jammed, and motorists inched along several miles of roads leading to the area. National Weather Service forecasters said tempertures won\'t fall to normal levels in the 80s until Thursday. Forecaster Daryl Williams blamed the heat on a high-pressure area over the southwestern United States, which he said is keeping cooler Pacific air out of the area. Temperatures also soared above 100 in the inland valleys of southern California, sending many to the beaches despite chilly and overcast coastal conditions. About 100,000 people hit the sands at Zuma Beach, where the temperature was about 70 degrees on the beach and in the water, said lifeguard John Renaud. Crowds also were heavy at Santa Monica, Venice, Will Rogers and Topanga beaches despite morning temperatures of around 69 degrees and fog that reduced visibility to a mere 100 years, said lifeguard Lt. Dick Heineman. ``It was so hot in the valley areas, they just came to the beach anyway,\'\' he said. In Baltimore, two major league baseball teams were able to score nine runs despite the searing heat, and the visiting pitcher refused to take off his long-sleeved undershirt during the game, saying he was superstitious. Frank Viola of the Minnesota Twins became the first American League pitcher to win 15 games this season by surviving the minimum five innings and leading his team to a 7-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. ``That was the hottest situation I\'ve ever pitched in,\'\' Viola said. Starting pitchers in Oakland, Calif., and Boston also tired early in the heat. Other record highs were 97 at Allentown, Pa.; 100 at Charleston, W.Va.; 100 at Newark, N.J.; 98 in downtown Oakland; 97 at Raleigh, N.C.; and 107 at San Jose and 104 at Santa Rosa, Calif. ``Lemonade Lassies\'\' in shorts will be dispensing cool drinks on street corners in Bluefield, W.Va., again Monday after the Appalachian town sweltered through a weekend with highs of over 90 degrees. Bluefield bills itself as ``Nature\'s Air-Conditioned City\'\' and hands out free drinks whenever the mercury tops 90. The Chamber of Commerce has gone whole summers in past years without doling out a drop of lemonade, but this summer the heat is sending the civic group to the poorhouse, chamber member Eddie Steele said. ``We\'ve had to do it about five or six times, which is the most we\'ve had in 10 or 15 years,\'\' Steele said. ``It costs about $100 a time to serve it.\'\' Ohio officials blamed high heat as the likely cause of last week\'s death of a 2-year-old girl whose body was found in a sweltering attic. Lorain County deputy coroner Dr. Richard Buchannan said the body of Ashley Kasubienski was discovered by her parents Friday. Initial tests showed the child was ``severely dehydrated,\'\' and the death appeared to be heat-related, he said. In Pasadena, Calif., authorities confiscated dozens of rabbits, pigeons, chickens and geese after finding about 20 animals that had died after having been purchased at an auction and stuffed inside cardboard boxes for a sweltering truck ride, police said. Authorities were investigating possible animal cruelty charges against three unidentified people, police Sgt. John Olquin said.\r\n'),(769,2,'Safety violations discovered in six Eastern Airlines planes during an unprecedented federal inspection involved mechanical problems that occur daily, a spokeswoman for the company said. The Federal Aviation Administration forced Eastern to take the planes out of service Thursday, the second day of an inspection of the company\'s 267 aircraft. An FAA spokesman characterized the safety flaws as ``minor violations.\'\' ``We have 1,400 flights a day, and every day you\'re going to have so many mechanical problems,\'\' company spokeswoman Paula Musto said. ``They would have been found on this day or another day, and more than likely they would have been found by Eastern\'s own mechanics. But we have people looking over our shoulder now.\'\' In Minneapolis, an Atlanta-bound flight filled with passengers was unloaded because of a fuel leak. Eastern had cleared the plane for takeoff, but FAA inspectors refused to let it fly, NBC News reported. Two other planes were also taken out of service because of minor fuel leaks, said Bob Buckhorn, FAA spokesman in Washington. One plane was sidelined by cut tires and another by a problem with emergency escape path markings in the cabin, Buckhorn said. ``You\'re talking minor violations,\'\' he said. Late Thursday a sixth plane was taken out of service when an inch-long crack was discovered in the skin of a plane in St. Louis, said FAA spokesman John Leyden. He said it was not a serious problem. The airline can return the planes to service as soon as the problems are corrected. ``If (inspectors) find any irregularities, they bring them to the attention of the airline, who then takes the planes out of service until they fix them properly,\'\' said FAA spokesman Jack Barker in Atlanta. Barker said 54 other planes that had been checked as part of the inspection program were ruled safe for flying. Ms. Musto said she didn\'t know whether the planes cited for violations had been repaired. The 30-day inspection of all Eastern planes began Wednesday after the FAA fined the company $823,000 for safety violations. U.S. Transportation Secretary Jim Burnley said officials have been unsatisfied with Eastern\'s performance since its takeover in 1986 by Texas Air Corp., which will undergo a 30-day inspection of its operating practices. Texas Air, which commands a fifth of the nation\'s air travel market, also owns Continental Airlines, which has recently absorbed Frontier Airlines, People Express and New York Air. The government\'s financial probe will examine the corporation\'s management and business practices and the relationships between the parent and the two airlines, said B. Wayne Vance, general counsel for the Department of Transportation. Around Eastern\'s Miami home base, passengers and travel agents said the inspection and new fines were worrisome. ``Some of my customers already don\'t want to fly on Eastern anymore,\'\' said Isabel Chalen, owner of the Four Corners Travel Agency in Miami Beach. However, Eastern spokeswoman Karen Ceremsak said there has been no drop in bookings. The FAA said its unprecedented inspection of Eastern planes will include ``ramp checks\'\' of all of the carrier\'s aircraft. ``It\'s a visual inspection of the aircraft while it\'s parked at the gate. The inspectors also will look at the log book, to make sure the entries are correctly entered, they will check the emergency equipment and that\'s basically what we\'re looking at,\'\' said Roger Myers, an FAA spokesman in Atlanta.\r\n'),(770,2,'``We are not undertaking any biological war. Neither troops nor caterpillars will go in without prior request and consultation.\'\' _ Marlin Fitzwater, White House press secretary, on an Agriculture Department program that is researching development of voracious caterpillars to kill off drug-producing coca plants in South American jungles.\r\n'),(771,2,'The Bush administration said Tuesday that $18 million in food assistance is being provided to Haiti and it called on Congress to approve a bill that includes an additional $13 million for that country. State Department deputy spokesman Richard Boucher expressed support for the efforts of provisioal President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot to move Haiti toward free and fair elections later this year. The $13 million aid package includes $10 million for short-term needs such as fuel and food and $3 million to enable international observers to monitor the elections and to provide other types of electoral support. ``We encourage and will support her (Mrs. Trouillot\'s) efforts to overcome the serious obstacles she confronts in bringing genuine democratic reforms and a greater respect for human rights to Haiti,\'\' Boucher said. The $13 million assistance package is part of a broader aid bill that also includes help for Panama and Nicaragua. President Bush has made numerous appeals to Congress for approval of the legislation. In an interview published in Tuesday\'s editions of the New York Times, Mrs. Trouillot, who served previously on Haiti\'s Supreme Court, said she inherited a bankrupt country two months ago. ``I was very surprised to see all of the coffers empty,\'\' she was quoted as saying. ``Economically, the country is paralyzed. The state can\'t honor its debts or pay many of its employees.\'\' The final decision on the food aid was made on Monday. Haiti will receive $6 million of the $18 million over the near term and the remaining $12 will be delivered starting Oct. 1, Boucher said. Haiti has drifted from one political crisis to another since the ouster of President Jean-Claude Duvalier more than four years ago. Mrs. Troiullot, who assumed her duties in mid-March after the ouster of former President Prosper Avril, is Haiti\'s fifth president since early 1986. Mrs. Trouillot has made clear her intention not to serve as president beyond September, a deadline that some regard as unrealistic in terms of turning over power to an elected successor. For much of the past 2{ years, the United States has not provided government-to-government aid to Haiti but has delivered substantial aid through private voluntary organizations. This has been a reflection of U.S. dissatisfaction with the dictatorial methods of the presidents who preceded Mrs. Trouillot. The total being funneled through voluntary groups this year is $41.4 million, Boucher said.\r\n'),(772,2,'Hilton Hotels Corp. reported its profit rose 22 percent in the third quarter partly because of improved results in its casino operations. Hilton said Wednesday it earned $27.2 million, or 57 cents a share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from $22.3 million, or 44 cents a share, a year ago. Sales totaled $236.1 million, up 19 percent from $198.2 million a year earlier. Gambling revenue nearly doubled, jumping to $33.1 million from $18.5 million in the 1987 third quarter. The gain was partly due to better results at Hilton\'s Nevada casinos and to the company\'s interest in the Conrad International hotel-casino in Queensland, Australia. Operating revenue in the hotel sector declined 12 percent to $21 million. The drop was largely due to a one-time credit that boosted revenue in the 1987 quarter and a charge for taxes that depressed the figure for the latest quarter, said Roy Judge, a vice president and assistant to the chairman. Hilton said hotel occupancy increased to 71 percent, from 70 percent a year ago, while Nevada gaming occupancy reached 90 percent, against 83 percent in 1987. For the year to date, profit rose 17 percent to $95.7 million, or $1.99 a share, from $81.5 million, or $1.62 a share. Revenue in the nine-month period totaled $699.2 million, up 12 percent from $623.4 million.\r\n'),(773,2,'Thousands marching against government austerity measures fled in panic Thursday when police fired rifles and tear gas after hooded youths smashed store windows. Three people were injured, police said. The violence came 11 months after rioting left about 300 dead following protests over subsidy cuts on food and public transportation. About 8,000 union members and supporters marched in the capital while thousands of others marched across the country in protest of government reforms aimed at cutting a $34 billion foreign debt, fourth-largest in Latin America. The march in Caracas was interrupted when a group of adolescents overturned garbage cans and shouted insults at police. About 20 of the youths began breaking windows in Simon Bolivar Center, a complex on Plaza Caracas, where the march was to end. Police rushed in firing tear gas and shotgun blasts in the air. Three people were injured in the brief confrontation, including Rafael Calma, a photographer for a Caracas newspaper, hit by a bottle thrown by a bystander in the crowd, said police. Police did not say how the other two people were hurt. ``It was the same group of troublemakers. A small group. We acted responsibly,\'\' said metropolitan police sheriff L.B. Gomez, standing his ground as protesters chanted, ``Police off our streets! The streets are ours!\'\' ``It\'s the fault of the government\'s economic package,\'\' said a leftist congressman, Ricardo Guttierez, participating in the march. The march was called by the 4 million-member Confederation of Workers, CTV, Venezuela\'s largest umbrella labor group. The CTV has called on President Carlos Andres Perez to back off on austerity measures it says has hit poorer Venezuelans the hardest. Labor leaders have planned protests this month after Perez\' year-old Social Democratic government planned to cut subsidies on gasoline. The economy last year contracted by 8.1 percent and inflation rose to 80 percent under the effects of the austerity measures. Unemployment is about 11 percent, according to independent estimates, up from 8.7 percent last year.\r\n'),(774,2,'A deactivated reactor from the nation\'s first nuclear power plant will be floated down the Ohio River in October on its way to a nuclear waste depository in Washington state, officials said. The reactor, to be removed from the deactivated Shippingport Atomic Power Station about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, is expected to be unloaded in February at the Hanford nuclear reservation in south-central Washington. The barge will go down the Ohio to the Mississippi River, into the Gulf of Mexico, through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific Coast. Although the reactor has been emptied of its nuclear fuel, filled with concrete and enclosed in a neutron-shield tank, it\'s classified as nuclear waste since it has been contaminated by radiation. ``There has never been a plant this large decommissioned in this country,\'\' said David Ney, a nuclear engineer for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources. ``It\'s probably the largest single shipment of nuclear waste in the nation\'s history.\'\' Mike Molloy, executive director of Disaster and Emergency Services in Kentucky, said Thursday that his agency hasn\'t received word of the shipment to Hanford. Mike McKernan, a technology transfer program manager for Westinghouse-Hanford Co., said the company would inform states along the route when the loading date approaches. Westinghouse-Hanford is the federal Department of Energy\'s technical support contractor for Shippingport. The concrete-filled reactor and its enclosing shield, McKernan said, together about 1,000 tons and measures about 45 feet high and 18 feet across. ``You can stand on it all day long and you wouldn\'t come in contact with more radiation than if you were standing out in the sun,\'\' McKernan said. The plant, commissioned in 1957, was the nation\'s first commercial nuclear power plant. The federal Department of Energy and Duquesne Light, the Pittsburgh-based power company, operated the plant as a demonstration project. They began taking the plant out of service four years ago. By June, the nuclear core was removed and the middle of the reactor, which served as a heat source for water that was converted to steam, was filled with concrete. The Department of Energy is charged with disposing of the reactor and converting the property, owned by Duquesne Light, to ``a perfectly usable condition,\'\' McKernan said. Pennsylvania officials are monitoring the process.\r\n'),(775,2,'Talk of a brokered convention is making some Democrats shudder, while former House Speaker Thomas P. ``Tip\'\' O\'Neill says he thinks it would be a lot of fun and other party leaders say the scenario probably will be avoided one way or another. ``A brokered convention is nothing,\'\' said O\'Neill on Wednesday evening. He recalled the brokered 1952 convention that nominated Adlai Stevenson and said, ``It was enjoyable ... it makes it more fun.\'\' ``If I had my way _ they talk about the smoke-filled rooms _ we ought to open them up to the TV and the press,\'\' he said in an interview Wednesday night. Sen. Paul Simon\'s favorite-son primary victory in Illinois on Tuesday brought the brokered convention speculation to the fore, along with concerns that the Democrats could only be hurt by such a lack of unity. New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who some hope would emerge the nominee if there were a deadlocked convention, condemned the possibility as ``the best way to give this election away to the Republicans.\'\' He joined Democratic National Committee Chairman Paul Kirk in calling for the Democratic leadership to unify behind the front-runner when the primary season ends in June, rather than wait until the July convention in Atlanta. Simon, reviving his faltering campaign, took most of the delegates in Illinois, with the other home-state candidate, Jesse Jackson, coming in second and taking the rest of the delegates. Simon said no one will have enough delegates to lock up the nomination before the convention, and added, ``We\'re going to have to work out some kind of a compromise.\'\' Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who currently holds a slim lead in delegates, said the party should unite behind the front-runner at the end of the primary season, and that encouraging a brokered convention ``would be a very dangerous thing.\'\' ``I think there is agreement on the part of most Democrats across the country that somebody will come out of this primary process with, if not an absolute majority, a substantial plurality ... and that people will rally behind that person. Obviously, I hope I will be that person,\'\' the governor said in Boston. But other prominent Democrats, interviewed Wednesday at a congressional dinner, professed not to be worried about the deadlocked convention prospect, mostly because they don\'t think it will come to that. ``Nobody said the process had to end by March,\'\' said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. But he said he thinks his candidate, Dukakis, will have enough delegates to take the nomination by June, and that ``the process is going to work its way out.\'\' Former Virginia Gov. Charles Robb, who opted not to seek the presidential nomination this year, said he doubts anyone will have a winning cache of delegates in June. But he predicted that the party would unite behind a candidate before the convention. Nonetheless, he added, ``I don\'t fear a brokered convention ... I don\'t think any harm comes from it.\'\' After Illinois, Dukakis had 464.5 delegate votes, Jackson 460.55 and Simon 171.5. Sen. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee had 354.8 and Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri 145. Uncommitted delegates totaled 272.65 of the 2,082 needed to win the nomination. Boosted by his Illinois win, Simon plans to campaign vigorously for the upcoming Michigan caucuses March 26 and the Wisconsin primary April 5. Gore, who fared poorly in Illinois, said he is ``almost prepared\'\' to agree that the race will still be fluid at the convention. ``I still think this process is likely to produce a winner before the first ballot is over,\'\' Gore said. ``The results (from Illinois) ... make it more likely we will go to a second ballot.\'\' Gephardt, who skipped Illinois to try to resuscitate his campaign in Michigan, said the Democratic battle could go all the way. ``The race is wide open,\'\' he said in Kalamazoo, Mich. ``I think if I can get a good result in Michigan, which I think I can, I\'m going to be back in the middle of this thing and have a great chance to be the nominee.\'\' House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas said Wednesday night he anticipated he would be involved in any discussions to unite behind a candidate before the convention if no one had the winning number of delegates in June. He said a brokered convention wouldn\'t be the worst thing, but added, ``All things considered, it would be desirable if it didn\'t happen.\'\' Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey on Wednesday signaled the likelihood that he, too, would help in early selection of a nominee. First, he told party leaders in his home state that he would endorse a candidate before the primary there June 7, with Dukakis the favorite for his backing. And he said party leaders should halt an effort to put together an uncommitted delegate slate for the state. Victory for such a slate, he said, could cause problems for the front-running candidate when the primary is held.\r\n'),(776,2,'Strong aftershocks jolted earthquake-devastated areas in the north today as crews worked to clear a road in this hard-hit mountain resort. More bodies were dug out, raising the death toll to 376. The number of dead was expected to rise sharply in Baguio, where hundreds of people were believed still trapped in rubble because of a lack of heavy equipment and emergency training. The city was cut off by landslides in Monday\'s quake. President Corazon Aquino flew in today to assess the damage. She ordered officials to give top priority to clearing the roads so medicine, food and heavy equipment could be brought in. She also ordered city schools closed for a month. At Baguio\'s Hyatt Hotel, which collapsed in the earthquake, Clarita Gonzales tearfully called out with a megaphone for her 5-year-old daughter trapped in the rubble with her nanny. ``If you are still alive please tap,\'\' Mrs. Gonzales sobbed. On Tuesday, Mrs. Aquino declared a state of emergency throughout the quake-stricken area north of Manila on the archipelago nation\'s main island, Luzon. Two aftershocks early today measured 6.3 and 5.8 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological Service in Golden, Colo. Two more were reported later but precise readings were not immediately available. No new damage was reported. Figures compiled by the Office of Civil Defense and the Red Cross showed 360 people were killed and 773 injured from Monday\'s earthquake, which registered 7.7 on the Richter scale. In addition, the Philex Mining Corp., reported 16 people were also killed at its residential compound in Benguet province, but they were not included in the official tallies. The company said 13 of the dead were children. Officials said at least 82 of the fatalities died in Baguio, where four luxury hotels and 23 other buildings were severely damaged. But presidential Press Secretary Tomas Gomez said Mrs. Aquino was told that 142 people died in Baguio, including two Americans, one South Korean, a Taiwanese and a Chinese. He gave no names. U.S. officials could not confirm the report but said an official of the U.S. Agency for International Development was missing. About 1,500 Americans live in the town. One Baguio funeral director, Filemon Relis, said his mortuary alone received nearly 70 bodies of quake victims. Bodies covered with blankets were lying outside his funeral parlor; there was no room inside. Monday\'s quake, the strongest to strike the Philippines in 14 years, damaged Baguio\'s airport and triggered landslides which blocked the four highways leading to the resort. Highway crews used bulldozers and dynamite today to clear some of the dozens of landslides blocking one of the roads to Baguio. Officials said they hoped to clear the debris later today so that much-needed supplies, including cranes, food and medicine, could reach the city. The city of 120,000 people had no electricity and was running out of food. Only one service station was open and gasoline was being rationed. U.S. Embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager said a 14-member military search and rescue team arrived today from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., and would travel by helicopter to Baguio to join the search. He said about 20 people injured in Baguio and Cabanatuan City were flown to a U.S. military hospital at Clark Air Base. More than 50 people were killed in Cabanatuan City, 60 miles north of Manila, when a six-story school collapsed. Japan sent doctors, nurses and $180,000 in relief supplies, and Canada, Thailand, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia and South Korea also sent assistance. In Dagupan, where 20 people died, firetrucks began delivering drinking water to 31 outlying villages whose water lines were destroyed by the quake. Officials in the city of more than 100,000 inhabitants, 100 miles north of Manila, said it also was without electricity and that food and drinking water were running low. Dagupan\'s business district sank one to two yards during Monday\'s quake, and mud and sea water were seeping out through fissures in the street. Col. Bienvenido Liclican, spokesman for the military rescue team, appealed over Manila radio stations for tools, blood plasma, medicine and doctors to care for the injured. Monday\'s quake was the worst to strike the Philippines since 1976, when a quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale killed 8,000 people. The 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 7.5 reflects an earthquake 10 times stronger than one of 6.5.\r\n'),(777,2,'Former Defense Minister Alexej Cepicka, who was expelled from the Communist Party in the 1960s for his support of Stalinist policies, has died, the state news agency CTK reported Thursday. He was 80. No cause of death was given for Cepicka, son in law of former Czechoslovak Communist leader Klement Gottwald. Cepicka died Sunday. He became defense minister in 1950, but was dismissed from the post in 1956. He was expelled from the party in 1963 for his role in the ``deformations of the 50s,\'\' CTK said, alluding to the Stalinist period in Czechoslovakia. Also Thursday, the urn with Gottwald\'s remains was removed from the National Memorial of Zizkov in Prague and given to the representatives of the Communist Party, CTK said. Government officials attended the act. The memorial continues to house the remains of most other Czechoslovak presidents of the Communist era, along with those of nationally renowned artists and literary figures. There was no explanation of why Gottwald\'s urn was the only one removed, but the move likely was related to his unpopularity among most Czechoslovaks. The country\'s first Communist president, Gottwald is widely blamed for the Stalinist repression of the immediate post-war years.\r\n'),(778,2,'The Duchess of York has signed a contract to write two children\'s books, scheduled for publication at about the time of her own child\'s first birthday, Simon & Schuster announced Monday. The 28-year-old duchess, the former Sarah Ferguson, is married to Prince Andrew. The couple is expecting their first child in August. The two children\'s stories, about a helicopter named Budgie, will be aimed at very young children and will be illustrated by one of Britain\'s top children\'s book illustrators, according to the publisher\'s announcement. The American company is planning to publish the books in August 1989 in association with Simon & Schuster Ltd. of London. The duchess has been working on the books with an editor in London for the past few months, according to the publisher. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to charity.\r\n'),(779,2,'Zulus fired assault rifles at Xhosas sleeping in a workers barracks early Monday, leaving 22 people dead and pushing the death toll to 364 in a week of tribal clashes, police said. Zulus and Xhosas, the country\'s two largest black tribes and longtime rivals, have been waging vicious battles since Aug. 12 in the townships surrounding Johannesburg. Police and eyewitnesses said Zulus armed with AK-47 rifles raided a Xhosa workers hostel early Monday in KwaThema township east of Johannesburg. At least 22 people were killed, many of them Xhosas shot in their beds, they said. Police in armored vehicles moved in after dawn to restore order. Enraged Xhosas set fire to a hostel used by Zulus before being driven off. Fighting also flared in nearby townships, resulting in several deaths. Looters continued to pillage hostels abandoned by Zulu migrant workers. People carted away refrigerators, stoves and anything else they could find. Johannesburg newspapers Monday reported five killings Sunday in the Soweto township by the ``necklace\'\' method, whereby youths put gasoline-soaked tires around the necks of victims and set them alight. Police on Monday raised the death toll for the fighting from the past week to 364 and said hundreds were injured. ``We just keep finding bodies. They\'re everywhere,\'\' said a police spokesman. The fighting appears to be mostly a tribal conflict with a long history, but it also has political overtones. Nelson Mandela and many other leaders of the African National Congress, the largest opposition movement, are Xhosas. The ANC\'s rival, Inkatha, is a Zulu-based organization headed by Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Both the ANC and Inkatha oppose apartheid, the system of racial segregation that allows 5 million whites to maintain political and economic control over 30 million blacks. But the two groups differ over tactics and plans for a future South Africa. ANC leader Walter Sisulu ruled out peace talks between Mandela and Buthelezi, saying it would be a capitulation. ``That means Inkatha launches a war in order to bring us to our knees. For that type of thing we are not prepared,\'\' he said in a weekend television interview. Mandela\'s wife, Winnie, warned the ANC may be forced to resume its armed struggle to protect is supporters. The ANC agreed Aug. 6 to suspend it largely ineffective guerrilla campaign. Mrs. Mandela accused the government of ``working hand-in-hand\'\' with the relatively conservative Inkatha movement in the fighting against Xhosas, the independent South African Press Association reported. Also, the government has revoked immunity from prosecution for three ANC leaders, including the head of the group\'s military wing, Chris Hani. The three men, Hani, Ronnie Kasrils and Mac Maharaj, also are members of the South African Communist Party, a close ANC ally. The government gave no reason for the decision. But it was seen as a signal that authorities are upset with militant statements made recently by some ANC leaders. The trio are among more than 40 ANC leaders granted temporary immunity three months ago so they could participate in peace talks. All but Hani, Kasrils and Maharaj have had their immunity extended until the end of the year.\r\n'),(780,2,'A federal judge said Friday he will approve a plan to liquidate the assets of Charles Keating Jr.\'s American Continental Corp., the former parent company of Lincoln Savings and Loan. Under the plan, American Continental\'s assets would be liquidated over three years to provide partial payment to the company\'s 25,000 creditors, who are owed $365 million. More than 9,200 creditors participated in a recent vote on the proposal, and 95 percent approved it, said Donald Gaffney, an attorney for unsecured creditors. He said the plan also was accepted by all classes of creditors. The plan was opposed by Keating and some of his former top executives, who invested in the company\'s securities. They said it would push them to the end of the creditors\' line and make it unlikely they would receive any money. But no one spoke against the plan when Gaffney outlined it to District Judge Richard Bilby. The judge said he would approve the plan but didn\'t specify when. ``You\'ve accomplished the impossible,\'\' Bilby told lawyers in the case. ``It\'s like almost any settlement I\'ve known. There ain\'t much in it for anybody.\'\' Lincoln Savings, based in Irvine, Calif., was seized by federal regulators in April 1989, just one day after American Continental and 11 Lincoln Savings subsidiaries filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Federal officials have said Lincoln\'s failure could cost taxpayers $2 billion. The case has become symbolic of the national S&L debacle. Keating and other Lincoln executives are the subject of a class-action lawsuit alleging they misled investors about the safety of junk bonds issued by American Continental. Nearly 18,000 investors lost $250 million, authorities allege. In addition, the Senate Ethics Committee is holding hearings on whether five senators - Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz.; Alan Cranston, D-Calif.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; John Glenn, D-Ohio; and Donald W. Riegle Jr., D-Mich. - improperly intervened with federal regulators on Keating\'s behalf because of the $1.3 million he and associates contributed to their campaigns and favorite causes. Unsecured creditors of American Continental can expect to receive their first payments by the end of January, said Gaffney, who represents the Unsecured Creditors Committee. Some 22,000 unsecured creditors hold American Continental bonds. Gaffney said the bondholders\' first checks probably will amount to ``pennies on the dollar\'\' on their investment. The timing and amount of later checks would depend on liquidation of American Continental assets, now valued at $9 million, and outcome of suits filed by creditors against Keating, Keating associates and legal and accounting firms which advised American Continental. A proposal approved by Bilby Nov. 16 to allow the Lincoln Savings subsidiaries to pay their creditors would go into effect with the liquidation plan. The subsidiaries\' creditors will receive virtually all the $120 million they are owed. Under the liquidation proposal, Thomas Arnold Jr., a Phoenix consultant who was appointed by Bilby to head American Continental, and three other members of a steering committee would wind down the company\'s operations over a three-year period. The plan is a compromise between the creditors and the federal Resolution Trust Corp., the agency set up to handle the nation\'s S&L bailout. It includes an agreement by the RTC to pay $21 million into American Continental\'s bankruptcy estate in exchange for being allowed to become a party in civil lawsuits filed by bondholders against Keating and his associates.\r\n'),(781,2,'Thirty-five million Americans report suffering from arthritis, and 6 million admit they haven\'t seen a doctor about it, according to a survey released Thursday by federal health officials. ``This confirms our suspicions that people are seeing (pain-killer) ads on TV and treating their arthritis themselves _ and very possibly doing damage to themselves,\'\' said Steve Erickson, spokesman for the Arthritis Foundation, based in Atlanta. The highest incidence of arthritis was in Florida, 18 percent, while the lowest was in Alaska, 9 percent. More than 3,000 people were asked in 1987 if they had experienced various arthritic conditions in the past year, if they had consulted a physician about the condition and if their arthritis was limiting their work or their household lives, the national Centers for Disease Control said. Nationwide, the survey found, 14.6 percent of the population reported arthritis and 12.1 percent had consulted a doctor about it, leaving 2.5 percent _ about 6 million people _ who hadn\'t. The feeling that nothing can be done for arthritis, beyond taking over-the-counter pain medication, ``is a real big misconception,\'\' Erickson said. ``There are a lot of things you can do.\'\' The problem will probably get worse if pain relievers are the only treatment, he said. ``These findings indicate the need ... to determine why these persons have not sought medical care, and to identify approaches for overcoming barriers to care,\'\' the CDC said in its weekly report. Women reported higher rates of arthritis than men, 18 percent to 11 percent. Women also were more likely to have seen a doctor about their arthritis _ 15 percent to 9 percent _ and were more likely to report limits in their activity _ 4 percent to 2 percent. Overall, 3 percent said arthritis was limiting their activities. There was little racial difference in arthritis reporting: 15 percent for whites and 14 percent for blacks. As might be expected, arthritis rates increased with age. Eleven percent of respondents aged 35-44 reported arthritis compared with 23 percent of those 45-54; by the 75-and-over group, the rate was 53 percent, compared to just 3 percent in the under-35 group. The high rate of arthritis in Florida ``is due to its relatively large population of elderly persons,\'\' the CDC said. Alaska\'s low rate can be attributed in part to its high Native American and Pacific Islander populations, ``among whom the prevalence of arthritic conditions is low,\'\' the report said. Erickson said too few people are aware of the warning signs of arthritis, such as joint swelling, early morning stiffness, recurring joint pain or inability to move a joint that lasts for more than two weeks. People with those symptoms should see a doctor, the Arthritis Foundation said.\r\n'),(782,2,'A Japan Airlines order for 20 Boeing 747-400 airplanes is one of the top Boeing orders of all time and makes JAL the largest customer for the jumbo jet, Boeing officials said Thursday. The order, worth $3.1 billion, brings to 40 the number of firm orders placed by JAL for the 747-400s. JAL also has options for 34 more of the aircraft. If all options are exercised, the order would be worth more than $7 billion, said Tom Cole, spokesman for Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. The jet, which can seat 600 people, has a range to 8,400 miles and a computer-aided cockpit that requires a crew of only two. The JAL planes will be configured to carry 375 to 404 passengers in three classes and will be outfitted with General Electric CF6-80C2 engines. Following JAL in firm orders for the 747-400s are Singapore Airlines with 29 and All Nippon Airways Co. of Japan with 26, Cole said. ``We call the Pacific a `747 ocean,\'\'\' he said. ``We do expect the airplane to sell well. It really has no competition.\'\' The order brings to 1,002 the total number of orders for the 747 series jets, making it the fourth civil airplane type in history to surpass the 1,000-mark in sales, Boeing said. The other models are Boeing\'s 727 and 737 series and the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series. In dollar terms, the deal puts JAL in a four-way tie for fourth place among all Boeing orders with All Nippon Airways, United Airlines and Delta Airlines. The largest Boeing order ever was made by GPA Ltd. in May 1989, with 182 planes worth $9.4 billion. That order did not include any 747s, Cole said. Boeing has delivered 70 of the 747-400s since the model was first rolled off the assembly line in January 1989. A total of 279 of the jets have now been ordered. The JAL order brings to 138 the number of firm orders for Boeing planes this year, worth $11.4 billion, Cole said. The company sold a record 887 jets worth $46.7 billion last year, he said. Sumitaka Kawamura of JAL said that if the airline exercises all 34 options, its total investment in 747-400s will be nearly $12 billion. JAL plans to increase its fleet from 100 planes to 170 by 1999 to meet an expected increase in passengers. Kawamura said JAL had received five of the 747-400s planes by March, and would receive the rest by 1999 ``if our plans are not changed.\'\' Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) said the orders would help reduce Japan\'s trade surplus with the United States.\r\n'),(783,2,'The stock market recouped some of Thursday\'s broad losses with a modest rally in slackened trading Friday. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, down 24.35 on Thursday, rose 9.06 to 2,149.89. That left the average with a net loss for the week of 33.61 points. Big Board volume totaled 146.30 million shares, against 196.54 million in the previous session. Advancing issues outnumbered declines by about 7 to 5 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks, with 858 up, 595 down and 519 unchanged. Volume on the floor of the Big Board came to 146.30 million shares, down from 196.54 million in the previous session. Nationwide, consolidated volume in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, totaled 173.07 million shares. Thursday\'s decline hit hardest among stocks that were known or rumored to be targets of takeovers and buyouts. The selling came as increasing numbers of analysts voiced concern over the amounts of debt being built up in corporate America. But once having delivered that message, investors seemed willing to look again today at individual deals that are likely to go through, presenting the opportunity for trading profits. Also, analysts said the overall market got a lift from General Motors, which issued a third quarter earnings report Thursday that was much better than expected. GM shares, up 2~ on Thursday, climbed another 3] to 83~ on turnover of more than 3.6 million shares Friday. Among big takeover targets, RJR Nabisco gained 3 to 85; Kraft was up 2 at 96{, and Pillsbury rose | to 59{. The investment firm of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a bidder for RJR Nabisco, said its plan does not call for the sale of large parts of the company and its financing is not conditioned on such sales. Rollins Environmental led the active list, tumbling 2} to 10~. The company reported earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 30 of 7 cents a share, down from 14 cents in the comparable period a year earlier. Teledyne rose 10[ to 333}. The company said directors authorized it to buy back as many as 1 million of the approximately 11.4 million shares it has outstanding. Coastamerica, which agreed to be acquired by American Hoist & Derrick for $10.50 a share, jumped 1{ to 10[. As measured by Wilshire Associates\' index of more than 5,000 actively traded stocks, the market increased $10.83 billion, or 0.40 percent, in value. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks gained .62 to 156.79. Standard & Poor\'s industrial index rose 1.49 to 320.67, and S&P\'s 500-stock composite index was up 1.25 at 278.53. The NASDAQ composite index for the over-the-counter market added 1.02 to 382.79. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index closed at 301.75, up 1.11.\r\n'),(784,2,'The discovery of two species of the daddy-longlegs insect family in Edgewood County Park may block a proposed 18-hole golf course. Both species are called the Edgewood Park harvestman, of Sitalcina minor. They live only in serpentine rock formations in the park\'s hills, and several conservationists want the habitate to be preserved. ``Constructing a golf course would wipe out the whole harvestmen populations,\'\' said Thomas F. Briggs, a science teacher at San Francisco Lowell High School. ``These are about the smallest daddy longlegs in the world,\'\' he added. Briggs discovered one of the species in 1983 and the other in 1985. Both have eight legs, and bright orange-red bodies that measure about 1 millimeter. Unlike spiders, daddy-longlegs do not spin webs. Along with Darrell Ubick, an entomologist, Briggs has submitted a proposal to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking that the species discovered in 1983 be declared a federally protected creature, which could halt any development of their only known habitat. San Mateo County purchased the 468-acre site in 1980 from the state and has been attempting to build a golf course there for several years. ``This little spider is just another ploy to keep from having a golf course,\'\' said Barbara Kootz of nearby San Carlos, a golfer and leader of pro-development interests in the area.\r\n'),(785,2,'Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said Tuesday after meeting with boxing great Muhammed Ali that a number of Americans held in Iraq would soon be allowed to leave the country. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ali said the number of hostages Saddam promised to free was not specified but that he would remain in Baghdad until they could fly home. He met Tuesday with some of the Americans detained in Baghdad as ``human shields\'\' in case of attack by multinational troops. Ali, on a mission to Baghdad on behalf of a number of American peace groups, arrived in the Iraqi capital last Wednesday. He met Tuesday with Saddam for about 50 minutes. During the meeting, the president reiterated his stand on the need for a peaceful settlement to the Persian Gulf crisis, which began with Iraq\'s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait. Ali said he told the Iraqi leader that a release would be ``good for maintaining peace in the area and good for the image of Iraq in the United States.\'\' Ali, 48, said Saddam gave him a brief review of the history of the area and that he was impressed with its important culture. ``This is the land of the Garden of Eden and the land where Abraham was born. How could it be bombed?\'\' he said. Ali said he found the president ``a man of conviction.\'\' The onetime world boxing champion converted to Islam in 1964, and changed his name from Cassius Clay. In Iraq at the invitation of the government, he has been staying in a government guest house and visited holy shrines in the towns of Kerbala and Najaf. He was mobbed by children wanting their picture taken with him wherever he went in Iraq. Ali, who suffers from Parkinson\'s Disease, marked by slurred speech and shaking limbs, used hand signals to communicate with Jaber Mohammed, who speaks for him. Ali won the championship with a first-round knockout of Sonny Liston on May 25, 1965. Ali then defended the crown eight times until he was stripped of the title in 1967 after being convicted of draft evasion for refusing induction into the Army. The New York State Athletic Commission returned his license on Sept. 28, 1970. He defended the title 10 times before retiring in 1981 with a 56-5 record.\r\n'),(786,2,'American soldiers in Saudi Arabia are suffering normal morale problems, but their spirits will rise when the Pentagon announces plans in November for replacing them with fresh units, a senior Army official said Tuesday. Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, the Army\'s vice chief of staff, said the service is taking numerous steps to improve morale, including the possibility of leasing large cruise liners in the Persian Gulf to give soldiers a break from desert training. ``It\'s tough. It\'s not an easy mission\'\' for the more than 100,000 soldiers in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield to defend the desert kingdom against a possible Iraqi attack, Sullivan said in an interview in his Pentagon office. The four-star general said the Bush administration will announce within a couple of weeks its decision on when replacement forces would be sent to begin the rotation process. He said the Army had not been instructed to increase its total force in Saudi Arabia, but that extra troops, if needed, likely would come from combat units at U.S. bases in Germany that are scheduled to be closed next year. The Army also could tap the remaining three armored divisions based in the United States. On Monday, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said that as many as 100,000 more forces - beyond the roughly 240,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines already there - might be sent to the gulf area. He did not say when more forces would go. Sullivan said the full contingent of soldiers assigned to Desert Shield would be in place within a few days, and a shipment of several hundred top-of-the-line M1A1 main battle tanks also is en route to Saudi Arabia from Germany to replace older M1 tanks that are less capable of handling a chemical attack. The biggest psychological lift for the troops, some of whom have been in the Saudi desert for two months, will come when the Bush administration announces a timetable for a rotation of fresh forces, Sullivan said. The four-star general said the Army already has set in motion the arrangements for mobilizing the first fresh units from the United States and Europe, although no individual units have been alerted to begin moving to the gulf. Sullivan acknowledged that some soldiers are grousing about not knowing how long they\'ll be on duty in Saudi Arabia, where living conditions on the front lines are harsh, but he said he was satisfied that morale is not suffering unduly. ``The troops are in pretty good shape and they are not experiencing what I consider to be inordinate morale problems,\'\' he said. ``I don\'t see it.\'\' Recent news reports based on interviews with soldiers and other servicemen in the gulf area have portrayed the troops as losing patience with the nagging uncertainty of when they might go home and whether they\'ll be required to fight. Earlier this month, after complaining members of the Army\'s 24th Mechanized Infantry Division were quoted in the New York Times, the commanding general restricted access to reporters. Some private analysts say the tough conditions in the Saudi desert should not be a reason for poor morale. ``Morale is a leadership problem,\'\' said James A. Blackwell Jr., a former Army commander of combat units and now a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ``Good leaders will have good morale under the most distasteful and challenging circumstances.\'\' Sullivan said that rotating troops in Saudi Arabia is complicated by the fact that the Army intends to replace whole units at a time, not make piecemeal substitutions of individual soldiers. He said this would be the first time in history the Army has rotated whole units, a strategy designed to avoid the loss of unit cohesion that Army leaders saw during the Vietnam War.\r\n'),(787,2,'The House Judiciary Committee today approved 17 articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge Alcee L. Hastings of Miami, and sent the historic bribery case to the full House. Hastings, 51, is the first federal judge to face impeachment after his acquittal in a criminal trial on the same charges, and the first black to face removal from federal office under the impeachment procedure. In Miami, Hastings said that those who voted against him ``acted in blind ignorance. They could not have read the material.\'\' The committee voted 32-1 to approve all the 17 impeachment articles. A number of committee members said they had done considerable soul searching because they feared Hastings may have been correct in his assertion that he was the victim of racism. But those expressing such reservations said that factual circumstances of the case showed impeachment was warranted. Hastings would be removed from his lifetime office if the full House votes for impeachment and he is convicted in a Senate trial. Hastings is accused of conspiring to solicit a bribe from two defendants who appeared before him and of lying about the scheme to a federal jury. He also is accused of leaking information about a wiretap. William Borders, a Washington attorney accused of participating with Hastings in the bribery scheme, has been convicted of the charges. Hastings, in a separate 1983 trial, was acquitted. The first of the articles of impeachment, which are similar to an indictment, accused Hastings of engaging in a corrupt conspiracy to obtain a $150,000 bribe from two brothers. Other articles accused him of lying about the scheme at his trial by denying specific parts of the conspiracy; of leaking wiretap information; and of undermining the confidence of the federal judiciary. Eleven impeachment cases have come to trial before the Senate, and five defendants, all judges, have been removed from office.\r\n'),(788,2,'Wages, salaries and other benefits paid to American workers rose 5.2 percent in the 12 months ending in September, the government reported today. The Labor Department said its Employment Cost Index, considered one of the best gauges of inflationary wage pressures, was pushed ahead to a large degree by a sharp 6.8 percent rise in benefit costs for private industry workers. The government blamed much of the past year\'s steep increase on the rising cost of health insurance. Non-production bonuses, workers\' compensation insurance and a rise this year in the Social Security tax rate also contributed to the rapid spurt in benefit costs, the Labor Department said. A year ago, benefit costs had jumped 6.0 percent for the 12-month period ending in September 1989. Wages and salaries for private industry workers climbed 4.2 percent, the report said, just under the 4.3 percent increase recorded a year ago. The 5.2 percent increase in all compensation costs for both private sector and government workers was just above the 5.1 percent gain of a year ago, the government said. Today\'s report was sure to add to analysts concerns over the inflation threat facing the nation and its impact on America\'s already struggling economy. Last week, the government reported that consumer prices surged 0.8 percent in September, the second steep inflation rise brought on by soaring energy prices that followed Iraq\'s invasion of Kuwait. That inflation report showed that for the first nine months of the year, consumer prices have advanced at an annual rate of 6.6 percent, well above the increase for all of 1989 of 4.6 percent. Eventually, analysts expect the inflation brought on by higher oil prices to start showing up in wages and salaries as well, because workers will start demanding more compensation to make up for the drain on their wallets. Today\'s report showed that over-the-year pay gains were about the same in the service-producing industries, where wages rose 4.2 percent, as in the goods-producing industries, where wages rose 4.1 percent. Within the service-producing industries, wage and salary increases ranged from 2.6 percent in wholesale trade to 6.2 percent in hospitals and the insurance industry. Pay gains among the goods-producing industries ranged from 2.4 percent in construction to 4.6 percent in durable-goods manufacturing. Non-union workers received better wage gains than their union counterparts, continuing a trend that\'s been ongoing since 1983-84, the government said. Non-union workers\' pay rose 4.4 percent while union workers saw gains of 3.6 percent. For state and local government workers, the 5.3 percent pay gains for the year ending in September 1990 were lower than the 5.5 percent increases of a year ago. This pattern of lower rates of pay increases compared to last year also was found in hospitals and schools, today\'s report said. The 5.2 percent increase in the employment cost index for all workers, including those in the government, over the 12 months ending in September was under the 5.4 percent rise in the 12 months ending in June.\r\n'),(789,2,'PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ Activist priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Wednesday accused the Roman Catholic Church of plotting his ouster and also warned of popular unrest unless the Haitian government made democratic reforms. In a message transmitted over private radio and television stations, Aristide attacked the hierarchy of Haiti\'s Roman Catholic Church for not speaking up against an order to transfer him to Canada. Thugs attacked Aristide\'s St. Jean Bosco Roman Catholic Church on Sept. 11, killing 13 worshipers and wounding many more. It is believed the church attack was responsible for Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy\'s overthrow as Haiti\'s leader shortly after. Rank-and-file soldiers said they were tired of state-sponsored violence. Wednesday was the first time Aristide spoke out publicly since his Salesian Order superiors in Rome ordered him to leave Haiti on Oct. 17. The order prompted demonstrations by his followers and Aristide remains in Haiti. The Salesians have not acted since giving Aristide the October deadline. ``You are plotting against me, give me a chance to look at you straight in the eyes,\'\' Aristide said in his eight-minute message to Haitian bishops. The speech was transmitted by most radio stations except church-operated Radio Soleil. Aristide also lashed at the bishops for ``never commenting on the order to transfer me.\'\' He also warned Lt. Gen Prosper Avril, the Haitian president, to ``make a purge in the country and stop the uncertainty\'\' by Nov. 29 because ``the people are watching over you.\'\' Avril came to power in a Sept. 17 coup staged by non-commissioned officers who overthrew Namphy. Avril promised democratic reforms, including municipal and legislative elections. On Tuesday, Avril declared Nov. 29 a national day of mourning for dozens of voters massacred at polling stations nearly a year ago by armed thugs. Aristide accused Avril of ``playing like Francois Duvalier,\'\' the late dictator, by calling for elections before bringing to trial those known to have carried out atrocities such as the Election Day massacre. Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude ruled Haiti for 29 years. Aristide charged Avril\'s government had not cracked down on the remaining Tonton Macoutes, the feared secret police of the Duvalier regime, and brought them to trial.\r\n'),(790,2,'Rebels said Friday they had overrun three more government garrisons in southern Sudan and beaten back a military convoy trying to stage a rescue mission. In a clandestine radio broadcast, the Sudan People\'s Liberation Army said it captured Kologi in southern Kordofan province on Wednesday ``after seven days of heavy fighting preceded by a one-month siege.\'\' The broadcast said rebel forces also ambushed a 33-vehicle convoy, including four tanks, that was trying to reach Kologi and ``forced it to retreat with heavy losses.\'\' The rebels also claimed the capture of two smaller garrison towns, Bazia on Jan. 24 and Amati on Wednesday. The report could not be independently confirmed, but if true would bring to more than 15 the number of garrisons captured by the rebels the past three months.\r\n'),(791,2,'Two monasteries have been returned to Armenian church officials by the government, the Tass news agency said. The official news agency said on Wednesday that Armenian authorities returned to the church the Tateva monastery, built in the 9th century, and the Makaravank monastery, built between the 11th and 13th centuries. The government in Armenia, a southern Soviet republic that borders Turkey, also returned three mosques to religious officials, Tass said. It quoted Patriarch-Catholicos Vazgen of the Armenian church as saying the return of the facilities was an example of improved church-state relations. Tass said the monasteries had been under state protection for many years, but provided no other details about them.\r\n'),(792,2,'Poles lined up at banks Friday to buy shares in the first five state-run companies to be privatized under the country\'s post-Communist economic reforms. A Western-style advertising campaign with sophisticated graphics tried to educate potential buyers on how the investments work, where to purchase shares and what risks to consider. ``Learn the power of your money,\'\' the advertisements say. Five companies, considered to be the better run and more efficient from the beleaguered socialized economy, are being privatized in the first round of economic reforms. They are the Krosno glass works, the Kielce construction company Exbud, the Lodz textile company Prochnik, a Silesian cable factory and Tonsil, an audio equipment company. Share prices ranged from 50,000 zlotys, about $5, to 112,000 zlotys, or $12. The minimum purchase was five shares. Ultimately, some 7,000 companies, accounting for more than 80 percent of the Polish economy, are to be transferred from state to private ownership or otherwise liquidated in the drive to create a capitalist economy and an investment market. Government economists devised complex systems for selling off the companies, reserving up to 20 percent of shares for workers at lower prices, retaining some for the state treasury and limiting the portion that can be purchased by foreigners. By late January, the shares will be allocated to buyers, although the shares will be held by the national banks until a stock market is created. At two Warsaw banks, 1,500 applications for the first offring were received by 3 p.m., with the average purchase put at 10 million zlotys, or about $1,050, state television reported. Oversubscription was expected for most of the companies, although uncertainty caused by the presidential campaign now under way and the financial pressure of the holiday season might limit sales, said Grzegorz Meza, an economist in the privatization ministry. ``This is the worst possible time,\'\' he said. ``But even if people are not experienced in investment, we think Poles will think this is going to be good business.\'\'\r\n'),(793,2,'Lloyd Bentsen pushed hard Tuesday to sell Michael Dukakis as someone who\'ll support a strong defense, and he worked to deflect any harm to the ticket from Dukakis\' acknowledgment that he was a liberal. The Texas senator hopped into the cockpit of an F-16C jet fighter at the General Dynamics plant in Fort Worth, and told workers there the Dukakis-Bentsen team opposed the Reagan administration plan to reduce purchases of those planes next year from 180 to 100. ``Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen support a strong national defense,\'\' he said. ``The F-16 is an integral part of that,\'\' he said, pointing to the Democratic proposal for more conventional weapons instead of more spending on Star Wars and nuclear weaopons. Bentsen continued emphasizing defense at a rally outside the courthouse in Sherman, where he told several hundred spectators that Republican commercials in Texas claiming that the Democrats were going to shut down defense plants were ``absolutely untrue.\'\' The Democratic candidate stressed the same theme in Owensboro, Ky., telling a crowd of more than 2,500 in a tobacco warehouse that the Democrats support the creation of the best military in the world. ``I\'ll tell you what a second-best defense system is,\'\' Bentsen said. ``It has all the value of a second-best poker hand. All it does is cost you money.\'\' Joining Bentsen at the podium were Kentucky Gov. Wallace Wilkinson, Sen. Wendell Ford, D-Ky., and Rep. William Natcher, D-Ky. The rally ended with the singing of ``My Old Kentucky Home,\'\' and a balloon drop that didn\'t work. The rope to release the balloons broke and they stayed netted to the ceiling. Bentsen, questioned by reporters, brushed aside suggestions by reporters that Dukakis hurt himself in Texas by calling himself a liberal. Most Texans, according to polls, consider themselves conservative. ``He said (he was a liberal) ... in the terms of Jack Kennedy and a Harry Truman and I don\'t think anyone ever questioned their being for a strong national defense,\'\' Bentsen said. ``You know, what you have to look at and read is how he stated it,\'\' he said. ``He talked about it in the terms of Harry Truman, in the terms of Jack Kennedy, in the terms of balanced budgets, in the terms of paying your own way.\'\' The Republican administration ``talks about fiscal responsiblity and hasn\'t given us a balanced budget yet,\'\' he said. Bob Slagle, the state Democratic chairman who helped introduce Bentsen in Sherman, said he didn\'t think Dukakis did much harm. ``I don\'t think it\'s really hurting him,\'\' he said. ``They don\'t really attach that much to a label,\'\' he said, especially since Dukakis identified himself with Franklin Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy. But Reggie Bashur, the spokesman for the Bush-Quayle campaign in Texas, said ``calling himself a liberal, he\'s really hurt himself in Texas.\'\' Evidence of that damage was already showing up in tracking polls, he said. In Texas, he said, the term liberal stands for the George McGovern, Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale school of Democrats. ``I don\'t know what his handlers were thinking\'\' when they let Dukakis say that, he said. After Owensboro, Bentsen flew to St. Louis, where he spoke to a charged-up crowd of about 2,000 students jammed into a quadrangle at Washington University. He came to the stage with the speakers blaring Aretha Franklin\'s version of the Rolling Stones\' ``Jumpin Jack Flash\'\' and he urged the students to get out and vote. The Republicans, he said, were ``poppin those champagne corks but I\'ll tell you on November 9 they\'re going to have the worst hangover they\'ve ever had,\'\' he said. Bentsen, a bomber pilot in World War II, clearly enjoyed the stop at the General Dynamics plant. Workers chanted ``Bentsen, Bentsen, and several employees yelled out in objection to George Bush\'s running mate, Dan Quayle, calling him a draft dodger. There were also Bush supporters in evidence, but they did not heckle or disturb the tour of the mile-long plant, which manufactures about 300 jets a year. Bentsen squeezed into the single-seat cockpit of a new F-16C for the cameras and afterward declared it ``fits like a wetsuit.\'\' He joked to reporters that he\'d fly it to the next campaign stop and meet his entourage there.\r\n'),(794,2,'In this city of bureaucrats, lawyers and computer nerds, how many good, old-fashioned macho men are left? You guessed it, folks. When the Kennedy Center announced auditions for ``macho he-men\'\' to perform as extras in the Australian Ballet\'s production of ``Spartacus\'\' this week, only 36 showed up. Worse, nearly half of them were politely ushered to the door as impostors. The audition fliers posted on bulletin boards at congressional offices, gyms and dance studios around town included a photograph of exactly the kind of guy the Kennedy Center was looking for _ a lean and mean Roman gladiator clad in a flimsy loin cloth, his rippling muscles straining to burst his leather chest straps. What shuffled into the rehearsal hall of the Kennedy Center Opera House on Monday evening fell roughly into two categories: health spa muscleman and your standard couch potato. They were short and tall, potbellied and trim, balding and longhaired, dressed in jeans, T-shirts and shorts. One wore a striped shirt and tie. Few seemed likely candidates for Hungarian choreographer Laszlo Seregi\'s balletic tale of a slave revolt in ancient Rome. One who didn\'t make the cut was Eugene Woodruff, 57, of suburban Annandale, Va., a supervisor at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office who took his disappointment good-naturedly. Woodruff has been a supernumerary, or extra, with the Washington Opera a few times, mostly just standing around on stage, but never in a ballet. ``I\'m not a dancer at all,\'\' he said with a smile. ``I don\'t take part in any strenuous athletics. For exercise, the only thing I do is rifle shooting. I also mow the lawn and saw some firewood.\'\' The lure for Woodruff couldn\'t be the money. The 19 extras selected to play Roman soldiers and slaves in ``Spartacus\'\' will receive $28 for four rehearsals and $40 for four performances starting Friday. The extras in opera productions are paid considerably less, but the pay for ``Spartacus\'\' is higher because there is ``lots of marching and escaping and running around on stage,\'\' said Steve Quinn, the Kennedy Center\'s liaison with the Australian Ballet. Colin Peasley, the touring ballet company\'s ballet master, chose 19 of the more athletic-looking candidates and began an intensive drill to whip them into shape as Roman soldiers and slaves. ``Left, right, left, right,\'\' he barked as the extras marched across the floor to piano music from Aram Khachaturian\'s score. Grabbing a wooden spear, Peasley said, ``These are held like you hold a thermometer, under your arm like this.\'\' He taught the neophyte guards how to sway without getting dizzy, and how to crouch without ``looking like you\'re sitting on the toilet.\'\' He held a Roman warrior\'s shield to his chest. ``You must be careful how you hold a shield or they begin to look like a handbag,\'\' he said. Woodruff enjoyed his past moments of glory in the operatic limelight, no matter how obscure, but he had no pretensions. ``I have no illusions about being a great actor,\'\' he said. ``I do it for the fun of it. It\'s a chance to do theater that\'s big-time, without having any real professional skills.\'\'\r\n'),(795,2,'President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Sunday named former KGB general Boris Pugo as Interior Minister after relieving Vadim Bakatin of the job in a possible shakeup of the country\'s law and order ministry. Gorbachev ``released Vadim Bakatin from the duties of the Soviet interior minister in connection with his transition to another job,\'\' the state news agency Tass reported. Bakatin\'s replacement must be approved by the Supreme Soviet legislature, the report said. The report did not say whether the 53-year-old Bakatin was being promoted or punished. Officials have said there has been a sharp rise in economic and violent crime stemming from the nation\'s political crisis. Gorbachev has been threatening a crackdown for more than a month. He has also said that he planned drastic changes in the government structure, especially the Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov. The prime minister is widely blamed for the failure of the government\'s economic reforms. Pugo, 53, was first secretary of the Communist Party in the Baltic republic of Latvia in 1984-88, but was forced out due to the growing independence movement there. Pugo becomes the most prominent Baltic native in a Communist Party and government leadership that is dominated by Russians. He is not considered popular in Latvia, however, because he was deputy chief and chief of the KGB in Latvia from 1977-84, and has resisted the Baltic drive for independence. The three Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have declared independence this year, but Gorbachev has refused to allow them to leave. Pugo, chairman of the Communist Party\'s Control Committee since 1988 and strong Gorbachev supporter, was appointed to take Bakatin\'s place by presidential decree, Tass reported. He was named a non-voting member of the Communist Party Politburo in September 1989, but was dropped last July during reforms that drastically reduced the power of the party.\r\n'),(796,2,'Skull and Bones, the oldest and most secret senior society at Yale University, boasts many distinguished alumni but none more prominent today than a ``spook\'\' from the class of 1948 _ George Herbert Walker Bush. Little is known about the strange rituals and practices of the 156-year-old society, and that\'s the way its members want it. The rites are rumored to include placing initiates in a coffin and requiring them to plunge naked into a pile of mud. Some of the rumors come from rival societies, and may be suspect. No one but members really know what goes on inside the windowless, mausoleum-style structure of brown sandstone to which Bonesmen retreat. But as the Republican presidential nominee\'s own experience has shown, membership in the society forms powerful bonds of friendship that endure long after graduation. The vice president was one of 15 Yale juniors tapped for Skull and Bones in 1947. To this day, the Bonesmen who once heard him recount some of the innermost secrets of his life remain his good friends. Perhaps because of the pledge of secrecy that Bonesmen take, Bush did not mention his Skull and Bones membership in his autobiography, ``Looking Forward.\'\' The society has long been suspected of ritualistic thefts. A group of history buffs in El Paso, Texas, claimed that the skull referred to in the society\'s name belongs to Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, whose grave was robbed in 1926. Endicott Davison, a lawyer who says he speaks for Skull and Bones, said the society does not have the skull. The former chairman of the San Carlos Apache tribe in Arizona charged recently that Bush\'s father, Prescott Bush, stole the skull of Apache chief Geronimo years ago, and that it is still on display at Skull and Bones\' inner sanctum. That claim was denied by the vice president\'s brother, Jonathan Bush. One thing is not disputed: Bush the Bonesman is in powerful company. Brothers of the order have included Henry Stimson, Averell Harriman, Henry Luce, Potter Stewart, McGeorge Bundy, Archibald MacLeish, William F. Buckley Jr. and William Sloan Coffin Jr. Prescott Bush, a Republican senator from Connecticut, was a member. So was Bush\'s oldest son, George W. Bush, and about a half-dozen other family members. Skull and Bones is arguably the most famous and influential secret society in the United States, having served as a model for others that followed at Yale and other institutions. It was founded by William Russell, a member of the Yale Class of 1833, apparently in reaction to the stripping of secrecy from Phi Beta Kappa, the honorary scholastic society, during the rise of a national anti-secrecy movement. Skull and Bones is a private organization incorporated as the Russell Trust Association. It pays taxes to the city of New Haven and owns Deer Island, a resort on the St. Lawrence River. Giving Skull and Bones the benefit of the doubt, Brooks Mather Kelly, in a 1974 history of Yale, wrote of the society: ``Its purpose and programs were not revealed when it was founded and have never since been known. But that like most Yale societies it pretends to some intellectual and educational purpose can probably be assumed.\'\' The society ``comes from a tradition of elitism of which Yale was at the center,\'\' said Dan A. Oren, author of ``Joining The Club,\'\' a book published in 1985 about the relationship between the university and Jews. Skull and Bones became the first of the secret societies to admit a Jew in 1937. During the 1960s, the society tapped a number of outspoken radicals. Even today, however, it remains steadfastly all-male. Of Yale\'s seven secret undergraduate societies, only one other _ Wolf\'s Head _ refuses to admit women. Having women as members would interfere with one of the ways Bonesmen become true brothers. By all accounts, Skull and Bones initiates must lay bare their souls, telling their sexual histories and life stories in graphic detail. ``The danger of secret societies and entering into the club world is it allows members to lose sight of the common folk who aren\'t part of the elite,\'\' Oren said. But he said that Bush\'s experiences in World War II combat worked the other way. ``For so many veterans, their fight was against the racists and the bigoted values of Nazi Germany, so when they came back, they were embued with a strong sense of egalitarianism,\'\' Oren said. Bush, 21 and already married, entered Yale in 1945 after his discharge from the Navy, which awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals for his wartime exploits. While on one combat mission, Bush\'s plane was shot down and he was rescued by a submarine. Two fellow crewmen perished. Bush recounted his brush with death for Bonesmen in 1947 with great emotion, says former Rep. Thomas W.L. Ashley, D-Ohio, another member of the Bones class of 1948. ``What comes to mind was, he was an awful young guy who had had an idyllic kind of childhood who suddenly found himself in an airplane that was on fire facing a lot of death around him and almost certain death himself,\'\' Ashley said. Ashley and other Bonesmen in his Yale class are still close friends of Bush. ``Obviously, we became fond of each other,\'\' Ashley said. ``This was something kind of special to us.\'\' He added: ``George Bush is exactly just as loyal to other friends as those who happened to be in the society with him. His friendship across the social range is known to everyone.\'\' Members of the Bones class of 1948 came to Washington in 1981 for a reunion that included dinner at the vice president\'s mansion and a tour of the White House Oval Office. ``His having been a member of Skull and Bones and his continued involvement as an alumnus means he would probably be likely to draw upon past connections for the White House,\'\' Oren said. ``But his choice of people _ James Baker III to be campaign manager, Dan Quayle as vice president _ shows he\'s willing to go beyond Yale,\'\' Oren said. ``He has always maintained close connections to Skull and Bones, but his world certainly goes beyond New Haven.\'\'\r\n'),(797,2,'Equipped with a gun, a nightstick and a regulation-size teddy bear, police officers in this town boast they\'re ready for any emergency. The idea of driving around with stuffed animals may not inspire a new television series _ ``T.J. Teddy\'\'? _ but Tewksbury police officers are receptive to the the idea if it means helping children deal with traumatic events. ``When you\'ve got a little kid who has been in an accident and who is hysterical, it\'s a good idea,\'\' said Officer Donald Ryan. However, he added, the bears ``will stay in the trunk.\'\' The town\'s 13 police cars are equipped with two regulation, 7-inch teddy bears apiece. Police say the bears\' first week on duty already has produced positive results. ``It calms the kids down a lot and creates a good feeling towards the police, too,\'\' said Deputy Police Chief Denise Rosen. ``A lieutenant gave one to a child of a mother being interviewed concerning some domestic problems at her house.\'\' The bears were donated to the force by the New England Telephone Pioneers, a charitable group whose members are current and retired phone company employees. The police department calls the group when a bear is given to a child so it can be replaced.\r\n'),(798,2,'Initial tests by a Washington apple grower have identified an organic chemical that may serve as a substitute for Alar, which was banned as a probable carcinogen last year after a national scare. But a scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday it was too early to tell if the grower\'s initial results will hold up, and that the chemical would require at least two more years of study. Eric Curry of the USDA in Wenatchee said such testing generally requires three orchards in three locations around the state for three years. Spray-N-Grow, a Houston-based company, said initial results on an orchard owned by a Yakima-area grower found trees treated with the chemical produced apples with a significant increase in uniformity of color, sweetness, firmness and harvest time over untreated apples. Bill Muskopf, president of Spray-N-Grow, said the chemical ``provides the same benefits (as Alar) while remaining completely organic and totally non-toxic.\'\' Alar was a synthetic chemical growers used for two decades before a private consumer group issued a report last year saying consumption of apples treated with the chemical increased cancer risk in children. The Environmental Protection Agency banned the chemical later in the year. Unlike Alar, Spray-N-Grow is an organic chemical, a micronutrient that has been proven non-toxic in private tests, company officials said. It has been used by commercial vegetable growers and home gardeners for several years, the company said. The Alar scare pushed prices for organic apples far above those for chemically treated apples. Organically grown red apples were selling for $1.29 at a Seattle market Thursday, compared to 39 cents per pound for other red apples. Alar\'s most significant benefit was retaining the internal firmness of apples during months of cold storage. That will be tested with the new chemical this year, Spray-N-Grow said.\r\n'),(799,2,'A Massachusetts company is making money out of garbage through new recycling methods for cities swimming in the refuse of a throwaway society. Public landfills are clogged with paper, glass, aluminum and plastic, and less than 10 percent of 160 million tons of garbage produced yearly in the United States is recycled, according to David Spencer, president and founder of wTe Corp. in Bedford. His company develops methods for processing waste to recover ferrous metal and other substances. The company also runs trash-to-energy plants under contract with cities, and joined with such companies as Dow Chemical Co. to develop plastics recycling technology. At a research station at the University of California at Berkeley, wTe hauls in barrels of trash to experiment with ways to separate components for recycling and energy conversion. Spencer, 44, believes recycling and recovery, which is the process of extracting certain components of trash, will become increasingly important as cities run out of land to bury refuse, long the cheapest and easiest disposal method. ``Everything we manufacture in this country finds its way into the waste stream. ... It all winds up on a trash truck,\'\' Spencer said in a recent interview. ``To look at the increase in garbage, just look at the GNP.\'\' Spencer acknowledged that recovery and recycling operations are costly for cash-strapped municipalities, which must weigh such expenses as housing for the elderly against recycling programs. It often may be less expensive in the short run to bury garbage in a landfill, but in the long run ``yesterday\'s landfill is today\'s superfund site,\'\' he said. Spencer, who has degrees in metallurgy and materials science, is a Philadelphia native who, after attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, founded Waste Energy Technology Corp. in 1981. The name was changed to wTe in 1987. Now a $20 million, privately held company with 220 employees, wTe\'s operations include a waste-to-energy plant and recycling facility in Akron, Ohio, waste-recovery projects in Dade County, Fla., and Columbus, Ohio, and, through a subsidiary, a polystyrene recycling project in Brooklyn, N.Y. In Bedford, the company runs the city\'s curbside recycling program. Columbus has wTe under contract to use a magnetic process to extract ferrous metal from the city\'s waste stream before waste is burned in the city\'s incinerator. That makes the burning process less abrasive and wearing on city equipment. It also reduces the toxic level in and the amount of ash left over, said Tim Barr, deputy director of Columbus public utilities. Ray Kapper, Akron director of public services, said wTe was brought in to run the city\'s waste-to-energy plant after problems with hazardous waste and an explosion in which three people died. Such plants burn waste to produce steam and other forms of energy. Under contract with Amoco Corp., wTe developed a process for the McDonald\'s Corp. chain to recycle polystyrene containers tossed away with half-eaten hamburgers and paper. The extracted material is turned into trays and other products for Rubbermaid Inc. Recycling methods can be environmentally benign. For example, discarded tires, long an urban eyesore, can be burned safely to create energy, Spencer says. The 300,000 to 500,000 tires discarded in Akron annually are shredded and fed into the waste-to-energy plant during winter, when people traditionally throw out less trash but energy needs are greater, he said. Spencer said his interest in recycling comes from a lifelong hatred of seeing anything go to waste. ``My mother used to get the squeak out of the pig, as they say,\'\' he said.\r\n'),(800,2,'Energy futures ended higher Friday led by strength in gasoline, after a choppy week of trading sparked by concern about seasonal demand weakness. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the May contract for West Texas Intermediate, the key grade of U.S. crude oil, rose 39 cents to finish at $20.39 a 42-gallon barrel after a 4-cent rise on Thursday. Contracts for later delivery also advanced. Among refined products traded on the exchange, wholesale unleaded gasoline for delivery next month, which fell 0.56 cent in the previous session, advanced 0.28 cent to 57.66 cents a gallon. May unleaded gasoline jumped 1.56 cents to 63.54 cents and June gained 0.98 cent to 62.77 cents. No. 2 heating oil for April delivery ended at 55.46 cents a gallon, up 0.45 cent, while May gained 0.70 cent to 53.67 cents and June rose 0.89 cent to 52.98 cents. Analysts said two consecutive weeks of lower gasoline inventories was bullish for the gasoline market and helped buoy the crude and heating oil markets. Tighter gasoline supplies around the Gulf of Mexico became more noticeable late Thursday, they said. ``Demand for gasoline is picking up in the Gulf. Apparently there\'s not as much available as people thought so gasoline led the market up,\'\' said Tom Bentz, director of futures trades for United Energy Inc. Analysts attributed the lower gasoline supplies partly to seasonal refinery maintenance, when big oil companies close refineries for annual repair. During the maintenance period, refineries use less crude oil and make fewer fuel products, such as gasoline. Oil prices have sagged in recent weeks due mainly to increasing supplies and slowing demand. OPEC is believed to be producing about 1 million barrels a day more of crude oil than the market can absorb.\r\n'),(801,2,'State Rep. Thomas Reed, the head of the state NAACP, pleaded innocent to federal bribery and extortion charges today, denying he accepted cash and restaurant equipment to help a convicted murderer get out of prison. Reed had no comment after his arraignment before U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, but attorney George Beck said Reed is ``going to prove he\'s not guilty.\'\' Thompson set trial for Aug. 8 before U.S. District Judge Joel Dubina. He gave the legislator\'s attorneys 10 days to file papers challenging the government\'s case. Reed is accused of accepting at least $15,000 in cash and restaurant equipment to try to secure the early release of a convicted murderer from the state parole board. He also has been indicted on related state felony charges, with arraignment pending. Reed broke the color barrier in the Alabama Legislature in 1970, later helped win state trooper jobs for blacks and recently made a high-profile bid to remove the Confederate flag from atop the Capitol. One of Reed\'s lawyers is Bill Baxley, a former Alabama attorney general who unsuccessfully prosecuted Reed on bribery charges more than 10 years ago. Baxley said he had no qualms about representing Reed in the pending case. Reed, a Tuskegee businessman who operates two fried chicken restaurants, is one of the first two blacks elected to the Legislature since Reconstruction. ``He\'s a pioneer in that progressive political process made by blacks in the early 1970s,\'\' says Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford. ``He was a role model and a great inspiration to many.\'\' As head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter, Reed has moved to the center of controversy in the Confederate battle-flag dispute. The NAACP says the flag represents racism and oppression. It mounted a campaign last year to remove the banner from state capitols here and in South Carolina and from state flags in Georgia and Mississippi. Reed vowed to try to remove the flag himself from atop the building in which Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederacy in 1861 if Republican Gov. Guy Hunt would not. In February, Reed was among 14 black legislators arrested when they made a symbolic attempt to scale a fence that surrounds the Capitol. The demonstration led many to criticize Reed for his tactics. ``I was out speaking to different groups about the pressing problems of the state and all anybody wanted to talk about was the flag,\'\' said House Speaker Jimmy Clark. ``I\'m not much on issues that attract public attention but are really not that serious.\'\' Attorneys for the 14 legislators maintain that the misdemeanor trespass charges they face should be dropped. Meanwhile, the flag still flies atop the Capitol. A few weeks before the aborted climb, Reed told a rally that God allowed former Gov. George C. Wallace to survive an assassination attempt so Wallace could suffer as ``a message to whites.\'\' The comment prompted some local NAACP leaders to say Reed should be removed as state president. Reed later apologized to Wallace. When Reed was indicted, some blacks suggested the charges were related to the flag dispute. Reed has not alleged a direct link, but said Monday that ``it is difficult for me to believe that there is no connection there.\'\' In 1977, Reed was convicted of offering a bribe to a white lawmaker who opposed Reed\'s efforts to gain approval for a dog track in rural, mostly black Macon County. The misdemeanor conviction was overturned by the state Supreme Court, and Reed was able to maintain his legislative seat. The track later was approved. In 1970, Reed and Fred Gray became the first two blacks elected to the Legislature this century, after a court-ordered reapportionment created two mostly black House districts. Two years later, Reed sued the state because it had never hired a black state trooper. Blacks now make up about a fourth of the trooper ranks. The state and federal charges allege that Reed, a member of the Legislature\'s Joint Prison Committee, accepted at least $10,000 in cash and $5,000 in restaurant equipment from an uncle of convicted murderer Anthony Dennis Chesser. In return, Reed allegedly attempted to use his position to persuade the parole board to give Chesser an earlier date for parole consideration and a work-release assignment. Chesser, serving a 40-year sentence, initially was given an earlier date for parole consideration at Reed\'s request, but the parole board later revoked that change and refused Reed\'s request to give Chesser a work-release assignment. On June 16, a federal grand jury in Montgomery indicted Reed on two counts of violating the Hobbs Act through extortion and three counts of violating the Interstate Travel Act to obtain the $10,000 in cash. Reed faces up to 55 years in prison and up to $1.25 million in fines if convicted. A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Reed on two related felony bribery counts June 20, each carrying a penalty of 1-to-10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine. His arraignment on these charges is pending. Reed has remained free on bond.\r\n'),(802,2,'Rival Shiite Moslem militias armed with artillery and machine guns clashed in south Lebanon today despite the intervention of a Palestinian guerrilla peacekeeping force. Three people were reported killed. In Beirut, Gen. Michel Aoun, the Christian leader, was entangled in a growing financial scandal caused by foreign news reports that he had $15 million stashed away in French banks. The Iranian-backed fundamentalist Hezbollah, of Party of God, and the secular, Syrian-backed Amal militia have been battling for 13 days in the latest campaign of their 2-year-old war for control of Lebanon\'s 1.2 million Shiites, the country\'s largest sect. Including today\'s toll of three killed and 11 wounded, police say 73 people have been killed and 263 wounded since fighting broke out Dec. 23. Police said 300 guerrillas from the Fatah movement headed by Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat deployed Wednesday across the strategic Hamade hill that Hezbollah captured Tuesday after a fierce battle. Hezbollah needs to hold the hill to protect the supply lines to its southern bases from the Bekaa Valley in east Lebanon, a Shiite stronghold where an estimated 2,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards are based. Zeid Wehbi, Fatah\'s political chief in the southern port city of Sidon, said the Palestinian deployment was aimed at ending the fighting. He said the guerrillas also sought to keep the fighting away from the Palestinian refugee camps of Ein el-Hilweh and Mieh Mmieh, a few miles to the north. Palestinian sources said Arafat fears that Hezbollah, which has gained the upper hand and captured five villages, would provide support for dissident PLO factions in the camps. Amal chief Nabih Berri appealed again today to Iran to stop sending military supplies to Hezbollah, saying Syria had discontinued the supply of arms and ammunititons to Amal after fighting erupted in the southern province. In Moslem west Beirut, newspapers gave prominent coverage to reports that Aoun has bank accounts in Paris. On Wednesday, the satirical Paris weekly Le Canard Enchaine published a bank statement showing two accounts in Aoun\'s name at the Banque Nationale de Paris, one with a balance of $500,00, the other with $14.7 million. Moslem-controlled radio stations said the reports have created a corruption scandal that could seriously damage Aoun\'s standing in the Christian community. The reports came amid efforts by the Syrian-backed government to force Aoun to end his defiance of President Elias Hrawi, who dismissed Aoun as army commander and interim prime minister in November. Aoun refuses to stand down, or accept a peace treaty approved by the Lebanese parliament. Aoun acknowledged having millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts. ``It\'s not a secret for anyone. It\'s an open secret,\'\' Aoun said in an interview Wednesady on France\'s state-run radio station France-Inter. He said he had accounts in other French banks, as well as in the United States and Lebanon. The general said the funds in the accounts came from donations and were not for his private use. ``If necessary, I can withdraw the money needed to resolve financial crises,\'\' he said. ``For the last year and three months, I have received no money from the central bank as concerns the army.\'\'\r\n'),(803,2,'Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan remained in critical condition early Sunday after she was found floating unconscious in her swimming pool, authorities said. ``She\'s been awake off and on through the night, but she goes right to sleep,\'\' said Sheryln Gembol, a nursing supervisor at Brackenridge Hospital. ``We\'re trying to let her rest. ``They\'re going to be running some more tests throughout the day today. They know it was not a heart attack or a stroke, but as far as what made her unconscious in the pool, they\'re not sure,\'\' she added. Ms. Jordan, who rose to fame during the Watergate impeachment hearings, was found in the pool about noon Saturday by a woman who lives with her. Ms. Jordan, 52, was taken to the hospital by helicopter. Paramedics ``said she had a pulse, was trying to breathe and they were able to help her breathe en route to hospital,\'\' said hospital spokeswoman Carolyn Boyle. At a briefing late Saturday, a doctor said Ms. Jordan was being treated for fluid in her lungs but showed no signs of heart or brain dysfunction. ``She has full recovery of her intellectual functions. Her vital signs are much better,\'\' Dr. William Deaton said. Though she remained in critical condition, ``the capital `c\' is not so big as when she got here.\'\' ``She has to heal her own lungs, which she will hopefully do,\'\' added Deaton, a lung specialist. He said Ms. Jordan apparently lost consciousness while swimming alone in the pool, for unknown reasons. A lack of oxygen then caused the cardiac arrest, he said. Ms. Jordan has had medical problems for several years and has used a wheelchair to get to her job on the faculty of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. Ms. Jordan has refused to discuss the illness, calling it ``a mobility problem\'\' and denying it was Lou Gehrig\'s disease or bone cancer. Deaton described it as a progressive loss of ``nerve function in her lower extremities\'\' similar to multiple sclerosis. In 1966, Ms. Jordan became the first black state senator in Texas. In 1972, she was the first Southern black elected to Congress since Reconstruction. She gained a national reputation during the House Judiciary Committee\'s 1974 hearings that ended with a vote to press impeachment charges against President Richard Nixon. She stirred television audiences when she declared, ``My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total.\'\'\r\n'),(804,2,'Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. reported a 28 percent drop in second-quarter earnings Thursday, saying high interest rates have hurt its major markets. The supplier of construction and industrial materials said earnings for the quarter ended June 30 totaled $39 million or 92 cents per share, vs. $54 million or $1.28 per share during the year-earlier period. Second-quarter sales totaled $771 million vs. $721 million. The 1990 figures, unlike those of 1989, include results from Fiberglas Canada. ``These results reflect weakness in our major markets, including new housing construction, pleasure boats and automobiles,\'\' said William W. Boeschenstein, chairman and chief executive officer. ``They are all being hurt by continued high interest rates and cautious consumer buying.\'\' Owens-Corning said most areas of its Construction Products business were down during the quarter, thanks to declining new housing and commercial construction. But sales of insulation and roofing products for home improvements and remodeling held steady. Sales for the company\'s Industrial Materials Group were up slightly during the quarter because of the addition of the results from Fiberglas Canada. However, Owens-Corning said demand for industrial materials appeared to be weakening in North America and in Europe. For the first six months, Owens-Corning said earnings totaled $71 million, or $1.68 per share, compared with $89 million, or $2.10 per share, during the first six months of 1989. Sales totaled $1.5 billion vs. $1.4 billion.\r\n'),(805,2,'A federal magistrate has recommended that a contempt citation be brought against Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng for failing to fully obey a court order barring the USDA from calling in crop-storage loans. Magistrate Janice Symchych made the recommendation Tuesday to U.S. District Judge Harry MacLaughlin, who had issued a preliminary injunction July 21 against the Agriculture Department\'s loan-cancellation plan. Lyng has 10 days from Tuesday in which to file objections to the contempt recommendation. According to the Minnesota attorney general\'s office, which is a party to the suit against the USDA, the department did not comply with the injunction until July 29, when it announced that certain loans could be extended until Aug. 31. The announcement came after many farmers already had settled their loans with the USDA, the attorney general\'s office said. Symchych recommended all loans due and payable after July 22 be extended. For loans that matured on July 31 and were settled by farmers before any extensions were available, Symchych recommended that USDA restore those farmers to the position they would have been in had the federal agency obeyed the injunction. ``The court cannot allow defendants (USDA) to circumvent the purpose of the injunction by simply employing new tactics or strategies which achieve the same unlawful result,\'\' Symchych said in a report. The federal reserve program allows farmers to hold surplus grains off the market while receiving government price supports and storage fees. In effect, the grain is collateral for the loans. Because the drought has tightened grain supplies, the Agriculture Department is calling the loans in order to force the farmers to sell the grain. In addition to the contempt citation, Symchych recommended the USDA be fined $1,000 for each loan it canceled after MacLaughlin\'s injunction went into effect. Symchych also recommended the USDA be given until Sept. 30 to comply with the order. Lyng was on vacation and unavailable for comment, USDA spokesman Dave Lane said Wednesday. Richard W. Goldberg, acting undersecretary for international affairs and commodity programs for the USDA, said he would not comment on the matter because it is under litigation. Attorney General Hubert H. Humphrey III brought the suit against the department on behalf of Agriculture Commissioner Jim Nichols and seven Minnesota farmers. He contended that the Agriculture Department failed to go through the formal government rule-making procedures before it decided to stop extending the loans. The USDA, meanwhile, announced Tuesday that it would stop extending crop loans as of Wednesday, irrespective of MacLaughlin\'s injunction. The announcement came before Symchych\'s recommendation was issued. Humphrey and Nichols were expected to seek a court hearing this week to halt implementation of the USDA\'s new plan.\r\n'),(806,2,'The police chief arrested his brother on Christmas Day after he pulled the plug on the community\'s Christmas tree following a night of drinking. Chief Ralph August jailed his brother, Stephen, on public drunkenness and disorderly conduct charges after he disconnected the tree\'s lights, refused to go home, followed the chief to a convenience store and shouted obscenities. He later set fire to a jail mattress, the chief said. ``He wanted to take me outside and beat my head,\'\' the chief said. ``This is normal.\'\' The 41-year-old chief said it was the fourth time he has arrested his brother. ``My brother has a habit of not liking the law to tell him what to do,\'\' he said Monday. August, 37, a construction worker, spent the holiday in jail and was released Monday after pleading guilty to the charges, agreeing to pay court costs and a $300 fine and promising to paint the fire-damaged cell.\r\n'),(807,2,'A late rally pushed prices into positive territory Thursday on the London Stock Exchange. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index rose 0.5 point, or 0.03 percent, to close at 1,841.3. Volume rose to 494.3 million shares from 363.9 million shares traded Wednesday. The market\'s attention was focused on speculative situations, giving selected stocks a sharp boost, analysts said. The lack of strong interest on the part of fund managers to enter the market, except in these special situations, also gave no incentive for players to pile into new equity positions, they said. The Financial Times 30-share index was up 1.9 points at 1,480.7 at the close. The Financial Times 500-share index rose 2.15 points to close at 1,050.63.\r\n'),(808,2,'Tens of thousands of striking school teachers converged on the capital to press demands for higher wages. The 40,000 teachers marched on the capital Monday, five days after beginning a nationwide walkout to demand a minimum wage of 640 australs ($90) a month for the country\'s 500,000 primary and secondary school teachers. An earlier strike that began March 14 at the opening of the Argentine public school year lasted six weeks until the government ordered teachers to begin work while negotiations continued. Negotiations later broke off. Union leader Marcos Garcetti and Labor Minister Ideler Tonelli negotiated for an hour on Monday without reaching an agreement, union sources said. About 7.2 million schoolchildren aged three to 18 have been affected by the walkout, which has generally not affected private schools.\r\n'),(809,2,'Iraq said today it will put President Bush on trial Oct. 15 for ``crimes against the peoples of the world.\'\' Iraq first announced its plan to put Bush on trial on Sept. 12, shortly after Western officials suggested Iraqi President Saddam Hussein be tried for crimes against humanity for the use of chemical weapons in 1988 against Iraq\'s minority Kurdish population. Baghdad accuses Bush of planning a war against Iraq, attempting genocide by sponsoring U.N. sanctions on Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait, and committing aggression against Panama and Grenada, according to Hamid Al-Rawi, chairman of Iraq\'s bar association and head of a panel preparing for the trial. ``Bush has committed many crimes since he took office as president of the United States and also before that when he was vice president,\'\' the English language Baghdad Observer quoted Al-Rawi as saying in today\'s editions. He was quoted as saying the United States, which has sent more than 150,000 troops to the Persian Gulf to counter Iraq, had committed ``a crime against peace, punishable by international law.\'\' Al-Rawi said the trial would be an ``international process\'\' with witnesses from other countries and Arab and non-Arab jurists. It would be conducted on the same basis as the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals following World War II, he said. Other accusations against Bush include the enforcement by the United States ``of an economic blockade against the people of Iraq with the aim of starving children, women and elderly to death, and also preventing food, medicine and baby milk from reaching the country in violation of the the U.N. charter.\'\' ``This is a crime punishable by international conventions which consider this an act of genocide,\'\' Al-Rawi was quoted as saying. AlRawi did not say what the punishment might be if Bush is convicted during the three-day trial.\r\n'),(810,2,'Futures prices for grains and soybeans were mostly higher at the close Monday on the Chicago Board of Trade. ``There was a pretty good rally in soy oil that gave soybeans a good boost,\'\' said Joel Karlin, analyst with Research Department Inc. ``India bought into the palm oil market. African countries have shown some interest in vegetable oils, too.\'\' Corn was supported by a rumor that the Soviet Union might be interested in as much as 1 million tons, he said. Export news sent wheat prices higher, said Susan Leighty, grains analyst with Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. The U.S. Agriculture Department confirmed rumors that China had bid for 300,000 tons of the U.S. commodity, and rumors persisted that the Chinese would bid for 300,000 tons more. The Soviet Union was also said to be in the market for 500,000 tons of export bonus wheat, she said. Also firming wheat prices were weather reports calling for mild conditions in the next few days that might make the winter crop more vulnerable to a cold snap later, Mrs. Leighty said. At the close, wheat was 1 cent to 1{ cents higher, with the contract for March at $4.10} a bushel; corn was \\ cent lower to { cent higher, with March at $2.37} a bushel; oats were { cent to 2{ cent lower, with March at $1.50}, and soybeans were 2 cents to 6{ cents higher, with January at $5.67 a bushel.\r\n'),(811,2,'The stock market staged a broad advance today, showing signs of life after the stalemate of the past several weeks. Analysts said there was no single development in the news to ``explain\'\' the rally. However, they said, it appeared some traders were bidding for stocks simply because the market hasn\'t sold off lately despite a long list of worries and uncertainties. Among those problems are the approaching first anniversary of Black Monday on Oct. 19, which is presumed to be casting a pall over the market. In addition, investors are said to be reluctant to commit themselves before they can get a clearer idea of where government economic policy is headed after the election of a new president. Nevertheless, brokers said money managers at some investing institutions seemed interested in adding stocks to their portfolios before they make reports to their clients for the third quarter, which ends with Friday\'s session. ``The market has been lifeless for so long. It started to move up, and gave traders a sense of direction,\'\' said Hugh Johnson at First Albany Corp. in Albany, N.Y. ``After that they jumped on board, with a little encouragement from the bond market.\'\'\r\n'),(812,2,'Canale added that although he had no eyewitness and the evidence against Ray was largely circumstantial, he doesn\'t buy the conspiracy theory. ``I think he acted alone,\'\' he said, noting that the FBI had found Ray\'s fingerprint on the rifle discarded by the gunman near the scene of the crime. However, supporters of Ray\'s story say his fingerprint was on the rifle because he had purchased it. They also note that, while Ray is a lifelong non-smoker, Viceroy cigarette butts were found in the rooming house bathroom and in his car ashtray, and that two sizes of clothing were found in his trunk. Ray said the fact that Raoul often used his car may explain the butts in the ashtray and clothes in the trunk. ``As for cigarettes in the bathroom I can\'t say because I was never in that bathroom,\'\' he said. ``My prints were never found in there, you know.\'\' Then there were the two white Mustangs. The late Guy Canipe, whose amusement company was located next door to the flophouse, told investigators he saw a fleeing man ditch a rifle and a small overnight bag in front of his store and then drive away in a white Mustang, one of two that had been parked in front of the store that afternoon. He described the man as having dark hair and a beard. Ray, who was captured in London two months after King\'s death, says the fact that the gunman ditched the rifle and his bag _ which Ray says he had left in his room when he went to get the tire fixed _ shows somebody was trying to frame him. ``Why would I have dumped my stuff there for the police to find when all I had to do was put it in the car and drive away?\'\' he asked. After two years of hearings, ending in 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations couldn\'t answer that question. The committee issued a report saying Ray probably had been part of a larger conspiracy. But while the committee couldn\'t say who else had participated in the plot, it did exonerate the CIA and FBI, both of which had conducted extensive illegal surveillance and smear campaigns against King throughout the 1960s. Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was known to have hated King. FBI agents testified that no evidence could be found of conspiracies involving the Mafia, Ku Klux Klan or foreign communists. Some of King\'s friends, however, still feel that letting Hoover\'s FBI investigate King\'s assassination was like letting a hungry fox guard a henhouse. ``I have no proof but I feel in my heart that the government, probably the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover, and perhaps the CIA, were involved,\'\' says the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, who was with King when he died in a Memphis hospital an hour after the shooting. ``It\'s just a pity but, given the way things were back then, we\'ll probably never know the whole truth about one of the greatest tragedies of our time.\'\'\r\n'),(813,2,'Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip are facing a cash shortage because of curfews imposed by the Israelis and strikes ordered by leaders of the Arab uprising, a United Nations official said today. The curfews also have disrupted food supplies to Gaza, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported today. But the U.N. official said there is no food shortage in the region, where 650,000 Palestinians live. An 18-year-old Palestinian, meanwhile, was shot in the left leg today when soldiers clashed with Moslem worshippers leaving a mosque in the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, a local reporter said. An army spokesman had no information about the clash. The youths hurled rocks at the troops, who tried to disperse them with tear gas and rubber bullets and finally used live ammunition, wounding the man, who was identified as Ayman Taha, the reporter said. An 11-year-old Palestinian was shot in the leg late Thursday in Gaza\'s Shati refugee camp, hospital officials and Arab sources said. They said the boy was shot when youths hurled rocks at soldiers, who responded with tear gas and live gunfire. But an army spokesman said the Israeli army was not involved in the incident. ``This is not an army matter. This is a local police matter, and that\'s all I\'m going to say,\'\' he said. The Gaza police spokesman was not in his office for comment, but a policeman who answered the telephone at Gaza police headquarters said he knew nothing of the incident. Since the Arab uprising began seven months ago, 222 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed. In the occupied West Bank, a curfew on Nablus, where 120,000 Arabs live, entered its fourth day today. Curfews also continued in the town of Qalqilya, the Beit Sahour village and Aidah refugee camp near Bethlehem, and the Ein Yabroud and Anabta villages. The longest curfew is in Beit Sahour, where villagers have been restricted to their homes for eight days after a symbolic protest in which Palestinians returned their Israeli-issued identity papers. A United Nations official who spoke on condition of anonymity said similar restrictions were imposed on the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, where the army imposed a 15-day curfew last month after the local Arab municipality resigned. Workers were barred from leaving to work in Israel for almost six weeks, resulting in a cash shortage, the U.N. official said. Curfews have been lifted in all Gaza camps, but strikes ordered by underground Palestinian leaders also have prevented workers from reaching their jobs, the official said. Nevertheless, U.N. food trucks delivering basic food products were continuing to arrive as scheduled, the official said. ``There is no food shortage in Gaza; what you\'ve got is shortages of money,\'\' the U.N. source said. The Ha\'aretz newspaper quoted an Israeli reserve soldier as saying, ``In the past few days I have given out watermelons, cantaloupes and some even come and beg me for bread. We know there is a severe food shortage in the camps.\'\'\r\n'),(814,2,'Students serenaded Barbara Bush with a Spanish version of ``America the Beautiful\'\' during her tour Tuesday of a local school and community center. Mrs. Bush visited a DIF center, one of a network in Mexico under the patronage of first lady Cecilia Occelli de Salinas that includes adult education, handicraft training to make items for home sale, a garden and a food kitchen for the elderly. A children\'s orchestra began playing ``The Yellow Rose of Texas\'\' as Mrs. Bush passed through the school. ``Oh, oh, there\'s my song,\'\' she exclaimed. ``They\'re playing my song.\'\' Mrs. Salinas hosted the event. Also on hand were Diana Negroponte, wife of U.S. Ambassador to Mexico John Dimitri Negroponte; Nickie Bennett, wife of Monterrey\'s U.S. Consul General John Bennett; Alma Rizzo, wife of Monterrey Mayor Socrates Rizzo, and Cristina Trevino, wife of Nuevo Leon Gov. Jorge Trevino. Mrs. Bush wore a light blue silk suit with thin horizontal white stripes and her trademark pearls while Mrs. Salinas wore a teal and black linen dress. Mrs. Bush was presented with a basket of handicrafts made at the training center by 9-year-old Jesus Eduardo Gonzalez Jimenez, who admitted beforehand that he did not know who she was. At the nearby school she was serenaded by students singing ``America the Beautiful,\'\' ``Cielito Lindo,\'\' and ``La Bamba.\'\' She also was given medals and a heart-shaped pecan arrangment with her picture in the middle.\r\n'),(815,2,'Marilyn Helding, 65-year-old widow of a Wisconsin vegetable farmer, thought the money from her husband\'s estate vanished like crops in the Dust Bowl when Windsor Capital Corp. went out of business. ``I nearly went crazy when they went under,\'\' Mrs. Helding said from her home in Franksville, Wis. ``I didn\'t know what to do.\'\' A few months after the small Milwaukee brokerage collapsed under apparent mismanagement in March 1988, Mrs. Helding regained her entire stock portfolio and $45,000 in cash the firm owed her. The message: If your broker goes bust your investment doesn\'t have to. With the recent collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., two other brokerage bankruptcy court filings in the last year and widely publicized problems at several Wall Street firms, the safety of customer accounts is drawing attention. An agency established by Congress after a rash of brokerage house failures in the late 1960s protects investors who may have thought their account went down the drain with the company that managed it. The Securities Investor Protection Corp. has a $485 million fund that insures individual accounts for up to $500,000, including up to $100,000 in cash. Large brokerages also have insurance for larger amounts. Tapping into the protection fund is a last resort. If a brokerage firm goes belly up, SIPC first tries to arrange a transfer of customer accounts to another firm. ``The basic intention is that a customer should not lose assets or property because the broker with whom (he is) doing business has encountered financial difficulty,\'\' said Theodore H. Focht, SIPC\'s president and general counsel. SIPC _ pronounced sippick _ covers all forms of stock and bond holdings but not commodities. It also does not guarantee the underlying value of a customer account. For example, if XYZ Co. is trading at $50 a share when a brokerage folds but falls to $5 at reimbursement time, the customer loses the difference. ``It does not insure you for market losses,\'\' said Irving Picard, a New York bankruptcy lawyer who has served as a court-appointed SIPC trustee in three liquidation cases. ``If you think the broker defrauded you ... that\'s not protected by the SIPC fund.\'\' In the 19 years since its creation, SIPC has handled 212 cases and paid $185 million to satisfy customer claims. If a firm can\'t immediately pay, SIPC will advance the money to customers and try to collect later. SIPC officials estimate that cash and securities worth $1.4 billion have been returned to about 240,000 investors, mostly through account transfers. A total of 305 claims worth $31 million have not been satisfied, primarily because of legal challenges. The SIPC fund, comparable to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for commercial banks, is fed by required contributions from the nation\'s 12,000 or so registered broker-dealers. The Washington-based agency also has $500 million in bank credit and a $1 billion line to the U.S. Treasury. Neither resource has been tapped. On top of that, about 25 firms have private coverage of up to $5 million per account. Before SIPC was signed into law by President Nixon on Dec. 30, 1970, self-regulatory organizations _ the National Association of Securities Dealers and the stock exchanges _ set aside funds to protect customers of collapsed firms. But in the late 1960s, Wall Street was hit with a rash of failures when the market slumped as firms spent large sums to computerize. When its customer protection kitty dried up, the New York Stock Exchange was forced to dip into a building fund to safeguard investors. Fearing the worst, the exchanges lobbied Congress for help. There were six SIPC cases last year _ five involved a total of under 50 claims. The most cases in one year was 40 in 1972, during a recession. A rash of financial fraud was partly responsible for 46 cases from 1981-85. SIPC\'s largest payout, $32.5 million, involved the 1983 criminal fraud-related collapse of Bell & Beckwith of Toledo, Ohio. The demise of Fitzgerald, DeArman & Roberts Inc. of Tulsa, Okla., involved the most customer accounts, 50,000. SIPC has doled out $5.5 million since that case began in June 1988. SIPC can get involved when a broker-dealer enters bankruptcy court proceedings, when a trustee or receiver is appointed to run a firm, when a firm fails to meet federal requirements or when it can\'t demonstrate compliance. A brokerage can request a SIPC-run liquidation or SIPC can ask the Securities and Exchange Commission to seek a court order for one. Drexel, for example, was not placed in a SIPC proceeding because only its parent company filed for federal bankruptcy court protection and the firm is liquidating orderly. Plus, Drexel sold most retail accounts to Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. last year and the rest went to Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. after the bankruptcy filing.\r\n'),(816,2,'One or more people associated with Jimmy Swaggart Ministries could be targets of a reopened investigation into the slaying of a woman who left part of her estate to the television evangelist\'s ministry. Vic Feazell, McLennan County district attorney, said Sunday his office is re-examining Ida Lee Baugh\'s slaying in December 1983 and that a National Enquirer reporter\'s new information could help him resolve ``unanswered questions.\'\' Feazell said the inquiry was not aimed at Swaggart but could involve ``one or more individuals connected with the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries at that time.\'\' ``What we are looking into right now is the possibility of violations of the Texas Penal Code that could include being a party to murder,\'\' Feazell said. Jacqueline Euna Warren was convicted in April 1984 of murder in the case and sentenced to 99 years in prison. Mrs. Baugh, 70, of McGregor, was found stabbed and beaten and died later at a Waco hospital. Her husband, Maurice Patrick Baugh, died of heart failure five days later. In their will, the couple left all but 25 percent of their cash, not to exceed $25,000, to the ministry in Baton Rouge, La. A Swaggart spokesman estimated the couple\'s total estate at between $500,000 and $800,000. Baugh\'s son contested the will, charging that associates of Jimmy Swaggart ministries exercised undue influence on his parents to change their will. Larry Neale Baugh alleged that two men working on behalf of Swaggart Ministries had recommended that Ms. Warren take care of Mrs. Baugh. Later, Larry Baugh dropped his charges. The Waco Tribune-Herald quoted a source familiar with the case as saying a settlement was reached between Baugh and Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. Feazell said a National Enquirer reporter approached him with new information he had developed independently. ``The information was believeable and parts of it have been substantiated,\'\' he said. Feazell said his office had investigated a possible connection between the murder, the will and Jimmy Swaggart Ministries at the time of Ms. Warren\'s trial. ``Lot of questions came to light in the spring of 1984 _ unanswered questions that weren\'t pursued,\'\' he said. ``I met with Jimmy Swaggart\'s attorneys at that time. After meeting with him, I decided to take no further action,\'\' he said. Feazell said that ``as material becomes available, it could be presented to the grand jury\'\' during the next few weeks. ``It might be something we can wrap up rather quickly, or we could take a long time with it.\'\'\r\n'),(817,2,'The Federal Home Loan Bank Board today announced a record $1.35 billion cash payout to shut down two insolvent savings institutions in Costa Mesa, Calif. The bank board, which regulates 3,150 S&Ls, said it will begin on Tuesday to pay off deposits up to the insurance limit of $100,000 in the North America Savings and Loan Association and the American Diversified Savings Bank. M. Danny Wall, bank board chairman, said it was the largest cash payout ever for the agency. It is paying $1.14 billion from the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. to American Diversified depositers and $209 million to North America depositers. After recovering some of its costs by selling the institutions\' assets, the bank board expects ultimately to spend $931 million _ $798 million for American Diversified and $133 million for North America. Depositers who had funds above the insurance limit will share in the liquidation proceeds. Both institutions share the same headquarters and have been insolvent for some time. Prior to the closing in Costa Mesa, the largest payout was $300 million in 1984 to close the Empire Savings and Loan of Mesquite, Texas. However, bank board officials expect the cost of several previous bailout packages eventually to be higher than the cost of closing the two thrifts in Costa Mesa. Last month, the bank board said it was paying $2 billion in assistance _ in the form of notes and guarantees, none of it in cash _ to the Southwest Savings Association in Dallas to take over four ailing institutions. In November, it announced a $1.3 billion bailout of Vernon Savings and Loan in Dallas, $200 million of it in cash. The rest of the assistance came in the form of notes. Wall said the bank board prefers to pay a healthier institution to take over insolvent thrifts because it is cheaper for the insurance fund. But in this case, he said the two S&Ls had little value as going concerns because they lacked retail deposits and branch offices. Instead, they relied on high-cost, short-term deposits arranged through brokers. Wall hailed today\'s closings as the opening of a second front in the board\'s drive to remove institutions that have been driving up the cost of funds for all institutions. The first front is Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, which have the largest concentration of ailing thrifts. In order to attract money, North America had to offer an average deposit rate of 8.53 percent, 1.45 percentage points above the average for all thrift institutions. American Diversified was paying 8.64 percent, 1.56 percentage points higher than the average. ``So today we march forward in our drive to remove from the marketplace those high-rate-paying insolvent thrifts,\'\' Wall said in a statement. The bank board attributed the failure of North America, which was chartered in 1983, to ``unsafe and unsound\'\' business practices. It said the association grew rapidly by aggressively soliciting high-cost jumbo certificates of deposit that were then invested in high-risk real estate loan participations and time-sharing investments. It had been in the bank board\'s management consignment program since January 1987. A month after that, the insurance fund sued Janet McKenzie, executive assistant to the chairman, for $40 million. As of March 31, North America had $98.2 miilion in assets and $215.7 million in liabilities. It was losing an estimated $1.59 million a month. American Diversified, orginally chartered in 1980 as Tokay Savings and Loan Association, had been in the management consignment program since February 1986. FSLIC has filed suit against Ranhir Sahni, who in 1983 led the association into what it called an ``explosive growth policy.\'\' It is seeking $60 million, charging fraud, negligence and racketeering. As of March 31, American Diversified had $509 million in assets and $1.12 billion in liabilities. It was losing an estimated $8.3 million a month. Depositers may present their claims either in person through June 24 or by mail. The bank board said depositors will receive the necessary forms in the mail. Questions can be directed to FSLIC at 1-800-347-6660. More than 500 of the nation\'s federally insured savings institutions are insolvent. The bank board says it is too soon to tell if it has enough money to resolve the cases of all 500, but it says it has enough to resolve the 200 worst cases. Last year Congress authorized the board to raise up to $10.8 billion by selling bonds over the next three years, providing the agency with total revenue of about $20 billion. However, the General Accounting Office, Congress\' investigating arm, estimates the cost of the cleanup at $26 billion to $36 billion. Some private analysts estimate the price tag at more than $50 billion.\r\n'),(818,2,'The University of California at Berkeley, recently disrupted by student protests demanding more minority teachers, has launched a new cultural studies program. Beginning with the freshman class of 1991, all undergraduates will be required to take one course on minority culture. Each of the courses will focus on three minority ethnic groups, said Ron Choy, assistant director of the new program. ``We\'re creating a whole new program from scratch,\'\' said Choy, assistant director of the new Center for the Teaching and Study of American Cultures. The center, planned for some time, opened Thursday. Choy said he expects students to welcome the courses, noting the ethnically diverse student body has a strong interest in race and minority reations. Some students boycotted classes for two days last month to protest the lack of ethnic diversity among the faculty. Out of 1,636 full professors, only 24 percent are women or members of minority groups. ``Frankly, this center was created partly to help get the faculty up to date,\'\' Choy said. ``We have to teach them, too.\'\' The 1989-90 student body is 45 percent white, 27 percent Asian, 13 percent Hispanic, 8 percent black, 1 percent American Indian and 6 percent undeclared, according to the school. The cultural studies center was created as part of a restructuring of Berkeley\'s 1960s-era ethnic studies programs, Choy said. ``Most ethnics studies classes just talk about one group,\'\' he said. ``We want to create new classes that will deal with at least three minority groups at one time in an integrated, comparative way.\'\' Such an overlapping picture of ethnic groups will better mirror society, he said.\r\n'),(819,2,'Democrat Michael Dukakis spent the morning in the hospital as his wife, Kitty, underwent delicate spinal surgery. Vice President George Bush arrived back in Washington from his summer home and immediately went to visit cancer-stricken Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte at an area hospital. The surgery on Mrs. Dukakis was begun early today and completed in the afternoon. ``Preliminary indications look good,\'\' said Martin Bander, a spokesman for Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Bush was to welcome President Reagan back from his Moscow summit trip late today. Before taking a helicopter to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Bush said of Duarte, ``I plan to wish him well and share our country\'s appreciation for all he\'s done for democracy.\'\' Bush, returning to Washington today after a week of strategy talks at his summer home, said he was convinced his campaign is ``on the right track\'\' despite a rash of recent surveys suggesting he trails Dukakis, the Democratic front-runner. ``I\'m not going to be stampeded by polls that don\'t mean anything,\'\' the vice president told reporters on Thursday, as he was preparing to leave his oceanside retreat at Kennebunkport, Maine. Meanwhile, a poll in California gave Dukakis a substantial lead over Jackson, his only remaining rival, in Tuesday\'s primary. But it suggested Jackson, who has campaigned heavily in the state, was gaining ground. Dukakis cut short a California campaign swing on Thursday after his wife\'s doctors decided to perform ``urgent\'\' surgery on herniated discs pressing dangerously on Mrs. Dukakis\' spinal cord. Dukakis, who was spending the night at the hospital, visited his wife late Thursday night and told reporters afterward: ``She\'s in good spirits, looks good and is anxious to get this over with.\'\' The governor said he hoped to resume campaigning this weekend if the surgery went well. Jackson was campaigning today in New Mexico and Montana, whose primaries on Tuesday have been largely overshadowed by big same-day contests in New Jersey and California. The four races, with a total of 466 delegates at stake, close out the Democratic primary season, and offer Dukakis a chance to clinch the nomiantion. Of the 2,081 delegates needed to nominate, the Massachusetts governor has nearly 1,800. Jackson trails with fewer than 1,000. In California, a poll conducted for the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco television station KRON indicated Dukakis led Jackson by 24 percentage points, 52 percent to 28 percent. In a similar survey two weeks ago, he led by 37 points. The poll, for which 600 registered Democratic voters were questioned on Tuesday and Wednesday, has a margin of error of 4 percentage points, the Examiner said in Thursday\'s editions. Jackson was expressing hopes that a debate with Dukakis could be arranged before Tuesday\'s primary. The two Democrats had been scheduled to debate Thursday afternoon in California, but Dukakis canceled out after his wife\'s doctors said they wanted to operate without delay. ``My impression is that when you have anything that involves the spinal cord, the faster you move on it the better,\'\' Dukakis said as he was flying home Thursday night. Bush, meanwhile, was returning to Washington today in time to greet President Reagan, who will be back from tonight from the superpower summit. Some Bush supporters, eyeing a series of public-opinion surveys last month that gave Dukakis double-digit leads, have been urging Bush to try to set himself apart from Reagan on a few issues. Bush has edged away from the president on a matters such as Panama\'s Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, under indictment on drug charges, and Attorney General Edwin Meese III, under investigation by an independent counsel. But he has refrained from any dramatic breaks with the president. ``We\'ve got a game plan. We\'ve staying with it,\'\' he said. ``You\'re not going to see any drastic change in campaign plans.\'\' On Thursday, he was asked about Reagan\'s suggestion that Soviet reluctance to issue exit visas stems from bureaucratic problems rather than Kremlin policy. Bush sidestepped the question. But he went on to criticize Soviet human rights policy in stronger terms than the president has used. ``I think we have very different views on human rights than the Soviet Union,\'\' he said. ``I would suggest that Soviet retaliation against us, saying we\'ve got human rights problems, is mixing apples and oranges.\'\' The vice president added: ``We\'ve got some problems, but they\'re not problems of human rights.\'\' Still, he hailed Reagan for raising human rights issues, saying: ``I think the Soviet Union should adhere to these high standards the president is talking about.\'\' Dukakis, too, made a point of praising Reagan for bringing up human rights during the summit trip. ``We take pride in the message of freedom and human rights that President Reagan brought with him to Moscow,\'\' the Democratic candidate said in a statement issued by his campaign.\r\n'),(820,2,'Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan says U.S. manufacturers are working so close to capacity that a further decline of the dollar in foreign exchange would not help them sell more goods overseas. The heads of the central banks of France and West Germany said they agreed with Greenspan that they saw no benefit in further depreciation of the dollar. The bankers\' remarks, which came on the closing day of the 34th annual International Monetary Conference, were cited for helping the push the dollar higher against most major currencies on Wednesday in foreign exchange trading. In New York, the dollar rose to 125.62 Japanese yen from 125.52 yen late Tuesday, for instance, and to 1.7261 West German marks from 1.7113 marks. Speaking at a news media briefing at the close of the three-day conference, Greenspan said the ``adjustment process\'\' by which the dollar has depreciated over the past three years in an effort to enhance the U.S. trade picture ``has made significant progress.\'\' But, he said, ``the deterioration of the dollar will augment the dollar-denominated U.S. trade deficit rather than implement further progress.\'\' Greenspan said that because U.S. manufacturers already are running at capacity or near-capacity levels, further declines could not do anything to help them sell more goods overseas or anywhere else. Earlier, Greenspan and top central bankers from Japan, West Germany, Britain, France and Mexico, discussed a variety of economic concerns, including the U.S. federal budget deficit and capital adequacy requirements for banks. The bankers refused to disclose specifics, but many, including Bundesbank President Karl Otto Poehl and Bank of France Governor Jacques de Larosiere, agreed with Greenspan that they saw no benefit in the dollar depreciating further. Poehl, however, noted that the dollar\'s depreciation in the past had helped the West German economy. Poehl assured reporters Wednesday that recent reported dollar sales by the Bundesbank were not part of an effort to drive down the U.S. currency and boost the West German mark, but rather a routine effort to trim his country\'s dollar reserves. The dollar has lost half its value against such currencies as the West German mark and Japanese yen over the past three years, although for the last year its value has been fairly stable. It has fallen less against the currencies of such major trading partners as Canada, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The stage was set for a drop in the dollar in September 1985, when the United States and its four major trading partners agreed to devalue the currency to help reduce the spiralng U.S. trade shortall and stave off protectionist legislation. Last year, however, that same group agreed that further decines in the dollar\'s value would be ``counterproductive.\'\' Although the dollar\'s depreciaton has failed to wipe out the huge U.S. trade deficit, which set a record $171 billion last year, there has been significant improvement recently. The deficit fell to $9.7 billion in March _ its lowest level in three years _ on the strength of U.S. exports. ``It (the trade improvement) is probably going at a pace about as fast as one should want it to go,\'\' Greenspan said. To continue that momentum, he and other central bankers said efforts should be made to reduce the huge U.S. budget deficit. The bankers also reiterated the need to keep inflation down as a way to continue economic growth worldwide. ``In order to continue the adjustment (of the trade imbalance) in the long term, that is obviously a necessary condition,\'\' Greenspan said.\r\n'),(821,2,'Sporadic sniper fire crackled in the Shiite Moslem slums Tuesday and rival militiamen fortified their positions, apparently convinced that a truce arranged by the Syrian army would not last. Families streamed out of the ramshackle 16 square miles of south Beirut, carrying mattresses, bundles of clothing and other possessions. About 250,000 Shiites lived in the slums before the battle began last Friday, but police said 60 percent had fled by Tuesday. The 18 foreign hostages in Lebanon, including nine Americans, are also thought to be held captive in the slums. Police reported five people wounded by sniper fire. Gone at least temporarily were the tank, mortar and rocket duels between the Shiite militias Amal and Hezbollah that killed at least 154 people and wounded 372 in the previous four days. Before dawn, 36 Syrian officers moved into the area with six committees to man truce observation posts. Police said each committee included an Iranian Embassy official, a representative of Amal and another of Hezbollah. Amal, a mainstream militia backed by Syria, and the radical, pro-Iranian Hezbollah are fighting for control of the slums. Amal is Arabic for Hope and Hezbollah means Party of God. Syria and Iran, allies in public, are competing behind the scenes for influence with the 1.2 million Shiites, Lebanon\'s largest sect. President Hafez Assad of Syria keeps 25,000 soldiers in Lebanon, including 7,500 in Beirut. After 13 years of civil war, he was the country\'s undisputed power broker until Iran began challenging the Syrian position. There still was no word Tuesday on the fate of the hostages, most of whom are believed held by kidnappers linked to Hezbollah. A police source said it was ``physically impossible\'\' for hostages to have been smuggled out because Amal and the Syrian army control the slum exits. The Syrians sent 7,500 soldiers to Moslem west Beirut in February 1987 to stop a factional war in which the two main elements were Amal and the Druse militia led by Walid Jumblatt. They drove Hezbollah militiamen from some outposts in west Beirut but have stayed out of the southern Shiite slums. Syria\'s military intelligence chief in Lebanon said Tuesday, however: ``It is impermissible to let the current state of affairs continue.\'\' When asked whether soldiers would be sent into the slums if the fighting did not stop, Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan said: ``We hope it won\'t come to that, but we shall not allow the bloodshed to continue.\'\' A Lebanese police spokesman, whose name cannot be revealed because of regulations, said the truce committees were ``trying to convince the warring factions to observe a cease-fire as a first step.\'\' The three-point truce plan announced Monday calls for a cease-fire, pulling militiamen off the streets and a return to positions held before the battle began. Hezbollah, which has gained control of about half the slum area since Friday, ``rejects the return to pre-Friday positions,\'\' the police spokesman said Tuesday. Militiamen of Hezbollah were seen fortifying their positions with earthworks in the densely populated districts Ghobeiri, Bir el-Abed and Hay Madi. Amal controls the Haret Hreik, Mreiji, Roweiss, Shiyah and Kasskass districts, plus the main gateways into the slums. According to the police spokesman, Amal moved in 1,000 more fighters from the Bekaa Valley in east Lebanon, a main base for the Syrian army. The ancient city of Baalbek in the Bekaa is a Hezbollah stronghold. ``It appears that both sides are preparing for another round of fighting,\'\' the police spokesman said. How many combatants have been involved on both sides is unclear. A police source said Hezbollah could put about 5,000 men in the field, but Amal is believed to be larger and has a broader following among the Shiites. Ibrahim Sarhan, a vegetable vendor, and his wife and four children walked out of the slums Tuesday carrying mattresses and clothes. ``We have been living in a basement since Friday,\'\' he said. ``I think this is the beginning of a long battle. We will come back when this is over.\'\' Mohammed Milhem, a 30-year-old grocer, was trying to patch a bullet hole in his car\'s gas tank. ``We need the car to get out of here,\'\' he said. His wife and three daughters were packing the car with mattresses, clothing, a television set and a sewing machine. Some of those who flee have family or friends elsewhere in Lebanon. Others camp out on the streets of west Beirut or take refuge in schools, mosques or sports stadiums.\r\n'),(822,2,'A strong earthquake jolted Northern California on Monday, causing San Francisco skyscrapers to sway and briefly halting commuter trains, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury. The state Office of Emergency Services in Sacramento said the quake hit 5.2 on the Richter scale, while the U.S. Geological Survey office in Menlo Park said the quake registered 5.0. The epicenter, USGS spokeswoman Pat Jorgenson said, was about 16 miles south of San Jose, along the San Andreas Fault. The time was set at 11:43 a.m., she added. There were no indications of injury or damage, San Jose police said. The quake was felt over a large area, extending from Santa Rosa, about 60 miles north of San Francisco, to the Santa Cruz area 70 miles to the south. The temblor lasted up to 10 seconds in many areas. The 38 trains running on Bay Area Rapid Transit lines were halted briefly to allow a check for track damage and then allowed to resume operation. ``It hit real hard like something going into the side of the building. Nothing fell, but light standards swayed back and forth,\'\' said Tom Honig, city editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Walt Glines, news editor of The Dispatch in Gilroy, said half the workers in the newspaper\'s city room ``didn\'t even notice\'\' the rolling quake, which he said seemed to hit that area in two waves. ``The first time, I thought it was a caffeine rush. But when the second one hit, I knew,\'\' he said. A South San Francisco police dispatcher, who identified herself only as Pat, said her department had received a few calls, but none reporting damage. ``I sure felt it,\'\' she said. ``There were two shocks.\'\' The Richter scale is a gauge of the energey released by an earthquake, as measured by ground motion recorded on a seismograph. Each increase of one number means the ground motion was 10 times greater. On Sunday, a moderate earthquake shook a wide area of Southern California, but there were no reports of serious damage. At least four people were treated for minor injuries. The temblor was felt in downtown Los Angeles and as far away as Saugus, some 70 miles northwest of the epicenter, and Palm Springs, about 70 miles to the east. It was followed by several aftershocks. The quake in Southern California, centered 3 miles north-northwest of Upland, struck at 8:04 a.m. and registered 4.5 on the Richter scale, according to Robert Finn of the California Institute of Technology Seismology Lab in Pasadena. Instruments at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., recorded a slightly higher reading of 4.7. Upland, in San Bernardino County, is a city of about 50,000 people located 40 miles east of Los Angeles.\r\n'),(823,2,'Two sports agents charged with racketeering and extortion in their dealings with college athletes pleaded innocent Thursday and a defense lawyer said they would fight the allegations. New York-based agents Norby Walters, 56, and Lloyd Bloom, 29, entered their pleas before U.S. District Judge George Marovich, who released the defendants on their own recognizance and set trial for Feb. 27. ``We will defend this case extremely vigorously, you can count on that,\'\' said Walters\' attorney, Robert Gold. Walters and Bloom refused to discuss the case.``In every movie I\'ve ever seen, they say, `Anything you say can and will be used against you,\' so I\'m not saying anything,\'\' Walters said. Walters and Bloom were indicted Wednesday on charges of racketeering, mail fraud, wire fraud and extortion. They are accused of using money and gifts to entice dozens of players into signed agreements, some of them postdated, allowing the agents to represent them in professional contract negotiations. The National Collegiate Athletic Association prohibits college players from signing representation contracts or taking money while still eligible to compete. If the players tried to back out of the deals, they were warned that Walters and Bloom had friends who would visit them and break their legs, said U.S. Attorney Anton R. Valukas. An imprisoned mob figure was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. The indictment said Walters, who heads World Sports & Entertainment in New York, also used threats to sign acts in the music business, including the Jackson Five. Prosecutors said Walters and Bloom induced the athletes to defraud their schools by accepting cash and signing contracts in violation of NCAA rules, and then signing affidavits saying they had not broken any NCAA rules. If convicted, the two each would face up to 70 years in prison and $2 million in fines. Valukas said 43 college athletes who signed with Walters and Bloom avoided prosecution by signing pre-trial agreements to perform community service and to reimburse portions of their scholarships to their universities. Edward Bozik, athletic director at the University of Pittsburgh, said he was ``gratified\'\' by the indictments. ``This sends a strong message to the student athletes that they can be held accountable if they are involved in a fraud,\'\' he said. Three of the 43 athletes attended Pitt. The indictment named reputed organized crime figure Michael Franzese as an unindicted co-conspirator, alleging that Walters and Bloom used his reputation to coerce athletes into signing contracts. Franzese is serving a 10-year federal prison term in California for racketeering and tax violations. The indictment says Franzese was a silent partner in Walters\' firm, and financed efforts by the two agents to sign college athletes. The Chicago Tribune, citing unidentified sources, said prosecutors obtained Franzese\'s cooperation in the 18-month investigation. In a related case, California-based sports agent Dave Lueddeke, 37, also was charged Wednesday along with Cris Carter, a 22-year-old wide receiver with the National Football League\'s Philadelphia Eagles. Carter, who left Ohio State with a year of college eligibility remaining, was charged with obstruction of justice and mail fraud. Lueddeke was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from an alleged $5,000 payment to Carter. Lueddeke was indicted, while the charges against Carter were included in a criminal information filed by prosecutors. If convicted, Carter would face up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, while Lueddeke would face up to 15 years in jail and a $750,000 fine.\r\n'),(824,2,'President Bush hailed the ``superb job\'\' of Columbia\'s astronauts today as they headed for Friday\'s homecoming after taking control of their ship when a bad navigation signal from the ground sent it into a slow spin. In a radio-phone call from the White House, the president termed their rescue of a huge science satellite ``a very exciting grab,\'\' and he invited the five crew members to meet with him at the White House after the mission. Commander Dan Brandenstein said the retrieval of the satellite was a highlight among several important accomplishments of the space journey. ``Well done _ we\'re proud of you,\'\'\' Bush said. The president also mentioned the erratic spin imparted to Columbia by the faulty signal when he said, ``I\'m calling to congratulate you and the crew _ after all those somersaults _ for doing this superb job up there.\'\' Brandenstein had been roused from sleep during the night to manually override the shuttle\'s navigation system. He stabilized the craft until Mission Control transmitted correct guidance signals. There was no danger to the five astronauts, but ``we had a little excitement tonight,\'\' said flight director Bob Castle. After analyzing data, controllers reported that Columbia had made four rotations in yaw (side-to-side), one rotation in pitch (up-and-down of the nose and tail) and three-fourths of a rotation in roll. At times, they said, all movements were taking place simultaneously. Each rotation took two minutes, too slow for the astronauts to sense while asleep. Another flight director, Lee Briscoe, said it appeared that ``a couple of words got dropped\'\' in the navigation program, ``so the vehicle thought it was around the center of the Earth\'\' instead of repeatedly passing back and forth across the equator at a 28-degree angle. The incident happened Wednesday night, about 2{ hours before their scheduled wakeup. A false fire alarm also got them out of their beds Wednesday. A third wakeup, at the planned time, was music to their ears: a rendition of Washington and Lee University\'s fight song. One of the astronauts, David Low, is a graduate of the school. ``Good morning, Columbia, after what must have been a restful, or restless, night,\'\' the control center radioed. Brandenstein and pilot Jim Wetherbee successfully tested Columbia\'s flight control systems to make sure they were in good shape for returning home. During the 10-day mission the astronauts have deployed a Navy communications satellite and retrieved an 11-ton science laboratory that had orbited for six years. Snow was falling this morning at the landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and about an inch had covered the desert before dawn. Briscoe said forecasters were watching the weather closely, but ``it still looks good for tomorrow.\'\' The pre-dawn landing is scheduled at 2:54 a.m. PST. Recent heavy rains have closed the public viewing area, and the space agency discouraged citizens from driving to the base to watch the touchdown. While Brandenstein and Wetherbee checked the shuttle\'s systems, mission specialists Bonnie Dunbar, Marsha Ivins and Low completed a series of medical and science experiments and began stowing them away. Castle said Columbia began its slow spin after an errant navigation signal from the ground caused six small steering jets in the shuttle\'s nose to fire on and off, the longest for two minutes. That sent the shuttle into an unwanted spin of about 3 degrees a second, or about one rotation every two minutes, Castle said. He said the navigation data had suffered radio interference during the transmission, but that an operator on the ground failed to catch it. Castle said that if nothing had been done, Columbia would have continued to rotate at that rate, but there would be no threat to the astronauts. ``I\'m concerned about what happened because we have to find out what happened and correct it,\'\' Castle said. ``But I\'m not real concerned. It was an error on the ground. Columbia did exactly what Columbia should have done.\'\' NASA spokesman Jack Kroehnke said the astronauts would not have felt the spin imparted by the six thrusters, part of a system of 44 steering jets on the shuttle. ``If we had not awakened the crew, they\'d eventually have awakened themselves, I\'m sure, and looked out to see the Earth view changing in the windows,\'\' Kroehnke said.\r\n'),(825,2,'The United Nations today voted 143-1 for the United States to submit to binding arbitration on whether it can shut down the PLO observer mission. The United States did not vote, and Israel cast the only negative vote. Assembly resolutions are expressions of international will but are not legally binding and there is no mechanism to enforce them. They are often ignored or defied. Israeli Ambassador Benjamin Netanyahu said the Palestine Liberation Organization is a terrorist group that has no place in the United Nations. Netanyahu stalked out of the chamber when the PLO representative, Zehdi Labib Terzi, said Israel\'s vote showed contempt for the world body and ``the norms of civilized behavior.\'\' Soviet Ambassador Aleksander Belonogov said in an interview after the voting that the dispute with the United Nations was a ``self-inflicted wound\'\' on American prestige and peace efforts in the Middle East. The assembly also voted 142-0 for a resolution asking the World Court in the Hague for a ruling on whether the United States has the right to refuse arbitration. Neither Israel nor the United States voted on the measure. The arbitration would be conducted by an independent three-member panel, with the United States and the United Nations each appointing one member and the third appointed jointly. The United States, which has not yet moved to close the PLO mission, said it considered the emergency meeting of the 159-nation assembly ``premature and unnecessary.\'\' The United States has rebuffed arbitration on the same grounds. ``It remains the intention of this government to find an appropriate resolution to this problem in light of the charter of the United Nations, the headquarters agreement and the laws of the United States,\'\' U.S. Ambassador Herbert Okun told the assembly after the vote. The resolutions were sponsored by the Soviet Union, which accused the United States of ``lawlessness,\'\' several Soviet allies and satellites, members of the movement of nations professing non-alliance with either superpower and the Philippines, a U.S. ally. The resolutions say closing the mission would violate the 1947 treaty under which the United States became U.N. headquarters. The pact provides for binding arbitration. The PLO has non-voting, observer status in the General Assembly and exercises considerable influence at the United Nations, which regards it as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, many of whom live under Israeli occupation. The PLO mission, a four-story townhouse on Manhattan\'s fashionable Upper East Side, has a staff of three political officers and two secretaries. Scores of organizations and nations, including most of America\'s closest allies, said during the three-day emergency session that closing the mission would undermine the independence of the world body. Many said the move is further eroding the already diminished U.S. prestige at the world body. Others warned it could cripple American peace efforts in the Middle East. The State Department agrees with the United Nations that the anti-terrorism legislation ordering the mission closed violates the headquarters agreement. But Attorney General Edwin Meese III reportedly said he plans to enforce the measure anyway. He is expected to announce his decision later this month. The State Department closed down the only other PLO office in the United States, an information office in Washington, in what turned out to be a futile attempt to forestall the legislation. Underlying the bitter confrontation over the mission is the nagging question of what the United Nations can do to achieve peace in the Middle East. The world body has repeatedly called an international peace conference that would include the PLO and the Soviet Union, among others. The United States, which wants direct talks, and Israel, which refuses to deal with the PLO, resist this plan. Several speakers in the assembly debate noted that the United States has never accused anyone accredited to the mission of terrorism or expelled anyone attached to the mission. In December, the assembly passed a resolution 145-1 asking the United States not to close the PLO mission. Israel, which regards the PLO as a terrorist group bent on the destruction of the Jewish state, cast the only negative vote.\r\n'),(826,2,'Jose Tavarez brought the street smarts of New York City to a battle Sunday with a Soviet foe. The contest between the 15-year-old Harlem resident and Moscow teen-ager Andrei Krasavin last just 15 minutes. Krasavin took a last look at the chessboard and resigned, the victim of an unusual program to teach New York students English through the ancient game. Tavarez and his schoolmates, however, have enjoyed only mixed success in their chess matches in the chess-worshiping Soviet Union, homeland of world champion Garri Kasparov. ``The first day they played, they were sort of destroyed,\'\' said William Hall, their English teacher and chess mentor. The 11 students from Junior High School No. 99 in East Harlem, a crime- and drug-plagued area of Manhattan, came to the Soviet Union for two weeks to challenge counterparts at their favorite game. The trip was masterminded by Hall, who teaches English through chess to 40 pupils from Puerto Rico, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Hong Kong and other countries. The students belong to his ``Royal Knights\'\' chess club. ``I saw that kids who were having difficulty learning were intrigued by chess,\'\' said 52-year-old Hall, who has been teaching for 23 years. ``The motivation was so great that they improved their English faster.\'\' ``Do they have an egghead-nerd image?\'\' Hall asked. ``The answer is no, with a capital `N.\' They play baseball, soccer, street hockey, and their drive to excel in chess carries over.\'\' The New Yorkers, clad in sneakers and blue jackets with their club\'s name, met their Soviet opponents Sunday at Pioneer Palace, a children\'s recreation center in Moscow\'s Lenin Hills. In a third-floor classroom used to teach the game to budding grandmasters, the Americans sat down at brown wooden tables inlaid with chessboards to test themselves against some of the Soviet capital\'s best young players. Previous showings by the Royal Knights, who arrived in Moscow April 10 and had played at the Spartak and Central Soviet chess clubs, ranged from disastrous to encouraging. ``The Russians know clever moves that we don\'t, and that gives them control of the center of the board,\'\' said Tony Pagan, 15, whose parents are from Ecuador. Tavarez, a club member of Puerto Rican origin who has played chess for only seven months, was one of the winners Sunday. ``He wants to take on the best,\'\' Hall said. ``On the way over here, his question was, `Does (Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev play chess?\'\'\' However, Avram A. Pismenny, trainer for the Pioneers chess club, said the Americans had studied the game less than his players. The tour began to take shape last year, when the Royal Knights placed 17th in a national scholastic tournament. Two club members playing at the Manhattan Chess Club met the women\'s champion, Maya Chiburdanidze of the Soviet Union, who suggested they visit her country. It took 11 months of planning and fund raising, as well as $20,000 in corporate sponsorship to make the idea a reality. The group was scheduled to leave Moscow on Monday for Eshera, a resort on the Black Sea. They will spend three days there, travel to Leningrad to visit that northern Russian city and play more chess, then return to New York on April 24.\r\n'),(827,2,'U.S. warships on Monday attacked two offshore Iranian oil facilities in the southern gulf in retaliation for a mine blast that ripped open the hull of an American frigate last week. The official Islamic Republic News Agency said the warships first struck the Sassan platform at 9 a.m. (1:30 a.m. EDT). Twenty-three minutes later they blasted the Nasr platform on the nearby Sirri Island. IRNA, monitored in Cyprus, noted that the ``aggressive U.S. attack\'\' came after the United states had blamed Iran for sowing mines in the waterway one of which blasted the hull of the USS missile frigate Samuel B. Roberts. Gulf-based Western diplomats and shipping sources said the Sassan platform was ablaze after the attack, but said they could not immediately tell how many warships participated in the attack. In Washington, The White House confirmed at a news conference early Tuesday that the U.S. warships had shelled the Iranian offshore oil platforms in retaliation for sowing mines in the gulf. The shipping executives said a number of salvage tugboats were en route to Sassan and Nasr platfores. These tugs were requesting permission from the American warships to let them rescue survivors and help extinguish fires. The Americans, the executives said, told the tugs they may rescue survivors but they may not participate in any firefighting. The two targets were pounded shortly after a warning from the U.S. warships to Iranian workers to evacuate the platform and the island. Shipping executives said their monitors picked up a radio message at 9:00 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT) from the U.S. warships to the Sassan platform telling workers to evacuate the facility, saying it ``will be shelled in five minutes.\'\' Sassan is sister platform to Rostam, which was wrecked by American gunners in October 1987 when the Iranians fired a Chinese-made Silkworm missile into the U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti oil tanker. Eighteen persons were injured in the tanker attack, including the captain. U.S. officials have said there was ``substantial evidence\'\' that Iran planted a mine that heavily damaged the hull missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts in the central gulf last week and injured 10 crewmen. The injured crewmen were injured and flown by helicopter to a medical facility aboard the USS Trenton. The four most seriously injured were moved to Bahrain\'s Salmaniya Hospital and later flown aboard a special U.S. Air Force jet to West Germany for further treatment and reunion with families. The frigate was towed to the Dubai ship repair yard on Saturday, and knowledgeable sources said it was not in danger of sinking, despite enormous damage to the hull and engine room. ``Circumstances of the attack (Monday) on Sassan were very much similar to those that preceded the shelling of Rostam last October,\'\' said one Dubai-based maritime salvage agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``After a five-minute warning, the American guns blazed away at the platform,\'\' he said of the attack on Rostam. A multinational mine-sweeping effort has found six mines in the central gulf area where the Samuel B. Roberts was hit on Thursday, according to U.S. Navy sources. The mine sweeping task force included six U.S. ocean mine sweepers, four British units, two Belgium, two Dutch and four Italian. The USS Trenton, which is an amphibious transport ship, was accompanying the task force and acting as the overall command ship. U.S. defense officials suspect the mines are recently laid, Navy sources said. They said the mines looked clean and free of seaweed, indicating they had not been in the water for long. The sources said the explosives were contact mines, the same type of mines previoulsy located. The Roberts is part of the U.S. Middle East Force, which was bolstered in the gulf last summer when Kuwait registered 11 of its tankers in the United States to entitle them to U.S. Navy protection against Iranian threats. The Bridgeton, the first of the flagged tankers, struck a mine during the first U.S. escorted tanker convoy last July. The Navy then conducted at least 55 other convoys through the 550-mile length of the waterway between Kuwait and the Strait of Hormuz, outlet of the gulf, without incident. The Navy also spearheaded a massive minehunting operation with the help of its Western allies, and alone located and detonated 45 mines. The allies took care of about 20 more. The Western diplomats and shipping executives on Monday said there might be at least 10 mines in the area 55 miles northeast of Qatar, aside from the one hit by the Roberts and the two located by the Navy. The area is a major shipping lane for the U.S. convoys and is frequented by the warships and the tankers.\r\n'),(828,2,'A magazine Monday berated the British for their dress and manners, saying European neighbors regard them as the slobs of the continent. ``We go out without combing our hair, wear the same shoes two days running and throw rubbish out of our car windows,\'\' complained ``She,\'\' a monthly women\'s magazine. It said other Europeans consider British men ill-mannered and chided British women for dressing badly and shouting at their children in public. If the British want to join the ``nouveau European\'\' elite, the magazine said, their manners, attitudes, habits and appearance all need ``a complete overhaul.\'\' Tips offered by the magazine include never leaving home unless groomed immaculately, remembering to wish everyone good morning, afternoon or evening, and walking with ``dignity and grace.\'\' Other guidelines: spending more on personal appearance, displaying family loyalty, drinking more mineral water and never eating junk food in the street.\r\n'),(829,2,'Fang Lizhi\'s departure for a safe haven in Britain leaves China without a prominent dissident with the courage and stature to speak out against the government. A year after tanks crushed the pro-democracy movement, China has effectively silenced all open dissent through arrests, intimidation and forced exile. Fang refrained from speaking out during his year of refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. But as long as he stayed in China _ outside the grasp of a government that sought to try him as an instigator of unrest _ he remained a symbol of resistance to political oppression. Now the 54-year-old astrophysicist and his activist wife Li Shuxian join a growing list of dissidents who have escaped the country or been banished. Most have been frustrated by lack of funds, poor organization and an inability to make their voices heard where it counts _ at home in China. The decision to allow Fang and his wife to leave the country came one week after China similarly dispatched another well-known advocate of democratic reform, Taiwanese singer Hou Dejian. Hou, who defected to the mainland from Taiwan in 1983, played a key role in negotiating the evacuation of students from Tiananmen Square during the June 4, 1989 military assault theat crushed the pro-democracy movement. He hid in the Australian Embassy for two months before the Chinese promised he would not be arrested, emerging to become one of the few Chinese willing to openly criticize the government. Hou and two other companions from Tiananmen _ activists Gao Xin and Zhou Duo _ finally went too far when they tried to hold a news conference for foreign journalists on May 31 to call for the release of political prisoners. All three disappeared hours before the news conference. Police released Gao and Zhou, who had previously spent months in prison, after the anniversary of the June 4 crackdown had passed. But Hou was taken out to sea, put on a Taiwanese fishing boat and returned to Taiwan. Also Monday, China announced that another dissident arrested last summer, Wang Xuezhi, was being released from a Canton prison and allowed to go abroad to rejoin his French wife. China appears to have concluded that exiling dissenters such as Fang and Hou serves both to ease Western criticism of China\'s human rights record and diminish their ability to influence opinion at home. Those who left or escaped after the military crackdown _ people like student leader Wu\'er Kaixi, political scientist Yan Jiaqi and entrepreneur Wan Runnan _ say they fear the world is gradually losing interest in China. Liu Binyan, a journalist and maker of film documentaries who has been living in exile in the United States for two years, said in a recent interview that he longs to return home, but thinks he might face arrest. ``This is a very important time in China,\'\' he said. ``I want to go back and experience everything myself. Even if I can\'t write about it.\'\' Those released from prison in recent months as China seeks to improve its image abroad have sought the safety of silence. Almost all, under police orders, have avoided political activities and stayed away from foreign reporters. ``Coming back home was like a dream,\'\' said journalist Dai Qing when she was freed in May after being imprisoned for 10 months. But Dai, one of the free spirits of China\'s tightly controlled mass media, said she could say no more. Speaking to a foreign reporter without permission would mean a return to prison.\r\n'),(830,2,'Cape Verde will hold its first direct presidential election and its first multiparty legislative balloting later this year, political leaders in the west African nation said. The announcement came late Friday at the end of a four-day meeting by leaders of the only political party now allowed in the 10-island archipelago, the ruling the African Party for the Indpendence of Cape Verde. Olivio Pires, a party spokesman, told the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, that the presidential election will be held on a non-party basis this year on a date to be announced later. Pires said President Aristides Pereira, who has ruled Cape Verde since it gained independence from Portugal in 1975, will have to step down from his post as the party\'s general secretary if he chooses to run for re-election. Pires said the legislative election will be held in December after the presidential balloting, Lusa reported from the Cape Verdian capital, Praia. Currently, citizens elect members of the Peoples National Assembly from lists of candidates put forward by the ruling party. The president is then elected by the assembly, the only legislative body. The new political structure was developed with the help of attorneys in Portugal and is modeled after the election plan in Portugal, which also chooses its president on a non-party basis. The reforms further advance Cape Verde\'s evolution from the single-party, Marxist-inspired system it embraced after independence to a democratic system. The country has gradually opened up its economy to private enterprise and recently introduced legislation that would result in greater freedom for the press. Some criticism of the ruling party is already allowed. Pereira also has won praise from Western governments, human rights groups and aid agencies for his pragmatism and tolerance of political dissent. Cape Verde, 385 miles off the Senegalese coast, is the second of Portugal\'s former African colonies to implement democratic reforms. Sao Tome e Principe announced last year that competition among political parties will be allowed in upcoming general elections.\r\n'),(831,2,'The American Medical Association moved to stop sales of a new ``smokeless cigarette\'\' being marketed by R.J. Reynolds Co., saying the product is nothing more than a delivery system for the drug nicotine. The nation\'s largest medical association filed petitions in two states Wednesday in an effort to halt distribution of the product, called Premier. R.J. Reynolds countered with a news release saying the AMA was both inaccurate and hypocritical. ``Premier smoke substantially reduces many of the chemical compounds that the critics of smoking have been complaining about,\'\' Reynolds\' release said. ``Reynolds finds it difficult to understand how the AMA can in good faith suggest that Premier be banned. ``Premier is a cigarette ... not a drug-delivery system, as the AMA has alleged.\'\' The AMA\'s legal challenge was filed in petitions in Arizona and Missouri, where the product is being test marketed. In April, the association petitioned the federal Food and Drug Administration to regulate Premier as a drug, although cigarettes currently are not regulated that way. That petition is pending. Premier contains nicotine, an ``addictive drug ... which has been implicated in cardiovascular disease, complications of hypertension\'\' and other medical problems, the AMA said. ``The scientific evidence is crystal clear about the adverse health effects of nicotine and carbon monoxide,\'\' Dr. Roy Schwarz of the AMA said at a news conference. The FDA currently does not regulate tobacco products unless they make a medical claim, spokesman William Grigg said. He said the AMA maintains in its FDA petition that Premier should be regulated because it makes ``an inherent health claim.\'\' The main difference between Premier and other cigarettes is that the tobacco in them is warmed, not burned, said Reynolds spokeswoman Maura Payne in Winston-Salem, N.C. She said the cigarettes contain a nicotine level of 0.4 milligrams and carbon monoxide ``at about the same level as a `lights\' brand.\'\' The cigarettes also show a ``virtual elimination of sidestream smoke, or smoke off the lit end of the cigarette, the elimination of ash and no tobacco aroma,\'\' she said. But R.J. Reynolds, a subsidiary of RJR Nabisco, said it has treated Premier no differently than any other cigarette. The company began selling Premier in Tucson, Ariz., Phoenix and St. Louis around Oct. 1, but no date had been set for national distribution. Ms. Payne said the cost per pack would run about 25 percent higher than other cigarettes. Health officials in Arizona and Missouri said the issue in their states boils down to a question of jurisdiction. Dr. Robert Harmon, director of the Missouri Department of Health, said his state had been considering action against Premier for some time but he expected any decision was at least a week away. ``I agree that the product should be regulated as a drug and I wrote to the FDA on Feb. 25 asking it to do so,\'\' Harmon said. ``It is mainly a matter of state or federal jurisdiction.\'\' Joe Rowan, deputy director of the Arizona Board of Pharmacy, which received the AMA\'s petition, said the document ``has been taken to the state Attorney General\'s office.\'\' ``They will advise the board as to what action they can take or should take, if any,\'\' he said.\r\n'),(832,2,'President Bush on Monday said he would nominate David H. Souter, a little-known federal appeals court judge, to the Supreme Court. Bush said he acted without questioning Souter on abortion or other delicate judicial issues. If confirmed by a majority of the Senate, Souter, a 50-year-old bachelor from New Hampshire, would succeed William J. Brennan, who retired last Friday. Bush\'s quick decision took Washington by surprise and shifted the nation\'s attention to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is certain to examine Souter\'s record and explore his views on abortion and other issues. With Souter standing at his side, Bush described Souter as ``a remarkable judge of keen intellect and the highest ability.\'\' He chose his nominee after meeting him for the first time earlier in the day. The president said it would have been ``inappropriate\'\' to apply an abortion ``litmus test\'\' on his nominee. He said the selection was not geared to any single issue but to his ability to interpret the law. Souter has been on the federal appeals court for such a short period of time that he has not yet penned an opinion. Gordon Tiffany, like Souter a former New Hampshire attorney general, said it is hard to classify Souter\'s judicial philosophy. ``Whether it\'s liberal or conservative, it\'s not the issue in his mind. The issue in his mind is what was intended in the Constitution,\'\' Tiffany said. Conservatives hoped Bush would give them a nominee who would overthrow the 1973 Roe-vs.-Wade decision that legalized abortion. The nomination appeared to underscore the influence exercised by John Sununu, Bush\'s chief of staff, who as governor of New Hampshire had put Souter on that state\'s Supreme Court in 1983. Like Bush, Sununu is an outspoken opponent of abortion. Andrew Card, Sununu\'s deputy, said Sununu did not suggest Souter to Bush. At a news conference, a questioner noted that Bush and Sununu both have widely known views against abortion and asked why people shouldn\'t think that Souter\'s abortion view was known to Bush even if Bush did not question him about it. ``I told you it\'s not,\'\' Bush said. The National Right to Life Committee, a leading anti-abortion group, said it did not believe Souter had ever expressed an opinion on abortion. But the committee said it was pleased that Bush said he chose Souter because of his philosophy of not trying to legislate from the bench. Bush noted that Souter had won unanimous Senate confirmation when he was nominated in January for the appeals court, suggesting his hope that the nomination might not trigger a political free-for-all in the Senate. ``We\'re not bracing for some horrendous fight with the United States Senate,\'\' Bush said. But Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., a liberal member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it would be ``naive\'\' to think that Souter would not be quizzed about abortion. ``There will be a lot more known about him, I guarantee you that,\'\' said Leahy. In fact, pro-choice groups demanded that committee sound Souter out on his abortion views. ``The American people need to know where Judge Souter stands on the issues of individual and human rights,\'\' said Judith Lichtman, president of the National Women\'s Legal Defense Fund. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell praised Souter\'s experience but did not express an opinion on the nomination. Mitchell promised Democrats would conduct prompt and fair hearings. Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said he expected few if any fireworks over Souter\'s record ``because he just went on the court in April.\'\' When Bush nominated Souter for the appeals court, the American Bar Association\'s screening committee called him ``well-qualified\'\' _ its highest rating for judicial nominees. Bush said he decided on Souter earlier in the day. ``The excellence was just there,\'\' Bush said. The president praised Brennan as well, calling the court\'s long-time leading liberal, ``one of the greatest figures of his age.\'\' The 84-year-old Brennan, in frail health, resigned Friday. Appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he had served longer than most Americans have been alive.\r\n'),(833,2,'RJR Nabisco Inc. has broken off buyout talks with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., raising the possibility that the powerful investment firm might launch a hostile $20.3 billion tender offer for the food and tobacco conglomerate. The failure of the talks appeared to set the stage for a showdown between Kohlberg Kravis and Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc., Nabisco\'s financial partner, over what would be the nation\'s biggest corporate acquisition. After a meeting of Nabisco\'s outside directors Wednesday, President F. Ross Johnson said the group concluded Kohlberg Kravis\'s proposal to acquire Nabisco for $90 a share was not in the company\'s best interest.\r\n'),(834,2,'If Fido goes into a frenzy over fast food, you can always pick up a dog biscuit shaped like a cheeseburger at a drive-through window that caters to canines. When Maggie Patterson opened her Doggie-Drive-Thru in April, her idea was met with skepticism. ``People told me I was crazy,\'\' Patterson said Tuesday. ``But now that I\'m open, they tell me it\'s the greatest idea since sliced bread.\'\' Now besides her homemade dog biscuits in the shapes of french fries and cheeseburgers, she\'s trying to develop a pizza-shaped biscuit and a ``diet\'\' puffed rice treat for the pooch with a paunch. She mixes and bakes the biscuits using her own recipe of minced garlic, wheat germ, margarine, eggs, cheddar cheese, molasses, dry milk and whole wheat flour. She works with a veterinarian and a hospital dietitian. When the owner drives up, Patterson asks the dog\'s name and then offers a sample. If the dog seems too shy or aggressive, she\'ll have the owner give it the treat. After telling her biscuits\' ingredients and the prices (45 cents for a cheeseburger biscuit the size of a large cookie), she gets the owner to talk about the dog _ something she finds people love to do. ``Meanwhile, the dog is freaking out. He\'s getting all the attention and nobody but him is getting anything to eat,\'\' she said. Sometimes, owners take their dog through as a birthday surprise, and Patterson accommodates by taking the dog\'s picture as a memento. On a busy Saturday, she said as many as 100 cars pull up to her window. The 9-week-old business has created such a craze, Patterson said, she has received dozens of requests for franchises. Patterson, 33, said she owes the idea to her three dogs and their love of fast-food _ the people kind. ``I used to give them cheeseburgers when we\'d go through McDonald\'s, but they started getting fat,\'\' she said of her Labrador, cocker spaniel and poodle. ``But every time they\'d see those golden arches they\'d still go crazy.\'\'\r\n'),(835,2,'The stock market moved higher early today in heavy trading after tumbling in the previous session on fears of higher interest rates. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, which slipped 37 points on Thursday, was up 6.93 points at 2,101.17 in the first half hour of trading. Volume on the Big Board came to 120.03 million shares. Gainers led losers by about 11 to 7 with 674 up, 444 down and 520 unchanged as of 10 a.m. on Wall Street. Traders kept a sharp eye on the credit markets, where sharply lower bond prices helped trigger Thursday\'s decline in stock prices. Rumors that West Germany and possibly Japan might be preparing to hike interest rates sparked fear that the Federal Reserve might be pressed to do the same to support the dollar. ``The bond market could drag us down again today like it did yesterday,\'\' said Peter Vandenberg, a trader with Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. Traders steadied themselves for the year\'s second ``triple-witching hour,\'\' in which groups of stock-index futures, stock-index options and options on individual stocks will expire today. ``There\'s some nervousness,\'\' Vandenberg said, ``but the last few expirations have been orderly, with no major problems.\'\' Among actively traded issues, Texaco was unchanged at 49{, IBM was up [ at 117\\, Ford Motor was unchanged at 52[, and General Electric was unchanged at 43\\. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks was up 0.30 at 152.74. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was off 0.40 at 306.67. On Thursday the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 37.16 points to close at 2,094.24. Declining issues outnumbered advances by about 5 to 2 on the NYSE, with 435 up, 1,089 down and 425 unchanged. Big Board volume totaled 161.55 million shares, against 150.26 million shares in the previous session.\r\n'),(836,2,'Five people, including a village chief, were sentenced to death by firing squad for the ritual killing of a 38-year-old woman. Baffour Twene, 52, his wife and three co-defendants were convicted Monday of murdering Lamley Sampa on Feb. 23 and using parts of her body in a ritual ceremony. Mrs. Sampa was abducted in the northern region of Brong Ahafo. The details of the ritual were not described during the trial. Twene and the other defendants were tried before a regional court at Sunyani, 260 miles northwest of the capital of Accra. Courtroom spectators applauded the guilty verdict. Court chairman K.F. Otu-Essel called the killing barbaric and said such practices must end. Two weeks ago, four people, including a tribal chief, were sentenced to death by firing squad in a similar case in the western region of Sefwi Bekwai.\r\n'),(837,2,'The Senate should not revise the pending arms pact with the Soviet Union to bind future administrations to the current understanding of its intent, says the State Department legal adviser. ``I don\'t think it is necessary or desirable to do that kind of thing,\'\' legal adviser Abraham D. Sofaer said in an interview. The heart of the issue is not so much a treaty signed last December banning medium-range nuclear missiles from superpower arsenals as a treaty signed in 1972 which limits testing of President Reagan\'s Strategic Defense Initiative missile defense system, known as Star Wars. Democratic Whip Alan Cranston of California has been holding discussions with senators from both parties, and an aide said he expects ``there to be language in the ratification resolution addressing the treaty interpretation issues.\'\' Cranston has predicted that the treaty will win the necessary 67 votes in the 100-member body to be ratified. Few senators have expressed disagreement over the meaning of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces pact signed at the Washington summit last December calling on the superpowers to destroy their nuclear missiles with ranges of 300 to 3,000 miles. The central controversy is an interpretation of the ABM pact written by Sofaer in 1985 which would allow wider testing of Star Wars components. Cranston\'s legislative aide, Gerry Warburg, said the language expected in the INF resolution ``would contain a more broad statement concerning the interpretation of treaties generally,\'\' including the ABM pact. Cranston, Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., of the Foreign Relations Committee, all oppose Sofaer\'s ``broad interpretation\'\' of the ABM pact. Warburg said they had been discussing the INF resolution with Secretary of State George P. Shultz. The senators contend that allowing the broad interpretation amounts to changing the rules in the middle of the game and would set a dangerous precedent in which any administration could duck treaty requirements simply by reinterpreting them. Sofaer said inclusion of restrictive language in a resolution ratifying the INF treaty would not be binding on the Soviet Union, and could complicate rather than resolve interpretation of the ABM pact. ``I know that they are not going to get a settlement of the ABM dispute this way,\'\' said Sofaer. ``It is a potential problem for INF ratification and I think overwhelmingly people support INF ratification.\'\' Sofaer noted that Shultz had sent the Senate the 31-volume negotiating record of the INF pact and had also agreed that any testimony by administration officials would be ``authoritative\'\' and reflect the president\'s understanding of the treaty. ``Those practical things have been achieved,\'\' said Sofaer, objecting to including in the ratification resolution any language that would commit future administrations to the current understanding of the treaty. ``If you want to go further, you might end up confusing or even harming international legal practice relating to treaty ratification,\'\' he said. While the Senate can bind the administration to a particular interpretation of either the INF or the ABM treaties, he said, it cannot bind the Soviet Union, unless the treaties are renegotiated. ``The treaty reflects two relationships,\'\' he said. ``It reflects a relationship between two sovereign nations, and then it also reflects the relations between the United States executive branch and the Senate. ``When you talk about the meaning of a treaty, you are talking about the international relationship. You are talking about what binds the two nations.\'\'\r\n'),(838,2,'Inventor Howard O. McMahon, a former head of Arthur D. Little Inc., has died at the age of 75. McMahon, who lived in Cambridge, died of heart disease Sunday at Mount Auburn Hospital, said an Arthur D. Little spokesman. The Cambridge-based firm specializes in international management and technology consulting. McMahon joined Arthur D. Little as a research associate in 1943. He succeeded Gen. James M. Gavin as its president in 1964. In 1951 the scientist received the Franklin Institute\'s Edward Longstreth Medal for co-developing the Collins helium cryostat, which liquefies helium gas at minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit. The American Ceramics Society gave McMahon the Frank Forrest Award in 1952 for his research in thermal radiation. In 1979, he received the Samuel C. Collins Award from the Cryogenic Engineering Conference. McMahon earned a doctorate in physical chemistry and physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While still an undergraduate, a Canadian neon sign company paid him $100 for his patent on a bubbling Christmas tree candle. After becoming president of Arthur D. Little, McMahon began to organize programs at the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in which the public, scientists and students discussed political and social issues. McMahon also began pushing corporations to conduct social audits, essentially the costs to their employees, customers and the community at large of their doing business. After retiring from Arthur D. Little in 1977, McMahon founded the Helix Technology Corp., which manufactures cryogenic refrigeration systems in Waltham.\r\n'),(839,2,'Myron J. Bennett, a combative radio host-turned-politician, died of cancer Aug. 19. He was 82. Bennett built a big following in the 1940s with his tart commentary on the city\'s politics on radio station KSO. In 1948, he was elected the city\'s public safety commissioner. He was charged during his first year in office with involvement in a conspiracy to collect kickbacks from tavern owners. The charges were later dismissed. He lost his city post in 1950 when Des Moines changed its form of government. A Republican, Bennett then switched his party affiliation and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor.\r\n'),(840,2,'President Bush, proposing an orderly, long-term reduction in the nation\'s military arsenal, is backing a 25 percent cut in the armed forces by the mid-1990s, administration and Pentagon sources say. Bush was slated to make the proposal in a speech today in Aspen, Colo., as his $307 billion defense budget for fiscal 1991 has come under severe attack on Capitol Hill. ``The president will lay out the broad outlines of his new strategy for the nation\'s defenses and how our military must respond, based on the changes in the world that have occurred,\'\' said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. In a speech to the Aspen Institute, Bush planned to offer support for two hotly debated weapons programs _ the B-2 stealth bomber and the Strategic Defense Initiative _ and support a 25 percent cut in the armed forces by the end of 1995, the source said. A similar cut in the nation\'s arsenal of troops and weapons was laid out by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney as an option for budget negotiators in June, but it was derided as ``overly cautious\'\' by critics seeking additional budget savings. Bush planned to make the address after conferring with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Aspen. It will be the fourth time Bush and Mrs. Thatcher have met in as many months. Bush\'s speech comes two days after the House Armed Services Committee cut $24 billion from the $307 billion the president had requested for defense spending in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The panel voted to halt production of the B-2 bomber and slashed almost $2 billion from Bush\'s request of $4.7 billion from the anti-missile Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly known as Star Wars. It also cut military personnel by 129,500 and scaled back on two nuclear missile programs. In June, Cheney said a 25 percent force reduction could save $8.6 billion over five years as the Pentagon retired six active duty Army divisions, 111 Navy ships and 11 Air Force tactical fighter wings, and removed 442,000 men and women from the military\'s 2.1-million-member active duty ranks. Appearing Wednesday evening on public television\'s ``MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour,\'\' the defense secretary hinted that even more changes could be in store. He said he had ``new base closings\'\' to announce, possibly as early as next week. But Cheney also complained that while the House wanted him to cut personnel, members were balking at closing unneeded bases. Bush said on July 20 at a Strategic Air Command base in Cheyenne, Wyo., that, ``We must have an orderly build-down, not some kind of a fire sale\'\' in defense. He indicated then that he could live with the $18 billion that the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to cut from his defense budget, but he implored Congress to ``hold the line at (that) already painful reduction.\'\' The senior American official said the president\'s remarks would follow along the lines of those made by Cheney and Gen. Colin Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Both have called repeatedly for an orderly, planned reduction in troop strength so that the all-volunteer force is not gutted and morale destroyed. Powell has ordered a study to assess the ``base line force\'\' that the nation needs to be a superpower, another source said. Mrs. Thatcher is scheduled to address the closing session of the Aspen Institute conference on Sunday. Like Bush, she is under pressure at home to deliver a peace dividend reflecting the changing face of Europe and reduced East-West tensions. While the United States grapples with how to reduce the Pentagon budget, Mrs. Thatcher\'s defense secretary, Tom King, announced plans last week to reduce the size of the British army by 25 percent over five to seven years and cut its forces in West Germany in half. King also outlined cuts in the British air force and navy but said Britain would retain its nuclear arsenal. Cheney was flying separately to Aspen to attend the symposium at the non-profit institute, marking its 40th anniversary of bringing political, business and cultural leaders together to discuss global issues.\r\n'),(841,2,'The Idaho House voted Thursday to repeal the state\'s abortion ``trigger law,\'\' which sets criminal penalties of up to five years in prison both for physicians who perform and women who get abortions. In developments elsewhere, Cincinnati\'s archbishop asked abortion clinic operators to voluntarily refrain from Holy Communion, and Planned Parenthood said it would appeal a ruling upholding the federal government\'s right to bar family planning aid to foreign organizations that perform abortions. And in Alabama, a bill that would require pre-abortion counseling and an overnight wait prior to any abortion passed the House of Representatives 79-18 on Thursday. But the measure faces tough election-year opposition in the state Senate. With little debate, Idaho House members voted 54-28 to erase the so-called trigger law, which wouldn\'t take effect unless the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to outlaw abortion. The repeal measure was forwarded to the state Senate, where it was expected to pass. ``I don\'t think anyone in this House would like the women of Idaho to be subject to criminal penalties for having an abortion,\'\' said Rep. Gary Robbins, a Democrat who introduced the repeal measure. ``I think the women of Idaho are able to make their own choices, and if they do so I don\'t think they ought to be penalized.\'\' The law was adopted by the Legislature in 1973, shortly after the Supreme Court\'s Roe vs. Wade decision essentially legalizing abortion on demand through the first two trimesters of pregnancy. If it were to go into effect, the Idaho law would mandate prison terms of two to five years for physicians who perform abortions and one to five years for women undergoing them. The law couldn\'t take effect under provisions of Roe vs. Wade, hence the ``trigger\'\' desingation. If the high court were to overturn that landmark ruling, and allow states to once again ban abortion, the Idaho law would take effect on a proclamation by the governor. In the Idaho House debate Thursday, anti-abortion lawmakers argued that lifting the threat of criminal penalties ignores the rights of the unborn. ``Some of us are here to speak for those who can\'t speak for themselves. Do they not count for something?\'\' asked Rep. Elizabeth Allan-Hodge, a Republican. ``For those of us who believe it is murder to kill the unborn, we cannot possibly believe we should slap them on the hand and tell them it\'s wrong.\'\' In Cincinnati, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk said Wednesday that Roman Catholics who operate abortion clinics or promote abortion rights shouldn\'t receive the sacrament of Holy Communion. The head of the Cincinnati Archdiocese stopped short of excommunicating or forbidding Holy Communion to pro-choice activists. ``Catholics who obstinately persist in these activities, while perhaps not formally excommunicated, should not consider themselves properly disposed to participate in receiving Holy Communion,\'\' Pilarczyk said. Pilarcayk\'s statement was released after a meeting with abortion opponents who complained that Barbara Rinto, a Catholic who is the new director of Planned Parenthood of Cncinnati, violates church law by operating a clinic that performs abortions. Ms. Rinto has said that her feelings on abortion are ``between me and my God,\'\' and that her beliefs about birth control and reproduction are private. In New York, Planned Parenthood announced Thursday it would appeal a ruling by a federal judge there that upheld a federal policy _ instituted under the Reagan administration and continued under President Bush _ barring family planning aid to private foreign organizations that perform abortions. The policy, adopted by the Agency for International Development 1984, requires that foreign private health agencies, in return for American grants, certify that they didn\'t perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning. Planned Parenthood, which assists private foreign agencies, had charged that the policy was a violation of their First Amendment right to advocate abortion and interfered with the rights of privacy of people seeking family planning information.\r\n'),(842,2,'A bomb hidden in a motor scooter exploded in a crowded vegetable market in Punjab state today, killing at least 31 people and wounding 70 others as Hindus celebrated a religious holiday, police said. The bombing, which police blamed on Sikh separatists, raised to 39 the number killed since Monday in the northern state. Sikhs campaigning for a separate nation have killed more than 500 people so far this year in Punjab, a rich northern farming state where they hold a slight majority over Hindus. Soon after the blast in Batala, 25 miles north of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, Hindu mobs hurled stones at a police station 150 yards from the vegetable market, senior police superintendent S.K. Goel said. Goel was unsure whether any policemen were injured. The violence prompted officials to impose an indefinite curfew on the city, he said, adding that ``the situation is very tense.\'\' Most of those killed were Hindus and the wounded included both Sikhs and Hindus, said Sanjeev Gupta, another senior police official. Thirty-two of those wounded were in serious condition. Goel said the bomb exploded during a march by about 100,000 Hindus celebrating the birth of Rama, a heroic warrior-king. Rama is extolled in Hindu lore as an incarnation of Vishnu, a member of the supreme Hindu trinity of gods. Witnesses, contacted by telephone, said portions of bodies were hurled across the market, which was covered with blood-soaked pieces of vegetables. ``Some people were crying for help. Those who were lucky to survive ran away in panic. Many shops, scooters and one car were destroyed,\'\' said one witness who spoke on condition of anonymity. Earlier today, a bomb exploded on a bus in another town near Amritsar, killing the driver and one passenger, both Sikhs, senior police superintendent Anil Sharma said. Police blamed Sikh extremists for the blast near Taragarh, 17 miles northeast of Amritsar. Sikh Extremists initially targeted only Hindus in their campaign but now have also turned their guns on Sikhs who don\'t support the separatist cause. On Monday night, Sikh militants shot and killed four members of a Sikh family in another part of Punjab, police said. At Salghowal, 95 miles southeast of Amritsar, five or six Sikh gunmen burst into the farmhouse of a Sikh constable Monday night, killing the policeman, his parents and a younger brother, senior police superintendent Baramjit Singh said. Police also blamed Sikh extremists for an attack on a bus Monday night in Uttar Pradesh state, which is separated from Punjab by Haryana state, news agencies reported. United News of India said one police guard was killed and 11 passengers were wounded when five gunmen stopped the bus. But a second police guard killed one of the gunmen and the others fled, according to United News. Press Trust of India said police recovered a Chinese assault rifle bearing the inscription ``Khalistan Commando Force.\'\' Khalistan, which means ``Land of the Pure,\'\' is the name Sikh militants use for the independent Sikh nation they want to create in Punjab. The bus was halted while traveling between Bijnore and Muzaffarnagar, about 75 miles northeast of New Delhi and about 95 miles from the Punjab-Haryana state line. Most attacks by Sikh extremists have occurred in Punjab. Nationwide, Sikhs comprise only 2 percent of India\'s 880 million people, while Hindus account for 82 percent. The militants say members of the Sikh faith, which has roots in both Islam and Hinduism, are discriminated against politically and culturally by the Hindu majority.\r\n'),(843,2,'Security forces opened fire on a crowd at a soccer game in Somalia after ``provocateurs\'\' began stoning the president, a Somali official said Tuesday. Diplomatic sources said at least 65 people were killed, but the Somali government said only three people died. Unofficial fatality estimates in Friday\'s shootings in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, range as high as 109, according to one diplomatic source, who said 65 people were confirmed dead at the city\'s Digfer Hospital. More than 100 people were seriously injured, another source said. But Abbudllahi Farah Barre, first secretary at the Somali Embassy in Rome, insisted only three people were killed in the stadium shooting. He said he did not have exact figures on the number of injured. He said security forces opened fire after ``some provocateurs\'\' began throwing rocks at President Mohammed Siad Barre. He said the security forces first fired in the air, then on the crowd as it continued to throw rocks and began to pelt security officers. On Saturday, the Somali Ministry of Labor, Sports and Social Affairs dismissed the incident as a ``chance accident\'\' and said it had sent condolences to the victims\' families. It also said three people were killed. The ministry blamed the incident on crowding and said people had been hit by bullets when security forces fired ``high into the air\'\' to maintain peace. International telephone connections to Somalia were not working Tuesday and it was not immediately possible to contact anyone in Mogadishu. Somalia is an impoverished nation on the Horn of Africa. In recent years, the government steadily has lost control of much of the nation\'s countryside to insurgencies and warring clans. Siad Barre has ruled the predominantly Moslem nation since seizing power in a coup in 1969.\r\n'),(844,2,'After searching three years for his son, Gerald Murphy finally met him only hours before the 21-year-old was sentenced to life in prison for murder. Murphy said he was a college student in 1967 when his girlfriend became pregnant and gave the child up for adoption. ``Today was the first time I made any physical contact with him _ to reach out and shake Murphy on Monday, after the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court sentenced Michael Gregory Woods to life in prison without parole. Woods was convicted of first-degree murder Jan. 19. ``What a tragic thing this is. I fehis hand,\'\' saidel deprived in a sense, but I\'m glad I answered the question of what happened to him,\'\' Murphy said. On July 2, Woods shot and killed Michael Boyd, a 25-year-old National Security Agency employee. Boyd\'s wife Jody claimed her husband beat her and their three children. She asked Woods, a friend of hers, to kill her husband. In return, she promised to give him and his two teen-age conspirators her husband\'s $25,000 life insurance, according to court testimony. Michael Woods was the first man in Maryland to receive the life-in-prison- without-parole sentence. It went into effect July 1, the day before the murder. Murphy, 46, who has a wife and three children in California, flew from his home in Loworkbooks and sandwiches in an increasing number of school backpacks each day. It is a pill, no bigger than button candy, prescribed to help hyperactive youngsters get through their multiplication tables, spelling tests and geography lessons. Some parents describe Ritalin as a godsend, but its success may be leading to its excess. As many as 1 million children may take the drug, and happy results encourage more doctors to prescribe it, sometimes with less triumphant results. AM-R Is for Ritalin II, an AP Extra by Fred Bayles and Scott McCartney for Tuesday AMs, April 5, will move as b0484-b0485. With: AM-Ritalin and Tom, a personal look by AP Writer Strat Douthat, whose son takes Ritalin, b0486. AM-Ritalin-Expert Advice, what parents should ask, b0487. DETROIT _ Her school principal had urged her mother to make the four-hour drive from rural northern Michigan. Now 11-year-old Chrissie sat in a windowless office where a psychologist peppered her with questions. The morning would end with doctors at the Attention Deficit Disorder Clinic of Children\'s Hospital telling Chrissie her baffling problems at home and in school would mean treatment with the stimulant Ritalin. AM-R Is for Ritalin III-Clinic, an AP Extra by Lee Mitgang for Wednesday AMs, April 6, will move as b0488. WEST BIRMINGHAM, Mich. _ One pupil takes the drug Ritalin to calm his hyperactivity and help him pay attention. The teachers challenges a visitor to guess who. Chris was the obvious choice. The third-grader fidgeted in his chair, got up several times to sharpen his pencil, drummed his fingers, asked questions repeatedly and never seemed to hear the answers. The guess was wrong. The child on Ritalin was a slender boy with flaming red hair who calmly sailed through a reading comprehension quiz and listened attentively to a lesson on homonyms. AM-R Is for Ritalin III-School, an AP Extra by Lee Mitgang for Wednesday AMs, April 6, will move as b0489. With: AM-Ritalin-Utah, a look at the state with the highest Ritalin consumption, b0490. WARSAW, Poland _ A curious new program is going out over Poland\'s state radio every Monday morning. It\'s called ``The West Speaks,\'\' and it is composed entirely of excerpts of Polish-language broadcasts by Radio Free Europe, the Voice of America, the British Broadcasting Corp. and other Western radio stations. AM-Poland-Radio, for Friday AMs, April 8, moving as b0475\r\n'),(845,2,'The Supreme Court today refused to become involved in a bitter divorce dispute between jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and his wife of 32 years. The justices, without comment, rejected arguments by Monica Getz that New York\'s divorce law violates the rights of women. Getz, 63, sued for divorce in 1981, after Mrs. Getz, 56, went to court alleging her husband - suffering from alcoholism and drug addiction - abused her. She sought a court order for family support payments and protection against Getz. The couple later made attempts at reconciliation before the divorce became final in 1987. A state jury ruled in Getz\'s favor in granting the divorce. He had accused his wife of infidelity and trying to poison him. Mrs. Getz said her husband had been repeatedly unfaithful and unpredictably violent, but said she stood by him when drugs and alcohol could have cost him his life. A state judge ruled that Mrs. Getz is entitled to half her husband\'s royalties from the beginning of their marriage in 1956 to 1981. That ruling was not at issue in the case acted on today. In her appeal to the Supreme Court, Mrs. Getz said the divorce decree against her is unfair. She said the case should have been resolved in New York\'s family courts rather than by trial courts that handle corporate disputes and other matters. She said the state law favors men by permitting them to wage ``legal wars of attrition\'\' against their wives, who often lack equal financial resources. Family courts are designed to expedite resolutions of divorce cases and spare the couple excessive legal fees, she said. Mrs. Getz said she has spent more than $600,000 in legal fees and will be forced to use the proceeds from the couple\'s mansion in Irvington, N.Y., where she still lives, to pay off the bills. In a legal brief in her behalf, Mrs. Getz\'s lawyer, Whitney North Seymour Jr., said, ``The wife\'s entire life has been left in shambles by this case. She has been branded an adulteress. She has become obligated to pay legal fees of many hundreds of thousands of dollars. She is being forced out of her home and to give up her old-age security.\'\' The case is Getz vs. Getz, 90-562.\r\n'),(846,2,'Here are brief profiles of four Bolsheviks who died in the Stalin purges of the 1930s and were cleared Monday by the Soviet Supreme Court: GREGORY Y. ZINOVIEV _ Joined the Bolsheviks in 1903 and spent more than a decade in exile before returning with Lenin in 1917. He opposed Lenin on several issues during and after the revolution but was a full Politburo member and head of the Communist International until 1926. Stalin defeated Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev and Leon Trotsky for supreme power. In 1935 Zinoviev was convicted of complicity in the murder of Leningrad party chief Sergei Kirov and sentenced to 10 years in prison.The next year he was tried again and executed. LEV B. KAMENEV _ With Zinoviev, he opposed on tactical grounds the decision by Lenin to seize power in the Bolshevik Revolution. He remained a prominent party member, first joining with Zinoviev and Stalin against Trotsky and then uniting with Zinoviev and Trotsky against Stalin. He was expelled from the party several times and sentenced to five years in prison in 1935. He was retried in 1936 and executed. KARL B. RADEK _ Born in Poland, he joined Lenin\'s Bolsheviks in the early days. He fought in the Russian revolution and tried to organize a revolution in Germany. Radek was expelled from the Communist Party in 1927 on charges of having supported Trotsky. He was rehabilitated and allowed to help draft the 1936 constitution and edit the government newspaper Izvestia. He was convicted of treason in 1937 and is believed to have died in prison about 1940. GREGORY L. PYATAKOV _ A leader of the Ukrainian Communist Party, Pyatakov set up a government in the Russian city of Kursk under orders from Moscow and invaded the Ukraine with Red Army soldiers. He was tried with Radek as a supporter of Trotsky in 1937 and was executed.\r\n'),(847,2,'A panel of experts says removing a cancerous tumor in the early stages of breast cancer gives as good a survival chance to women as more radical surgery in which the entire breast is removed. Mastectomies, in which the entire breast is removed, and lumpectomies, in which only the tumor is removed, both give ``excellent\'\' results for Stage I and Stage II breast cancer, the panel said. The committee of 15 experts was assembled by the National Institutes of Health to consider research on the survival of women with early stages of breast cancer and to develop a consensus on what therapy should be used to treat the disease. ``The therapies appear to be equivalent in survival,\'\' said Dr. William C. Wood, a Harvard Medical School surgeon and chairman of the committee. ``We believe it is preferable to preserve an organ.\'\' Mastectomy is still the most commonly used therapy for early stage breast cancer, Wood said. A lumpectomy is followed with radiation therapy, and Wood said some patients choose mastectomy because they ``prefer to lose a breast instead of have six weeks of radiation therapy.\'\' In its report, the committee said surgery in which the breast is saved, or conserved, ``is an appropriate method of primary therapy for the majority of women with Stage I and II breast cancer, and is preferable\'\' because the breast is preserved and the survival chances are the same as for mastectomy. Wood said that both mastectomy and lumpectomy involves the removal of nearby lymph nodes. If these nodes are cancer-free and the primary tumor is smaller than one centimeter, both methods of treatment have about a 90 percent chance of cure. About 150,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, the committee report said. Between 75 percent and 80 percent of this group will have Stage I or Stage II disease, and about two-thirds of these will have cancer-free lymph nodes. Stage I and II cancers have not spread beyond the breast and lymph nodes. But just how to treat this early-stage breast cancer long has been controversial. Traditionally, the preferred treatment has been a radical mastectomy in which the entire breast and much adjacent tissue is removed. During the past two decades, there have been a number of studies comparing the survival results of less extensive breast surgery, including lumpectomy. The committee found that, based on the studies, survival rates are virtually the same for the two types of therapy. The experts said the picture was less clear for follow-up treatment using chemotherapy or a drug that blocks the hormone estrogen. The studies show a trend that may suggest an advantage in taking the follow up or adjuvant therapy, but the committee said the drugs may be toxic or degrade the patient\'s quality of life. For patients with very small primary tumors _ one centimeter or less _ adjuvant therapy is not required, the committee said. The committee also said that the use of lumpectomy should be based on an individual evaluation of each patient and with the full understanding by the patient of all the options. Lumpectomies are not appropriate for all Stage I or II patients because of the size of the breast, or the distribution of tumors or calcified lumps within the breast, the committee said.\r\n'),(848,2,'Washington state\'s automobile-lemon law, designed to protect consumers who purchase defective new motor vehicles, was upheld today by a unanimous state Supreme Court. The law had been challenged by the Ford Motor Co., which contended it violates the equal protection and due process provisions of the state and U.S. constitutions. ``The state\'s interest in protecting consumers in the purchase of motor vehicles under the motor vehicles warranties law outweighs the due process considerations,\'\' Justice Charles Smith wrote for the court. The case stemmed from Ford\'s appeal to the King County Superior Court of a New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board ruling in favor of Gary Barrett. Barrett bought a Ford Thunderbird from Mossy Ford in Bellevue in September 1985. He went to the arbitration board after the dealer was unable to repair a steering problem that caused the vehicle to pull to the left. The board ordered Ford to buy the vehicle back from Barrett. Ford conceded that the steering defect constituted a serious safety defect. But the automaker appealed, asking that Barrett\'s claim be denied on merits and contending the requirement that it repurchase the vehicle was unconstitutional. Superior Court Judge Patricia Aitken disagreed. She ordered Ford to pay Barrett $7,125, representing the repurchase cost less offset for use; $7,000 for Ford\'s failure to provide free use of a comparable loaner vehicle pending resolution of the appeal; and $1,750 for attorney\'s fees. In its appeal of tht decision to the state\'s high court, Ford contended that requiring it to pay attorney fees and a loaner-vehicle fee constituted the singling out of ``a class of litigants and subjecting them to onerous penalties as a condition of seeking redress within the court system.\'\' Ford also complained that if had prevailed in its superior court appeal, Barrett could not have been forced to pay attorney fees. The company said that represented denial of equal protection under the law for Ford and discouraged the filing of appeals. Smith noted, however, that the law designates two classes, manufacturers and consumers, and that the consumer class is not held liable for fees incurred in an appeal. Smith held that the separation of classes was rational. And he brushed aside Ford\'s argument that the law might discourage all appeals by manufacturers. He said Ford had not effectively demonstrated that the law was not rationally related to its purpose. ``Equal protection does not require that legislative efforts be perfect,\'\' Smith wrote, adding: ``The state\'s interest in (consumer protection) outweighs any deterrent effect on manufacturers.\'\'\r\n'),(849,2,'The dollar was significantly lower in European trading this morning after falling sharply against the yen in Asian markets. Gold steadied after opening higher. The dollar was under pressure because of President Bush\'s statement last week confirming his support for a tax increase, and the smooth start of German monetary union, dealers said. In Tokyo, the dollar closed at 151.40 yen, down 1.45 yen from the finish Friday, when the dollar fell 1.57 yen. Later in London, the dollar was quoted at 151.20 yen. Other dollar rates in Europe, compared with Friday: _1.6535 West German marks, down from 1.6653 _1.4010 Swiss francs, down from 1.4155 _5.5570 French francs, down from 5.5945 _1.8605 Dutch guilders, down from 1.8737 _1,214.60 Italian lire, down from 1,222.50 _1.1623 Canadian dollars, down from 1.1657 In London, the British pound was quoted at $1.7570, up from $1.7450 late Friday. The mark was boosted by the early success of monetary union with East Germany. Moderate cash withdrawals by East Germans dampened fears of excessive consumption and subsequent inflation, dealers said. The dollar\'s low opening in Tokyo followed a decline on overseas markets. It fell further as securities and life insurance companies actively sold it, dealers said. ``Market players bought the yen mainly because short-term interest rates have been rising,\'\' said a dealer with Mitsui Taiyo Kobe Bank, speaking on condition of anonymity. Also pushing the dollar lower was speculation over lower U.S. interest rates. Gold dealers in London fixed a recommended price of $357.10 per troy ounce this morning, up from $353.25 bid late Friday. In Zurich, the metal traded at $356.90 per troy ounce, up from $352.00 bid late Friday. Silver bullion rose in London to a bid price of $4.91 a troy ounce, from $4.84 bid late Friday.\r\n'),(850,2,'He mumbles, pulls at his tie, looks uncomfortable when mobbed by celebrities and knows little about protocol. This, plus a simple moral message, is what endears Vaclav Havel to a world weary of made-to-measure politicians. When he made his first presidential journey abroad, to East Germany, his aides had to scramble to get him his passport. It had been confiscated by the ousted Communist bosses. Now, three months after his fairy-tale ascent from prisoner to president, Havel has visited 10 countries. This week it was France and Britain. As usual, he was watched with adoration. Havel is using his position as a platform to expound on a political philosophy developed over 20 years of writing. His voice is gravelly from years of chain-smoking, he sometimes mumbles or bumps into the microphone, but his words are clear, simple and direct: ``Totalitarianism deforms the human soul. People in Czechoslovakia are constantly asking me about ways to implement the new freedom. And I tell them, implement it in any way you wish.\'\' He is one of a kind, an artist-stateman and the darling of the intelligentsia: Kurt Vonnegut, Zubin Mehta, Paul Simon, Edward Albee in New York; in Paris, an all-star cast led by actor Alain Delon; Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter and Jeremy Irons among the guests at a reception given by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. ``In the United States we encountered almost embarrassing adulation,\'\' said Havel\'s spokesman Michael Zantovsky. ``They treated him as if he were some kind of modern prophet, and he is not particularly eager to become one.\'\' Instead he is modest, shy, prone to blush. He deflects attention with humor and irony. He stands behind tables and against walls, away from the center of the room. At one point he even managed somehow to hunch his short frame under a loudspeaker. Except for the suit and tie, there is little to distinguish Havel the harassed dissident from Havel the president. ``The reception he gets is something we have been absolutely unprepared for,\'\' Zantovsky said. ``It really is too much of a good thing.\'\' At the London reception Thursday night, in his own milieu of theater and art, Havel looked relaxed. With a cut-crystal glass of white wine and a cigarette in one hand, gesticulating with the other, he chatted with men in ponytails and earrings and women in men\'s suits. Havel clearly enjoys the drama of his situation and the theatricality of the presidency. The new uniforms he picked to replace the drab khaki of communism on the palace honor guard, for example, were created by the costume designer for Milos Forman\'s film, ``Amadeus.\'\' But Havel\'s performance abroad is unrehearsed and improvisation is not without pitfalls. At his Paris news conference he kept tugging at his tie as if it were a noose around a neck more accustomed to open-necked shirts. A British TV commentary described him as ``refreshingly naive.\'\' After shaking hands with Prince Philip on the stately steps of Buckingham Palace, he wiped his sweaty palm on his pants, apparently unaware that the nation would see it on TV. But if there were rough edges, they were always softened by Havel\'s polished and thoughtful words. Like all the speeches he has given over the past three months, they were a logical extension of the limpid essays he has written for 20 years. Introducing him to an audience of intellectuals on Wednesday, political commentator Timothy Garton-Ash called him ``an exceptional example of what I might call moral leadership through language.\'\' From a moral base built on years of fighting tyranny, Havel preaches political morality at a time when old political blocs and policies are crumbling. His watchwords are ``living in truth,\'\' preserving the sanctity of words, revering freedom. He insists he will serve as president only until Czechoslovakia has free elections, and these are scheduled for June. But already his impact looks permanent. His words, Ash said, have become ``letters to the world.\'\' Or, as The Times of London put it: ``Havel is an idea whose man has come.\'\'\r\n'),(851,2,'The Senate inched toward bipartisan agreement late Thursday on a proposed aid package for Nicaragua\'s Contra rebels after Democrats promised to ensure a chance for a separate vote on military aid before Congress adjourns for the year. ``We\'re getting very, very close,\'\' said Sen. David Boren of Oklahoma, a pro-Contra Democrat, after a day of proposals and counterproposals between the two parties. A key to reaching agreement appeared to be a new letter from House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, promising to bring any request from President Reagan for weapons aid for the rebels to a quick vote. The letter, Boren said, would include a guarantee that Congress would not adjourn without acting on such a request first. Wright made a similar promise as part of an agreement on humanitarian aid for the Contras last March, but several Republican senators said they needed stronger assurances. ``There\'s a great deal of suspicion of Jim Wright,\'\' said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The negotiations, which included Reagan\'s national security adviser, Colin Powell, began shortly after the White House rejected a Democratic aid proposal that had been worked out a day earlier. Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas drew up a list of objections to the Democratic aid proposal, and Democrats said later they were willing to make some minor changes in an effort to win broader support for the measure. ``We\'d love to see Bob Dole and the Republicans join us on this,\'\' said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. But Dodd added that Democrats would not budge on major aspects of the package because to do so would destroy the fragile agreement among Democrats that led to the proposal on Wednesday. The Democratic proposal, which defers action on lethal aid for the rebels until later this year, ``falls far short of getting any real hope for freedom and democracy in Nicaragua,\'\' said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. ``Humanitarian aid is too limited, too narrowly defined, to be of any real help.\'\' But Fitzwater noted that existing humanitarian aid doesn\'t run out until Sept. 30, leaving time to work out a middle ground on the issue. ``There\'s a good chance for Contra aid legislation to pass,\'\' he told reporters. ``Legislators on both sides of aisle and the White House seem to share the feeling of outrage about the Sandinistas and support for the Contras, so I think there\'s a very good chance of passage of some kind of legislation.\'\' Fitzwater referred to recent actions by the leftist government in Managua to crack down on opponents, shut down opposition media outlets and expel U.S. diplomats. The most vigorous objection from Republican senators to the Democratic proposal was to its provisions setting up a later congressional vote on whether to resume the flow of weapons aid to the rebels. The package worked out by Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., would require any presidential request for lethal aid to go for consideration first by the House, which has traditionally been more resistant to such aid. Republicans also argued that it would give undue influence to House Speaker Wright, an aid opponent. ``Nobody trusts the speaker,\'\' said Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo., emerging from a meeting of Contra supporters. He said Wright has reneged on past promises as to when and how he would bring Contra aid to the House floor for a vote. Byrd characterized his aid package, worked out over two weeks of discussions with more than a dozen Senate Democrats, as one that would give incentives to both the Sandinistas and the rebels to revive and conclude their faltering peace talks. The proposal would provide an additional $27 million in food, clothing, shelter and medical supplies to continue current rates of such aid through next March. It also promises economic and trade assistance for Nicaragua if Managua goes along with ``a comprehensive final agreement to provide for peace and democracy in Nicaragua.\'\' Conversely, some $16.3 million worth of stockpiled weaponry could be released to the Contras if President Reagan certifies before Congress adjourns for the year that two of three conditions are met: the Sandinistas continue to violate terms of a regional peace accord; Nicaragua receives ``unacceptable\'\' levels of Soviet-bloc weaponry and the Sandinistas launch an ``unprovoked military attack\'\' on the Contras. But the weapons, withheld from delivery to rebel forces since the two sides entered a cease-fire earlier this year, would not be released unless both houses of Congress voted to accept Reagan\'s certification, with the House going first.\r\n');
