



INSERT INTO `corpora` VALUES (2088,2,'Vice President George Bush, during a campaign stop here, said the United States should do ``whatever is necessary, including military force\'\' to protect American interests in Panama. Bush stopped short of calling for military intervention in Panama in the wake of the ouster of President Eric Arturo Delvalle, saying that the United States\' past history of intervention in Latin American affairs is ``what\'s hurting us in some areas now.\'\' He told the South Carolina Press Association: ``We will do whatever is necessary to protect American interests in Panama. We\'ve got treaty interests on the (Panama) canal. I don\'t want to rattle any sabers. ... ``But we would obviously as the United States, and I would, reserve the right to do whatever is necessary, including military force, to protect America\'s sacred interest in that region of the world.\'\' The vice president, given a strong South Carolina lead in a poll published today, was heading for Atlanta after a day of campaigning Thursday in South Carolina, whose Republican presidential primary is Saturday, March 5. A poll by The Charlotte Observer indicated Bush was the favorite in the state\'s GOP contest, with the support of 41 percent of those likely to vote in the primary. Sen. Bob Dole trailed with 29 percent; former television evangelist Pat Robertson had 13 percent; and Rep. Jack Kemp had 4 percent. Twelve percent were undecided. On Thursday, Bush seemed to be confidently raising the stakes as he declared, ``South Carolina is going to stand alone as the forerunner of who is going to be president, in my view.\'\' Bush traveled by motorcade through the state\'s northwestern corner, stopping at colleges, technical schools, a high school, popular restaurants and a sidewalk crowd in nearby Greenwood. At one of his first stops, Bush addressed head-on the issue of the region\'s major textile industry and the calls by its leaders for limits on foreign imports. Textile leaders contend the industry has been damaged by cheap imports and they want legislation imposing limits on foreign products brought into the United States. Bush referred to that as a ``pure, all-out\'\' protectionist policy that may cost three other jobs while saving one. He said existing trade laws are adequate if enforced. ``That\'s not the answer,\'\' Bush said. ``The answer is, we can compete if the playing field is level. I will enforce the laws. I will guarantee you that there is every effort made towards fair trade.\'\' A day earlier rival Bob Dole campaigned in the state and pledged to support the legislation in the Senate _ similar to legislation that President Reagan vetoed over textile-state objections two years ago. Bush argued that South Carolina\'s economy has been growing and pointed to figures he said show 62,000 new jobs were created in the state last year, including 2,700 in textiles. He contended currency differences with Japan are improving and that manufacturing and agricultural imports have climbed recently. ``We\'re seeing improvement out there,\'\' he said. Bush cited evidence of economic improvement at most every stop but didn\'t repeat his opposition to the textile import limits until asked. ``There have got to be some changes before I\'d be for it,\'\' he said. Bush rode in his armored limo for most of the day but spent one leg of the trip on a bus with about 40 active supporters from the area. He said that Dole\'s endorsement by Sen. Strom Thurmond ``makes the stakes higher for Dole\'\' in South Carolina. Thurmond, however, didn\'t provide enough help to make a difference for his GOP primary favorite eight years ago _ Texan John Connally. Bush was accompanied by South Carolina Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr., his state chairman, and national campaign manager Lee Atwater, a native South Carolinian. Atwater attached much significance to the state\'s primary even while arguing Bush could withstand a loss here. He said that if Robertson fails to beat Bush in South Carolina he won\'t win a single state. And Atwater said if Dole finishes third in South Carolina, ``I think he\'s going to lose every single state on Super Tuesday\'\' when 20 states including all the rest of the South hold primaries. The Observer\'s poll, conducted by the newspaper\'s market research division, surveyed 687 registered voters who indicated they were likely to participate in the primary. The margin of error is 4 percentage points, the newspaper said.\r\n'),(2089,2,'Stocks opened mixed today in slow trading, influenced by new uncertainty about the outlook for inflation, interest rates and the dollar. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials was up 4.62 points to 2,079.30 by 10 a.m. EST. Among broader indicators, the New York Stock Exchange composite index of all listed issues rose 0.34 to 150.97. The American Stock Exchange market-value index rose 0.66 to 291.85. Gaining and declining issues were nearly even on the NYSE, with 415 up, 414 down and 495 unchanged. Volume totaled 14.96 million shares after the first 30 minutes of trading. Wall Street strategists were divided about the market\'s direction. Many said prices were due to strengthen given the pessimism that has pervaded for awhile, making some stocks attractive. Others said too many economic uncertainties were making stocks risky. An Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries price-boosting accord could raise the inflation rate, the dollar has been facing heavy selling pressure and talk has increased about a possible Federal Reserve move to tighten interest rates. On Friday the Dow Jones industrial average fell 17.60 points to 2,074.68, finishing the week with a net gain of 12.27. Declining issues outnumbered advances by about 3 to 2 on the NYSE, with 513 up, 778 down and 521 unchanged. Big Board volume came to 72.09 million shares, down from 112.01 million Wednesday and the lightest total since a 48.86 million-share day on Dec. 26, 1986.\r\n'),(2090,2,'If the chief executive officer of a major company ran his business affairs in the same manner as the federal government does, he would lose his job. There is almost no question this would be his fate because the board of directors, answerable to the shareholders, would be compelled to ask why, for example, he was unaware of the company\'s poor financial condition. And he wouldn\'t have a good answer. They would ask why he made decisions based on inaccurate information, why his flow of information was inadequate, why it took so long to assemble, why he failed to take action until months after the problems had become crises. The federal government has fought the problem but it hasn\'t succeeded, and elected and appointed officials still must make decisions on the basis of insufficient or unreliable information. In the second quarter, based on the best evidence available to the Commerce Department in late July, the economy expanded at an annual rate of 1.2 percent -weak, but still strong enough to convince officials to refrain from taking action. This week, three months after the second quarter ended, it became known to the President that the economy had been failing in that period, just skirting recession, growing at a bare four-tenths of a percent. The White House expressed surprise and concern, and Michael Boskin, the White House chief economic adviser, conceded the economy was now on a weaker path than had been known. The administration halved its earlier projections. While the Federal Reserve has its own data retrieval methods, by means of which it seeks to anticipate and fine-tune the economic direction, it too must have been surprised by the tardy news. You can\'t foresee with ancient data. The situation points up the problem of running an economy so huge that data cannot be assembled in time to act. Not only does its collection take time, but when assembled it is incredibly complex, making it subject to revision. It is such a revision that now reveals the April-June economy was tripping on a tightrope rather than steady on its feet as officials had believed, in spite of fears expressed by private economists and business people. The problem has existed since economic statistics were first gathered, but it becomes more serious when the economy is walking the line between recession and expansion, as it is now, or when efforts are made to fine tune. Fine tuning, defined more by the attempt than the accomplishment, seeks to deal with the economy over shorter periods of time than is usually the case - by the month or even week, for example, rather than the quarter or the year. In the Federal Reserve\'s area of authority it would mean keeping an especially close watch, among other things, on the money supply and interest rates, which of course rely on accurate measurements of economic activity. Generally speaking, economists both in and out of government have no choice but to use official statistics in analyzing business and economic conditions, but some private-sector economists have recently complained about inaccuracies. Some, in fact, have devised their own computer-aided techniques for gathering and analyzing information, hoping to make themselves less reliant on the official statistics. The latest revision, however, is an extremely critical one that presents a brand new perspective and forces changes in forecasts throughout government and industry, and it will add to the complaints.\r\n'),(2091,2,'A former Argentine general accused of kidnapping and killing civilians in his country was told his refusal to answer lawyers\' questions would harm him in a U.S. civil suit by a former prisoner. U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti told Carlos Suarez Mason on Wednesday that if he continued his silence, any fact he was asked about would be considered true for the purposes of the $20 million lawsuit. Suarez Mason, who is fighting extradition to Argentina, defied an order by a federal magistrate earlier this week and refused to answer questions about his alleged responsibility for atrocities in military prisons during the late 1970s. The proposed questions include whether Suarez Mason had authority to order torture and executions at prisons run by the First Army Corps, which he commanded from 1976 to 1979. The former general said Monday he would not answer questions without having a lawyer. The issue of whether the lawyer Suarez Mason has hired for the extradition case must also represent him in three civil suits without additional pay is now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Conti told the lawyers to submit written questions and ordered Suarez Mason to be ready to answer on March 28, a day before the scheduled trial of the civil suit and a week after his scheduled extradition hearing before another judge. Suarez Mason, 63, is charged in Argentina with 43 murders and 24 kidnappings of civilians, allegedly committed by soldiers under his command during the so-called ``dirty war\'\' against suspected leftists. He fled Argentina after a civilian government came to power in 1983 and was arrested in January 1987 at his home in Foster City, south of San Francisco. He is being held without bail. Three civil suits have been filed against him by former Argentinians now living in the United States, who say they were tortured or their relatives were killed by soldiers under the general\'s command. U.S. courts have allowed damage suits for acts committed abroad in violation of international law by a foreigner who is physicially in the court\'s district.\r\n'),(2092,2,'Iraq today accused Iran of shelling Iraqi military positions near the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the Persian Gulf war broke out nearly eight years ago. The attacks, if confirmed, would be the first serious fighting reported since both nations agreed Monday at the United Nations to begin a cease-fire Aug. 20 and to open direct talks in Geneva five days later. The accusation came in a brief statement from the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations. It said the attacks occurred Wednesday and today. The statement said ``the Iranian armed forces bombarded Iraqi military positions\'\' around Basra and the Faw peninsula with howitzers, mortars and small missiles. The brief report to the United Nations did not denounce Iran. The statement also did not say whether Iraq suffered casualties. U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who had no immediate comment on the statement, scheduled a meeting with Iraqi Ambassador Ismat Kittani at the ambassador\'s request, presumably to discuss the situation. When Perez de Cuellar announced the cease-fire date, Iran gave him a letter pledging it would not launch any attacks prior Aug. 20. Iraq did not submit a similar letter, but the U.N. chief said Tuesday he had received oral assurances from both nations they would exercise restraint. The main attack on Basra involved 214 howitzer shells, 205 mortar rounds and 32 small missiles, the Iraqi statement said. The Faw bombardment involved 26 howitzer shells, 32 mortar rounds and 16 small missiles, it added. Both targets are near Shatt al-Arab, the disputed waterway that forms the southern border between Iran and Iraq. It is the only sea outlet Iraq has and it has been blocked by Iran since early in the war. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 after border skirmishes in a bid to gain complete control of the waterway. Today\'s Iraqi statement also said without elaborating that an Iranian tank fired two missiles at Iraqi positions in the ``northern sector\'\' of the border. On Wednesday, Iran\'s U.N. ambassador, Mohammad Ja\'afar Mahallati, complained to Parez de Cuellar that Iraqi warplanes had buzzed Iranian cities and warned that more such flights could jeopardize the proposed truce. In Tehran on Wednesday, Iran\'s acting commander-in-chief, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said a U.N. inquiry must condemn Iraq as the aggressor in the war or the region will face grave consequences. After meeting with the U.N. chief, Mahallati told reporters that Iraqi overflights ``can be a dangerous opening. If it (the overflights) would be continued, I am afraid that it is an obstacle in the way of the secretary-general carrying out his task.\'\' Perez de Cuellar said of the alleged overflights: ``I am persuaded that if something happened, it was kind of a mistake, a technical mistake, a misunderstanding.\'\'\r\n'),(2093,2,'Thousands of people who worked at the fire-ravaged First Interstate Bank tower have moved to temporary quarters in a generally trouble-free transition. Some of the new space even was provided by competing financial institutions. ``Our fiercest competitors have been very nice in this crisis,\'\' said Bob Campbell, a spokesman for First Interstate. The three-hour, 43-minute blaze a week ago gutted 4{ floors in the 62-story tower, the tallest building in California, and caused one death and 40 injuries. An 12th-floor electrical problem was the suspected cause. It will take six to 10 weeks to reopen floors of the vacated 1 million square-foot building that were damaged by smoke and water, officials said. Mal Lumby, a spokesman for First Interstate, said there are no firm estimates yet on how long it will take to repair the burned floors. ``It could be as long as a year. It\'s all speculation at this point. The analysis of the metal (structural beams) has not yet been done,\'\' Lumby said. Most of First Interstate\'s 2,000 bank and holding company employees have been working in their new locations since Friday. About 900 report daily to the bank\'s emergency operations center several blocks from the burned building. The center, described by Campbell as ``the operations hub of the bank\'\' is where employees handle check clearings, statements and securities operations. ``Customer service didn\'t miss a beat,\'\' said another bank spokesman, John Popovich. Several hundred other people moved to vacant space in nearby buildings; about 800 are on call at home enjoying a paid vacation. ``No one is being laid off,\'\' Campbell said, adding that First Interstate hoped to have space next week for all employees. Bank of America and Security Pacific National Bank helped out the competition in the emergency. Bank of America provided sub-leased office space at downtown for three of the 10 banks operating out of the First Interstate tower. Corporate officers of First Interstate and their clerical staffs moved into a 23,700 square-foot area of the 10th floor of the Bank of America headquarters, said Bank of America spokesman Tom Chapman. Hanil Bank of Korea moved its employes into 4,800 square feet of space, he said, and Commerzbank of Germany workers moved into a 3,800-square-foot area on the 47th floor of the Bank of America headquarters. Popovich credited the bank\'s emergency plan and satellite headquarters, a $1.5 million contingency facility, for keeping the bank in operation. ``Of course, we expected an earthquake, but it was nice to have it (the plan) handy,\'\' he said. First Interstate owns the bank tower in partnership with Equitable Life Assurance Society. Equitable\'s real estate subsidiary, Equitable Real Estate in New York, manages the building. There also were 30 other tenants, mostly legal firms employing about 1,400 people, with operations in the now-closed tower. Many attorneys have taken refuge in nearby legal offices. ``There has been great community generosity here and reaching out,\'\' Equitable\'s Jonathan Miller said Wednesday from New York. Suitcase- and box-toting employees, accompanied by security officers, have been making a daily pilgrimage to the fire-scarred tower to pick up crucial files, computer disks and other items such as telephone lists.\r\n'),(2094,2,'Senate leaders and President Bush compromised Thursday on future air pollution controls for automobiles, factories and electric power plants, enhancing chances that a clean air bill will pass this year. The agreement, after more than three weeks of closed-door negotiations, was viewed as a middle ground likely to attract enough support to thwart continuing regional opposition in the looming Senate debate. Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, called the compromise a ``sound and comprehensive\'\' agreement that will substantially improve air quality over the next decade. He planned to bring the legislation to the Senate floor on Monday. ``President Bush is extraordinarily pleased with the agreement. It is a milestone, an enormous step forward,\'\' said Roger Porter, the president\'s chief domestic policy adviser. Porter said the administration would attempt to expedite Senate passage and seek a similar agreement in the House, where clean-air legislation remains in committee. But the compromise is still likely to encounter stiff industry lobbying, largely because of its estimated $20 billion to $40 billion annual cost to the economy. Both industrial and environmental groups issued statements Thursday denouncing the compromise. Some senators also have expressed concern that the bargaining weakened provisions in the original Senate bill that would have required stronger automobile emission controls to combat urban smog. Other have voiced continued concern about the impact of acid rain controls. ``The agreement fails to require the controls we need to provide clean air in the nation and in New Jersey,\'\' said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who participated in some of the private discussions, but said he would not support the compromise on the Senate floor. Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., the minority leader, called the compromise ``a giant step forward\'\' in revising federal air pollution laws for the first time in 13 years. But he cautioned that many senators likely will seek changes when the measure goes to the Senate floor. He urged Mitchell ``not to handcuff anyone\'\' during the floor action by rushing to cut off debate. The agreement made some accommodations to regional interests, especially those concerned about the local economic cost of acid rain controls. On that score, the compromise continues to require a 10 million ton annual reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions, but allows Midwest utilities to achieve extra credits and allowances that could be sold to other utilities to recoup some of the costs. Plants that use new technology _ instead of switching away from high-sulfur coal to another fuel _ could delay compliance for two years would receive additional credits for early cuts in emissions, provisions designed to help West Virginia\'s coal industry. About a dozen senators from the Midwest had threatened to filibuster the legislation if some accommodation were not met to ease their concerns about the high costs of the pollution controls. Mitchell said he still could not discount the threat of a filibuster, but various Senate sources suggested that with the compromise, Mitchell likely would have enough votes to halt debate. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said he would seek additional changes to the bill. But ``I\'m not going to engage in any filibuster,\'\' he said. ``We did not have a choice between the good, the bad and the ugly. We had a choice between ugly, uglier and ugliest,\'\' said Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., who during the private talks sought to work out provisions to ease the plight of Midwest utilities that rely heavily on high-sulfur coal. The breakthrough on the legislation came Wednesday when leaders agreed on pollution curbs on automobiles. The compromise eliminates an automatic second round of auto tailpipe controls, although such measures could be put into effect if more than 11 of 27 cities with ``serious\'\' ozone pollution problems fail to meet federal air quality standards at the end of this decade. The White House had strongly opposed the second round of controls, as had the auto industry. But environmentalists, state pollution control officials in areas with the dirtiest air, and some senators argued the second round of controls are needed to deal with smog in such areas as southern California and the Northeast. In the final days of negotiations, an agreement also came on the acid rain provision, after senators from the West were assured that the utility emission controls would allow for future growth in electric capacity and some accommodation was made to the Midwest region. Earlier tentative agreements were struck on how to curb toxic and smog-causing emissions from industrial plants. Under the compromise, industrial plants will have to use the best available technology to curb releases of 192 toxic chemicals including carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents. Early in the next decade a ``health standard\'\' would require plants to reduce emissions further, if the cancer risk to nearby residents is still too high. A broad range of industries and businesses also would have to comply with tougher controls on smog-causing emissions. The compromise, however, would exempt thousands of smaller polluters, which would have been covered by the original Senate bill. Environmental groups, meanwhile, chastised the negotiations and said the compromise agreement severely weakened the original Senate bill. ``The back-room dealing has generated bad deals for the American people,\'\' complained Richard Ayres, chairman of the National Clean Air Coalition. But industry did not like the agreement either. The Edison Electric Institute called the agreement ``unnecessarily costly\'\' for the nation\'s utilities. The Chemical Manufacturers Association called the tougher controls on toxic chemicals too stringent and politically motivated and ignoring scientific facts about health risks. The agreement is ``far from what business and industry would consider acceptable,\'\' said William Fay, administrator of the Clean Air Working Group, industry\'s umbrella lobbying organization on clean air issues. ``There\'s no question the bill has been improved but there are still some real problems,\'\' said Helen Petrauskas, vice president for environmental engineering at Ford Motor Co. Though the bill avoids any requirement that automakers sell a specific number of cars that burn clean fuels, which favors industry, the exhaust standards are still tougher than the industry would like, she said.\r\n'),(2095,2,'Iraq\'s foreign minister said Saturday that the 10-day-old Persian Gulf peace talks were stalled at their starting point, and he blamed Iran for the delay. Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz spoke to reporters at the U.N. building in Geneva after a nearly two-hour meeting with U.N. mediator Jan Eliasson. ``We are still at square one,\'\' Aziz said. ``We have not gone beyond that square because the other side, the Iranian side, has not yet shown any substantive sign that ... they realize their commitments vis-a-vis the cease-fire.\'\' He said those commitments had to do with freedom of navigation and with the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, Iraq\'s main outlet to the sea. Iran has insisted it has the right to stop vessels in the gulf and share control of the waterway. The dispute over the waterway is one of the key issues in the talks. Aziz also accused Iran of using ``their traditional art of procrastination\'\' in the talks. ``Maybe they were betting that procrastination would make people fed up and then give up. We don\'t.\'\' He said Iraqi delegates would stay at the talks as long as necessary. Iran made no immediate response to his comments. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati later held a nearly three-hour meeting with Eliasson that lasted until after midnight. As Velayati left, he told reporters the talks were constructive. Iran\'s foreign minister said ``we do hope that we can continue our talks during the next day or the day after tomorrow\'\' and added that ``we should see how things are going\'\' after the weekend. He declined further comment. Earlier Saturday, Eliasson told reporters he was working hard to find a format to advance the talks. However, an Iranian delegate speaking on condition of anonymity said the problem was substance, not form. The talks are aimed at agreeing on follow-up measures to the U.N.-sponsored cease-fire that took effect Aug. 20. The Iran-Iraq conflict, which began in September 1980, has claimed about 1 million lives. Eliasson said, ``We are working hard and we hope that we will be advancing.\'\' But he reported little movement. He spoke shortly before meeting with Aziz and other members of the Iraqi delegation. Eliasson, named special representative Thursday by U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, met separately with both ministers Friday. Perez de Cuellar left Geneva on Thursday, after mediating the first week of the talks. Perez de Cuellar said before he left Geneva that the main problem in the talks was that the two sides did not trust each other. On Friday, the Iranian mission in Geneva released a list of 47 alleged Iraqi violations of the cease-fire. On Saturday, the Iraqi mission distributed a copy of an Iraqi News Agency report that also accused Iran of committing 47 cease-fire violations. Iran has called for the immediate withdrawal of troops behind their respective borders. It also calls for quick implementation of the provisions of the U.N. Security Council\'s cease-fire resolution, particularly establishment of an independent inquiry to establish which side started the war.\r\n'),(2096,2,'Entomologists say they want endangered species protection for a recently rediscovered butterfly that experts believed had been extinct for more than 50 years. Paul Hammond, an Oregon State University entomologist and butterfly expert, said he rediscovered the butterflies by accident. ``In the spring of 1989 I hiked out onto a south-facing slope of a hill that had native prairie on it, and here was this very unusual kind of lupine plant with all these little blue butterflies swimming around on it. ``I knew immediately what it was,\'\' he said. It was Fender\'s blue butterfly, a relic of the ice ages found only in Oregon\'s Willamette Valley. The butterfly was last seen near the small town of Wren, west of Corvallis, in 1937. Since that find last year, several pockets of the species have been found in western Oregon. A petition is being prepared to ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to declare the butterfly a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. Hammond said the butterfly has a wingspan of only about 1 inch. The male is a ``brilliant, iridescent blue,\'\' he said. ``They really stand out. The female is a drab brown.\'\' The butterfly dates back more than 10,000 years, Hammond said. Surrounded by glaciers to the north and mountains to the south, east and west, the butterfly\'s habitat was limited to a small area of the Willamette Valley.\r\n'),(2097,2,'Changes in adoption laws designed to curb illegal ``baby trade\'\' have restricted the ability of foreigners to adopt Filipino youngsters and may mean that many will spend their childhood in orphanages. New regulations, which took effect Aug. 3, ban adoptions of Filipino children by foreigners residing in the country unless at least one prospective parent is related to the child. Foreigners living abroad can still adopt Filipino children through international agencies. But prospective parents living here will have to return to their own country and file papers there through an international agency. The procedure can take years, depending on the adoption laws in the country where the papers are filed. Government figures indicate that in recent years about 17 percent of the 2,500 children adopted here annually have been taken by foreigners residing in the Philippines and who were not related to the child. More than a third of all adoptions of Filipino children are by foreigners, including those who file papers abroad and would not be affected by the changes. ``The new code is not anti-foreigner,\'\' said Lourdes Balanon, assistant director of the government\'s Bureau of Child and Youth Welfare. ``It is an effort by the government to protect our children.\'\' Ms. Balanon said that in the past foreigners could adopt Filipino children in a few weeks. Previous regulations allowed single foreigners to adopt with much less red tape than in the United States or other countries. Ms. Balanon added that although many of the adoptive foreign parents were of good character, others may have been fronts for ``baby trading\'\' _ selling youngsters to couples abroad who were unable to have children. ``Mothers were convinced to give up their children, and even kidnapping may have been encouraged,\'\' she said. Because local adoptions usually were arranged without the services of an international agency, the government here had no way of ensuring the child\'s welfare once the parents left the country. But some welfare workers fear the new regulations will discourage legitimate adoptions by qualified foreign families, living in a country without a tradition of taking in children who are not related to those who adopt them. In Filipino society, adoption of children with no blood ties is rare. Government figures show that in the past two years, only 5 percent of the children adopted here were taken by Filipino couples who were not related by blood. Traditionally, orphans and children of impoverished parents unable to care for them become the responsibility of the ``extended family\'\' _ uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents. But children born out of wedlock are often kept secret from their families. Abortion is technically illegal and birth control is frequently shunned in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. Unwed mothers find themselves under tremendous social pressure to turn their infants over to religious or government orphanages. In other cases, extended families sometimes are too poor to take in another child. ``Older children will be especially affected,\'\' said Lisa Hechenova of the Asilio de San Vincente de Paul Orphange in Manila. ``Because if Filipinos adopt at all, they want infants. Foreigners are more inclined to accept toddlers and even 6-to-10-year olds.\'\' Jose, a 3-year-old toddler at Manila\'s Hospicio de San Jose Orphanage, is one of those children who, because of new regulations, may never have a home. He has been at the orphanage for more than eight months because officials have had difficulty finding him a home and the new changes in the law will make it even more difficult. Seven-year-old Maria was among the last children adopted by a resident foreign couple. She was given in July to a European couple. Maria said she never knew her natural parents. ``But I used to dream about them every night. Only they didn\'t have faces.\'\'\r\n'),(2098,2,'A former church secretary has pleaded guilty to murder charges in the 1983 slaying of her husband and admitted that she gave her former minister the handgun used to kill him. The alleged love triangle formed the basis of a television miniseries. Lorna Anderson Eldridge, 35, entered the plea to second-degree murder Thursday, telling the court that she and Thomas Bird plotted the 1983 slaying of Martin K. Anderson. Mrs. Eldridge said she and Bird hatched a plot in which she stopped her van on a rural highway and pretended to lose her keys so that her husband had to get out and look for them. The Lutheran pastor then shot her husband, she said. The slaying and Mrs. Eldridge\'s reputed love affair with Bird were dramatized in the CBS miniseries ``Murder Ordained\'\' in 1987. Mrs. Eldridge and Bird, 38, already are serving prison terms. She pleaded guilty in 1985 to criminal solicitation in an earlier, unsuccessful plot on her husband\'s life and was sentenced to five to 18 years. Bird, who has not been charged in Anderson\'s death, was convicted in 1984 of criminal solicitation in the unsuccessful plot. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half to seven years in that case, and to life in prison for murdering his wife, Sandra, in 1983. Sheriff Bill Deppish said Mrs. Eldridge\'s statement was an ``important breakthrough\'\' that could lead to new charges against Bird. Mrs. Eldridge, who remarried, originally was charged with first-degree murder but accepted a plea bargain under which the prosecution will seek a 10-year prison term at sentencing Jan. 3. Second-degree murder carries a maximum penalty of 20 years to life in prison. Jack Focht, Mrs. Eldridge\'s attorney, called the case ``kind of the great American tragedy _ that people romantically come apart sometimes and get involved romantically and violence sometimes happens. ``And when it happens as it did on Nov. 4, 1983, lives get stamped indelibly, lots of lives,\'\' he said.\r\n'),(2099,2,'EDITOR\'S NOTE _ For decades she labored in obscurity, writing the poems that no one would publish. Now at an age when most people are considering retiring, Amy Clampitt has begun to attract attention in the literary world.\r\n'),(2100,2,'The spot month contract for West Texas Intermediate crude was $18.46 per barrel at 12 p.m. Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.\r\n'),(2101,2,'Today\'s 17th game of the Garry Kasparov-Anatoly Karpov world chess championship has been postponed until Wednesday at Kasparov\'s request. The two Soviet grandmasters are scheduled to resume the 16th game on Tuesday. That game was contested for five hours Saturday and nearly six hours Sunday without a result after 88 moves. Through the 15 completed games, the players are tied with 7.5 points each. They have had three draws in the French portion of the championship. They had 10 draws in the 12 games played at New York between Oct. 8 and Nov. 7. The first player to reach 12.5 points wins the championship, but Kasparov would retain the title in the event of a 12-12 draw. Each player is allowed to request up to three postponements during the championship. The postponement requested by Kasparov today was his second. Karpov has used one timeout.\r\n'),(2102,2,'General Electric Co. said its scientists have put a superconducting film on a silicon chip and gotten it to work at temperatures warmer than liquid nitrogen, the first such achievement. The matching of a superconductor and silicon is considered important because of silicon\'s dominance in the microelectronics field, GE said in an announcement for release Thursday. ``Virtually all of the world\'s microchips are made from silicon, so if you want to use the new superconducting materials in any way in microelectronics, it is advantageous to be able to deposit them on this substrate,\'\' Antonio Mogro-Campero, who did the research along with Larry G. Turner, said in a statement. Previous attempts to apply a superconducting film on silicon had failed because the layers mixed in the process of heating the film, known as annealing. Researchers at GE\'s research center in Schenectady, N.Y., solved the problem by using a buffer layer of zirconia, a heat-resistant metallic oxide. GE said the thin film remained superconducting _ that is, with zero loss of energy to resistance _ at temperatures as high as 310 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, 10 degrees above the point at which nitrogen becomes liquid.\r\n'),(2103,2,'Liberal Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen said Vatican officials have indicated he will regain full control of the Seattle archdiocese. Hunthausen, who returned Tuesday from a week in Rome, said he was ``hoping for some kind of a statement\'\' within weeks that will officially end the Vatican\'s direct assistance to the archdiocese. But a conservative Catholic group charged Wednesday that violations of church practices are continuing and said it will not let up in its criticism. ``I haven\'t seen a great change here,\'\' Margaret Hoffman, director of the Sons of St. Peter Coalition, said Wednesday. ``I\'ve seen things happen currently that are not in line with church teaching. I think we as laymen have a duty to report abuses ... for the health of the church.\'\' Hunthausen\'s weeklong visit to Rome was to fulfill the requirement that bishops consult with the pope every five years. The archbishop ran afoul of the Vatican in 1983 over the granting of annulments and general absolution of sins, intercommunion with Protestants and opening of churches to meetings of homosexual Catholics. A Vatican investigation resulted in the archbishop being stripped of much of his power. Although Hunthausen\'s full powers were restored in May 1987 on the recommendation of an apostolic commission appointed by Rome, the panel continued to assist in the operation of the Seattle archdiocese. Most recently, Hunthausen has shared authority with Coadjutor Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy, who accompanied Hunthausen to Rome to present Pope John Paul II and Vatican officials an overview of changes made and planned in the ministry. Hunthausen said there would be no visible changes in the way he handles the archdiocese\'s operations, now that some changes and clarifications have been made or at least initiated. An archdiocesan statement said Vatican officials also were told Hunthausen\'s critics appear ``bent on undoing the fabric of unity that exists among sincere and conscientious believers within the Body of Christ. ... In our judgment, their criticism ought not to be given serious attention.\'\' Hunthausen said Wednesday the ``small cadre\'\' of critics within the archdiocese are ``people with a different view of the church.\'\' ``We\'d love to be able to find a way to minister to them,\'\' he said.\r\n'),(2104,2,'The long arm of the Environmental Protection Agency is reaching out to the local town dump _ and the huge metropolitan landfill as well. EPA, in its first major effort to regulate the land disposal of household trash and garbage, is proposing rules that officials say would force nearly every municipal dump to take steps to protect the environment. Announced Wednesday, the plan would require all of the nation\'s municipal solid waste landfills to install often-expensive monitoring equipment to detect pollution of groundwater supplies. The proposal, not expected to be popular with local governments, would require the cleaning up of dumps found to be leaking contaminants into underground aquifers. The draft regulations would force operators to put waterproof covers over dumps when they are closed and would set restrictions on where a new dump can be located. Many dumps that open after the rules take effect, probably not before 1991, would have to install bottom liners to prevent leakage and have systems to collect the polluting liquids found in dumps. ``It\'s a very strong protective rule,\'\' said J. Winston Porter, assistant EPA administrator for solid waste and emergency response. ``In some cases, people are going to have to spend a lot of (compliance) money.\'\' The plan would leave many compliance details up to states, so long as a dump did not impose any greater danger to humans than a 1-in-10,000 chance of contracting cancer from water contaminated by a dump\'s leachate. Porter told a news conference that states would have flexibility to operate their own compliance programs with an underlying proviso: ``We don\'t care what you do, but you cannot leak.\'\' The proposal would apply to an estimated 6,000 solid waste landfills _ 78 percent of them owned by local governments _ that handle about 80 percent of the 160 million tons of household refuse produced each year, he said. At least one of every four municipal dumps is believed to be violating one or more state groundwater-protection standards, he said. Porter said the dangers posed by municipal dumps can be seen in the ``Superfund\'\' priority cleanup list, where nearly one of every five facilities awaiting decontamination was once a municipal solid waste landfill. Around the nation, less than a third of the operating dumps have groundwater monitoring systems, only 15 percent have bottom liners and only 5 percent have leachate collection systems, according to EPA. ``Almost all landfills will have to do something,\'\' Porter said. ``There are very few landfills that meet all these requirements.\'\' He said he could not estimate precisely how much cost would be added to the nation\'s annual $4 billion to $5 billion bill for dumping, burning and recycling its trash and garbage. One EPA control scenario estimated the extra cost could reach $800 million a year, or about $11 per household. ``It will add something to the homeowner\'s bill,\'\' Porter said. ``We don\'t think it will be dramatic.\'\' He said he expects positive reaction from states because they will have flexibility to structure their dump-control programs to meet particular hydrogeologic and topographical conditions. ``I think we\'ll get two other reactions: local governments will say this is too expensive and environmental groups will say it isn\'t strong enough,\'\' Porter said. He said the higher dump operating costs under the proposed rules could nudge local governments to make greater efforts to recycle trash, a move that could aid EPA\'s national goal of recycling 25 percent of all household refuse. EPA expects to take a year to obtain public comment on the proposal before making it final, Porter said. Dumps would then have 18 more months before they had to comply with the requirements. He said some dumps might close to evade the proposed rules, a move he acknowledged would leave them without leakproof covers unless they are in one of the handful of states that now require them.\r\n'),(2105,2,'An assailant ambushed and stabbed an Israeli policeman in the back Sunday near a church in the walled Old City marking the legendary burial place of Jesus, police said. The officer, identified as Moshe Tadji, 24, was in moderate condition at Jerusalem\'s Hadassah Hospital with a punctured lung after undergoing surgery to remove the knife, a hospital spokeswoman said. Police shut the city\'s stone-walled gates after the 11:00 a.m. attack for an hour and detained dozens of Palestinians in the area for questioning. The assault came on a day designated by Palestinian underground leaders in a leaflet for ``distinguished escalation\'\' as part of the 31-month-old uprising against Israel. Police Minister Roni Milo of the right-wing Likud bloc rushed to the scene from the weekly Cabinet session and vowed police would use tougher measures to prevent further attacks. ``We see this attack in a very grave light,\'\' Milo said on Israel radio. ``There are new methods of action that will be carried out as soon as possible,\'\' he added, without elaborating. Police and witnesses said Tadji, who routinely works in Jerusalem\'s square-mile old city, was ambushed by a youth with black curly hair and wearing blue jeans and a yellow shirt, outside the Holy Sepulcher church in the Christian Quarter. The church is held by Catholics to be the burial site of Jesus. Protestants believe the burial place is outside the walled city in a shrine called the ``Garden Tomb.\'\' Doctors later said they removed an 8-inch-long kitchen knife from Tadji\'s back and that he was in moderate condition, Hadassah spokeswoman Yael Bossem said. The area of the Holy Sepulcher has been a source of Arab-Jewish tensions following the settlement established by a group of armed Israelis in a nearby building in April. The Supreme Court later ordered most settlers evicted after strong protests from the United States, but allowed about 20 to remain pending resolution of a tenancy dispute in the building. Israel captured East Jerusalem, with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East war. Jerusalem was annexed shortly afterward. The city is home to more than 350,000 Jews and about 140,000 Palestinians. During the uprising, 723 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis and 45 Israelis have been slain by Arabs. Another 232 Palestinians have been killed by fellow Arabs as alleged collaborators with Israel. Also Sunday, Israel reopened a Palestinian vocational college in Abu Dis in the West Bank as part of a plan to reopen colleges shut during the uprising to prevent unrest.\r\n'),(2106,2,'The University of South Carolina\'s president has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on gifts for donors, office artwork and teaching salaries for celebrities such as Robby Benson and Jihan Sadat. Now James B. Holderman\'s lavish spending, which has given him trouble for years, has once again raised the ire of state lawmakers, who have warned him to spend public funds more wisely if he wants to keep his job. ``People are tired of it,\'\' Rep. Herb Kirsh said Monday. ``I feel things will be different from here on out. The public is demanding it. South Carolinians don\'t like that kind of spending.\'\' Legislators earlier this month blasted Holderman after local newspapers revealed he spent $533,898 in the past year on items such as $800-a-night hotel rooms for himself, $6,400 on sculptures for his office and $163,000 for meals and receptions for potential donors. Many of the expenses were charged to Holderman\'s $500,000 discretionary account _ which is funded with receipts from vending machines and concessions _ and his state-issued American Express card. By comparison, Clemson University President Max Lennon has a discretionary account of $18,000. Holderman has defended his spending as a vital part of fund-raising for the state-supported university of 40,000 students, saying his efforts have helped raise $25 million for USC in the last year. But he promised to keep his expenses down following public criticism. He said the fallout from the latest revelations has ``taught me the difficulty of taking a macro view of things.\'\' ``Some people tend to take a micro view of things, and that\'s where there seems to be a misunderstanding,\'\' he said last week. But if Holderman wants to remain at the helm of the state\'s flagship university, state lawmakers and his own board of trustees have insisted that he curb his spending. Kirsh said Holderman has set a bad example for students. If he does not follow spending guidelines being set by the newly elected board of trustees, the legislator said he would favor Holderman\'s dismissal. ``He\'s only doing it now because of the public outcry,\'\' Kirsh said. Board of trustees chairman Michael Mungo has also made it clear that Holderman must control his spending according to the guidelines or face dismissal. Holderman, who has presided over the university since 1977, first drew criticism in 1986 when it was revealed he ran up generous hotel bills during fund-raising trips and bought expensive gifts for donors. He then came under fire for spending huge amounts of money to recruit celebrities such as Benson, an actor and director who has taught filmmaking as an artist-in-residence since 1988. The school has paid Benson $158,367 in salary and expenses and $15,600 for rent, while Holderman has kicked in $10,000 from his discretionary account for moving and travel expenses. In addition, the university still holds about $23,000 in unpaid bills from the production of Benson\'s latest movie, ``Modern Love,\'\' which was filmed in South Carolina. Benson has said the bills will be paid and the school will receive 2 percent of the movie\'s profits. Benson\'s two-year contract expires Tuesday and no new contract offer has been made, school spokeswoman Debra Allen said Monday. Benson did not return calls left at his office Monday seeking comment, but he has said he would leave if his work was not appreciated. Other prominent personalities hired by Holderman for fat contracts include Jihan Sadat, widow of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who was paid $200,000 to teach a course in Egyptian culture for three semesters in 1985 and 1986. In contrast, ``Deliverance\'\' author James Dickey was hired in 1969, before Holderman came aboard, and receives an $80,000 annual salary to teach four writing courses. He pays his secretary\'s salary and his expenses out of his own pocket. The university under Holderman\'s leadership also has been criticized by lawmakers for sloppy bookkeeping and using public funds, employees and equipment to operate the school\'s 10 private fund-raising foundations.\r\n'),(2107,2,'Highflying former savings and loan owner Donald Ray Dixon goes on trial Wednesday on charges he used depositors\' money to finance lavish acquisitions, leaving taxpayers with a $1.3 billion federal bailout. Dixon, 50, traveled the world for gourmet parties and acquired such trinkets as a 17th Century castle door, Baccarat crystal, Remington sculptures, a silver-studded saddle and a posh house in Solana Beach, Calif., just north of San Diego. The government says those luxuries, as well as payments to prostitutes and political campaigns, were financed from the vaults at Vernon Savings & Loan Association, which collapsed under the weight of Dixon\'s excess in 1987 and was taken over by the government. A dozen other Vernon executives and associates have preceded Dixon in court; 10 have been convicted and a guilty verdict against two others was set aside because the jury discussed Dixon\'s indictment. ``Perhaps when my day in court comes, if they\'ll listen, they\'ll find out what really happened and the blame can be properly assessed and properly assigned,\'\' Dixon said in July when he was arraigned on a 38-count indictment. The indictment charged him with conspiracy, misapplication of funds, making false statements and other crimes. Jury selection was to begin Wednesday in federal court. Testimony is expected to begin Monday, and continue three to four weeks. If convicted on all counts, Dixon could be sentenced to up to 190 years in prison and fined as much as $9.5 million. An extra-large panel of 75 to 80 potential jurors was called because of publicity in the case, said Jean Hiller, court coordinator for U.S. District Judge Joe A. Fish. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jarvis of Dallas said 40 to 50 prosecution witnesses could testify. Included on that list is a convicted madam, who has confirmed that she supplied prostitutes for Vernon executives when they were in San Diego. Defense and prosecution attorneys declined to discuss the case this week, citing a instructions from Fish. Until the recent notoriety given Neal Bush and Silverado Savings and Loan in Colorado or Charles Keating and Lincoln Savings and Loan in California, Dixon and Vernon were at or near the top of the list of abuses cited in the industry. Dixon\'s trial is an effort ``to bring to justice people who break the law, who use savings and loan associations as personal piggy banks, and who may have thought they could just walk away free and let the American taxpayer shoulder the cost of their greed,\'\' said Timothy Ryan, Office of Thrift Supervision director in Washington. Vernon had a luxury yacht and a fleet of five planes worth $6 million. The S&L also paid the $22,000 tab for Dixon\'s gastronomic tour of European restaurants, the government said. Dixon also is charged with illegal contributions to such politicians as former House Speaker Jim Wright and Jack Kemp, a former Republican congressman from New York who is now Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Recipients of those funds did not know they came from illegal sources, prosecutors have said. When regulators closed Vernon, it was the largest thrift bailout in history, and it remains among the most expensive. Most of the expensive acquisitions have been sold at auction since the government takeover. When regulators closed Vernon, they renamed it Monfort Savings Association. In December 1988, Monfort was one of five insolvent thrifts combined to create First Gibraltar Bank, the largest savings and loan in Texas. Vernon also has resulted in the stiffest sentence to date for an S&L officer. Former Chairman Woody F. Lemons was sentenced to 30 years in prison earlier this year.\r\n'),(2108,2,'Cities are getting more ethnically diverse and their inhabitants are aging, demands that cit governments must answer, urban leaders said Sunday. ``We\'re seeing a demographic wave that will transform entire regions,\'\' said former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros at the 67th annual convention of the National League of Cities. He moderated a panel of mayors, city council members, county commissioners and borough presidents, who addressed the impact of these changes on electoral politics and the populace. More white women and members of minorities are winning election to top spots in cities and counties. At the same time, the white urban population is growing older while minority populations are the youngest and fastest growing in the nation, Cisneros said. In 10 years, 92 percent of Californians will live in a city with a population consisting of at least 30 percent Asian, Hispanic or black residents, he said. Similarly, only 15 percent of those entering the job market in 2000 will be white males; 85 percent will be women and minorities. ``These figures present dramatic implications about what we do for the planning of the future cities,\'\' Cisneros said. Panel members predicted difficulty in paying for bond issues for things as school improvements because the tax base in cities comprises older people on fixed incomes and the urban poor. Ruth Messinger, president of the New York City borough of Manhattan, said cities will need to address the need for day care and more education for families, including bilingual instruction, to keep residents working and paying taxes. St. Petersburg, Fla., Mayor Robert Ulrich offered a different perspective. He said the aging population should be regarded as an asset able to provide untapped resources in the form of public service. One example was offered by Mayor Maynard Jackson of Atlanta, where the city supports a program that brings together retired people with single-parent families to provide day care and employment at the same time. Michael Woo, a Los Angeles city councilman, suggested better programming for English instruction. ``I would like to see a common language,\'\' said Woo. ``I believe in ESL (English as a Second Language), but it would help if we did a better job. If high schools were able to produce not only English-proficient minority students, but also the blond and blue-eyed variety.\'\' Cleveland Mayor Michael White said cities must offer fairness to their constituents and enfranchisement to minorities. ``As long as this country commits $500 billion to bankrupt savings and loans; as long as this country spends $4 billion to $6 billion on Iraq and Kuwait; as long as this country continues to lock in black kids, brown kids and poor white kids into an economic system to which there is no end to the tunnel, then it will continue to get worse,\'\' White said.\r\n'),(2109,2,'Federal fuel-economy standards will cause thousands of traffic deaths next year by discouraging the use of safer, larger cars, two researchers said Tuesday as the government reported a slight increase in auto fuel efficiency last year. ``Fuel economy regulation inevitably leads to smaller, lighter cars that are inherently less safe than the cars that would be produced without a binding fuel-economy constraint,\'\' said a study by Robert W. Crandall of the Brookings Institution in Washington and John D. Graham of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. They estimated the standards would cause 2,200 to 3,900 traffic deaths next year. Also Tuesday, the Transportation Department told Congress that passenger cars sold in the United States got 28.2 miles per gallon last year overall, up 0.2 miles per gallon from the previous year. Transportation Secretary Jim Burnley said Americans tended to buy slightly heavier, higher performance cars last year than in prior years, and imports showed a shift way from subcompacts to compacts, increasing their market share by 8 percentage points. Among the Big Three automakers, Chrysler Corp. had the most fuel efficient cars fleetwide in 1987, at 27.6 mpg, down from 27.8 mpg in 1986. Ford Motor Co. had a fuel-economy of 26.8 mpg, unchanged from the previous year, and General Motors Corp.\'s was 26.4 mpg, up from 26.2 mpg the previous year. Weighted by sales, imports had an fuel economy of 31 mpg, down from 31.7 mpg the previous year. Domestic cars averaged 26.7 mpg, up from 26.6 mpg the year before. Burnley used the report to reiterate his support for elimination of the fuel-economy requirement, saying it placed U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage against their foreign competition. ``The greatest contribution we can make to keeping jobs in the United States and to making the domestic auto industry competitive on a worldwide basis is to repeal the (fuel economy) rules,\'\' Burnley said. ``Thousands of American jobs are threatened because of an anachronistic law that is doing substantial harm to our economy and our trade balance.\'\' The Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards _ CAFE for short _ from 1978 sought to encourage more fuel efficient cars and thereby reduce petroleum use at a time of shortages and soaring prices. The required fuel economy this year is 26 mpg of gasoline. Manufacturers that fail to meet the standards are liable to fines. Using mathematical models, Crandall and Graham estimated the CAFE standards had reduced the weight of cars by 500 pounds, to 3,100 pounds, despite sharp declines in oil prices after 1981 that in an unregulated market would be expected to encourage manufacture of larger cars. That decline in weight ``caused by CAFE is associated with a 14 to 27 percent increase in occupant fatality risk,\'\' the study said. They applied that range to existing traffic fatality figures to make their estimate of the number of additional deaths likely in 1989. The estimate took into account such factors as the tendency of occupants of smaller cars, compared with those of larger cars, to buckle their safety belts, the study said. The study also said the CAFE standards, by raising the cost of desirable high-performance cars, have encouraged people to drive their cars longer, extending ``the useful life of older, less safe and higher-pollution cars.\'\' Rep. Bob Carr, D-Mich., said at a news conference marking the study\'s release he hopes the conclusions will help win support for legislation he introduced last year to abolish the CAFE standards. ``Congress is not the place to design auto models,\'\' Carr said, acknowledging the bill\'s chances of passage this year are slim. The study by Crandall and Graham is scheduled for publication next year in The Journal of Law and Economics. The study was released by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a public-issues group espousng free-market principles. Crandall and Graham said they did the study without funds from the institute.\r\n'),(2110,2,'JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP - A fire destroyed a two-story frame house near downtown, killing six people, and six counts of murder were filed today against the husband of one of the victims. The fire was reported late Monday by a police officer who spotted the blaze while on routine patrol, Police Lt. Lorin Mock said. By the time firefighters arrived, the house was fully involved in flames, he said. The man arrested, whose name was being withheld by police, also was charged with setting the fire that killed his wife, another woman, and four children, three girls and a boy, said police spokesman Asa Higgs, who offered no other details. He also was charged with violating an injunction ordering him to stay away from his wife, Higgs said. Investigators did not say how the blaze was started. A man sleeping in a car outside the house was able to save a 3-year-old boy, Mock said.\r\n'),(2111,2,'Illinois Republican Gov. James Thompson came to this convention city to taunt the Democrats, but wound up hinting that he\'d make a good running mate for GOP candidate George Bush. As the Democrats embraced the ticket of Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen, who differ on a number of issues, Thompson stressed his compatibility with the vice president. ``George Bush and I agree on a lot of things,\'\' said Thompson, a four-term governor who was an early Bush supporter. ``I\'m too moderate for some people, but I\'ve never been told I\'m too moderate for George Bush,\'\' he said. Thompson was careful to avoid sounding overly eager as a job applicant. Vice presidential hopefuls traditionally refrain from tooting their own horns. ``There are a number of qualified candidates,\'\' Thompson said. ``There\'s no lack of talent in our party.\'\' Thompson\'s support gave Bush a boost in the Illinois primary, where he thrashed his GOP rivals after an impressive showing in the South. Since then, Thompson has been mentioned as a vice presidential prospect, and ``Thompson-Bush\'\' bumper stickers have appeared in Springfield, the Illinois capital. Thompson was in Atlanta on Wednesday to carry the GOP banner. He clearly relished the task, signaling what\'s certain to be a Republican effort to focus attention on Jesse Jackson as part of the Democratic team. ``Gov. Dukakis has accepted Jesse Jackson as his partner in this campaign, elevated him to a position equal to or perhaps higher than his nominal running mate, Lloyd Bentsen,\'\' Thompson told reporters. Thompson said it was a clever strategy by Dukakis to offer Bentsen as ``the soothing, reassuring conservative.\'\' But he said, ``my guess is those two partners of the troika, Dukakis and Jackson, will soon leave Bentsen in the dust.\'\' Thompson added: ``With Bentsen whispering in one ear and Jackson whispering in his other ear, who is Dukakis going to listen to? ... I think that\'s the question the American people need to have answered.\'\'\r\n'),(2112,2,'Sen. Paul Simon\'s home-state support appears to be slipping as the Illinois primary nears and he finds himself locked in a tight race with Jesse Jackson, according to the results of a newspaper poll to be published Monday. A Chicago Tribune poll of 500 Democrats likely to vote in Tuesday\'s primary shows Jackson with 32 percent of the support and Simon with 29 percent. But the poll, by Peter D. Hart and Associates has an error margin of plus or minus 5 percentage points, making the race a statistical dead heat. The latest poll, taken Friday and Saturday, updates one done earlier last week and published in Sunday\'s Tribune. That poll, with a similar sample and error margin, showed Simon holding 35 percent of the support to Jackson\'s 30 percent. ``I\'m not saying every poll is inaccurate,\'\' Simon said while campaigning Sunday in Chicago\'s Chinatown. ``All I\'m saying is if I get my message across to the people of Illinois, they\'re going to vote for me.\'\' Among other Democrats in the new poll, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis was third with 20 percent, Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri had 5 percent and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore had 4 percent. The Tribune said 9 percent of the voters were undecided and 1 percent preferred none of the candidates. The newspaper did not update its Sunday poll of GOP voters, which found Vice Presient George Bush the overwhelming favorite among Illinois Repbulicans over rivals Kansas Sen. Bob Dole and former TV evangelist Pat Robertson. The new Tribune poll found Jackson\'s support strongest in Chicago, which represents nearly half of the state\'s likely Democratic primary voters. Simon did best in counties closer to his Southern Illinois home of Makanda and in the rest of Cook County outside Chicago. Support for the two was split among racial and sexual lines. Jackson was strongest among blacks and men, while Simon\'s support was heaviest among whites and women, the poll results show. Among occupations, blue-collar workers supported Jackson far more than other job classifications, while Simon\'s support was nearly even among all occupations.\r\n'),(2113,2,'President Reagan will appoint Los Angeles federal judge Pamela Ann Rymer to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seat vacated by Anthony M. Kennedy, it was disclosed. Sen. Pete Wilson, R-Calif., said Friday that Reagan had picked Rymer, now a U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles, to fill the seat left in November when Kennedy was named to the U.S. Supreme Court. Wilson will nominate U.S. Attorney Robert C. Bonner of Los Angeles to replace Rymer, said Wilson aide Bill Livingstone. The formal announcement of Rymer\'s nomination to the appellate court is expected from the White House next week, Livingstone said. Both appointments must be confirmed by the Senate. Rymer, 46, known for her stiff sentences, is a lifelong Republican and she was on a list of candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court before Reagan settled on Kennedy last year.\r\n'),(2114,2,'After a four-year wait, South Korea has authorized E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.\'s application to build a $97 million titanium dioxide plant jointly with a local firm, the Finance Ministry said Friday. Officials said the proposed plant will be capable of producing anually 60,000 tons of titanium dioxide, a white crystaline compound used as a paint pigment. The American company will put up $77.6 million and control 80 percent of the venture, with the remaining 20 percent invested by Hanyang Chemical Corp., officials said. Strong opposition by local environmentalists who feared pollution had delayed the approval. Sources said the U.S. government recently intervened to get the project approved. The Ministry officials said the approval was conditioned on du Pont burying waste from production. Du Pont is expected to market the product at home and abroad. There is now one small domestic producer. Officials said the final approval came Thursday when the Foreign Capital Project Review Committee met. Hanyang and Du Pont have yet to pick a site for the plant, according to Hanyang officials who did not say when the plant will begin operation. One press report said it will take about three years to build the plant.\r\n'),(2115,2,'Sen. Edward M. Kennedy attacked the Bush administration Thursday for giving mere ``lip service to the fight to end bigotry\'\' while the White House renewed both support for civil rights and its threat to veto a bill the Massachusetts Democrat is sponsoring. ``The administration\'s veto threat underscores the sharp contrast between its words and its deeds on civil rights,\'\' said Kennedy, whose bill to combat job bias is a major goal of civil rights forces in Congress this year. Kennedy\'s comments came after presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters at the White House that the administration is ``for civil rights legislation\'\' but ``we are simply not for that bill.\'\' The Kennedy bill is aimed at restoring legal tools that civil rights forces say were taken away by six Supreme Court decisions last year. Provisions range from a ban on harassment of employees to expanding workers\' rights to challenge seniority systems based on discrimination. The heart of the bill, based on a case at a salmon cannery in Alaska, would force employers accused of discrimination to change their hiring practices or prove that the practices were based on business necessity. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh said in his letter to Kennedy on Tuesday that this provision, aimed at overturning the Supreme Court\'s ``Wards Cove\'\' decision last year, would in effect result in racial hiring quotas. Kennedy said in his statement that while ``giving lip service to the fight to end bigotry, the administration is clinging to its do-as-little-as-possible response to the Supreme Court\'s recent decisions, which dramatically cut back on long-accepted protections for working men and women against discrimination on the job.\'\' ``The administration is digging in its heels at a time when a bipartisan majority in the Congress and the country want to see those decisions overturned and the gaps in our civil rights laws filled,\'\' Kennedy said. The Bush administration is calling for approval of a more modest job-discrimination bill, which would address two of last year\'s rulings. ``We are interested in correcting problems which arose from last year\'s Supreme Court cases,\'\' Fitzwater said. Kennedy\'s Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee on Wednesday approved his measure, 11-5, with support from Sens. David Durenberger, R-Minn., and James Jeffords, R-Vt. Durenberger told the panel that the administration would not act on civil rights without pressure from the committee. The measure now has 40 Senate co-sponsors and civil rights forces say they have enough votes for passage. But conservative critics led by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, say they hope to ease some of its provisions in floor action. Hatch told the committee that the measure would create a ``bonanza for lawyers\'\' while Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., declared that it would ``add litigation.\'\'\r\n'),(2116,2,'Democratic vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen is fighting for votes in California by blasting the Republicans on labor issues and trying to show strength where the Democrats have a weak image: law and order. Bentsen today planned to visit Operation Safe Streets, a Los Angeles County Sheriff\'s Office program in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson to combat crime, including gang violence. The Texas senator has criticized the Reagan administration for cutting money to help local law enforcement efforts. He also planned to attend a rally today in San Diego before returning to Los Angeles for a dinner honoring California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. On Friday in Bloomington east of Los Angeles, Bentsen attended a rally in a union hall to where he took part in the Democratic campaign to give 60 days notice to the Republicans before election day. Bentsen told the cheering crowd, many waving giant ``pink slips\'\' for George Bush, that ``We\'re here today to give the Republicans a better break than they give the American worker.\'\' ``Sure, we could provide notice the Republican way,\'\' he said. ``We could go there election eve and we could change the locks on the door. ``We could take the vice president\'s White House mess card and cancel that. And we could take away Air Force Two,\'\' he said. ``But we agree with the vast majority of the American people who say 60 days notice is fair.\'\' Bentsen, digging at Bush as he mined for California\'s 47 electoral votes, said the vice president has had many ``conversions\'\' on issues lately. ``He\'s like a successful missionary. He has a conversion every day,\'\' Bentsen said. ``But the only problem (is) he\'s converting himself. Last week he discovered the environment. This week he discovered the minimum wage and said well maybe, maybe it should be raised. And the next day he really wasn\'t so sure.\'\' Earlier Friday, Bentsen told farmers in Amana, Iowa, that Bush and his running mate, Dan Quayle, don\'t understand rural needs. Asked by reporters about Michael Dukakis\' controversial statement during the primaries suggesting that farmers grow Belgian endives to help solve their problems, Bentsen said the Massachusetts governor now has a better understanding. ``I\'m sure he does,\'\' Bentsen said.\r\n'),(2117,2,'Algerians re-elected Chadli Bendjedid to his third presidential term by a smaller margin than ever before, but still gave him a mandate to continue reforms that began two months ago. Thg Interior Ministry announced early today that Bendjedid, the single candidate, had captured 81 percent of Thursday\'s vote. About 89 percent of the country\'s 12 million eligible voters cast ballots. Voter turnout in Algeria traditionally runs at about 90 percent. As in most one-party states where a single candidate is on the ballot, voter abstention is seen as the only real form of dissent in elections. Although still winning a high percentage of votes, the win was 14 percent smaller than 1984 when Bendjedid garnered 95 percent of the vote with voter turnout at about 95 percent. In 1979, he took 94 percent. While reflecting a decline in popularity, the election still gives Bendjedid a clear mandate to continue with the economic reforms introduced after a week of rioting in early October that claimed 176 lives. Rioters filled the streets to protest high unemployment, inflation and a chronic housing shortage. In an effort to restore calm, Bendjedid promised a more liberal political system and less central control of both the economy and society. In his third term, Bendjedid faces the task of reducing the power of a military and civilian bureaucracy that has built a comfortable position in the 25 years since independence from France. He also has promised to loosen the grip of the National Liberation Front, the only legal political party, on all aspects of Algerian life. One problem is how to permit more autonomy and democratic freedom without allowing opposition parties. The severe economic problems remain, many traceable to several years of low oil prices on world markets. Unemployment and annual inflation have surpassed 20 percent and the foreign debt is $23 billion.\r\n'),(2118,2,'The dollar firmed against European currencies this morning but dropped against the Japanese yen. Spot gold prices regained some of the ground lost in Tuesday\'s trading in New York. In Tokyo, the dollar sank to its lowest level since February 23. It closed at 146.65 yen, down 0.85 yen from Tuesday. Later in London, the dollar was quoted at 146.12 yen. Other dollar rates in Europe, compared with late Tuesday: _1.5889 German marks, up from 1.5875 _1.3514 Swiss francs, up from 1.3475 _5.3315 French francs, up from 5.3210 _1.7905 Dutch guilders, up from 1.7880 _1,163.25 Italian lire, up from 1,162.00 _1.1511 Canadian dollars, down from 1.1523 In London, one British pound cost $1.8572, down from late Tuesday\'s $1.8595. Dealers in Tokyo said institutional investors, noting the narrowing gap between U.S. and Japanese interest rates, began dumping dollars as soon as the Tokyo market opened and the U.S. unit fell below 146 yen. Once that happened, ``there was a greater than expected demand for the dollar below the 146-yen line,\'\' said Yutaka Hayashi, a dealer with the Mitsui Taiyo Kobe Bank. Several analysts believe the dollar will sink as low as 140 yen this summer, and perhaps dip below 1.5620 Deutsche marks, the lowest level since World War II. ``There is not a lot of reason why the market should start buying the dollar,\'\' said Jim O\'Neil, international economist at Swiss Bank Corp in London. The dollar\'s weakness in the foreign exchanges is helping support gold prices, although dealers are debating whether gold has sufficient support to move convincingly into a technical chart resistance area between $373.00 and $375.00 an ounce. Gold rebounded this morning from an earlier retreat in New York, where it was quoted at $370.20 bid late Tuesday. In London, gold was quoted at $371.10 per ounce at the morning fixing, compared to $372.05 a troy ounce late Tuesday. The Zurich market was closed for a national holiday. In Hong Kong, gold rose $2.04 per ounce to close at $371.46 per ounce. Silver bullion traded late in London at a bid price of $4.83 a troy ounce, down from $4.85.\r\n'),(2119,2,'The man Michael Dukakis left ``minding the store\'\' in Massachusetts while running for president is a veteran of 40 years in and around government. Hale Champion has been a reporter, a Harvard official, an aide to California Gov. Pat Brown and a health official in the Carter administration. Balding, rotund and 65, Champion gives the impression that he\'s seen it all and that nothing fazes him _ not complaining legislators or angry lobbyists, budget shortfalls or the way the news media covers it all. To read one Boston newspaper, Dukakis\' chief secretary said in an interview last week, ``you would have thought blood was coursing through the corridors of the Statehouse, entrails draped over the balconies. ``Where? Who? I mean it\'s simply a bunch of people doing their work.\'\' Just doing your job. ``That\'s the way he looks at it,\'\' Champion said of his boss, the governor who has risen to become the Democratic presidential front-runner. ``Sometimes that\'s why people think he\'s not exciting enough, not emotional enough.\'\' But, said Champion, ``that\'s what I like about him. I mean that\'s what gets things done. That\'s what gets things taken care of, not emoting hour after hour. ``And if that says I am unemotional about those things, maybe I am.\'\' Champion\'s strength is that ``there isn\'t anything that he can think of that he hasn\'t seen before,\'\' said Dukakis\' press secretary James Dorsey. ``He\'s sort of like a deeply set foundation\'\' for the administration. Champion himself was a press secretary, and then executive secretary and finance director for Brown, who was Ronald Reagan\'s predecessor as governor of California. His career also includes financial vice presidencies at the University of Minnesota and Harvard University; a stint as director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, when he first met Dukakis, and two years as undersecretary to Joseph Califano at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in the Carter administration. He was in semi-retirement as executive dean of Harvard\'s Kennedy School of Government when Dukakis tapped him to become his chief secretary a year ago. ``I was never interested in working, you need to understand,\'\' he said with a smile. ``He resisted my arguments and persuaded my wife, and here I am.\'\' Considering Champion\'s background and symmetry of thinking with Dukakis, little had to be discussed between the two on what the job entailed. ``He and I both assumed that I knew what `minding the store\' meant,\'\' Champion said. He has faced comparisons to John Sasso, the politically savvy, longtime Dukakis associate who had been chief secretary before moving over to run the campaign. Sasso later left over his part in the ``attack video\'\' episode that helped drive Sen. Joseph Biden from the presidential race. Some lawmakers have criticized the lack of courting they get from Champion. ``I don\'t do as much of it as John did ... never will, never did when I did this kind of job before (for Brown),\'\' Champion said. But he keeps in close contact with legislative leaders, and that to Champion is most important. While Champion frequently remarks on how there is nothing new under the sun in his job, there are some aspects that are different in keeping an administration going while the chief executive is running for president. First, he must make sure Dukakis is abreast of events back in the state while the governor spends three or more days a week on the campaign trail. Second, he has been chiefly in charge of bringing Dukakis\' constitutional successor, Lt. Gov. Evelyn Murphy, more into the daily operations of the administration. And third, he has found that virtually every administration initiative _ from a universal health care bill to the state budget _ and many bills being pushed by individual lawmakers are publicly cast in the context of the impact on Dukakis\' presidential campaign. ``At first I did get a little bit (upset),\'\' said Champion. ``It\'s ridiculous, but it\'s every single thing.\'\' But Champion said Dukakis and his administration have tried to solve any problems in that area by living the old saying, ``What\'s good politics is good government.\'\' ``If you look like you are doing what you ought to be doing generally, as against a gimme here and a gimme there, that\'s the best politics,\'\' Champion said. ``As a matter of fact, that\'s why Michael is where he is today, because he has always taken that kind of attitude.\'\' Champion said he isn\'t interested in a return trip to Washington if Dukakis is elected. Rather, he\'s counting down the last months he believes he will be in his present post and is looking beyond the part-time teaching position waiting for him at Harvard. What he\'s really looking forward to, he said, ``is that time when I am not even teaching.\'\'\r\n'),(2120,2,'Amid charges that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was undermined by her own party, an opinion poll released today indicated three candidates for her job would bring the Conservatives an election victory. Under Mrs. Thatcher\'s leadership, the governing party had trailed Labor in opinion polls for 16 months. Labor is the main opposition party in Parliament. But a poll of about 1,100 voters Friday found that more voters preferred either former Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine or Chancellor of the Exchequer John Major, to Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd would put the Tories neck and neck with Labor, with Hurd having a slight edge, according to the poll, taken by ICM for the Sunday Correspondent newspaper. The poll was published today. Forty-seven percent of people asked would vote for Heseltine, compared with 38 percent who would vote Labor, according to the poll of 1,139 people. Major received 46 percent of the vote, compared with 39 percent for Labor, and Hurd had 43 percent of the vote, compared with Labor\'s 41 percent, the poll showed. No margin of error was given. No poll can be 100 percent accurate, however, and there is usually a margin of error of at least two or three percentage points with a sample of that size, poll watchers said. The 372 Conservative Party members of the House of Commons will vote for a leader on Tuesday. If none of the three candidates receives a majority, a third ballot will be held Thursday. Mrs. Thatcher resigned on Thursday, after it appeared she would lose a Conservative Party leadership vote to Haseltine, who had made a strong showing in a first round of leadership balloting last Tuesday. Hurd and Major, Cabinet ministers no longer shackled by loyalty, immediately jumped into the leadership contest with Heseltine. The latest poll is similar to the findings of a Harris poll released Friday by Independent Television News that also predicted an upturn in Conservative Party fortunes under a new prime minister. That poll, of 1,107 voters on Thursday, found that the Conservatives, with any of the three candidates as leader, would beat Labor if a general election were held immediately. A general election must be held before mid-1992. The poll found voters ranked the candidates in the same order - with Heseltine leading Labor by 10 points, Major by seven points and Hurd by four. No margin of error was given in the Harris poll. Supporters of the 65-year-old Mrs. Thatcher have angrily accused Conservatives of what one called ``political matricide\'\' in forcing her to quit after 15 years as party leader and 11{ years as prime minister. High inflation, rising interest rates, an unpopular new tax and her lone opposition among European Community leaders to financial and political integration were among factors that undermined her support. Cabinet colleagues and campaign managers told her she could not muster enough support to win in further balloting next week. Her opponents in the party feared that under her continuing leadership the Conservatives would lose to Labor at the next general election. Labor has been in opposition since 1979. Conservative legislators returning home for the weekend were met Friday by anger from grass-roots backers of Mrs. Thatcher. Peter Stainforth, local Conservative Party treasurer at Stevenage, about 25 miles north of central London, reported particular rancor over Sir Geoffrey Howe. The deputy prime minister quit on Nov. 1 and bitterly attacked Mrs. Thatcher in a Commons speech on Nov. 13. ``I cannot express how the constituency feels about that latter-day Brutus who was the first to plunge his dagger into his leader\'s back,\'\' Stainforth said.\r\n'),(2121,2,'West Germany outdistanced the United States as the world\'s biggest exporter for the second year in a row, according to the International Monetary Fund. West German exports amounted to $294 billion, compared with $250 billion for the United States and $231 billion for Japan in 1987, the IMF said. West German exports, which first jumped ahead of U.S. exports in 1986, also ran ahead of U.S. exports for the first two months of 1988: $46.7 billion for West Germany compared with $45.9 billion for the United States. U.S. imports in 1987 were $424 billion, compared with $228 billion for West Germany, $158 billion for France, $154 billion for Britain and $151 billion for Japan. The IMF figures, in an IMF publication released Friday, show total trade increased 10 percent in 1986 and 18 percent in 1987. The fund reported that trade among the biggest countries remained far out of balance in 1986 and 1987. The United States imported much more than it exported, while the reverse was true for Japan and West Germany. The IMF said U.S. sales grew by 15.2 percent and purchases by 9.6 percent in 1987 over the year earlier, while Japan\'s exports rose up 9.3 percent and imports were up 18.2 percent and Germany\'s imports and exports each grew by about 20 percent. Both Japan and West Germany have been undr international pressure, especially from the United States, to increase their imports and curb their exports. Last year\'s total trade marked a return to the annual average of the 1970s, the publication noted. The IMF said trade within the European Economic Community increased ``at substantially higher rates in 1986 and 1987 than overall trade within industrial countries.\'\' ``The trade of developing countries also grew substantially, reversing the stagnation of the previous three years,\'\' it added. The fund includes among ``developing countries\'\' its other 131 members, many of them poorer lands where incomes have declined, like much of Africa and Latin America, as well as more prosperous countries where conditions are improving, such as South Korea and Singapore.\r\n'),(2122,2,'Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told the House of Commons on Thursday that she welcomed New York City Mayor Ed Koch\'s change of heart on the subject of Northern Ireland. Koch completed a six-day tour of Northern Ireland and returned to New York, where on Wednesday he publicly disavowed his earlier opinions about the British stance on the troubled province. Koch said he accepted the British army as a peacekeeping force rather than an occupying army. Mrs. Thatcher told members of Parliament in the elected lower chamber: ``If more people came with an open mind and looked at what is happening on the ground, we would have many others making similar remarks.\'\' ``I admire Mr. Koch\'s forthrightness and I am glad he took time to come to Northern Ireland,\'\' she added. In Belfast, Koch was described as one of the few American politicians of stature who have had anything positive to say about Britain\'s role in Northern Ireland. ``His comments after his factfinding visit to Ireland are as refreshing as they are surprising\'\' the Belfast Telegraph, Northern Ireland\'s independent evening newspaper, commented editorially on Thursday. ``Compare his statement `My impression is that the British are trying to play a constructive role\' with the attack launched by Congressman Joe Kennedy after his visit earlier this year\'\' the newspaper said, refering to the Democratic U.S. representative from Massachusetts. ``Mr. Koch has shown an attitude uncommon in American politicians when dealing with the Irish problem _ a willingness to view the situation with an open mind. ``He is also honest enough to admit that his vision of Ulster from across the Atlantic did not square up with what he found here: `I do not believe that they (the British) deserve the castigation that many of us, myself included, have heaped upon them,\'\'\' the Belfast Telegraph quoted Koch as saying. ``Too many people in the international community mistake the myths and propaganda emanating from these shores for facts and believe a British withdrawal is the simplistic solution to all our ills. Mayor Koch realizes the problems are much more complex than other `green-tinted\' visionaries understand,\'\' the newspaper said. ``Of course, the hardline Irish-American lobbyists will attempt to make political capital from his comments but those Americans who are willing to listen will learn much more about the reality of life in Ireland today from Mayor Koch. ``They should, as must the people of Ulster, learn that harboring grievances for past errors or wrongs will not further the quest for peace here,\'\' the newspaper said. ``There have been historical mistakes in Ireland, on all sides, but acknowledgment should also be given, as Mayor Koch does, for the positive contributions made in areas like housing, jobs and electoral representation. We can build on gains not divisions.\'\'\r\n'),(2123,2,'Nearly 20 years after Peach County High School was integrated, black and white students got together Saturday night for their first integrated prom. Many of the 200 students who attended the dance said the change was long overdue. ``Somebody is going to come along every time and break some tradition that\'s really stupid, some tradition you don\'t really think about because you\'ve always done it,\'\' said Hope Bickley, a white 17-year-old. ``I\'m glad it was our class that broke it.\'\' Ms. Bickley and Ato Crumbly, a black student, are friends who have known each other since elementary school and march together in the school band. But although Crumbly said blacks and whites ``get along fairly well\'\' at school, they\'d never had an integrated prom. ``We go to school together, play football together, run track together, so why can\'t we socialize together,\'\' Crumbly said Saturday at the formal dance in the school gym. ``I go out of town a lot in the summer, to Las Vegas and California,\'\' he added ``I\'d tell (friends) about the prom and they\'d say `What?\' And they\'d ask, `Do y\'all still have to drink out of separate fountains?\'\' All school dances and parties were canceled by the Peach County school board in the early 1960s when a student apparently was injured during a prom. Board members also said planning the dances took time away from schoolwork. Without a school-sponsored prom, parents began organizing their own _ one for blacks, one for whites. But three years ago, Peach County\'s parent-teacher group, the Better Schools Association, tried to change the board\'s policy. The board promptly rejected their request for an integrated prom. Last year, the board changed its position, and Saturday\'s prom was held without incident. ``This prom,\'\' Crumbly said, ``will be a good experience.\'\' Susan Jordan, president of the parent-teacher organization, said the students set an example for their community. ``A child shall lead them,\'\' she said, quoting the Bible. ``Well, in this case, a group of children shall perhaps lead the community, and won\'t that be great? And isn\'t it about time?\'\'\r\n'),(2124,2,'Income tax payments in April helped shrink the federal budget deficit, but the monthly surplus was less than a year ago, leaving government red ink so far this year 24.6 percent higher than 1987, the Treasury Department said Friday. The April surplus of $13.9 billion, representing the difference between what the government took in and what it spent last month, helped hold the deficit for the first seven months of the fiscal year to $105.0 billion. But that figure was much higher than the $84.3 billion in red ink during the first seven months of fiscal year 1987, when the total annual deficit eventually amounted to $150.2 billion. Economists say the April report indicates the Reagan administration will have a tough time meeting its goal of a $146.7 billion deficit for fiscal 1988, which ends Sept. 30, or even the Congressional Budget Office projection of $157 billion. Michael K. Evans, head of an economic forcasting service in Washington, said the April report indicates the deficit for the year will be between $170 billion and $175 billion. ``April\'s the big month. After that, it\'s all arithmetic. ... The belief that it was going to stay below $150 billion was just pure fiction,\'\' he said. The 1988 deficit target in the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law is $144 billion. Budget Director James C. Miller III warned Congress on Tuesday that an across-the-board cut in federal programs, which would occur in October under the law, was ``perilously close.\'\' The April surplus, bolstered by $53.3 billion in individual income tax payments, was about $5 billion less than expected by private economists. They had been waiting for the report to see what effect the new income tax law would have. Some had thought the new tax law would provide a small windfall. However, Evans said the average, median taxpayer enjoyed a tax cut. ``People who used deductions and shelters paid more than they did the year before, but the rank and file paid less,\'\' he said. April income tax collections were 25.8 percent less than the same month a year earlier, which was inflated by the rush to take capital gains in 1986 before the favorable rates on that kind of income disappeared under the new tax law. Personal income tax collections of $237.6 billion for the first seven months of the fiscal year are running 2.7 percent behind last year. However, that has been offset somewhat by corporate income tax collections of $50.6 billion, 8.4 percent greater than last year. In April, all government revenue totaled $109.3 billion, 11.0 percent lower than April 1987. Spending totaled $95.4 billion, 13.6 percent ahead of the same month a year earlier. For the first seven months, revenues totaled $522.1 billion, up 3 percent over 1987, while spending was $627.1 billion, up 6.1 percent from the same period a year ago. As usual, the largest spending categories in April were the military, followed by Social Security, other programs in the Department of Health and Human Services and interest on the national debt. Military spending totaled $26.1 billion last month and $168.4 billion for the fiscal year so far, up 6.3 percent from the same period a year ago. Spending for Social Security totaled $16.3 billion last month and $121.3 billion for the past seven months, up 5.7 percent from the same period in the 1987 fiscal year. Social Security is exempted from budget limitations under the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law and most months has been showing faster spending increases than the other categories. The other programs in the Department of Health and Human Services, including Medicare and Medicaid, spent $15.7 billion in April and $93.2 billion so far this budget year, a 6.5 percent increase over 1987. Interest on the $2.5 trillion national debt totaled $14.9 billion last month and $120.1 billion so far this fiscal year, an increase of 9.5 percent over the same period last year.\r\n'),(2125,2,'Here is a list of winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science: 1990 - Harry M. Markowitz, United States 1990 - William F. Sharpe, United States 1990 - Merton Miller, United States 1989 - Trygve Haavelmo, Norway 1988 - Maurice Allais, France 1987 - Robert M. Solow, United States 1986 - James M. Buchanan Jr., United States 1985 - Franco Modigliani, United States 1984 - Richard Stone, Great Britain 1983 - Gerard Debreu, United States 1982 - George J. Stigler, United States 1981 - James Tobin, United States 1980 - Lawrence R. Klein, United States 1979 - Arthur Lewis, Great Britain 1979 - Theodore W. Schultz, United States 1978 - Herbert A. Simon, United States 1977 - Bertil Ohlin, Sweden 1977 - James Meade, Great Britain 1976 - Milton Friedman, United States 1975 - Leonid Vitalievich Kantorovich, Soviet Union 1975 - Tjalling Koopmans, United States 1974 - Gunnar Myrdal, Sweden 1974 - Friedrich August von Hayek, Great Britain 1973 - Wassily Leontief, United States 1972 - John R. Hicks, Great Britain 1972 - Kenneth J. Arrow, United States 1971 - Simon Kuznets, United States 1970 - Paul A. Samuelson, United States 1969 - Ragnar Frisch, Norway 1969 - Jan Tinbergen, Netherlands\r\n'),(2126,2,'Maryland\'s landmark law banning cheap handguns won surprisingly easy approval Tuesday, a victory that gun control forces say could reignite their movement in other states. With 82 percent of the precincts reporting, those favoring the law totaled 656,598 or 58 percent, to 482,974 or 42 percent against. The law was winning by wide margins in urban areas to offset heavy support for repeal in rural counties. The gun law battle provoked a bitter political fight that become the most expensive in state history. The National Rifle Association spent more $4 million to repeal the Maryland statute.\r\n'),(2127,2,'The judge in the Iran-Contra case complained Thursday about more delays in bringing Oliver L. North to trial and called on the Reagan administration to speed up the declassification of necessary documents if it wants the case to go forward. ``The highest levels of the government have to make a decision as to whether this case is going to go or if it\'s not going to go,\'\' Gesell said during a hearing on the problems posed by reams of secret government documents collected by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh. The judge expressed frustration over Walsh\'s request for a one-month delay in getting 150,000 pages of secret documents cleared by an interagency task force. ``If you can\'t get a trial going soon there isn\'t going to be a trial,\'\' Gesell warned both sides during the hearing in U.S. District Court. Gesell said he was not ready to schedule a trial of the former White House aide, even though he had been preparing to set a date. ``I anticipated when I came on the bench of issuing a trial date notice tomorrow. I\'m not going to do that. The case isn\'t ready,\'\' the judge said. Gesell suggested that Attorney General Edwin Meese III designate a Justice Department official to review the situation to help the administration decide whether it is ready to release secret documents or whether the case has to be dismissed. The judge questioned whether ``we won\'t need to have a clear decision from the administration itself that they want to try this case or they don\'t want to.\'\' Walsh said he already has consulted with Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Martin about the secrecy problems and would meet with other senior Justice Department officials. Some 82,000 pages of classified documents, many from the National Security Council where North worked until he was fired in November 1986, already have been turned over to the defense for pretrial review. Of that group, Walsh said a ``much smaller number but still a large number\'\' of documents will be relevant to the case. The prosecutor repeated previous assertions that the batch of unprocessed 150,000 pages from the CIA or the Justice Department contained little that would be relevant to the defense case. Walsh said the task force, composed of representatives of agencies that originate the documents, needs more time to mark the portions of the documents that must be redacted before they can be introduced at trial. Gesell said he had deferred to the interagency task force out of concern for national security concerns about disclosing the documents in open court. But ``the obstacles keep arising,\'\' the judge said. Although he expressed confidence ``they are not trying to torpedo the case or help the case,\'\' the task force members ``are not in the position to judge the larger implications of the case,\'\' Gesell said. The judge said a high-level political decision is needed on what material the administration will allow to be disclosed in court. On Wednesday, Gesell had ordered North to specify by July 11 what secret government documents he intended to disclose in court to defend the charges against him. North, along with former national security adviser John M. Poindexter and arms dealers Albert Hakim and Richard V. Secord, are accused of conspiring to illegally divert U.S.-Iran arms-sale profits to the Nicaraguan rebels during a ban on such aid. The judge has ordered four separate trials. North was designated as the leadoff defendant by Walsh. The issue involves classified documents that North and, ultimately, his three co-defendants would be allowed to introduce into evidence to rebut the charges. Under the Classified Information Procedures Act, a defendant must notify the government of secret documents he wants to disclose in court. The judge then decides whether the documents are indeed relevant to the case. Under the law, Gesell can order the substitution of secret documents that government doesn\'t want released with statements of facts the material would prove if presented to the jury. He can also dismiss the charges if there are too many secret documents that the government wants withheld from the case. An alternative to dismissing all the charges would be to force North to stand trial on some of the counts contained in the indictment that wouldn\'t require extensive use of classified documents. These might include charges that North lied to Congress about his role in the covert effort to help the Nicaraguan rebels and allegations he obstructed a presidential inquiry into the Iran-Contra affair by destroying documents. Walsh\'s request to delay production of the remaining documents and a defense complaint about the slow pace of pre-trial discovery prompted Gesell to convene the hearing. Among other things, the defense complained that it has yet to receive any of the government documents that Walsh\'s investigators were allowed to look at but could not copy. These include relevant pages of President Reagan\'s diary and schedule.\r\n'),(2128,2,'Police said Monday they have arrested a man in Hong Kong in connection with the seizure of 143 pounds of heroin concealed in cans of Chinese fruit imported to Los Angeles. The man was arrested Saturday after U.S. authorities discovered the high-grade heroin hidden in 192 cans of litchis in syrup found in Los Angeles last month, police said. The drugs would have sold for about $64 million in the United States, the statement said. Officers of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Customs also arrested two men _ a Chinese and a Vietnamese _ in Alhambra, Calif., on Saturday in connection with the drug bust, the statement said. The man in Hong Kong was arrested after police raided sites in the colony and uncovered a drug packaging center in an industrial building, police said. No names were released and investigations into the case were continuing.\r\n'),(2129,2,'More than 40 firefighters worked all day to remove the bodies of four children and three adults killed in a fire that engulfed a house. The fire quickly burned out of control around before dawn Wednesday and causd the roof and floor to fall into the basement, making it difficult to reach the bodies, said Fire Chief Victor Hilbert. The cause of the fire wasn\'t known. A neighbor who called the Fire Department said it was impossible to get close enough to attempt a rescue. ``It was all in flames when I came out. The windows were popping out,\'\' said Larry Riker. Killed were David Forquer; his wife, LeAnne, 25; their children, Michael, 8; Christor, 6; Nona, 5; and Louis, 3, and a man whose identity was not released.\r\n'),(2130,2,'Twenty black, angular F-117A Stealth fighters kicked up rooster tails of spray Monday as they took off on wet runways at Langley Air Force Base for their much-publicized deployment to the Middle East. One of the planes returned shortly after takeoff under clouds and periodic showers. Air Force officials were unable to say why the plane turned back. Air Force Col. Ron Sconyers, spokesman for the Tactical Air Command at Langley, said it would take the radar-evading planes 12 to 15 hours and several in-flight refuelings to reach bases in Saudi Arabia. Air Force officials were mum on exactly what role will be played by the F-117A, which is designed to bomb targets behind enemy lines. Unlike some other aircraft sent to the area after the Aug. 2 Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait, the F-117A cannot be considered a defensive weapon, said Col. Anthony Tolin, assistant deputy chief of staff of the Tactical Air Command at Langley, and wing commander for the Stealth fighters until last week. ``I think they provide a great deal of deterrence. The Iraqis know we can get in, hit the target, and get out without ever appearing on their radar. That has to give them pause,\'\' Tolin said Sunday when the planes arrived. ``They give us an ability, should we need it, to get in with the least amount of casualties and attack those important targets if necessary,\'\' Tolin said. The planes saw combat during the Panama invasion when they attacked a radar site. The fighters flew to Langley from their home base at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Technicians and ground support personnel also were en route to Saudi Arabia. Sconyers said two of the fighters were held back for maintenance reasons. The $42.6 million-a-copy F-117A is one of the most expensive planes the Pentagon ever launched. Billions were spent on the research necessary to make the plane invisible to radar. It was once so secret the Air Force flew it only at night missions high above the Nevada desert. The plane was designed and built by Lockheed Co.\'s super-secret ``Skunk Works\'\' plant in Burbank, Calif.\r\n'),(2131,2,'Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young says the city is moving along with preparations for next month\'s Democratic National Convention despite criticism of ``chaos and confusion\'\' in the convention planning. ``I don\'t know what (they\'re) talking about in terms of confusion and chaos,\'\' Young said on Wednesday. ``Peace and quiet and tranquility and everybody getting along is not news, and that\'s what we got.\'\' Young was responding to recent news articles that reported bad judgment calls by convention planners working on space for convention sessions and hotel accommodations. The articles also said some major transportation routes are still under construction and convention planners have been fighting among themselves. ``I don\'t care what people say about Atlanta. Anybody who doesn\'t like Atlanta can go somewhere else,\'\' Young said. ``This is a building and growing city and it will be for some years to come, but whatever we need for the convention is going to be ready by the time the convention gets here.\'\' Young estimated the city is about ``85 to 90 percent ready\'\' for the convention, a condition with which he is ``very comfortable.\'\'\r\n'),(2132,2,'Rebounding automobile purchases and surging gasoline prices powered retail sales to a strong 1.1 percent gain in September, the government said Friday. That was the biggest advance in four months, but economists said the two special factors were masking an otherwise weak report, which included a large decline in department store sales. Sales figures are not adjusted to factor out price increases. Gasoline costs have shot up since Iraq occupied Kuwait Aug. 2, inflating that sales category. The recovery in auto sales was positive but came after months of deteriorating sales, analysts said. Overall, sales rose $1.6 billion to a seasonally adjusted $151.2 billion, the Commerce Department said. That followed a 0.4 percent decline in August. ``What is underscored by these numbers is that the process of economic decline is a very slow one. Consumers take two steps backward and then one step forward, at least if they\'re given a bargain as they were with autos,\'\' said economist David Jones of Aubrey G. Lanston & Co. Retail sales are an important barometer of economic health because they represent about one-third of the nation\'s economic activity. ``Consumers are gradually becoming increasingly cautious because they see the oil price s Forward 1346 1347 1360 1362 n.q.-not quoted.\r\n'),(2133,2,'Beulah Mae Donald, who won a $7 million judgment against the Ku Klux Klan for the beating death of her son, was remembered by the attorney who handled the case as a ``brave and courageous mother.\'\' Mrs. Donald died of natural causes Saturday at a Mobile hospital. She was 67. ``She\'ll forever have a place in history as the woman who beat the Klan,\'\' said Morris Dees, who was the chief attorney for the black family. Mrs. Donald\'s son, Michael, was strangled and fatally beaten in Baldwin County and his body was found hanged from a tree in a Mobile neighborhood. Two Ku Klux Klansmen were convicted in the case. On Feb. 12, 1987, a jury awarded the family a $7 million judgment against the Klan. The United Klans of America\'s national headquarters building in Tuscaloosa, its only asset, was later signed over to the estate of Michael Donald and sold for an undisclosed sum. It had been appraised at between $150,000 and $200,000. ``I just think she was a brave and courageous mother whose love for her son ensured that he did not die in vain,\'\' said Dees, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery. Last December, Mrs. Donald was named one of Ms. Magazine\'s 1987 Women of the Year. Shortly after receiving the honor, Mrs. Donald said she never sought revenge. ``I wanted to know who all really killed my child,\'\' she said. ``I wasn\'t even thinking about the money. If I hadn\'t gotten a cent, it wouldn\'t have mattered. I wanted to know how and why they did it.\'\' He 19-year-old son was kidnapped from a Mobile street in March 1981 and taken to a rural area where he was beaten and choked. His throat was cut and his body was hanged from a tree. Klansmen Henry Francis Hays has been sentenced to die in Alabama\'s electric chair and James L. ``Tiger\'\' Knowles is serving a life sentence in a federal prison. He pleaded guilty to violating Donald\'s civil rights. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Hays\' appeal of his capital murder conviction in February. In February, a mistrial was declared in the trial of two alleged accomplices, Bennie Jack Hays and Benjamin Franklin Cox, after the former collapsed in court. Mrs. Donald survivors include four daughters: Mary A. Houston of Jackson, Miss.; Cecelia Perry; Cynthia Mitchell; and Betty J. Wyatt, all of Mobile; and two sons, Stanley Donald of Biloxi, Miss.; and Leo Donald of Detroit, Mich. Funeral arrangements were incomplete.\r\n'),(2134,2,'Senators of both parties on Saturday hailed the plan to free black leader Nelson Mandela from a South African prison and called on both sides in that strife-torn nation to begin meaningful negotiations. ``It\'s the right move,\'\' Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., said. ``Now comes the real test for South Africa _ will there be peace as meaningful negotiations move forward? Let\'s hope so.\'\' The comment came in a statement released by Dole\'s office after South African President F.W. de Klerk announced that the African National Congress leader would be freed Sunday after 27 years. De Klerk also said the state of emergency under which freedoms have been suspended in South Africa could be lifted within weeks if conditions of stability prevail across the country following Mandela\'s release. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., chief Senate sponsor of legislation to impose sanctions on South Africa, said in a statement that ``freedom for Nelson Mandela means that freedom is closer for all the people of South Africa.\'\' ``His unjust imprisonment has long been the symbol of the cruelty and injustice of the racist system of apartheid.\'\' Kennedy said. He expressed hope that ``today\'s historic development marks the beginning of a genuine commitment by President de Klerk and his government to dismantle all aspects of apartheid as soon as possible.\'\' Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., said in a telephone interview that the release of Mandela along with de Klerk\'s other remarks were ``welcome and significant.\'\' ``It is significant because without this there could be no real negotiations and when you couple this with President de Klerk\'s statement that within a few weeks he\'s going to completely lift the state of emergency, you have the conditions for a successful resolution of all this,\'\' he said. Sanctions against South Africa imposed by the United States and European countries were credited in large part for the change in course on the part of the South African government. The U.S. sanctions, imposed in 1986, barred new American investment in South Africa, including bank loans to the government; prohibited the import of South African iron, steel, coal, uranium and agricultural products, including sugar; prevented the United States from exporting computers to South Africa; banned all nuclear trade; and halted landings by South African Airways. The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Ron Dellums, D-Calif., said that the United States ``should continue to use the moral and economic lever of even more stringent sanctions as a vehicle for helping to accelerate and expedite the end of apartheid in a nonviolent context.\'\' ``While I welcome the release of Nelson Mandela from almost three decades of imprisonment for his political beliefs, I am concerned that no mention has been made about the release of more than 2,000 other black South Africans still in prison because of their struggle to end apartheid,\'\' Dellums said. Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., who recently traveled to South Africa, issued a statement calling the release of Mandela ``a major step forward for President de Klerk\'\' and ``one indication that the winds of democracy that have swept across Europe may be reaching South Africa.\'\' ``However, before sanctions are relaxed or eliminated, several additional steps must be taken,\'\' she said. ``These include release of the many remaining political prisoners, lifting of the state of emergency and removal of troops from the townships.\'\' New York Mayor David N. Dinkins said Mandela ``could have been released a long time ago if he had compromised his principles.\'\' ``He is an inspiration to all those seeking freedom who will not compromise and I look forward to his unconditional release and the day all South Africans will be free,\'\' Dinkins said. ``Just because we freed one man doesn\'t mean we freed an entire nation,\'\' said Rep. William H. Gray III, D-Pa., the House majority whip and author of legislation imposing U.S. sanctions against South Africa. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said Mandela\'s release marked ``a significant step\'\' toward peaceful political change in the country. However, Lewis, a former activist in the U.S. civil rights movement, also urged political leaders here to ``continue to apply pressure on the South Africa government in the form of economic sanctions.\'\' Randall Robinson, leader of the Washington-based anti-apartheid group TransAfrica, said pressure from the United States and Europe produced the release of Mandela. He described it as a ``tiny step.\'\' ``Political prisoners must still be released, parliament must repeal apartheid laws and until these things are done it is too early to evaluate the good faith of President de Klerk,\'\' he said. ``This is only the release of one great man,\'\' he said. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. and a leading conservative, was not planning a comment on the development, an aide said. Dole was the only Republican with a comment despite calls to spokesmen for several prominent GOP members of Congress.\r\n'),(2135,2,'The United States and Japan reached a trade agreement Monday that could double U.S. exports of beef and oranges to more than $1 billion a year, U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said. ``My judgment is that this will turn out to be a landmark agreement in U.S.-Japan economic relations,\'\' Yeutter said following marathon talks with Japanese leaders. The agreement calls on Japan to nearly double its imports of beef by 1991, and phase out involvement by Livestock Industry Promotion Corp., which currently controls most beef imports. Japan would be allowed to set tariffs of 70 percent in 1991, 60 percent in 1992 and 50 percent in 1993 to allow Japanese farmers time to adjust. Japan agreed to expand market access for fresh oranges by 22,000 tons annually, to 192,000 tons in 1990. After that, fresh oranges from the United States would be permitted in unlimited quantities, at the current tariff rates of 40 percent in season and 20 percent off season. Quotas on orange juice will also be phased out. The United States also demanded and got compensation on tariffs for other farm products in return for concessions on allowing Japan to slowly phase out its tariffs. Included were liberalized restrictions on imports of grapefruit, lemons, frozen peaches and pears, pistachios, macadamias, pecans, walnuts, pet food, beef jerky, sausage and pork and beans. As part of the agreement, the United States agreed to withdraw a complaint filed with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the world body that oversees international trade. The two sides agreed to further discuss Japan\'s emergency import curbs during the current round of talks under GATT. The temporary agreement was signed by Yeutter and Takashi Sato, Japan\'s agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister. Yeutter said the official documents would be signed in Washington, hopefully in the next few weeks, after the United States gathers the documents it needs. Cabinet Secretary Minister Keizo Obuchi welcomed the agreement, telling a regular news conference Monday that ``it reconfirms that the United States and Japan are able to solve their problems through joint efforts.\'\' He said the agreement can be fully implemented without hurting Japanese farmers. Yeutter said the agreement ``will require some creative and innovative thinking\'\' on the part of Japanese officials in helping Japanese farmers adjust. However, he said Japanese consumers will benefit through an increased standard of living and cheaper prices, while Japan\'s economy will benefit through increased competition. He said the United States will be closely watching Japan to make sure the agreement is put into effect. A similar pact on computer chips came under attack last year after the United States accused Japan of circumventing the spirit of the agreement by selling computer chips at unfairly low prices through third countries. That battle is still being fought through GATT. Yeutter said that ``it would be unfortunate if government agencies were to attempt to circumvent the spirit of this agreement.\'\' Yeutter also said the United States has no plans at this time to expand its demands to include the liberalization of rice, another thorny issue in Japan-U.S. relations. However, he said he could not rule out that possibility in the future if the United States is provoked. While agreeing to eliminate the beef import restrictions, Japan retained the right to raise the tariffs temporarily by 25 percent if beef imports exceed the previous year\'s level by 20 percent. After the transitional period ending in 1993, Japan\'s beef tariffs will be subject to discussions in the GATT. Sato, the agriculture minister, said the Japanese government will soon begin negotiations with Australia, another major beef exporter, on the Japanese import restrictions. Associations of Japanese orange growers and cattle farmers criticized the agreement. ``As producers who had been closely following the course of negotiations, we can\'t help but keenly feel regret and anger,\'\' Mitsugu Horiuchi, president of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, said in a statement.\r\n'),(2136,2,'``E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial\'\' soared into the stratosphere Thursday, the first day of the movie\'s release on videocassette. ``Nobody\'s buying just one,\'\' said Gail Boswell, manager of Tower Video. ``I had one customer come in and buy 120 cassettes. Others are buying two or three or four.\'\' Demand has been so great that MCA Home Video, the video\'s packager, has been unable to fill orders. Some retailers will receive only 75 percent of their requests. Boswell said she ordered 2,500 cassettes, expected 1,700 but received only 1,200. In any case, MCA Home Video, a subsidiary of MCA Inc., could enjoy revenues of close to $200 million from the ``E.T.\'\' sales. There are more than 11 million advance orders for the $24.95 video. Pepsi Cola is sponsoring a $5 ``E.T.\'\' rebate offer, and will promote the video in a $25 million advertising campaign. There is no Pepsi commercial on the video itself. Most movies are released within six months of their opening in movie theaters. ``E.T.,\'\' released in 1982, has never been shown on broadcast or cable television. The video release of the movie was delayed because Steven Spielberg, the film\'s director and producer, told Universal several years ago that he wanted the cassettes to be affordable. The previous low price for a major video release was last year\'s ``Top Gun,\'\' which sold for $26.95. About 3 million ``Top Gun\'\' cassettes were bought. ``Cinderella,\'\' which has sold more than 5 million copies in the last month, is priced at $26.99.\r\n'),(2137,2,'A drive to change the way Americans elect their presidents is being pushed by a group that acknowledges Democrats stand to gain the most _ at least at first _ from tinkering with the Electoral College. The year-old Electoral Fairness Project, led by a Democrat, is trying to persuade states to abandon the winner-take-all method of doling out Electoral College votes to presidential candidates. The system has been nearly universal since 1836. But critics say it does not accurately reflect the popular vote and prompts candidates to avoid entire states they feel they can\'t win. Lately, the system has favored Republicans. ``In state after state, the voters are essentially written off by the numbers. People don\'t see the candidates, don\'t get a sense of what\'s going on,\'\' said Linda Tarr-Whelan, a board member of the Electoral Fairness Project. She said the changes advocated by the group ``would get people much more involved and would require candidates to look at virtually all the states and congressional districts at one time or another as they plan out their strategy.\'\' The Constitution determines how many electoral votes each state gets: one for each of its two senators and for each of its U.S. House members. How states divide up those votes is not dictated by the Constitution, but virtually all states award all their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the statewide popular vote. The fairness project wants other states to do what Maine did in 1969: give presidential candidates one electoral vote for each House district in which they win the popular vote, with the other two votes going to the winner of the statewide popular vote. The fairness project, run by Democrat Skip Roberts, admits its primary objective is to break the GOP lock on electoral votes in the South and parts of the Midwest. Some Republicans proposed the same changes 30 years ago when the GOP would have reaped the most benefit. But this year, state and national Republican leaders are heaping scorn on the tactic. ``The Democrats are resorting to gimmicks because they can\'t win on the strength of their ideas,\'\' said Ben Ginsberg, chief counsel to the Republican National Committee. Roberts denies he is promoting a gimmick. ``This is not a trick. You still need a nominee and a coherent campaign,\'\' he said. The Connecticut House adopted the fairness project\'s proposal this session but it died in the state Senate. In North Carolina, where the Republican governor has no veto, the House has passed the plan and the Democratic-controlled Senate was scheduled to vote today. Roberts still hopes that legislatures in Connecticut, New Jersey, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia and Indiana will revise their electoral systems before 1992, when the impact of the changes can be tested. Curtis Gans, director of the non-partisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, contends the changes would generate major improvements affecting both parties. Gans said the revised electoral system would stimulate more grassroots campaigning and less reliance on ``demagogic media appeals\'\' and ``unaccountable political consultants.\'\' It also would produce an Electoral College vote that more closely reflects the popular vote, he said. Few political scientists are as enthusiastic, nor do they see it being embraced in many states. Many say its virtues are subtle at best _ it is slightly more democratic and might put a few more states on the presidential campaign trail. Larry Sabato, an analyst at the University of Virginia, said the district-by-district allocation of electoral votes might even discourage candidates from visiting certain states. Contenders often write off states whose electoral vote total is insignificant, Sabato said. Parceling out those votes by congressional district ``would give even less of an incentive to come,\'\' he said. Nevertheless, Sabato said he supports the change because it would lessen the likelihood of an Electoral College victory by a candidate who had received a minority of the popular vote. That almost happened in 1976, when Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford, and did happen three times between 1824 and 1888, he said. ``It would be a disaster today. I think people would take to the streets,\'\' Sabato said. That kind of emotion does not characterize the current debate. ``People just regard this as a woodwork issue,\'\' said Bruce Buchanan, a government professor at the University of Texas. ``It\'s way off the center of the plate.\'\'\r\n'),(2138,2,'Two teen-agers were sentenced to at least 50 years in prison Wednesday for murdering two Roman Catholic priests in their rectories. The trial judge, state Supreme Court Justice Frederick Marshall, sentenced the pair to the maximum term, and said he wished he could have imposed the death penalty, which was abolished in New York in 1965. Marshall told defendents Theodore Simmons, 19, and Milton Jones, 18, the sentence was meant to ``voice the outrage and disgust of the community.\'\' The two were convicted in separate trials of robbing, torturing and murdering the Rev. A. Joseph Bissonette, 55, in St. Bartholomew\'s Church on Feb. 24, 1987 and Monsignor David Herlihy, 74, in St. Matthew\'s church on March, 7, 1987. The crimes sent shock waves through the city, and terrorized churchmen. A clergyman from the poor neigborhood where the slayings occurred testified that he slept with a ceremonial sword at his bedside because he feared the tough youths who came to his rectory late at night looking for handouts. The defense for both Simmons and Jones claimed that the youths\' underprivileged upbringing contributed to the crimes. The judge rejected the argument and said the pair ``stripped them (the priests) of all human dignity.\'\' In his final statement, Simmons, who tried to blame Jones for the killings, said, ``I did not kill anyone ... everything exploded in my face and I did not know what to do.\'\' Jones said through his attorney he was sorry for the crimes. ``Something happened that he got caught up in and just did not known how to extricate himself,\'\' Jones\' attorney Jeffrey Sellers told the judge. Relatives of the two slain priests said they were struck by a lack of emotion from the defendants. Nan Gallivan, Monsignor Herlihy\'s niece, said the defendants did not appear remorseful at any time during the trial. Raymond Bissonette, brother of the Rev. Bissonette, said the prison terms were ``something that had to be done.\'\' Marshall sentenced Simmons and Jones to two consecutive 25 years-to-life terms, which means the pair will not be eligible for parole until they have served 48{ years, counting the time they already have been held.\r\n'),(2139,2,'U.S. troops tired of waiting in the desert welcome the possibility of a U.N. resolution setting a January deadline for Iraq to pull out of Kuwait. ``The sooner they take immediate action, the sooner this\'ll get over and we can all go home,\'\' Air Force Sgt. Bill Hubbard, 21, of Tarpon Springs, Fla., said Tuesday. Some servicemen who arrived in Saudi Arabia soon after President Bush ordered troops to defend it on Aug. 7 said the United Nations should have set a deadline much earlier to prevent Saddam Hussein\'s forces from destroying Kuwait. ``He\'s been in Kuwait so long now, he\'s just raping the country,\'\' said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ricky Presley, 32, of Little Rock, Ark., who arrived Aug. 16. ``I think we should never have let him do that in the first place. I think it (a deadline) should have happened a while back,\'\' he said. Capt. Ali, 34, a Kuwaiti army tank commander waiting to go on maneuvers about 40 miles from the Kuwaiti border, also believes a deadline should have been set ``as soon as they attacked Kuwait.\'\' ``I don\'t know why they are waiting ... We were ready to go months ago,\'\' said Ali, who refused to give his last name to protect his wife, parents and four children still in Kuwait. 1st Lt. Bruce Lake, 29, of Newport News, Va., a tank platoon commander who has spent more than three months in the desert, said he and his troops from the 69th Armored Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division would be delighted with a deadline. ``But I don\'t think it\'ll fly ... Just from my reading of the situation and listening to the news ... I haven\'t sensed that much unity and we still seem to be leading the way,\'\' he said. ``Either an operation or a go-home date is going to boost morale,\'\' he said. ``We feel that we have the forces we need over here to do the job and push this guy out if need be, and to go home.\'\' The U.N. Security Council is expected to meet Thursday to consider a draft resolution setting a Jan. 15 deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, restore its government and release all foreign hostages. Lt. Col. Robert McCann, 42, of West Hope, N.D., said international support is important ``because in today\'s world no one nation can just do what they want to. That\'s why we\'re here.\'\' Air Force Staff Sgt. Jim White, 39, Fairfield, Calif., said U.N. support of the multinational force is essential to prevent similar aggression elsewhere. ``How many times in the past has the United States been the almost sole bearer of international disputes? Now, I feel if we don\'t come through on this one, it\'s going to have a domino effect,\'\' he said. As they stepped off a C-5 Galaxy transport after a 36-hour flight from Travis Air Force Base in California, some of the newest reinforcements for Operation Desert Shield were equally hopeful. ``We got to bring this thing to a head one way or the other,\'\' said Capt. Clarence Ryan, 40, of Laurel, Md., who was leading a unit of cooks and firefighters from the 60th Military Air Wing at Travis. ``The long waiting game, will it pay off? We don\'t know, but the longer we wait, the more Kuwait is being torn up.\'\' After two months with a combat unit in the desert, Staff Sgt. Douglas Barton, 40, of San Antonio said he got tired of waiting and decided to end his 20-year Army career. ``I\'m not going to sit in the desert for no reason. Time for me to go,\'\' he said as he waited for a flight home.\r\n'),(2140,2,'``If you look up history, this kind of coincidence happens many times. I don\'t think it is really statistically significant.\'\' _ Seismologist Hiroo Kanamori of the California Institute of Technology on a barrage of earthquakes during a two-day period this week in California, Indiana and Asia.\r\n'),(2141,2,'Gov. Evan Mecham should be removed from office for obstructing an investigation of an alleged death threat, senators were told today during opening arguments of the first-term Republican\'s impeachment trial. But a defense attonrey for Mecham told senators in an impassioned statement that Mecham was the victim of a ``mutiny\'\' by the state attorney general and director of the state Department of Public Safety. Prosecutor William French said the man accused of making the alleged threat, former state official Lee Watkins, had claimed that jobs in the Mecham administration ``relate to the amount of money that you were able to bring into the campaign.\'\' French said the evidence was ``overwhelming\'\' that Mecham violated criminal laws and his oath of office and committed malfeasance in office, ``any one of which call for impeachment.\'\' However, defense attorney Fred Craft told senators in his opening statement that Mecham broke no laws and was acting within his authority. ``What has this man done?\'\' Craft said. ``There\'s something wrong in this state when you can depose the constitutionally elected officer of the state and throw the book at him ... based upon evidence that\'s being presented by people who have a stake in the outcome to have him ousted.\'\' Craft said the accusations resulted from a ``mutiny\'\' by Attorney General Bob Corbin and DPS Director Ralph Milstead. The DPS includes the Highway Patrol and investigative personnel. Craft also said he would present testimony that would cast dubt on Milstead\'s integrity. Mecham, who also faces a March 22 criminal trial and a May 17 recall election, did not appear at the Senate on the second day of his impeachment trial. The impeachment counts against Mecham include an allegation that he ordered Milstead not to cooperate with the attorney general\'s probe of an alleged death threat by Watkins, then the state prison construction chief. ``There was an obstruction with regard to an ongoing investigation that was being conducted by the attorney general\'s office,\'\' French said. Watkins has denied making a threat against Donna Carlson, a former top Mecham aide who testified before the state grand jury on Mecham\'s failure to report a $350,000 campaign loan. DPS Officer Frank Martinez, a former member of Mecham\'s security detail who was called as the trial\'s first witness, testified this morning that Mecham administration official Peggy Griffith told him about a conversation she had with Watkins. Ms. Griffith said Watkins had told her that if Ms. Carlson ``did not keep her mouth shut, she could wind up taking a long boat ride ... and I know the right people who can help me,\'\' Martinez testified. Martinez said that he met with Milstead, other DPS officers, Corbin and several assistant attorneys general several days later and that Milstead told of a conversation he had with Mecham. Martinez said Milstead told the group that Mecham ``stated he didn\'t want him helping the attorney general.\'\' ``The overall mood was just amazement,\'\' Martinez testified. Craft said Milstead and other officials did not fully advise Mecham about the alleged threat, adding that Milstead ``was a feckless employee of this state and he did not serve that governor well.\'\' French said Watkins complained about the job he was given by Mecham and told Corrections Director Sam Lewis, ``If they don\'t treat me right I can bring Mecham\'s administration down.\'\' French warned the Senate to ``keep your eye on the ball\'\' and not be distracted by any attacks on witnesses in the case. ``Know that this is being done because there is no defense,\'\' French said. The opening arguments today dealt only with the alleged threat. Arguments will precede discussion of the other allegations against Mecham as they are reached during the trial. On the trial\'s opening day Monday, the Senate strongly rejected efforts to dismiss impeachment charges against Mecham. Also, the Arizona Supreme Court was expected to rule today on a defense claim that the impeachment trial, the first of a U.S. governor in 59 years, should be delayed until after Mecham\'s March 22 criminal trial on charges of concealing a $350,000 campaign loan. The high court last week refused to grant a temporary delay, and Mecham said he planned to take the issue to federal court if necessary. Senate President Carl Kunasek, a Republican, said ``it was the first-day jitters for everyone\'\' in the impeachment trial\'s opening day Monday. ``It crosses everybody\'s mind _ the importance to do justice to the governor and the state,\'\' said Senate Majority Leader Bob Usdane, also a Republican. ``It\'s a large burden and we take it seriously.\'\' Senators refused to dismiss the 23 articles of impeachment against Mecham, whose attorney, Jerris Leonard, entered an innocent plea on his behalf. On 11 separate motions, the largest number of the 29 senators voting for dismissal was seven. Several senators said the vote should not be considered an indication that Mecham is likely to be convicted, saying they want to hear the evidence first. However, Sen. Jeff Hill, a Republican who has strongly backed Mecham, said the governor\'s conviction was virtually a foregone conclusion. ``I think that it\'s not likely that he\'s going to prevail,\'\' he said. If convicted by the Senate, Mecham would be removed from office and could be permanently barred from holding elective office in Arizona. Mecham, 63, won election in a three-way race after five tries. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and insisted he will survive both trials and a May 17 recall election and return to the office he gave up to acting Gov. Rose Mofford, a Democrat, when he was impeached by the House on Feb. 5.\r\n'),(2142,2,'Demonstrators in wheelchairs blocked Greyhound terminals in several U.S. cities Monday claiming buses are inaccessible to disabled riders, and several landed in jail when they refused police orders to move. In some cases, demonstrators organized by American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, or ADAPT, blocked Labor Day travelers\' entry to buses, police said. ``This is a very busy day for us,\'\' said George Gravley, a spokesman for Dallas-based Greyhound Lines Inc. ``It\'s a holiday weekend. People are going home and thousands of people are being inconvenienced because buses are being delayed.\'\' Five protesters in wheelchairs and one blind demonstrator were arrested in Dallas and taken to jail, said police Sgt. K. Walters. A jailer said $213 bond each was set, but she did not know how many were jailed. Arrests also occurred in Louisville, Ky., and Denver, and an organizer said the protests occurred in a dozen cities. Joe Carley, a demonstrator at the Dallas terminal, said society has ``spent thousands of dollars keeping us alive and they say, `We have spent this money to keep you alive we\'re not going to spend any money to see that you can live.\' And accessibility is living.\'\' Protesters want Greyhound to install lifts on buses to make them more accessible to the handicapped. ``We\'re asking them to sign an agreement that any new bus built will be accessible,\'\' said the Rev. Wade Blank, an ADAPT spokesman in Denver. Greyhound officials met with leaders of the Denver-based ADAPT in August. ``We went through all of this in Denver,\'\' Gravley said. ``We thought we responded in a forthright way to issues they raised. We are disappointed obviously that the demonstrations continued.\'\' In Denver, 10 people, including eight in wheelchairs, were cited for disturbing the peace. The protest shifted to the Denver City Jail after police officers booked the two able-bodied people, but released those in wheelchairs, said Blank. Two hours later, they too were released, and a police officer at the scene told the protesters they had been booked due to a misunderstanding. In Louisville, Ky., a protest involving 25 people resulted in the arrest of eight demonstrators, six in wheelchairs. The eight were charged with failure to disperse and obstruction of a highway and released on their own recognizance. Blank said protests also were scheduled Monday in Atlanta, Savannah, Ga., Salt Lake City, Utah, Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Another demonstration was set for Tuesday at the Greyhound terminal in Chicago, he said. Gravley said a Greyhound subsidiary has applied for a grant to use toward designing an exprimental bus that would be accessible to the disabled. He said the company has proposed enlisiting the help of an advisory group that would include ADAPT members, the Texas Commission for The Handicapped, and a retired people\'s group. Greyhound operates Helping Hands, a program that provides a free ticket for disabled people who are unable to travel by themselves. But to avoid fraudulent use of the program, the bus carrier requires users to provide proof of their disability, Gravley said. ``This handicapped organization feels that\'s demeaning and they ought to be the judge of whether they travel alone,\'\' Gravley said. ADAPT also objects to Greyhound\'s requirements that non-motorized wheelchairs be stored in baggage compartments and battery-operated wheelchairs be kept off buses. Greyhound cites concerns about battery acid leaking.\r\n'),(2143,2,'The dollar rose Wednesday in Europe as players became increasingly convinced that the Group of Seven countries, particularly the United States and Japan, are willing to tolerate a higher U.S. currency. Gold responded by sliding nearly $10 an ounce in heavy selling in Europe, reaching its lowest levels since early March. ``The market has a feeling that G-7 doesn\'t mind the dollar going higher,\'\' said a trader at a British bank, adding that two central banks, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Swiss National Bank, engaged in only limited intervention Wednesday. Dealers said they saw no buying by other major central banks. The Group of Seven major industrialized nations is made up of the United States, Japan, West Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada. Jim O\'Neill, an economist at Swiss Bank Investment Bank in London, said the dollar continued to rise because the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan did not play a major role in Tuesday\'s heavy concerted intervention. Many traders concluded the Fed and the Japanese central bank have given their consent to a higher dollar. In London, it cost $1.7060 to buy one pound, cheaper than $1.7200 late Tuesday. Other late dollar rates in Europe, compared with late Tuesday\'s rates, included: 1.8290 West German marks, up from 1.8070; 1.5155 Swiss francs, up from 1.4960; 6.1635 French francs, up from 6.0885; 2.0545 Dutch guilders, up from 2.0210; 1,350.75 Italian lire, up from 1,337.00; and 1.2173 Canadian dollars, up from 1.2105. In earlier Tokyo trading, the dollar broke the 133-yen level for the first time in nearly seven months before falling back to close at 132.40 yen, up 1.45 yen from Tuesday. In London, it topped 133 yen again and was quoted at 133.70 yen. Dealers said the dollar\'s strength in the face of central bank intervention was the main factor behind gold\'s slide. They also cited softness in other commodities prices. ``Whenever the market creates a wave like this, you have speculators fueling the fire and then there is investor follow-through on the downside.\'\' said one bullion dealer in Zurich. The slide began in New York on Tuesday, and then was exacerbated by heavy selling in Europe. Gold fell in London to a late bid price of $433.30 a troy ounce, compared with late Tuesday\'s $443.20. In Zurich, gold closed at a bid $433.50 compared with $443.20 late Tuesday. Earlier, in Hong Kong, gold fell $6.26 to close at a bid $440.04 a troy ounce. Silver bullion prices fell on the London market. The metal traded at a late bid price of $6.66 a troy ounce, compared with Tuesday\'s $6.92.\r\n'),(2144,2,'Pronunciations of the names of some leading Yugoslav politicans: Slobodan Milosevic (Sloh-BOH-don Me-LOSH-veech), Serbian president. Milan Kucan (ME-lahn KOO-chahn), prominent Slovenian Communist leader. Stefan Korosec (Shte-FAN COUR-oh-shetz), Secretary of Yugoslav Communist Party. Ivica Racan (EE-vee-tzah RAH\'-chahn), Croatian Communist Party leader. Milan Pancevsky (ME-lahn pahn-CHAF-ski), Federal Communist Party leader. Ante Markovic (AHN-teh mark-oh-VITCH), premier Zivko Pregl (ZHEEV-koh PREH-gl), deputy premier Adm. Petar Simic (PEH-tar SHEE-mitch), Communist leader in military.\r\n'),(2145,2,'Prices on the London Stock Exchange rose Thursday as players crept back into the market to pick up marked-down shares after Wednesday\'s rout. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-stock index was up 15.5 points, or 0.9 percent, at 1,772.3 at the close. On Wednesday, the index fell 35.8 points. Trading volume was a modest 340.8 million shares, compared with Wednesday\'s 575.5 million shares. Traders said the market was attempting to consolidate after Wednesday\'s fall. The positive showing in Tokyo and Wall Street\'s better opening Thursday also supported London equity prices, dealers said. ``People have discounted Wednesday\'s performance because they realize it was overdone,\'\' one equity salesman said. In addition, the market was heartened by some favorable corporate earnings reports, dealers said.\r\n'),(2146,2,'Sen. Gordon Humphrey, a steadfast foe of legalized abortion, said Friday he has softened his stand for the tactical reason of finally getting an updated abortion law passed in New Hampshire. The conservative Republican, who is running for a state Senate seat even though he retires in January from the U.S. Senate after two terms, said he has long supported abortion only to save the woman\'s life, but now would support exceptions for rape and incest victims. In a telephone interview from his Chichester home, Humphrey said he\'s easing his stance ``because that\'s probably the only way that we can get a bill passed and signed into law that would address the 95 percent of abortions that have nothing to do with rape, incest or the life of the mother.\'\' Earlier this year, Gov. Judd Gregg vetoed a bill that would have made abortion legal until the fetus could live outside the womb. Last year, Gregg vetoed a bill to repeal the state\'s existing anti-abortion laws, which date from the mid-1800s. Humphrey faces state Rep. Jack Sherburne in the Sept. 11 Republican primary. Sherburne favors abortion rights, as does the incumbent, Republican William Johnson, who is running for Congress. Humphrey said his beliefs haven\'t changed and that he hopes the public eventually will agree with him that ``each abortion kills a human being, and a human being is a human being irrespective of his circumstances of conception.\'\' Asked if he would revert to opposing exceptions for rape and incest if the political climate were favorable, Humphrey said, ``That would be my preference. But I don\'t expect to see that day.\'\' He said he had not discussed his new position with anti-abortion supporters, but expects some criticism. Warren Aldrich, legislative director for New Hampshire For L.I.F.E., would not comment directly on Humphrey\'s change, but said his group ``would not take part in sponsoring or originating a bill that permits the taking of an unborn human life because of the circumstances of its conception.\'\' ``Rape and incest are tragic assaults on a woman\'s life, but we do not believe that abortion is in any way therapeutic for the woman,\'\' he said. Peg Dobbie, state director of the National Abortion Rights Action League, was surprised by Humphrey\'s new stance. ``He seems like the guy who\'s above it, the maverick who stands up for his convictions no matter what,\'\' she said. Even with the modifications, Humphrey\'s stance ``is a very extreme anti-abortion position,\'\' Dobbie said.\r\n'),(2147,2,'Luxembourg takes over the European Community\'s presidency on Tuesday, with war looming in the Persian Gulf, world trade talks in disarray and Europe in full transformation. The Grand Duchy, a tiny speck on the map with only about 0.1 percent of the population in the 12-nation community, has a good track record in handling the rotating six-month EC presidencies. Jacques Santer, prime minister of the 378,400 Luxembourgers, is convinced the mouse will roar again when his country takes over the community\'s presidency from Italy as 1991 begins. ``During all of our presidencies we always came up with results,\'\' Santer said in a recent interview. Five years ago, the Luxembourg presidency paved the way for the Single European Act, an updated constitution that pushes the trade bloc toward creating a truly unified market after 1992. This time around, new initiatives to create economic, monetary and political union by the turn of the century have been thrust into Santer\'s lap. The Christian Democrat plans to act as a mediator between the EC\'s powerhouses - Germany, France and Britain - to finalize the blueprint for European unity. ``Because we are so small, the others do not suspect us of having ulterior self-serving motives,\'\' he said. Shoehorned between Germany, France and Belgium, Luxembourg occupies a key crossroads on the continent, straddling Europe\'s main cultures - the Romanic and Germanic. It is also well-connected with both the rich north and poor south in the community. The Persian Gulf crisis might prove the first test of Luxembourg\'s mettle. The EC has said it would not hold talks with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz unless the United States first reaches agreement with Iraq on exchanging foreign ministers\' visits. If the EC agrees to talk with Iraq, that task would fall to Luxembourg\'s Foreign Minister Jacques Poos. During Luxembourg\'s six months, a lot of energy will be spent on two conferences - one on economic and monetary union, the other on political union -to pave the way for a more unified Europe. Disarray reigns on how fast monetary union should be achieved, Santer said. He said calls for an independent EC defense organization are not realistic and it remains ``essential that we keep a partnership with the United States\'\' within NATO - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The partnership with Washington has been strained in global trade, where the EC has resisted U.S. proposals that it reduce price supports and subsidies for farmers. The agricultural dispute blocked an agreement in world trade talks held in Brussels, Belgium earlier this month. The talks are to resume in Geneva next month. Santer, stressing the progress that has been made in the other 14 sectors covered by the trade talks, said farming should not block an overall accord. He argued in favor of a final deal that, if need be, excludes agriculture.\r\n'),(2148,2,'Charities outside of United Way campaigns are gaining an increasing share of the millions of dollars that American workers give through workplace campaigns, a report said Thursday. The report was issued by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which has campaigned for giving workers access to newer and smaller charities that are not usually part of United Way campaigns. The committee, representing more than 300 fund-raising organizations, was established in 1976 to monitor developments in philanthropy. Alternative organizations are getting 10.1 percent of the money raised in workplace campaigns, the report said. Ten years ago, it said, alternative groups got 3.5 percent of the total. Among the alternative organizations are some health agencies such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association; international agencies such as CARE and Oxfam America; arts funds; the United Negro College Fund; and agencies which raise money for social action causes and women\'s and environmental groups. All told, United Way campaigns are expected to raise $3.2 billion in contributions this year, two-thirds of it through payroll deductions and other employee contribution programs. Organizations not under the United Way umbrella are expected to raise $205 million from employee contribution programs. ``We have already witnessed the dismantlement of the United Way\'s monopoly of workplace fund raising,\'\' said Robert Bothwell, executive director of NCRP. ``Our figures indicate that the 1990s will produce a 20 to 25 percent market share for alternatives to United Ways.\'\' Clark LaMendola, senior vice president of the United Way of America said the report failed to make clear that United Way acts as the campaign manager for raising most of the money collected by the alternative organizations. ``We get the volunteers together, we raise the money, we print the pledge cards, we count the money and we make sure the organizations get it,\'\' he said. He said the report gives the erroneous impression ``that these funds are somehow raised independently.\'\' Two-thirds of the $205 million expected to be raised this year on behalf of the alternative organizations will be solicited by campaigns managed by United Way, LaMendola said. The NCRP report said alternative charities made their most significant gain in the huge Combined Federal Campaign, which collects contributions from federal employees. CFC is the world\'s largest workplace charity drive. It solicits contributions from almost five million workers. In 1987, it collected $187 million. In 1980, United Way organizations got 71 percent of all money collected by the federal drive. By 1989, their share had fallen to 37 percent, the report said. ``CFC donors have sent out a message that has been picked up by workplace giving campaign decision makers across the country, in both the public and private sectors,\'\' said Don Sodo, who champions broader workplace fund drives. ``They have demonstrated that they are interested in a wide variety of charities, including those that provide services not within the somewhat limited United Way umbrella.\'\' Sodo is executive director of National-United Services Agencies, which represents 87 widely divergent organizations, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Organization for Women Legal Education and Defense Fund, Phyllis Schlafly\'s Eagle Forum, Ralph Nader\'s Public Citizen and the National Right to Life Educational Trust. The NCRP fought successfully in court and in Congress during the 1980s to broaden CFC drives to include alternative charities, including some lobbying and advocacy groups. The federal campaign now collects for United Way, seven other national federations, 220 unaffiliated agencies and thousands of local unaffiliated charities and federations, the report said.\r\n'),(2149,2,'Sixty guests gathered at the French ambassador\'s home Wednesday to pay homage to the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, over a candlelight dinner featuring dishes from the menu at Lafayette\'s wedding feast in 1774. A crier in powdered wig and knee britches announced each guest and a trio of costumed chamber musicians played Mozart and other 18th century favorites for the black-tie dinner given by Le Cordon Bleu, the famed Paris cooking school. Those lucky enough to receive invitations to one of the most exclusive social events of Washington\'s spring season dined on a jelly of oysters in caviar cream sauce, filet of sole, baby squab served in silver cups and a slab of roast venison on a spit which was carried into the dining room on the shoulders of two chefs. Goblets under the Baccarat crystal candelabra, which were decorated with cascades of pink roses, tulips and spring flowers, were filled with six fine French wines and champagne. Dessert was chocolate-covered pineapple ice cream, served in a pineapple shell held by three sculpted chocolate hands. The palate freshener for the seven-course dinner was a sorbet laced with cognac from the 900-acre Cointreau estate in France. ``The guests were pleased to receive invitations, but some people were very displeased they were not coming,\'\' said Andre Cointreau, a descendant of the French liqueur producers and president of Le Cordon Bleu. ``We were sorry we could not accommodate everyone.\'\' Besides French Ambassador Jacques Andreani, the guest list included leading Washington journalists and food writers, former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter and Katharine Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Co. Patrick Martin, 32, a rising star among classical French chefs and a master teacher at Le Cordon Bleu, arrived 10 days ago to begin preparing the dinner. He was assisted by four chefs who labored in the white-tiled basement kitchen of the ambassador\'s residence in northwest Washington. Cointreau said the dinner Wednesday night included authentic recreations of several foods from the staggering array of 200 dishes served in 30 courses at Lafayette\'s wedding feast exactly 216 years ago. Lafayette, then just 16, married Adrienne de Noailles, a daughter of one of the wealthiest and most influential families in France, in a Paris ceremony that took place shortly before Lafayette became a captain in the French cavalry. Three years later, Lafayette sailed to America and joined the Revolutionary War as an honorary major general under the command of his close friend, George Washington. He was credited with the defensive military maneuvers that resulted in the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. Cointreau said the dinner was conceived five years ago as an expression of gratitude to American oil magnate John Moffat, who early in this century bought and restored the crumbling Chavagnal-Lafayette castle in the Auvergne region where Lafayette was born. Moffat housed several hundred French orphans from World War I at the castle, which is now held by trustees of the nonprofit Lafayette Memorial. ``The dinner is our way of saying thank you to America, and the best way to say thank you is to have good people sitting down together at a very good dinner,\'\' Cointreau said.\r\n'),(2150,2,'A man bent on revenge after being convicted of reckless driving and weapons violations died in a courtroom gunfight after threatening to kill his prosecutor and critically wounding a bailiff, authorities said. Jeremey Sigmond, 35, a decertified chiropractor from Sepulveda, returned Wednesday to Los Angeles Municipal Court where he was convicted the day before, and accosted his prosecutor, Jessica Perrin Silvers, 49, threatening to kill her. ``He\'s just, in layman\'s terms, violently crazy, and I knew it,\'\' the prosecutor said. ``So when I heard him talking in his delusional voice and saying I should come with him I just thought there\'s no way I\'m going to do that.\'\' A bailiff drew a gun on Sigmond. Sigmond threatened to shoot Ms. Silvers and the bailiff dropped the weapon. But Ms. Silvers broke away and Deputy Marshal Cliff Wofford burst into the room and shot Sigmond. Wofford, 30, of Palmdale, was wounded in the abdomen in the gunbattle and was in critical condition after surgery to repair damage to his liver, said Betty Neilson, spokeswoman for St. Joseph\'s Medical Center in Burbank. Police searched Sigmond\'s suburban home Wednesday for firearms or explosives, but found only empty gun vaults. A neighbor, Maurice Netter, said Sigmond had told him he was part of a federal witness protection program and living under an assumed name. Sigmond was convicted Tuesday of four misdemeanors _ reckless driving, evading police, carrying a loaded weapon and carrying a concealed weapon _ stemming from an Oct. 22 high-speed chase. He testified at his trial that he thought he was being chased by the Mafia instead of the California Highway Patrol. He claimed the Mafia was harassing him in retaliation for a lawsuit he filed against the Board of Chiropractors, alleging price-fixing and restraint of trade. He had been appealing the revocation of his state license to practice as a chiropractor. When arrested, Sigmond was wearing two bullet-proof vests and a crash helmet and carrying a loaded .38-caliber revolver. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest Wednesday, said police Lt. Charles Massey. Sigmond\'s attorney, Norman Edell, described his client as an Air Force veteran who held a second-degree black belt in karate and was a collector of guns, most of which he recently had sold. ``He was very distraught because the case meant a lot to him. He didn\'t take it passively but there was no indication of this,\'\' he said. At his sentencing, which was scheduled for May, Sigmond could have been ordered imprisoned up to 18 months. The courthouse is in the San Fernando Valley community of Van Nuys, about 15 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.\r\n'),(2151,2,'The Mohawk Indians who live on the border between the United States and Canada are again in conflict with the authorities. Here is a look at their relations with the governments on both sides of the border in recent years. 1979 _ 20 ``traditionalists\'\' Mohawks were arrested after a handful of Franklin County deputies were held hostage over the cutting down of trees by tribal Mohawks who elect the tribe\'s leaders. 1980 _ New York State sends 70 heavily armed policemen onto the reservation to head off a confrontation between tribal Mohawks and traditionalist Mohawks. June 1989 _ State police complete a two-day raid on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, arresting four people for illegal gambling and confiscating more than 200 gambling machines. July 1989 _ 300 FBI agents and state troopers raid gambling casinos on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, arresting 12 Mohawk Indians on gambling charges. Following the raid, there is a 10-day standoff between state and federal authorities and the Warriors Society, a self-appointed Mohawk security force. August 1989 _ Shots are fired at a one of the gambling casinos on the St. Regis Reservation in the latest round of violence stemming from gambling on the Reservation. November 1989 _ Offices of a weekly pro-gambling newspaper on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation are hit by gunfire in further violence over illegal gambling casinos. March 1990 _ A doctor aboard a Vermont National Guard helicopter, on a medical mission, was struck by a bullet fired from a rifle as the helicopter flew over the Ganienkeh Mohawk Territory. Three bullets penetrated the helicopter. July 11 _ Mohawk Indians wearing warpaint fire on Canadian police, killing one officer in a dispute over land for a golf course.\r\n'),(2152,2,'Chancellor Helmut Kohl on Tuesday firmly rejected Moscow\'s suggestion that settling the military complexities of a united Germany could be delayed until after the countries are merged. ``It would be a fatal development if the external and internal conditions of German unity were not completely clear when the day of German unity comes,\'\' Kohl told reporters. The chancellor was referring to a suggestion by Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze that formal German unity could occur before ``external\'\' aspects of the merger are cleared up. Such ``external\'\' aspects would include those issues with international implications, such as the military stance of a united Germany. West Germany currently belongs to NATO, while East Germany is a member of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The Soviets oppose a united Germany in NATO. During reunification talks Saturday in Bonn, Shevardnadze also suggested a ``transition period\'\' during which the four wartime allies would retain postwar rights, even after German unity. The United States, the Soviet Union, France and Britain jointly control many matters in the former German capital of Berlin. They also have special rights outside Berlin, many involving the status of the troops they maintain in what once were their postwar military occupation zones. Shevardnadze\'s remarks initially triggered jubilation among some West German politicians, who sensed the pace of unification was picking up. But by Tuesday that had changed to concern about delaying settlement of important issues related to German unification. There had even been talk among some politicians of canceling West Germany\'s Dec. 2 national election in favor of elections for a united Germany\'s parliament. But Kohl said Tuesday ``without question\'\' the Dec. 2 elections will still occur. Vernon A. Walters, the U.S. ambassador to West Germany, said Tuesday that Washington supports a united Germany with unrestricted sovereignty and without special rights for any of the World War II allied victors. ``A united Germany should have full control over its entire state territory, without any sort of new discriminating limitations of German sovereignty,\'\' Walters told a Frankfurt meeting of West German newspaper and broadcast susbscribers to The Associated Press. While the United States has promised it won\'t stand in the way of full sovereignty for a united Germany, it has also made clear it wants a merged Germany to be part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Kohl has also vowed that a united Germany will be a NATO member. Moscow has suggested as a compromise that a united Germany belong to both NATO and the Warsaw Pact until still-undefined European ``security structures\'\' are created. Both Washington and Bonn have said they are prepared to allow Soviet troops to remain on what is now East German territory for an interim period, but both have rejected a dual-bloc membership. East Germany also reacted negatively to Shevardnadze\'s weekend proposals. Government officials in East Berlin are ``skeptical\'\' of delaying a settlement on the international issues involved in unification, said the East German news agency ADN. Kohl said his government is hoping that the six-nation talks on unification, which began Saturday, will conclude before the end of this fall. He said the international aspects of German unification will likely be discussed at the U.S.-Soviet summit at the end of this month, and at a special NATO summit in London in July.\r\n'),(2153,2,'To hear some people tell it, there is money to burn in this trendy seaside community, but it still isn\'t every day that a bank tosses $42,500 into the trash. ``We\'re sort of embarrassed,\'\' Great American Bank spokesman Brian Luscomb said Friday, a day after the windfall was recovered from a municipal trash truck that had hauled it away. ``It was an accident and we\'re really not commenting much beyond that,\'\' said Luscomb, who added that a bank employee whose name wasn\'t released put the money in the wrong container. When the garbage truck got to the dump, officials there had been warned about the missing cash, and they had the driver take his load to a city yard instead. The garbage was dumped there and municipal employees dug through the trash until they found the cash. The city\'s trash collectors must try to track down the owners of expensive items but can keep lesser ones, said General Services Director David Niederhaus.\r\n'),(2154,2,'A former programmer has been convicted of planting a computer ``virus\'\' in his employer\'s system that wiped out 168,000 records and was activated like a time bomb, doing its damage two days after he was fired. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Davis McCown said he believes he is the first prosecutor in the country to have someone convicted for destroying computer records using a ``virus.\'\' ``We\'ve had people stealing through computers, but not this type of case,\'\' McCown said. ``The basis for this offense is deletion.\'\' ``It\'s very rare that the people who spread the viruses are caught,\'\' said John McAfee, chairman of the Computer Virus Industry Association in Santa Clara, Calif., which helps educate the public about viruses and find ways to fight them. ``This is absolutely the first time\'\' for a conviction, McAfee said. ``In the past, prosecutors have stayed away from this kind of case because they\'re too hard to prove,\'\' McCown said Tuesday. ``They have also been reluctant because the victim doesn\'t want to let anyone know there has been a breach of security.\'\' Donald Gene Burleson, 40, was convicted Monday of charges of harmful access to a computer, a third-degree felony that carries up to 10 years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines. A key to the case was the fact that State District Judge John Bradshaw allowed the computer program that deleted the files to be introduced as evidence, McCown said. It would have been difficult to get a conviction otherwise, he said. The District Court jury deliberated six hours before bringing back the first conviction under the state\'s 3-year-old computer sabotage law. Burleson planted the virus in revenge for his firing from an insurance company, McCown said. Jurors were told during a technical and sometimes-complicated three-week trial that Burleson planted a rogue program in the computer system used to store records at USPA and IRA Co., a Fort Worth-based insurance and brokerage firm. A virus is a computer program, often hidden in apparently normal computer software, that instructs the computer to change or destroy information at a given time or after a certain sequence of commands. The virus, McCown said, was activated Sept. 21, 1985, two days after Burleson was fired as a computer programmer, because of alleged personality conflicts with other employees. ``There were a series of programs built into the system as early as Labor Day (1985),\'\' McCown said. ``Once he got fired, those programs went off.\'\' The virus was discovered two days later, after it had eliminated 168,000 payroll records, holding up company paychecks for more than a month. The virus could have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the system had it continued, McCown said. The defense argued during trial that Burleson was set up by someone using his terminal and code. Burleson\'s attorneys tried to prove he was vacationing in another part of the state with his son on the dates in early September when the rogue programs were entered into the system. But prosecutors presented records showing that Burleson was at work and his son at school on those dates. Defense lawyer Jack Beech maintained Burleson is innocent and but said his client might not have enough money to appeal. Besides, Beech said, Burleson is likely to get the minimum sentence of two years\' probation. McCown said he is hoping for a stiffer sentence. Bradshaw on Tuesday ordered a presentence investigation and set sentencing Oct. 21. Burleson already has lost a civil case waged against him by USPA in connection with the incident. The jury in that case ordered him to pay $12,000 to his former employers. McAfee said his organization had documented about 250,000 cases of sabotage by computer virus.\r\n'),(2155,2,'Prime Minister Brian Mulroney today opened the most ambitious trade negotiations ever undertaken, urging officials of 90 nations to compromise to resolve trade differences. In an apparent reference to a clash between the United States and its allies on farm subsidies, Mulroney exhorted the delegates to ``be motivated by a spirit of honorable compromise.\'\' Mulroney said farmers around the world ``are looking for results in Montreal. They can no longer survive on a diet of promises.\'\' The round of trade negotiations is designed to liberalize and broaden the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, an international trade-policing treaty signed in 1947. GATT now has 96 members, and 90 trade ministers were at today\'s meeting. The U.S. delegation has come under strong criticism from Japan, Australia and the European Community over its demand to completely eliminate government supports for farmers. The 12-nation European Community is only willing to reduce them, terming the U.S. position unrealistic. Mulroney urged the negotiators to ``be animated by a spirit of realism,\'\' echoing similar weekend calls to the United States in preparatory consultations for the mid-term review of the four-year Uruguay Round of trade talks. The United States was further isolated by a tentative accord reached between the Europeans and developing nations that would remove or reduce tariffs on the export of tropical products to the industrialized world. An EC spokeswoman said the United States did not yet support the agreement, which would affect $70 billion in internaional trade of such products as jute, bananas and coffee. Michael Duffy, Australia\'s Minister of Trade Negotiations, told reporters Sunday that blame for U.S.-European impasse over trade barriers should be shared by the two parties. But he and other officials looked to the Americans to make the first move. Duffy warned that if neither side compromises during the three-day talks, ``it will sour the rest of the round,\'\' which ends in 1990. The dispute over agricultural subsidies has clouded prospects for progress on other urgent trade problems, such as the inclusion of the booming services trade in the 40-year-old GATT pact and the adoption of safeguards for copyrights and patents. ``It\'s hard to see how there can be progress in other areas without progress in agriculture,\'\' said John Crosbie, Canada\'s Minister for International Trade. The United States took a conciliatory stand but insisted it would stick to its main objective. Chief agriculture negotiator Dan Amstutz noted the United States had moved away from setting a 2000 deadline for elimination of subsidies and agreed to emergency government food stockpiles as long as they are bought on the open market. ``We\'re flexible,\'\' he said, but ``we\'d rather not have any agreement than a bad one.\'\' The U.S. delegation also appeared to hold out the possibility it would relent on its rejection of a proposal lifting barriers on the export of tropical products, such as bananas and coconuts, by developing nations. U.S. trade negotiator Alan Holmer warned that failure by the GATT round could create ``uncertainties\'\' in Congress and within the incoming administration of George Bush. He did not elaborate. But Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said failure on the farm support issue would result in an ``export-oriented\'\' farm bill. Congress is scheduled to draft a farm bill next year and Leahy indicated it would include supports for farmers so they can compete effectively against farmers whose governments also subsidize exports. The United States projects that its 1989 farm supports will amount to $13 billion _ down from the $27 million of 1987 but still a heavy burden on the deficit-ridden budget. U.S. officials say Europeans could save about $200 billion every year if they stopped their farm supports. But the EC, under the influence of powerful farm lobbies, says eliminating supports is not a viable option.\r\n'),(2156,2,'The government Thursday approved a U.S.-manufactured drug for treating a variety of African Sleeping Sickness, a disease that afflicts 25,000 people annually. The drug, Ornidyl, was cleared for use by the Food and Drug Administration and will be available by the end of the year in the sub-Saharan region of Africa, the World Health Organization said in a news release. This is the first approval of the drug in any country. An estimated 50 million people in 36 countries are at risk of contracting the disease, caused by parasites transmitted by tsetse flies. There are usually fewer than 10 cases of the disease per year in the United States, but the drug each year could save 3,000 people infected with the West African variety of the sickness, the World Health Organization said. Ornidyl is known as a ``resurrection drug\'\' because it can cure patients who have fallen into comas from the disease, said WHO\'s Dr. Tore Godal. Given intravenously, Ornidyl inhibits the growth of theparasite. The drug manufactured by Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals of Cincinnati, Ohio. Other drugs used against sleeping sickness aren\'t effective in the late stages, when the disease reaches the central nervous system. The new drug does have a potential for anemia and, on occasion, dangerous decreases in the numbers of white blood cells and platelets in the blood, the FDA said. A warning label says blood cell count monitoring should be done twice a week.\r\n'),(2157,2,'Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos is seeking the advice of thousands of lenders, colleges and universities, and public officials on how to hold down the escalating default rate on student loans. The Education Department says taxpayers spent $1.5 billion to cover defaults on the guaranteed student loan program in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, almost 43 percent of the program\'s entire cost. The figure represents a 200 percent increase over the past five years in what is now known as the Stafford loan program, the department said. ``We want the advice of all parties _ the Congress, the public, schools, lenders, guarantee agencies and borrowers,\'\' Cavazos said in a statement. ``A lot has already been done, but clearly, additional action is necessary.\'\' The program has loaned about $40 billion since it began. Of the current $12 billion in outstanding loans, about $5 billion is overdue, the department said. Charles Kolb, acting deputy undersecretary for planning, budget and evaluation, said Cavazos has sent letters appealing for advice to more than 7,000 participating colleges and universities, 13,000 lenders, 54 agencies that guarantee student loans, 50 governors, and members of Congress. Cavazos, who was president of Texas Tech University until taking over as education secretary in September, is also accepting suggestions from students. He is especially concerned about those who defaulted on their loans because they were unable to earn a living after attending unscrupulous trade or other schools that award a certificate but do not provide necessary job skills. Kolb said some schools have 100 percent default rates, suggesting they may not be providing the kind of education necessary for students to hold a job and earn enough money to repay their loans. ``There are a lot of scams going on here,\'\' Kolb said. A school must be accredited to qualify students for guaranteed student loans, but Kolb said there are still ``fly by night operations\'\' that ``don\'t give students a technical background _ just a paper certificate, no skills, and a debt. ``It\'s getting just unbelievable. Schools are recruiting right out of welfare lines. They get the students to get federally backed loans and the school gets the money and the kid gets the debt,\'\' Kolb said. Kolb said former Education Secretary William Bennett had proposed that schools that fail to get their default rate below 20 percent could be cut from the program. Cavazos has extended the comment period on that proposal until the end of February. Kolb said of the 7,300 schools participating in the program, 30 percent have default rates above 20 percent. Cavazos also wants to know to what extent lenders, guarantee agencies and schools should share in the risk and cost of defaults; how communication can be improved among those participating; whether credit reports and co-signers should be required for borrowers with poor credit histories; and how consumer and personal financial counseling can be used most effectively.\r\n'),(2158,2,'The head of American Telephone & Telegraph Co.\'s computer products division is leaving to rejoin the office equipment giant Ing. C. Olivetti SpA of Italy, AT&T announced Monday. Vittorio Cassoni, who had been head of Olivetti\'s North American operations before joining AT&T in 1986, will be nominated as managing director of the Italian company, AT&T said in a statement. Robert M. Kavner, AT&T\'s chief financial officer, was named to replace Cassoni as president of the company\'s Data Systems Group. The announcement came a week after Robert E. Allen succeeded James E. Olson as AT&T chairman. Olson, who had headed the telecommunications giant since September 1986, died of cancer. Cassoni, 45, joined AT&T after the American company and Olivetti signed a 10-year agreement under which Olivetti began to produce personal computers for both firms. Wall Street analysts said they did not know whether Cassoni\'s departure was being planned before Olson\'s death, although Allen said in a statement, ``When we brought Vittorio to AT&T in 1986, it was understood that he would eventually return to Olivetti.\'\' ``No one knows the answer to that,\'\' said John Bain, who tracks AT&T for the investment firm Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. ``I\'m tempted to say it must have been; they wouldn\'t undertake something at this high level at a whim.\'\' Olivetti was disappointed recently by AT&T\'s refusal to increase its 23 percent stake in the Italian company, but Bain said it was not known if there was a connection between that event and Cassoni\'s resignation. Analysts also said it was too early to tell what effect the change might have on the Data Systems Group, which is responsible for the development and marketing of AT&T\'s computer products. ``It is a loss,\'\' Thomas McKeever, an analyst at First Boston Corp. said of Cassoni\'s departure. However, McKeever added: ``A good chunk of his work is behind. They have laid the foundation and gotten a dedicated sales force.\'\' Bain, noting Cassoni\'s overhaul of AT&T\'s national marketing system, said, ``If he has gotten things turned about ... this could be viewed as a very positive step.\'\' But, he said, ``We don\'t know.\'\' Under Cassoni, the Data Systems Group agreed to develop a new version of AT&T\'s Unix computer with Sun Microsystems Inc. AT&T has also agreed to acquire a stake of up to 20 percent in Sun. The Data Systems Group is currently vying for a $4.5 billion contract to supply 20,000 computers to the Air Force and other defense agencies. Digital Equipment Corp. and Wang Laboratories Inc. dropped out of the bidding recently, claiming the deal favored AT&T. Bain said the Data Systems position could be a testing ground for Kavner. ``If he can be a general purpose executive rather than just an accountant, there could be higher things in the cards down the road,\'\' Bain said. Kavner, 44, joined AT&T in 1984 after 10 years as a partner at Coopers & Lybrand, the accounting and consulting firm.\r\n'),(2159,2,'The chairman of the tax-law-writing House Ways and Means Committee has been hit with more than 2,000 letters from angry, befuddled taxpayers complaining about the tax changes he once billed as ``simplification.\'\' Even Rep. Dan Rostenkowski acknowledges now that the system didn\'t get much simpler _ he blames last-minute tinkering with the Tax Reform Act of 1986 _ and he says the flood of complaints doesn\'t surprise him. ``We have been waiting for something like this to happen,\'\' Rostenkowski, D-Ill., said Thursday. But he said he had expected even more letters to arrive as today\'s filing deadline approached, perhaps closer to the 10,000 he got after inviting people in a 1985 television address to ``write Rosty\'\' if they wanted simpler tax laws. ``I must say, it\'s a dog that didn\'t bark as far as we\'re concerned,\'\' Rostenkowski said. ``There are very few individuals who are writing.\'\' Committee aides said most of the letters contain copies of an article in Money magazine\'s April issue lambasting parts of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. ``Fight back,\'\' the magazine said. ``Send a message to Washington by checking off the boxes by the laws that outrage you, ripping out this article and sending it to the top tax lawmaker: The Hon. Dan Rostenkowski.\'\' The article criticized nine tax provisions, including a limit on the deductibility of individual retirement accounts, elimination of a deduction for married working couples and a higher threshold for claiming medical deductions. ``There is a lot of frustration out there, and what we\'re trying to do is address it,\'\' Landon Y. Jones, Money\'s managing editor, said of the mail-in campaign. ``People are mad,\'\' he said. ``They\'re mad about tax reform. They\'re mad about how long it took them to fill their forms out. They\'re mad about losing their IRA deduction.\'\' Pointing to two huge boxes of mail, aides said Rostenkowski has gotten more than 2,000 letters in a couple weeks _ with no end in sight _ from angry taxpayers. ``In the name of tax reform and simplification, the federal government has once again botched it,\'\' wrote a couple from Denver, Colo. ``Would you believe there are parts of this country where you can\'t support a family and live in a decent neighborhood on $50,000 per year?\'\' said a letter from New Jersey. ``There are, and the situation is worsening.\'\' From Kankakee, Ill.: ``Being a middle-class American, I feel that once again we are the ones supporting our government, paying for Public Aid persons who could help themselves and carrying the wealthy people right along. When can we expect a change in the attitude of the government?\'\' The Internal Revenue Service says the changes are not without benefits, bringing lower maximum rates for most taxpayers and an increase in the average refund from $806 last year to $825 this year.\r\n'),(2160,2,'The two Germanys on Wednesday settled a fight on how to elect a united Parliament but continued squabbling over whether East Germany has enough money to pull its moribund economy into the capitalist arena. West German government spokesman Hans Klein said the opposition Social Democrats agreed to an election plan allowing small East German parties to run on tickets with larger parties with which they are allied. For example, the German Social Union, which is allied with the larger Christian Democrats, could run on the same ticket. This could improve the small parties\' chances of winning representation in Parliament, because each ticket will have to win at least 5 percent of the total vote to be represented in the united Parliament. East German Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere told reporters late Wednesday that his coalition parties had also approved the plan. The issue at one point threatened to derail the timetable of German unification as parties jockeyed for the most favorable conditions to improve their chances in the all-German election Dec. 2. De Maiziere said he expected the election law to be signed Friday. Meanwhile, East German Finance Minister Walter Romberg said Wednesday his country needs a supplementary budget of $6.25 billion to $7.5 billion plus increased unemployment insurance. More than 250,000 East Germans are unemployed and experts say that number could climb as high as 3 million as companies and factories succumb in the transition to a free market. West Germany has budgeted nearly $15.6 billion this year to cover East Germany\'s deficit. Manfred Carstens, a top West German Finance Ministry official, criticized East Germany\'s request for more money as ``unserious and politically dishonest.\'\' On Tuesday, East German Labor Minister Regine Hildebrandt said ``the country is burning\'\' and called for billions more in West German marks to help prop up the economy. De Maiziere went to Austria on Tuesday to meet with Chancellor Helmut Kohl at his vacation retreat and discuss the economic crisis. The mass-circulation Bild newspaper reported Thursday that Kohl pressed de Maiziere to find more savings in his budget.\r\n'),(2161,2,'Two U.S. Navy warships on Monday sailed through the Bosporus Strait into the Black Sea _ waters dominated by the Soviet fleet, an Istanbul port source said. The vessels were the destroyer Thorn and frigate Capodanno, both attached to the Mediterranean-based 6th Fleet, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Ocean, a Soviet navy intelligence and support ship, also passed through the Bosporus into the Black Sea together with the U.S. warships, the source said. The U.S. ships will spend four days in the international zones of the Black Sea, the source said. The United States dispatches ships to the area from time to time to reaffirm its commitment to the vital Turkish straits and place a stake in navigational rights in the Black Sea.\r\n'),(2162,2,'Hundreds of Moslem separatists dressed in death shrouds tried to march to Srinagar on Friday, a day after government troops shot to death 49 Moslems, but soldiers blocked the rally, police said. The march was to have begun in Sumbal, 15 miles north of Srinagar, said a senior police official who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said at least 1,000 Moslems gathered in the town but were stopped by soldiers before they could leave for Srinagar. Witnesses contacted by telephone said the demonstrators had draped themselves in white burial shrouds to show they were willing to die in the fight for secession. A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 49 people died and between 45 and 100 were injured Thursday in two incidents related to the Moslems\' campaign. The government said the officers fired in self-defense. The militants want independence for the Moslem-dominated Kashmir region, a part of India\'s Jammu-Kashmir state. It is the only Moslem-dominated state in India, where the majority of the population is Hindu. The latest shootings prompted authorities to impose an indefinite curfew at 4 a.m. Friday on Sringar, which is the capital, and six other towns. It prevented Moslems from attending the weekly Friday prayers, which in the past have been flashpoints for trouble. Police said one group of separatists defied the curfew and gathered along Dal Lake, but they were chased away by paramilitary troops. An officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one of the protesters fell to his death in the cold lake. The victim was not identified. The death brought to 162 the number of people killed in Kashmir since the current round of secession-related violence flared Jan. 20 following a government crackdown on Moslem militants. The violence brought criticism from neighboring Pakistan, a Moslem nation that disputes India\'s right to govern Kashmir. Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto\'s government said it condemned the ``brutal Indian response ... to the people of Kashmir, who were asking only for their right of self-determination.\'\' The Kashmir issue has been a point of contention between Pakistan and India since 1947, following the partition of the old British colonial Asian Subcontinent into two independent nations: mostly Hindu India and overwhelmingly Moslem Pakistan. Kashmir became a subject of dispute because its population was mostly Moslem but its ruler was a Hindu who wanted to join India. A brief war between the two countries left a slice of the valley under Pakistani control and the rest of Kashmir as part of the Indian state of Jammu-Kashmir. A second war in 1965 did not change the situation.\r\n'),(2163,2,'More than 400 members of the Rittenhouse clan, some from as far away as West Germany and England, gathered to share family gossip and history over the weekend at the tricentennial celebration of Wilhelm Rittenhausen\'s arrival in America. People hovered over genealogical charts, running their fingers down the litany of names, searching for descendents of Rittenhausen _ cousins, great-great-uncles, or half-remembered names first heard in childhood stories. Paul Monroe Rittenhouse of State College manned the genealogical tables, helping distant relatives fill in the blanks in their record books, noting marriages, births, deaths. ``We\'re here to fill in the voids\'\' of the family\'s history, he said. Although family members began tracing their ancestors more than 100 years ago, Paul Rittenhouse recently found a ``missing link\'\' in 19th-century documents from Lancaster County. Those documents added more than 3,000 families to the Rittenhouse lists, bringing the total, in this country, to 50,000 descendents of Rittenhausen. Charlotte Rittinghausen, of Mannheim, West Germany, came to visit friends at the celebration, which ended Sunday. She said her father is interested in the family history, but she wasn\'t until the American celebration. Ms. Rittinghausen said she is continually learning of family members in her country. Now she has more names to add to her Christmas card list. ``We are spreading all over,\'\' she said. Rittenhausen settled in Germantown, the country\'s first permanent German settlement, in 1688. He built a papermill in 1690 on the Monoshone Creek in Philadelphia and became the American colony\'s first papermaker. His name, itself a derivation of Rittinghausen, was changed erroneously by American clerks, according to Rittenhausen decendant Milton Rubincam of West Hyattsville, Md. Rubincam called the name change ``a peculiarity of Colonial times,\'\' when American immigrants were confronted by strange languages and names. ``It doesn\'t matter what your name is. It\'s fun for everybody to trace their roots,\'\' said one of two Donald Rittenhouses at the reunion. ``I\'ve been doing research for 10 years, just to see where it goes,\'\' said the retired salesman and financial officer from Minneapolis.\r\n'),(2164,2,'Government prosecutors Thursday arrested two senior officials of Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. and charged them with paying a group of men to kidnap a labor organizer. The prosecutors said they are trying to determine whether other Hyundai officials were involved in the kidnapping. The organizer was freed after several days when he resigned as an employee of the construction company. Earlier Thursday, about a dozen radical students hurled rocks at the headquarters of the giant Hyundai group in Seoul to protest the kidnapping at the Hyundai subsidiary. No injuries were reported. The arrests and the attack by the students came as labor unrest continued at three other Hyundai plants in southern South Korea. The Hyundai group is one of the largest conglomerates in the nation. In Ulsan, management on Wednesday locked out 20,000 striking workers at Hyundai Motor Co., the nation\'s largest automaker, and said there was little chance of settling the strike for higher wages. The walkout began Monday. At Hyundai Precision and Industry Co., which makes trains, management and leaders of the 4,000 strikers held two rounds of talks Thursday but failed to end a one-week strike at the company\'s plants in Ulsan and Changwon. The talks were held one day after strikers freed one of the 11 executives they took hostage on Friday. They were still holding 10 executives on Thursday. Strikers at Hyundai Motors want raises of up to $180 a month, against a company offer of $105. The workers earn an average of $750 after five years. Hyundai Precision on Thursday offered to raise workers\' pay $85 a month, but workers stuck to their demand of a $180 increase. They earn $600 a month. ``Punish the masterminds of the kidnapping,\'\' the students shouted as they hurled rocks at the Hyundai group\'s main building in Seoul, breaking four windows. The students ran away before police arrived. Several hours after the attack, government prosecutors arrested two Hyundai Engineering officials, executive board member Choi Jae-dong, 47, and manager for general affairs Kang Myung-ku, 42, and charged them with hiring several men to kidnap labor organizer Suh Jung-ui, 34. Suh was kidnapped May 10 by a group of unidentified men as he left a Seoul restaurant where he had met with some officials of the construction company, which is based in Seoul. Suh, who worked at the company\'s Seoul headquarters, returned home several days later and said he was released after he agreed to write a letter of resignation addressed to the company. Hyundai Engineering denied involvement at the time. Details of the kidnapping emerged this week when some of the alleged kidnappers surrendered to police or were arrested in Seoul and other cities. Their leader told police Hyundai Engineering executives offered him $27,000 to kidnap Suh and persuade him to drop his labor organizing effort.\r\n'),(2165,2,'Stock prices drifted lower in an erratic session today, struggling to stabilize after the market\'s recent recent steep decline. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, which fell 44.99 points on Tuesday, dropped 2.49 to 2,031.65 by 3 p.m. on Wall Street. Losers outnumbered gainers by about 7 to 4 in the overall tally of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 512 up, 889 down and 537 unchanged. Analysts said the market\'s drop over the past week had pushed prices down to levels where they attracted some buyers looking for ``bargains.\'\' But they also said widespread concern persisted over the recent rise in interest rates. Several large banks raised their prime lending rates today from 9.5 percent to 10 percent, a day after the Federal Reserve increased the rate it charges on loans to private financial institutions. The timing of the Federal Reserve\'s increase in its discount rate from 6 percent to 6.5 percent suggested to many Wall Streeters that the Fed was seriously worried about inflation and was becoming more aggressive in an attempt to stop it from heating up. For one thing, the rate increase came just as the Treasury was beginning a quarterly sale of debt securities. Among actively traded blue chips, International Business Machines fell { to 118]; Ford Motor lost } to 49{; General Electric was unchanged at 40[, and American Express rose \\ to 27}. Convergent Inc. jumped 2 7-16 to 5~ in the over-the-counter market. Unisys Corp. agreed to acquire the company for $7 a share. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks dropped .23 to 148.00. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was down .51 at 296.06. Volume on the Big Board came to 149.69 million shares with an hour to go.\r\n'),(2166,2,'The Communist government for the first time has allowed the family of a high-level defector to go abroad to visit him and it is considering letting him return from China, an official said Saturday. The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the move was meant as a gesture of good will toward China before the visit of Deputy Foreign Minister Dinh Nho Liem to Beijing. It will be Liem\'s third round of talks in China on the Cambodian civil war and other barriers to normalizing ties between Vietnam and China. The Vietnamese government allowed the wife and daughter of 87-year-old defector Hoang Van Hoan _ a founding member of the Vietnamese Communist Party _ to travel to Beijing to visit him last month, the government official said. The decision was made by the Politburo, the highest body of Vietnam\'s ruling Communist Party, he said. The official also said the Chinese government last month asked Vietnam to let Hoan return home. No decision has been made, the official said. But he added, ``People tend to think it\'s about time to take him back; even some high-ranking officials think so.\'\' Hoan, a member of the Politburo from 1957 to 1976, was the first top Vietnamese leader to defect to China. Hoan disappeared at Karachi airport in Pakistan in July 1979. A month later he surfaced in Beijing, he attacked the Vietnamese party leadership, saying it was guilty of using ``Stalinist\'\' methods and abandoning friendship with China for the Soviet Union. Hoan called for a revolution in Vietnam. The Vietnamese official who spoke Saturday said Hoan had also published a Vietnamese-language newsletter critical of Hanoi while he was in China. Vietnam and China were allies during the Vietnam War, but they had a falling-out in 1978 over border disputes, Vietnam\'s treatment of its ethnic Chinese population and growing Vietnamese-Soviet ties. China launched a brief border attack in early 1979, saying it wanted to ``punish\'\' Vietnam for invading Cambodia and toppling the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge government. China continues to arm the Khmer Rouge and two other guerrilla groups now fighting the Vietnamese-installed government in Cambodia. However, relations with China have improved during Liem\'s three visits to Beijing over the past 15 months. An assistant Chinese foreign minister, Xu Dunxin, is to arrive in Hanoi on June 9 to continue the talks on Cambodia and normalizing relations. Xu will be leading the first senior Chinese delegation to Vietnam since 1979.\r\n'),(2167,2,'Gov. Michael S. Dukakis is under sharp attack from critics at home, who say he ignored warnings of a state budget crisis because they came just before key presidential contests. Dukakis, the Democratic front-runner, has made a string of balanced state budgets a big selling point in his presidential campaign. This week, though, he announced that state revenues were more than $240 million below projections included in the budget. ``We\'re all aboard the government Titanic and instead of women and children first it\'s the captain and the crew first,\'\' House Taxation Committee Chairman John Flood said Tuesday. ``They will be rolling on across the Potomac River while the ship of Massachusetts goes down with the rest of us on it,\'\' said Flood, one of the few Democrats in the Legislature who criticizes Dukakis publicly. Dukakis\' top budget aide dismissed the criticism, saying the governor told lawmakers a year ago the budget was based on revenue projections that might turn out to be overly optimistic. The critics acknowledged getting that warning when Dukakis used his veto power to slice $88 million from the budget. But they say the governor should have curbed spending beginning in January, when the administration conceded revenues for the first half of the fiscal year were lagging by $200 million. But the Dukakis administration said it expected revenues to improve, and meet targets. That soothing forecast came days before the Iowa caucuses, the first big test of the campaign year. ``If anybody tells you any of this stuff is not related to presidential politics, either they are naive or they think everyone else is,\'\' said Flood. Republicans among the Dukakis critics vowed to continue their attacks and predicted Vice President George Bush would pick up their themes during his expected fall campaign against Dukakis. ``They had to see the problem but they chose to ignore it and delay acting because it was not favorable to the governor\'s campaign,\'\' said House Minority Leader Steven Pierce. ``As he campaigned across the country it was his `Massachusetts Miracle\' but now it\'s our deficit.\'\' ``They have known that the budget situation was worsening daily,\'\' said Republican Rep. John C. Bradford. He accused Dukakis of sidestepping his gubernatorial duties while ``fantasizing about moving to that white building halfway down the Atlantic coast.\'\' The figures released Monday showed the state was $243 million short for the fiscal year that ends June 30, forcing Dukakis to tap reserve and other funds to balance the budget. That figure is $166 million more than the shortfall projected by the governor\'s Revenue Advisory Board on April 12. By the campaign calendar, that\'s a week before the big New York primary, and two weeks before the Pennsylvania primary. Dukakis won them both, tightening his grip on the nomination with followup victories in Indiana and Ohio. The $243 million shortfall is in addition to $233 million for planned budget expenditures that have been canceled because of the fiscal crunch. ``Add that up and this state is $470 million out of balance,\'\' Flood said. ``They had to know it but they just ignored it for political reasons.\'\' Secretary of Administration and Finance Frank Keefe scoffed at the criticism, pointing to the vetoes last year and the legislature\'s rejection of a $255 million Dukakis-filed tax enforcement and fee package. ``I\'m a little bit amused by folks who want to rewrite history,\'\' Keefe said Tuesday. ``It was the legislature that fully believed the future was going to be just like the immediate past, which was a period of enormous good fortune.\'\' Keefe said Dukakis had instructed him as far back as September 1987 to put together contingency plans to cut $185 million in spending and at several intervals since has told Keefe to look for further cuts. The administration considered the Revenue Advisory Board\'s April projected shortfall of $77 million conservative, but did not say so publicly because that might have hurt the state\'s credit rating, Keefe said. ``We weren\'t about to say absolutely that things were horrible when we had no concrete evidence that was the case,\'\' said Keefe.\r\n'),(2168,2,'West German officials are bracing for a resurgence of leftist terrorism and right-wing extremism as a result of the coming unification of the two Germanys, published reports said Friday. East and West German Cabinet ministers meanwhile were preparing talks as early as next week to meet the July 1 goal of a ``monetary, social and economic union.\'\' In an interview with the respected Bonn newspaper Die Welt, the head of West Germany\'s criminal investigations office said the leftist Red Army Faction terror gang views the unification process as a ``wide open field.\'\' ``It is conceivable that the progress in unification also presents a potential danger,\'\' Die Welt quoted Hans-Ludwig Zachert as saying. Zachert said his office already had been in contact with its counterparts in East Germany. The Red Army Faction, after a series of attacks and slayings in the 1970s, remains in officials\' eyes a continuing threat. The latest major attack attributed to the gang was the Nov. 30 slaying of Alfred Herrhausen, the No. 1 banker in West Germany. Zachert also warned the tumult in East Germany could bring an increase in organized crime and drug trafficking, which were virtually unknown under the toppled hard-line Communist regime. In Hamburg, the respected newsmagazie Der Spiegel reported West German counterintelligence officials were stepping up surveillance of the far right. ``Right-wing groups increasingly are striking up contacts in East Germany and getting good feedback there,\'\' the magazine reported. West Germany\'s extreme rightist Republican Party, despite facing mounting troubles at home, claims to have found recruits in East Germany since November\'s peaceful revolution. Der Spiegel quoted officials as saying in a report that ``after 40 years of political oppression, it follows as a matter of course that there will be radical to extreme rightist developments.\'\' Ultrarightists have tried to disrupt the weekly pro-democracy demonstrations in Leipzig several times. The magazine quoted officials as saying that right-wing extremism was likely to increase in a united Germany and that leftist terrorists had already found like-minded comrades in East Germany. ``Unification, the officials estimate, will lead to new activities of the Red Army Faction,\'\' according to Der Spiegel. In Bonn, Foreign Minster Hans-Dietrich Genscher said he wants to meet soon with his new East German counterpart, Markus Meckel, to prepare for unification talks involving the United States and the Soviet Union. Genscher, according to the Express newspaper of Cologne, said there was a ``highest measure of agreement\'\' between the two Germanys and that ``with such a common interest we Germans could be the architects of an undivided Europe.\'\' East Germany\'s new non-Communist government, led by Christian Democrat Lothar de Maiziere, took office Thursday.\r\n'),(2169,2,'Brautigan published ``Trout Fishing in America,\'\' writer Hjortsberg hit it big with ``Falling Angel,\'\' and McGuane sold his novel ``92 in the Shade\'\' to Hollywood, launching himself as a popular screenwriter. And each began to load up on Chatham pictures. A born barterer, Chatham swapped his art for firewood and fishing rods, baby-sitting service and airline tickets, medical care and food _ even a handmade afghan. Which explains why a few dozen cowboys and merchants in Livingston now own Chatham originals worth thousands of dollars. Because, after nearly 200 one-man shows which usually lost money, after living on less than $15,000 annually, eked out through sales to friends and free-lance writing, Chatham has made enough in the last two years to stay out of debt with some left over. Today his paintings command up to $60,000, with an average of $10,000 to $30,000 per canvas. ``Now, 28 years after taking up this desperate line of work professionally, it appears the work is fulfilling its function, which is simply to add a measure of interest and dimension to people\'s lives in an almost subliminal way by inhabiting their walls just as a spirit might inhabit a gloomy stairway,\'\' writes Chatham in a slim brochure about his work. He has become the artist-of-choice for many of Hollywood\'s hip and famous. Actor Jack Nicholson reportedly owns 30 Chatham canvases. Other buyers include movie stars Jeff Bridges, Peter Fonda, and Dennis Quaid (all Paradise Valley transplants), Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Ali McGraw, and Harrison Ford. Thus, the supreme irony of Russell Chatham\'s life is that, having moved away from the hyped-up fast lane of the California art scene where patrons abound, wealthy admirers found him by what he calls ``accident\'\' when they came to fly-fish and make movies in a small Montana town on the edge of nowhere. As Chatham talks, he paints, neither exercise hampering the other. He is dressed in untied tennis shoes, a rumpled shirt, and oil-splattered pants. He is a big man, barrel-chested, brawny-armed. His eyes are large and liquid, now brown, now gray, depending on the angle of the studio\'s flat north light. His nose, once described by a friend as a bobsled run, fits sideways on his face. The image is uncannily like a Gauguin self-portrait. It is a silent Sunday. None of the seven employees he now pays to keep track of his growing business are around. He has the entire second floor of a building which also houses Sax & Fryer, a bookstore which has helped Livingstonites find erudition since 1883. Stacked in the hallways are oils, acrylics, and large framed prints from his ``Missouri Headwaters\'\' series of 12 original lithographs. Most are going to Seattle for two major shows, one at the Davidson Gallery, the other at the Kimzey Miller Gallery, through late November. After years of living on the edge, Chatham at last finds himself riding the crest of a success his admirers say will last the remainder of his life. But for Chatham there is much more to living than just painting. There are his wife, Suzanne, and their 3-year-old daughter, Rebecca. There are new books to write and old ones to re-issue through his new publishing venture, the Livingston-based Clark City Press. There are pickup games of pool to be played with strangers across the street, birds to be hunted with old friends on cold days, fish to be caught. Writing in ``Sports Illustrated\'\' a few years ago, McGuane told of being in the river and looking up to see Chatham: ``I see my friend and neighbor, a painter, walking along the high cutbank above the river. This would be a man who has ruined his life with sport. He skulks from his home at all hours with gun or rod. Today he has both. ```What are you doing?\' ```Trout fishing and duck hunting...As you can see,\' says the painter gesticulating strangely, `I\'m ready for anything. I spoiled half the day with work and errands.\'\'\'\r\n'),(2170,2,'A Harvard University study strongly endorses Canadian electricity imports as a cheap alternative to Mideast oil and rejects a proposal from the domestic coal industry to limit the hydroelectric power. The report, released Monday by the Energy and Environmental Policy Center at Harvard\'s John F. Kennedy School of Government, dismisses arguments that Canadian producers have unfair advantages over domestic utilities. It also dismisses assertions that reliance on Canadian imports could leave the United States vulnerable, and that government subsidies and lower environmental standards make the exports possible. Instead, it says, Canadian utilities can export hydroelectric power at a cheaper price than it costs to build new coal facilities because of Canada\'s vast water resources. ``Arguments about Canadian subsidies, lax environmental standards and national security implications are not only often factually wrong, but also divert attention from the real public policy issue,\'\' said Henry Lee, executive director of the center and co-author of the study. ``If Canada has greater access to inexpensive natural resources, should the U.S. federal government limit the ability of U.S. consumers to purchase those resources?\'\' Lee asked. The Harvard researchers estimated that the 35,300 gigawatt hours of Canadian electricity purchased by the United States in 1986 would increase by 1995 to between 52,000 and 63,000 gigawatt hours. A gigawatt is a billion watts. Canadian power imports represent only 2 percent of U.S. consumption nationwide, but they account for about 10 percent of the electricity used in New England and New York. The $75,000 study was paid in large part by utilities that benefit from Canadian imports. Lee said buying large chunks of Canadian power does not pose a national security risk since it is unlikely Canada would cut off electricity for political reasons. ``The security costs of any practically attainable level of Canadian imports are far outweighed by the national security benefits which accrue to the United States from reducing oil imports\'\' from Mideast nations, the report said. Rep. Nick Joe Rahall II, D-W.Va., countered, ``Political relationships are volatile with changes in leadership, and in no way can we use today\'s stable relationship (with Canada) as a basis for the future.\'\' Rahall, chairman of the House Interior subcommittee on mining and natural resources, introduced legislation last year that would prohibit Canadian power imports unless they adhered to environmental safeguards similar to those in the United States. The study also said that Canadian imports displace mostly imported oil and domestic natural gas, not coal. If all Canadian power contracts were cancelled, the coal industry would see a 2,479 increase in jobs, but it would cost U.S. consumers $114,123 per job, the study said.\r\n'),(2171,2,'The co-leader of a team that crossed Antartica by ski and dogsled told several hundred cheering fans welcoming him home that he was thrilled to return to ``your warm hearts.\'\' Co-leader Will Steger and the other five members of the International Trans-Antarctica Expedition arrived Friday night at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The expedition had left the airport for Antarctica on July 26. It completed its 3,741-mile trek at Mirnyy on the Indian Ocean on March 3. The team also included co-leader Jean-Louis Etienne of France, Geoff Somers of Great Britain, Victor Boyarsky of the Soviet Union, Keizo Funatsu of Japan and Qin Dahe of China. On Friday night, a group of girls sang for the team and people in the crowd carried posters with ``Congratulations\'\' and ``Welcome Back\'\' written in French, English, Japanese, Russian and Chinese. Steger, of Ely, Minn., hugged his parents and then greeted 35 to 40 relatives before clasping hands with well-wishers. ``I can\'t tell you how thrilled we are to come back to Minnesota and your warm hearts,\'\' Steger said. ``The only thing that really kept us going was the love and prayers of the people back home. We are so thankful just to be alive.\'\' Steger said that he didn\'t learn about such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall for several weeks or, in most cases, until he arrived in Australia this month and read a magazine reviewing 1989. The team traveled to the Australian cities of Sidney and Perth, then to Paris and London before flying to Minneapolis. After festivities today on the lawn of the state Capitol, the team is scheduled to leave Sunday for Washington, D.C.\r\n'),(2172,2,'Blacks and Jews who worked together in the civil rights movement plan a two-day reunion to emphasize their historical bonds and shared martyrs, rather than the recent political pressures that have strained their relationship. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has been at the center of concerns about black-Jewish relations since he was accused of making anti-Semitic remarks during his 1984 presidential campaign, was invited to the conference but was not among those who had confirmed plans to attend, said an organizer, Philip Shandler. ``It\'s not about the current political situation,\'\' Shandler said. ``It\'s focusing on the longstanding, productive relationship between blacks and Jews. It is essentially a history-gathering conference.\'\' Scheduled speakers include Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Al Vorspan, vice president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. The conference, which begins Monday, will focus on recording the memories of civil rights veterans while also honoring the movement\'s martyrs. A memorial service was planned Monday night at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. King\'s widow, Coretta Scott King, was to participate in the conference, along with Carolyn Goodman, the mother of Andrew Goodman; and Ben Chaney, a brother of James Chaney. Chaney, a black man from Meridian, Miss., and Goodman and Michael Schwerner, white Jews from New York, were killed in 1964 as they tried to investigate a church burning in Mississippi. Their slayings were described as ``the touchstone of black-Jewish cooperation in the civil rights movement\'\' by Jonathan Kaufman, also a conference participant, in his book, ``Broken Alliance: The Turbulent Times Between Blacks and Jews in America.\'\' Kaufman is a reporter with The Boston Globe. Shandler, a former columnist for the defunct Washington Star and a one-time Senate press secretary, and Leon Dash, a black writer for The Washington Post, plan to use the material they gather at the conference in a future book on the history of black-Jewish cooperation. The sessions, involving key figures of the time along with historians and writers, will take place at the Carter Presidential Center.\r\n'),(2173,2,'George Bush is a ``toothache of a man\'\' who doesn\'t care about the problems of anyone but the rich, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower told delegates to the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday. ``George has always been in another world,\'\' Hightower said of the vice president, who has this year\'s Republican presidential nomination locked up. ``His is an upper-class world in which wealth is given to you at birth. He is a man who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.\'\' Hightower\'s speech during platform debate drew cheers and laughs from the delegates. It was the second night in a row that a Texan hurled insults at Bush, who claims a Houston hotel suite as his legal residence. State Treasurer Ann Richards skewered Bush in her keynote address Monday night, causing delegates to roar with delight when she said the vice president was ``born with a silver foot in his mouth.\'\' Hightower, who supported Jesse Jackson in this year\'s Democratic primaries, honed in on Bush early in his speech. ``Now here comes George Herbert Walker Bush II, perpetual preppie. He\'s of the Kennebunkport Bushes, don\'t you know. He\'s a toothache of a man, telling us to stay the course and threatening to lead us from tweedledum to tweedledumber,\'\' Hightower said. He asked delegates to look at their family finances and see whether the Reagan-Bush policies have made life better. Hightower said the wealthy have benefited. ``Bush\'s elite are out at the yacht club tonight, sitting about in their Guccis and Puccis, sipping a delightfully fruity and frisky white wine, saying, `Play it again, George,\'\'\' he said. He said Democrats can help family farmers, small businesses and working families that have suffered under the GOP administration. ``Let George Bush side with the Rockefellers. We Democrats will side with the little fellers,\'\' he said.\r\n'),(2174,2,'Police arrested 21 members of a banned peace group who met in a Warsaw apartment Saturday, a spokesman for the group said. Jacek Czaputowicz, leader of Freedom and Peace, said there had been no attempt to keep the meeting a secret. It was the first time police detained members of the group at such a session, he said. The meeting was of the group\'s national board in charge of raising money, paying legal fines and providing financial assistance for imprisoned activists, he said. A municipal official arrived with police at the apartment at about 11 a.m. and declared the meeting illegal, Czaputowicz said. Police detained everyone present, and 17 people remained in custody Saturday night, he said. Opposition activists in Poland frequently are detained for up to 48 hours on misdemeanor charges. Freedom and Peace opposes Poland\'s military draft and demands the right to alternative civilian service. It continues to operate even though it has been declared illegal. On Friday, Poland\'s National Defense Ministry Council endorsed government proposals announced earlier to permit ``alternative forms of military service.\'\' Czaputowicz said the detentions may be intended to show that alternative service, if it eventually becomes law, did not result from pressure from Freedom and Peace.\r\n'),(2175,2,'The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials climbed 25.70 to 2,040.29, hitting a new six-week high for the third straight session. Advancing issues outnumbered declines by more than 5 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,148 up, 420 down and 429 unchanged. Big Board volume totaled 178.93 million shares, against 180.30 million in the previous session. The NYSE\'s composite index rose 2.00 to 148.96.\r\n'),(2176,2,'The average Japanese household has more than $86,000 in savings, up 16.6 percent from a year earlier, according to a study published today. It was the biggest increase in savings since 1973, when the average rose 28 percent from the year before, according to the national survey of more than 4,000 families. The annual survey was conducted in June and July by the Central Council for Savings Information, a non-profit group of Japanese financial institutions and scholars. The survey said the average rose to $86,700 because of an increase in earned income from a strong domestic economy. In September, Japan entered its 46th straight month of economic expansion.\r\n'),(2177,2,'A former top legal adviser to U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh is the target of a federal investigation of alleged cocaine use by public officials and professionals, sources said Thursday. Henry G. Barr of Mechanicsburg, who was general counsel when Thornburgh was governor and later was an assistant to Thornburgh when he became attorney general, is being investigated by the same grand jury that has been hearing evidence about alleged cocaine use and distribution by Richard Guida, a former top deputy in the state attorney general\'s office, the sources said. The sources, including several lawyers close to the case who were interviewed independently, said Barr\'s attorneys were in Washington earlier this week asking the Justice Department to block an indictment that would name Barr. In Washington, Justice Department spokesman Dan Eramian said Thornburgh and members of his personal staff withdrew from the federal investigation when they learned of its existence earlier this year. Eramian added that Thornburgh had no knowledge of the drug issue when he was governor. The sources also said Guida has agreed to plead guilty to one count of using cocaine and to cooperate with the federal investigation. Under the agreement, they said, Guida could face a short jail term and suspension of his law license. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret. According to court documents, Guida has been a target of the federal investigation since May. The grand jury\'s attention turned to Barr more recently, the sources said. Barr did not return telephone messages left on the answering machine at his Mechanicsburg home Thursday. Guida did not return messages left at his Harrisburg law office. In previous interviews, he denied using cocaine and being a target of the probe. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod declined to comment because of a policy that prohibits federal prosecutors from confirming or denying details of investigations. By being allowed to plead guilty only to a possession charge, Guida would sidestep allegations that he also sold cocaine and provided it to friends. At least one witness, Brenda Snell of suburban Harrisburg, said in an interview with The Associated Press that she told the FBI she had purchased cocaine from Guida and sold it to him on several occassions. Guida called those allegations ``bold-faced lies.\'\' This is the second time cocaine allegations against Guida have been investigated. In 1986, when he was a chief deputy under state Attorney General LeRoy S. Zimmerman, an internal probe found no evidence to support a radio reporter\'s allegations that Guida was a user. State Attorney General Ernie Preate Jr. said Thursday he would not investigate allegations that the initial probe was a whitewash because the federal grand jury also was looking at that aspect of the case. Barr, 46, worked in the state attorney general\'s office before joining Thornburgh\'s gubernatorial administration. He became Thornburgh\'s general counsel about 18 months before the governor left office in 1987. In Washington, he served as a special assistant to the attorney general from September 1988 to May 12, 1989. Last year, he resumed a private law practice in Harrisburg, but quit earlier this year after allegations surfaced that connected him to the case, the sources said. Barr and Guida each served as deputy attorney general in charge of the state attorney general\'s criminal division. Barr also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh from 1969 to 1979. Through much of that period, Thornburgh was the U.S. attorney in western Pennsylvania. The grand jury investigation has lasted nearly a year.\r\n'),(2178,2,'President Bush\'s State of the Union message will be aired live tonight on the major networks. Bush\'s address will be broadcast at 9 p.m. EST on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and C-Span, followed by a Democratic response from House Speaker Thomas S. Foley. Some local affiliates of PBS and Univision, a Spanish international network, also will carry the address and response, either live or as a tape-delayed broadcast. C-Span will rebroadcast the address at 11:30 p.m. EST.\r\n'),(2179,2,'After posting the usual first-quarter declines, the number of working U.S. oil and gas rigs made a turnaround this week, increasing by 53 to total 946. The rig count climbed by a dozen or more in three states, and other areas also posted slight gains, Baker Hughes Inc. reported Monday. This week\'s increase reversed the rig count\'s downward slide _ a traditional trend in the first three months of the year. Last week, the count dropped by 15 to 893. Baker Hughes\' rig count _ the widely watched industry index of drilling activity _ reflects the number of rotary rigs actively exploring for oil and gas as of last Friday, not the number of producing wells. A year ago, the rig count totaled 779. Houston-based Hughes Tool Co., an oil toolmaker company that merged with Baker International Corp. of Orange, Calif., has kept track of the rig count since 1940. In December 1981, at the height of the oil boom, the rig count reached a peak of 4,500. But oil prices plunged to less than $10 per 42-gallon barrel in the summer of 1986, prompting a collapse in the rig count that bottomed out at 663 _ the lowest since Hughes began compiling figures. Among major oil-producing states, Texas had the greatest increase with 15, Oklahoma followed with 13 and Lousiana\'s count climbed by 12. Wyoming\'s count was up six, North Dakota\'s increased by four and Colorado and New Mexico each gained three more rigs. Ohio\'s count was up two and California was up by one. Michigan lost three rigs and Pennsylvania lost ten rigs.\r\n'),(2180,2,'Beneath a naked bluff on a mile-long Boston Harbor island known chiefly for its antiquated jail lie the unmarked graves of about 4,100 early immigrants whose American dreams ended in death. Most were famine-weakened Irish who fled their starving country in the mid-1800s only to be deemed ``undesirable\'\' and detained on Deer Island, where they died and until now were largely forgotten. ``They symbolize all immigrants that have come to Boston and to America,\'\' Mayor Raymond Flynn said this week. ``They may have been poor, probably didn\'t have any family and weren\'t among the elite. ``But still every respect should be afforded to their memory.\'\' Residents of Boston, home to more Irish-Americans per capita than any other U.S. city, are resurrecting the city\'s missing chapter. Deer Island\'s low-security jail is scheduled to close in 1991 and local business, labor and other groups plan to have the gravesite landscaped by 1995, the 150th anniversary year of the potato famine. The mayor has announced plans to erect a Celtic cross on the island and a statue near Fanueil Hall as part of the city\'s ``Great Hunger Memorial Project,\'\' the nation\'s first memorial to Irish famine victims _ and victims of hunger around the world. The graves on the island about four miles from Boston\'s wharves came to Flynn\'s attention several months ago, after construction workers turned up bones at a new sewage treatment plant site. ``You think of them getting this far, coming across the Atlantic and being able to look over and see the city ... only to end up in an anonymous pauper\'s grave,\'\' said Francis J. Costello, the mayor\'s adviser on Irish-American Affairs. ``We have to put a proper finish on this.\'\' Many of the thousands of immigrants held on Deer Island eventually made it to a new life on the mainland. But thousands more were buried in shallow, lime-lined trenches that held eight or 10 bodies each. Their anonymous graves tell the story of immigrants who saw but never reached America\'s shores. Ireland\'s population of 8 million was cut in half by fatal disease, starvation and emigration after a devastating plant disease hit the country\'s staple potato crop in 1845. During the next 10 years, more than 152,000 Irish fled to Boston, many of them tenant farmers forced to move on when they no longer could afford to pay rent. The Yankees were unprepared for the influx of penniless, weak and diseased immigrants, many of whom were near death after a month or more aboard the crowded ``coffin ships\'\' they had taken across the Atlantic. ``As a precautionary measure to ward off a pestilence that would have been ruinous to the public health and business of the city,\'\' a quarantine hospital was established on Deer Island, according to a Massachusetts Senate document dated 1848. Paupers and inmates also were held on the island because officials deemed them, like the Irish and a fraction of immigrants from other countries, ``undesirable within the core urban area,\'\' according to city documents. ``It was really a human dump heap,\'\' said Dennis P. Ryan, author of ``Beyond The Ballot: A Social History of the Boston Irish.\'\' Several rough-hewn wooden crosses stood for years on the bluff near the graves, but by about 1970 they had disappeared or disintegrated. A lone white Celtic cross also was erected amid the yellow rapeseed, but that too is gone. ``It wasn\'t a deep dark secret,\'\' said Deborah Cox, president of the Public Archaeology Laboratory Inc. in Pawtucket, R.I. ``I think it was just one of those things people don\'t pay attention to and then eventually forget,\'\' said Cox, whose company surveyed Deer Island before construction began on the new sewage treatment plant in late 1988. Boston\'s archivist, Edward Quill, has begun researching death records and handwritten weekly logs kept by physicians at Deer Island\'s quarantine hospital. For years the records have gathered dust, now they\'ll be available to genealogists and other researchers. Several Flynns have turned up among the 872 names Quill has traced. ``It could well have been any immigrant group that has come to our country,\'\' said Mayor Flynn. ``That\'s why we need a symbol, a decent resting place ... so their history won\'t be forgotten.\'\'\r\n'),(2181,2,'Vice President George Bush holds a strong lead over rival Bob Dole among likely GOP voters in South Carolina\'s primary, according to a poll published today. The Washington Post said Bush had the support of 49 percent of 1,000 people who said they would vote in the GOP primary, while Dole had 26 percent, Pat Robertson garnered 14 percent and New York Rep. Jack Kemp claimed 7 percent. Among those voters most likely to go to the polls _ those who said they were certain to vote, had voted in 1986 and strongly supported a specific candidate _ Bush had 55 percent support to Dole\'s 22 percent and Robertson\'s 17 percent. Figures for Kemp were not provided in that category. The Post survey, taken over six nights ending Wednesday, had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. The South Carolina contest takes place just three days before the big round of Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses concentrated in the South. The Post survey found that even among several different categories of Christians, former television evangelist Robertson was not the favorite. Among voters who said they watch television evangelists almost every week, Bush got 44 percent to Robertson\'s 27 percent. The core of Robertson\'s support, according to the poll, was among voters who placed high priority on moral and social issues. About 83 percent of Robertson\'s backers said their main reason for supporting him was his stand on pornography. Robertson\'s stand on abortion was cited by 78 percent of his supporters as a big factor. About half cited concerns about ``declining moral standards\'\' or school prayer as the biggest reason for their support.\r\n'),(2182,2,'American Telephone & Telegraph Co. has cut short its offer for U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia to call home for free. The troops racked up so many calls in one week that Saudi communications officials complained their long-distance lines were being clogged. After just one week, and an estimated 100,000 calls at a cost of $1 million, AT&T on Wednesday notified the military it was scrubbing its complimentary, direct-dial service, spokesman David Bikle said Sunday. AT&T had planned to offer USADirect Service to troops for two weeks. Soldiers are now charged $16.04 for a 10-minute call home. The charge is $18.29 for a 10-minute collect call, said AT&T spokesman Rick Wallerstein. The volume of calls had peaked at 1,500 an hour. ``With 100,000 calls, we gave most people a chance for one call home,\'\' Wallerstein said. AT&T, based in Basking Ridge, has yet to calculate the exact number of calls made since the service was discontinued, he said. U.S. troops have been deployed in Saudi Arabia since Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait on Aug. 2.\r\n'),(2183,2,'Delegates at the Conservative Party\'s conference Thursday jeered Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher\'s ousted predecessor Edward Heath when he attacked her opposition to closer union among European Economic Community nations. Others applauded Heath when he hailed the scheduled dismantling in 1992 of all trade barriers within the EEC as a ``major movement toward the unity of Europe in every way.\'\' Mrs. Thatcher, to whom the 4,500 delegates sang ``Happy Birthday\'\' _ she turned 63 _ left the conference center to return to her hotel before the intervention by Heath. They have been on bad terms since she ousted him as party leader in 1975 after he lost two successive elections. Aides said she wanted to work on her keynote address to the final session of the four-day convention Friday. Earlier, treasury chief Nigel Lawson, the chancellor of the exchequer, promised more tax cuts ``when prudent\'\' and forecast a drop next year in inflation, now 5.7 percent and rising. But in his address to the convention in this south England resort he warned that interest rates, now at 12 percent, would remain high for ``quite a while.\'\' Heath, prime minister when Britain joined the EEC in 1973, said the rest of the 12-nation trade bloc would not tolerate Britain treating the post-1992 single market merely as a ``free trade area.\'\' ``It is a major movement toward the unity of Europe in every way,\'\' said Heath. ``It also concerns a common currency with a common monetary system and a common bank.\'\' Several dozen delegates raised small replicas of the Union Jack and waved notices declaring, ``No to Ted.\'\' In a policy speech last month in Bruges, Belgium, Mrs. Thatcher rejected a common European currency, bank or monetary system and said a United States of Europe would never come about. She criticized what she called the bureacracy at the EEC headquarters in Brussels. Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe defended Mrs. Thatcher\'s rejection of what she regards as unrealistic talk of a united Europe. He said she was as much a European as French President Francois Mitterrand or West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, leaders of the two other biggest financial contributors to the EEC. On East-West relations, Howe said the West should not assume that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev\'s desire for reform was ``shared throughout the Soviet command structure.\'\' ``The Red Army and the KGB still loom in force,\'\' he said. ``That\'s why the West must go on negotiating (arms cuts) from strength.\'\'\r\n'),(2184,2,'Mice prone to developing a blood cell cancer gained partial protection from a human gene that influences blood cell development, suggesting that developmental genes may affect vulnerability to cancer, researchers say. Such genes may make a difference in how long normal cells remain susceptible to turning malignant, they said. The work is reported in Thursday\'s issue of the British journal Nature by Philip Leder, Michel Nussenzweig and Emmett Schmidt of Harvard Medical School with colleagues there and at the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles. They worked with mice that carried a human c-myc gene, which puts them at high risk for developing a blood cell cancer called pre-B cell lymphoma. Pre-B cells are those that will develop as B cells, an important part of the body\'s disease-fighting immune system. Those mice were bred with others that carried a different human gene, one that makes B cells skip an early stage in their development. Some progeny from these matings inherited both human genes, and their lymphoma rates were compared to those that carried only the cancer-causing gene. Results showed that the gene that speeds development caused both a delay and a reduction in the tumors, researchers said. By 117 days of age, half the mice that carried only the cancer-causing gene had developed lymphoma, but none of the mice with both genes had developed it. After a year, more than 90 percent of the first group had developed tumors, compared to only 40 percent of the mice with both human genes. The developmental gene apparently hampered development of cancer by speeding up the maturation of pre-B cells, leaving fewer at stages most susceptible to the cancer-causing gene, researchers suggested. In general, a diverse group of genes that produce either an acceleration or pause in cell development may influence the rates and time of onset for cancer, researchers said.\r\n'),(2185,2,'Democrats _ Hubbard, N; Mazzoli, N; Natcher, N; Perkins, N. Republicans _ Bunning, Y; Hopkins, Y; Rogers, Y.\r\n'),(2186,2,'In tiny Bancroft, Maine, they gave an election and nobody came. In Texas, a hot primary campaign for governor drew 15 percent of the voters. In California, about 40 percent went to the polls on primary day, but that still was close to the record low established in 1986 for the state. Midway through the election year, experts are predicting 1990 will bring a continuation of a 30-year downward trend in voter participation. Analysts, politicians and voters interviewed around the country said voter frustration and disillusionment and the increasing complexity and stress of life seem to be at least partly to blame. ``I don\'t know anybody who was in a 10-minute traffic jam going to work 10 years ago who is not in a 45-minute traffic jam going to work now, and it doesn\'t matter who gets elected,\'\' said Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate. The private group tracks voter participation. In 1960, the year John F. Kennedy was elected president, 62.8 percent of registered voters cast ballots. By 1988, when George Bush was elected, turnout had dropped to 50.16 percent. In 1986, the most recent non-presidential general election year, only 37 percent made it to the polls. Edward J. Rollins, director of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, recently predicted turnout this year could go below 30 percent. ``I think part of it just has to do with folks just generally giving up on all of us,\'\' said Al La Pierre, executive director of the Democratic party in Alabama. In his state, the turnout of 750,000 voters in the June 5 primary was down by about 200,000 from 1986. ``They just don\'t see any need to go do it any more, which is sad,\'\' La Pierre said. Toni Grygo, who runs a hair styling parlor in Pittsburgh, said, ``The feedback that I get is that they are disillusioned. This is the main thing I hear from the women and some of the men that I do.\'\' In Bancroft, a rural community in northern Maine with 61 residents and 35 registered voters, Deputy Town Clerk Mary Irish said two or three people usually come out to vote in off-year elections. In presidential years, she said, turnout gets up to 14. In the June 12 Maine primary, nobody voted in Bancroft. Voting statewide appeared low, but final turnout figures had not been tabulated. ``It was a beautiful day and there should have been greater interest,\'\' said Keron Kerr, the state Democratic chairman. Alan Heslop, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., said part of the problem is population growth. After the 199l redistricting, California is expected to have legislative districts of 750,000 people, three times what they were in 1950. ``People feel powerless,\'\' said Heslop. ``It is hard to convince oneself that one vote is going to make a difference in these enormous, giant districts.\'\' Maybe the vote in Boise County, Idaho, helps make his point. The sparsely populated county had a turnout of 42.51 percent in Idaho\'s May 22 primary, about the same as in 1986 and much higher than turnout statewide in this year\'s primary. ``I think people vote here because we are so small that we feel like it really matters,\'\' said Jan Longpre, city editor of the weekly Idaho World newspaper in Idaho City. ``Even if it doesn\'t, we think it does.\'\' Heslop thinks people are turned off by the slick packaging that is wrapped around today\'s candidates. ``I think a lot of people are tired of the sound-bite approach to politics, the graphics mailer, the snappy computerized letter,\'\' he said. ``People are seeing that all of these things are in fact means of pulling the wool over the voters\' eyes.\'\' ``That may to a degree be true,\'\' agrees Alabama Democrat La Pierre. ``But how else can you reach the masses but through TV?\'\' Gans believes negative campaigning is a big part of the problem. ``What they want to do with those ads is create doubts about the character of the opponent and weaken the impulse to vote among weak partisans and undecideds,\'\' Gans said. ``When this is reciprocally done, it has got to weaken the impulse on both sides.\'\' Nevertheless, despite a campaign widely criticized as negative, Virginia voters turned out in record numbers last year to make Douglas Wilder the nation\'s first elected black governor. ``In certain situations you can transcend the negative campaigns because the issues are more important,\'\' Gans said. Something else has changed beside campaigns, said Heslop, and that is the widespread perception among voters that incumbents have become unbeatable. ``It is something new for them to know that there is no way of throwing the rascals out,\'\' he said. Frank Sullivan, who runs a landscaping business in Cincinnati, said he votes anyway. ``I feel like it\'s our only revenge,\'\' Sullivan said. ``I don\'t think they pay any attention to us, but we are only making it worse for ourselves if we don\'t let them know we are out here.\'\'\r\n'),(2187,2,'More than 150,000 refugees fleeing a guerrilla war and drought in Mozambique are likely to arrive in neighboring Malawi over the next nine months, adding enormous strains to an already-taxed relief effort, the State Department said Tuesday. Malawi currently provides haven for 450,000 Mozambican refugees, but ``the population in Malawi is rapidly increasing and the most conservative estimates forecast 600,000 refugees will arrive by December 1988,\'\' according to a State Department report. The report said other African countries also are receiving large numbers of refugees. There are 75,000 in Zimbabwe, 30,000 in Zambia, 225,000 in South Africa, 72,000 in Tanzania and 20,000 in Swaziland. Within Mozambique, there are 1.6 million displaced people, the department said. ``Complicating the refugee situation is that Malawi has also experienced a drought and a mealy bug infestation,\'\' the department said. ``More than one million Malawians no longer have the resources to feed themselves.\'\' A consultant hired by the State Department to assess the magnitude of the problem and recommend U.S. responses said he interviewed a selected, geographically diverse sample of 200 refugees in camps between January and March. The consultant, at a background briefing arranged by the Bureau of Refugee Programs, said 91 percent of those he interviewed reported they Mozambique because of fighting between RENAMO, a potent guerrilla movement, and the Maputo government. The war has been going on since the mid-1970s. ``It reflects an intensity in the level of violence over the period of the last year,\'\' the expert said. ``I think the drought is an aggravating factor in increasing the refugee flows, but according to the refugees with whom I spoke, the great majority fled because of RENAMO related violence.\'\' The State Department has pledged $4.4 million to a UN special appeal for Mozambican refugees in Malawi. This is in addition to $33.4 million contributed to the UN\'s program covering all of Africa.\r\n'),(2188,2,'Two sailors died of their injuries hours after being burned by bursts of steam aboard the USS Iwo Jima, boosting the number of men killed in the accident aboard the ship to 10. Chief Petty Officer Robert Haagenson of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said today the two men died ``very late last night (Tuesday) as a result of their injuries.\'\' Six sailors died immediately when the pipe ruptured Tuesday morning. Four with severe burns were flown by helicopter to the hospital ships USS Comfort, one of two such vessels in the Persian Gulf. All four died. Also Tuesday, a Marine was killed in Saudi Arabia when the jeep he was riding in went down an 20-foot embankment. He was identified as 1st Lt. Michael N. Monroe, 27, of Auburn, Wash. Tuesday\'s fatalities brought to 43 the number of American servicemen killed during Operation Desert Shield, the U.S. military effort launched after Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2. Haagenson said a memorial service will be held Thursday aboard the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima for the 10 dead crew members. Killed in the Iwo Jima accident were David A. Gilliland, 21, Warrensburg, Mo.; Mark E. Hutchison, 27, Elkins, W. Va.; Daniel Lupatsky, 22, Centralia, Pa.; Daniel C. McKinsey, 21, Hanover, Pa.; Fred R. Parker Jr., 24, Reidsville, N.C.; James A. Smith Jr., 22, Somerville, Tenn.; John M. Snyder, 25, Milltown, N.J.; Robert L. Volden, 28, New York City; Tyrone M. Brooks, 19, Detroit; and Michael N. Manns Jr., 22, Fredericksburg, Va. An investigating team, headed by Rear Adm. J. B. Laplante, was looking into the boiler room accident, a Navy statement said. It said Laplante was ``appointed to conduct a preliminary inquiry regarding the circumstances surrounding the accident.\'\' Laplante and his aides were flown to Bahrain on Tuesday from his ship, the USS Nassau, in the north Arabian Sea. The accident was the worst for the Navy in the U.S.-led air, land and sea mobilization that followed the Iraqi invasion. The only previous fatality on a Navy ship was an electrician\'s mate who was accidentally electrocuted aboard the USS Antietam. The Iwo Jima is based in Norfolk, Va. Its crew comprised 685 members and some 1,100 Marines. The ship arrived in the Persian Gulf on Sept. 16 as part of the U.S. naval armada in support of Operation Desert Shield.\r\n'),(2189,2,'Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, head of Sweden\'s caretaker Cabinet, is ready to lead a new government to replace the one which resigned last week, the national news agency TT reported Thursday. Earlier Thursday, the Social Democratic leader informed Parliament Speaker Thage G. Peterson he was ready and able to present the government to the legislature for approval. He was expected to get active support from the small Communist Party and passive support for the comeback by the middle-of-the-road Center Party. His previous government resigned on Feb. 15 when the Communists joined other opposition parties to defeat a bill for a two-year wage and price freeze.\r\n'),(2190,2,'Doctors at a London hospital said Tuesday night they had conducted what they believe are the world\'s first successful heart operations on a baby still in the womb. Lindsey Allan, the doctor in charge of the fetal cardiology unit at Guys Hospital, said the team there had corrected a heart valve defect in an unborn boy using a balloon catheter guided into place by ultrasonic sound. ``As far as I know this is the first successful operation of its kind,\'\' she said. She said two operations were carried out on the fetus during the mother\'s pregnancy, one at 31 weeks and the second at 33 weeks. Ms. Allan said the baby was born prematurely on Jan. 4 _ one week after the second operation _ and underwent surgery for the third time a few hours after birth. She did not say why there had been a delay in disclosing details of the operations. ``The child is still quite seriously ill, but we have given him a chance he would not otherwise have had,\'\' Ms. Allan said. She said the parents, who did not want to be identified, lived outside London. The operations involved inserting a catheter down a hollow needle directly into the chest wall and heart of the fetus. Once in place, the balloon was dilated to open the heart valve. A catheter is a slender tube inserted into a body passage, vessel or cavity. Its normal uses include passing fluids and making examinations. Ms. Allan said the team that pioneered the technique included herself; Michael Tynan, professor of pediatric cardiology; and Darryl Maxwell, director of the hospital\'s fetal medicine unit. She said there were always ethical obstacles to this type of operation. ``I am not sure that we should be meddling sometimes. There is always discussion as to whether it is a reasonable request to make of the mother. On the other hand, one knows that the alternative is almost universally fatal,\'\' she said.\r\n'),(2191,2,'Record heat threatened crops, forced a desert water district to issue restrictions and sent hundreds of thousands of Southern Californians fleeing to beaches Tuesday as temperatures pushed past well into the 100s. The 112-degree high at the Los Angeles Civic Center was an all-time record for downtown, beating the previous record high of 110 degrees set on Sept. 4, 1988. Other areas that reached three digits were Woodland Hills with 112, Pacoima with 114, Ontario with 112, San Bernardino with 111, San Gabriel with 111, and Santa Barbara with 103. The deserts were even hotter. Palm Springs and Thermal recorded highs of 120, while Needles had a high of 119. The second day of high heat put firefighters on alert as brush already dry after four years of drought sat on hillsides shimmering in heat that dropped humidity below 10 percent. At least one brush fire was reported in the Sunland area northeast of downtown. The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for inland orchards and vineyards in San Diego County, and growers said berry crops would be damaged immediately and some fruits could be lost if the heat continues. ``This is going to finish up the strawberries,\'\' said Ben Hillbrecht, a grower with about 200 acres near Escondido. ``And the boysenberries will cook right on the vine. We won\'t have any this year.\'\' He said the heat also will stop raspberry bushes from producing for about one month. Avocados have just appeared as tiny green buds, and Hillbrecht said if they don\'t get enough moisture, they may fall off. ``There are certainly some crops that are threatened, though at this moment we have seen no damage,\'\' said grower Jim Bathgate of Valley Center. He said fruits such as apricots and peaches still on the tree could be affected if the heat wave continues a few days, as the weather service has predicted. ``It won\'t help the water shortage, because everyone turns on their water to keep things as wet as they can,\'\' said Hillbrecht. In the Mojave Desert, the small Hi-Desert Water District in Yucca Valley announced use restrictions to begin Wednesday after the rural water company noticed an average six-to-seven foot drop in its wells. One well dropped 20 feet over the past six weeks. Irrigation will be limited to one day a week, and filling pools and washing cars at homes will be banned, along with water use for construction such as mixing concrete, Puffer said. The district serves about 5,200 customers. Not everybody was having a hard time with the heat wave. At Raging Waters, a 1.5-million-gallon water playground in San Dimas, Calif., business was also brisk, said spokeswoman Lynne Matallana. ``We love the hot weather. It encourages people to come out and visit us,\'\' she said. Hundreds of thousands of people headed to beaches, where temperatures were more than 20 degrees cooler than inland. Lifeguards reported nearly 100,000 at Santa Monica, 150,000 at Hermosa Beach and 40,000 at Zuma Beach in Los Angeles County.\r\n'),(2192,2,'The European Economic Community recommended that its 12 member governments authorize individuals to make their own electricity and buy up all excess energy from private sources. The EEC\'s executive Commission said Thursday that private production of electricity is being discouraged or even banned throughout the trading bloc by legislation that presents ``insurmountable obstacles to self-generation\'\' of electricity by users. The Commission, in a formal recommendation, said the member governments should allow self-production and obligate utility companies to buy surplus energy at fair prices. Such a system, it said, would help stimulate the development of alternative sources of energy and lead to better use of available resources.\r\n'),(2193,2,'A conservative lawmaker Thursday blamed the government for death threats made against a prominent critic, and warned there could be ``a violent reaction\'\' if human rights abuses by police are not curbed. The death threats directed against Jorge Castaneda, a prominent journalist and intellectual, have provoked an uproar. Castaneda has been an outspoken critic of the economic and political policies of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. The city council of Mexico City has demanded an investigation of the threats. The U.S.-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists wrote a letter to Salinas that said it is ``profoundly worried\'\' about the threats. Cesar Coll, a federal lawmaker from the right-of-center opposition National Action Party, said the government was trying to intimidate Castaneda because he is one of its most prominent critics. ``The government is to blame for these threats,\'\' Coll told a news conference. ``If it doesn\'t gain control over the police, there could be a violent reaction.\'\' On Wednesday, the executive committee of the Institutional Revolutionary Party condemned the threats against Castaneda. It issued a statement calling them ``repugnant\'\' and adding that the case would be a good test for the government\'s new human rights commission. Earlier this week, Salinas called Castaneda from Tokyo, where the president was making a state visit, to express his ``solidarity in the face of this unacceptable incident.\'\' Salinas also made public a letter he wrote to Castaneda saying the threats go ``precisely against what I have maintained as an invariable norm of conduct for my administration.\'\' Last Friday, Castaneda\'s secretary said she was stopped by four armed men, interrogated at gunpoint and warned that her employer would be killed if he continued his activities. On Monday, she identified one of the men who threatened her as a member of the Mexico City judicial police. On her way home from the prosecutor\'s office, she said she was again threatened by an armed man. Castaneda said he holds the government responsible for his safety and that of his family. The incidents follow the release earlier this month of a report by a human rights monitoring group that sharply criticizes abuses by the police and security forces in Mexico. The report by the New York-based Americas Watch _ ``Human Rights in Mexico: A Policy of Impunity\'\' _ said violent human rights abuses have become institutionalized. ``This pattern of excessive violence and abuse can only mean that either the Mexican government has adopted a policy of tolerating such behavior, or it has lost control over its police, security and prosecuting agencies,\'\' the report said. ``Torture and extra-judicial killings by federal and state police and the country\'s security forces are disturbingly frequent in Mexico,\'\' it said. Americas Watch cited several cases in which journalists had been intimidated, kidnapped or murdered. The most notorious is the 1984 assassination of the outspoken columnist Manuel Buendia. The Salinas administration has indicted the former head of the Mexican equivalent of the FBI in the slaying. Castaneda has written for Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times and the Mexican magazine Proceso. He also coauthored the recent book on U.S.-Mexico relations, ``Limits to Friendship,\'\' with Robert Pastor of Emory University in Atlanta. Castaneda, the son of a former Mexican foreign minister, is a supporter of leftist opposition leader Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, leader of the Democratic Revolutionary Party. Cardenas ran a strong second to Salinas in the 1988 presidential election. Mexico\'s government and ruling party have long been accused inside Mexico of using threats and violence to intimidate opponents and election fraud to maintain the Institutional Revolutionary Party\'s 61-year-old grip on power. The Castaneda incident coming on the heels of the Americas Watch report has focused international attention on allegations of human rights abuses. In the past, Americas Watch said such allegations had been overlooked, saying this was ``more a testament to the Mexican government\'s careful cultivation of its pro-human rights image than its care to ensure that individual human rights are respected.\'\' Other government critics have reported receiving death threats. Norma Corona Sapien, the head of a state human rights commission in the west coast state of Sinaloa, received similar threats before she was gunned down on a street in the capital of Culiacan May 21. Salinas, who has pledged to end corruption and strong-arm tactics by the ruling party, created the National Human Rights Commission after the Corona slaying.\r\n'),(2194,2,'Has Wall Street\'s so-called ``summer rally\'\' lost its sizzle, or are stock prices merely simmering before the heat gets turned up? The Dow Jones industrial average has climbed some 200 points since May 31, and this week alone the key index set two, consecutive post-crash highs before tumbling on fears of higher interest rates. But before assessing just what impact these events may have on what has been dubbed a summer rally, astute market watchers note that the sultry season hasn\'t even begun. ``It\'s not summer yet,\'\' said Ronald Daino, a technical analyst at Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., noting the season officially gets under way on Tuesday. Depending on how things go, Daino said these recent events ``could be looked back upon as part of an initial summer rally.\'\' But he\'s not entirely convinced that is inevitable. ``We still feel it requires some confirmation on whether the market will move higher,\'\' Daino said. ``The potential is there, but I\'d just like some additional confirmation before putting both feet in the water,\'\' he said, pointing to the drought\'s effect on commodity prices and the credit markets as areas of concern. Plunging bond prices obliterated the 32-point gain the Dow posted in back-to-back sessions this week that pushed the key average to two post-crash highs. Those who expected the Dow Jones average of 30 industrials to remain solidly above 2,100 and use that mark as a springboard for a further advance saw those plans evaporate in one brief session. Rumors out of Europe that West Germany and even possibly Japan are considering hiking interest rates ignited fears that the Federal Reserve might be forced to follow suit to support the dollar. The news deflated the bond market, and ripple effects spread to equities. But analysts shrugged it off, saying the stock market was overdue for a selloff, that it needed a breather and that the overall trend is ``constructive.\'\' Over the week, the Dow rose 2.31 points to 2,104.02. Friday\'s volume of 343.92 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, attributed to moves to capture dividends and the quarterly ``triple-witching hour,\'\' was the busiest session this year and the fifth heaviest ever. Volume averaged 201.64 million shares a day. The NYSE composite index was off 0.05 at 152.84; the NASDAQ composite index for the over-the-counter market rose 0.67 to 386.92; and the American Stock Exchange market value index fell 3.63 to 305.70. Alfred Goldman, director of technical market analysis at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis, cautioned that he is both ``amazed and chagrined at how quickly pessimism has turned to optimism about everything.\'\' A better-than-expected trade deficit report, which heartened investors because both imports and exports had declined in April, should have been tempered with caution over factory utilization, which edged up beyond expectations in May, Goldman said. The implication is that booming business could result in shortages of some goods and price increases to compensate. Still, investors hot to perpetuate the ``summer\'\' rally are tossing off concerns about an overheated economy. ``Everybody is looking up as far as the stock market is concerned,\'\' Goldman said. ``That\'s a sign the market is over-bought and over-believed and that we\'re getting into a high-risk area.\'\' Goldman noted that optimism breeds declines in the market while pessimism is fodder for rallies.\r\n'),(2195,2,'A single-engine, banner-towing plane on its way to the beaches crashed and burned shortly after taking off Saturday, killing the pilot, officials said. Jack Beale took off around 11 a.m. from the landing strip at Sky Signs\' banner-plane airfield near Conway, just northwest of this resort, when the plane\'s engine apparently stalled and the plane crashed, officials said. The 63-year-old Conway man had just picked up a new advertising banner, which he was going to tow over the beachfront. He had no passengers. The plane exploded on impact, and the flames had virtually burned out when firefighters arrived, said Charlie Brown of the Horry County Volunteer Fire Department. Beale had been flying for Sky Signs for about three months, said company co-owner Mike Marion. Federal Aviation Administration officials from Atlanta were on their way to the crash site to investigate the accident.\r\n'),(2196,2,'Today is Thursday, Oct. 27, the 301st day of 1988. There are 65 days left in the year. Today\'s highlight in history: In 1858, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was born in New York City. On this date: In 1795, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo, which provided for free navigation of the Mississippi River. In 1880, on his 22nd birthday, Theodore Roosevelt married Alice Lee. In 1886, the musical fantasy ``A Night on Bald Mountain,\'\' written by Modest Mussorgsky in 1867 and revised after his death by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, was performed in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1904, the first rapid transit subway, the IRT, opened in New York City. In 1914, author-poet Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales. In 1938, Du Pont announced it had coined a name for its new synthetic yarn: nylon. In 1947, the radio show ``You Bet Your Life,\'\' starring Groucho Marx, premiered on ABC. It later became a television show on NBC. In 1954, Walt Disney\'s first television program, titled ``Disneyland\'\' after his yet-to-be completed theme park, premiered on ABC. In 1967, Expo \'67 closed in Montreal, Canada. In 1982, China announced its population totaled more than 1 billion people, as counted by more than 5 million census takers. In 1985, former Navy man John A. Walker Jr. and his son, Michael Lance Walker, pleaded guilty in Baltimore to charges of spying for the Soviet Union. Ten years ago: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their progress toward achieving a Middle East accord. Five years ago: President Reagan addressed the nation on the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada, saying the action had prevented a planned ``Cuban occupation\'\' of the island, and was aimed at protecting U.S. citizens there. One year ago: South Korean voters overwhelmingly approved a new constitution, establishing direct presidential elections and other democratic reforms. Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson, held longer than any other foreign hostage in Lebanon, spent his 40th birthday in captivity. Today\'s birthdays: ``Tonight\'\' executive producer Frederick DeCordova is 78. Actress Teresa Wright is 70. Actress Nanette Fabray is 68. Baseball hall-of-famer and sportscaster Ralph Kiner is 66. Actress Ruby Dee is 64. Former White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman is 62. Actor-comedian John Cleese is 49. Actress Carrie Snodgress is 42. Singer Simon Le Bon is 30. Thought for Today: ``Justice is too good for some people and not good enough for the rest.\'\' _ Norman Douglas, Scottish author (1868-1952).\r\n'),(2197,2,'Though needle drug abusers often change their practices when told of the risks of AIDS, many still suffer immune system damage that may make it difficult to ward off the disease, a study suggests. Researchers also confirmed Friday that one\'s state of mind affects the immune system, and suggested it may make a difference with AIDS. The work was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. The change in drug practices is significant because drug users are often thought not responsive to health warnings, said researcher John Watters. His study, done in San Francisco, found users cut back on the sharing of hypodermic needles, which can spread the AIDS virus, cleaned their needles more and increased their use of condoms during sex when told of the dangers. ``We found dramatic changes\'\' after a program to educate drug users began in 1986, said Watters, of the Urban Health Study in San Francisco. Intravenous drug abuse is blamed for about 19 percent of the nation\'s cumulative total of some 70,000 cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Workers in the San Francisco program told drug abusers about AIDS prevention measures, distributed condoms and gave out bleach to disinfect needles. Researchers studied drug and condom practices of 386 drug users interviewed in 1986 before the program began, and 545 users interviewed in early 1987 some eight months after the start of the program. An additional 534 were sampled later in 1987, and 553 in early 1988. Use of ``safe needle hygiene\'\' rose from 13 percent of the time drugs were used before the outreach program to 63 percent afterward. Safe hygiene was defined as using bleach, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide or boiling water to disinfect needles, or not sharing needles. The follow-up surveys found hygiene used 70 percent of the time in late 1987 and 71 percent in early 1988. The estimated number of sharing partners dropped from an average of 11 before the outreach program to eight in early 1987, with nine and five reported in the following two surveys. Condom use rose from 3 percent of the time before the outreach program to 16 percent afterwards, with 23 percent in each of the follow-up surveys. Blood tests found that the rate of users exposed to the AIDS virus jumped from 6 percent in early 1986 to 13 percent in early 1987, with 9 percent and 11 percent in the following two surveys. James Sorensen of the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied AIDS prevention among drug users in treatment, said Watters\' results on behavioral change ring true. But, he warned, `` We need to work very hard to reach people who haven\'t been reached.\'\' The study of drug users in treatment focused on 30 outpatients in a long-term methadone program. None had been infected with the AIDS virus, said Nancy Klimas of the University of Miami School of Medicine and the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Miami. But they showed significant deficiencies in the functioning of their disease-fighting immune system, she said. For example, the functioning of their ``natural killer cells\'\' was about half of normal, she said. Poor nutrition, non-AIDS infections, prior drug abuse or perhaps the methadone may be responsible, but no cause has yet been found, she said. Don Des Jarlais of the New York State Division of Substance Abuse Services said previous research has shown that immune abnormalities in drug users can take years to disappear once they enter methadone treatment. Klimas\' study also found that immune system function was better by several measures in abusers who showed greater ``hardiness,\'\' defined as commitment to life, a feeling of control and a tendency to see stresses as challenges. Loneliness and confusion were associated with poorer immune system performance, she said. But no cause-and-effect conclusion can be drawn from any of the psychological data, she cautioned. Another study released Friday found that for homosexual men soon after AIDS infection, immune system functioning was better in men determined to get on with life, who focused on and expressed their emotions, and who had a feeling of psychological robustness. Again, no cause-and-effect conclusions can yet be drawn, said Nancy Blaney of the University of Miami School of Medicine.\r\n'),(2198,2,'Here is the official text of the European Community statement on South Africa issued Saturday. The European Community and its member states have consistently followed developments in South Africa with the greatest attention and have given a favorable reception to the initiatives which have been to bring about the abolition of apartheid and the establishment of a united, non-racial and democratic South Africa. They have already expressed approval of the results of the talks between the government and the ANC (African National Congress), in particular those of the Pretoria meeting in August which opened the way to the negotiation of a new constitution. They deplore the phase of serious violence through which South Africa is passing, which may endanger these developments. They welcome, however, further indications serving to confirm that the process of change already begun is going ahead in the direction advocated by the Strasbourg European Council. They have decided to continue to encourage this process. Against this background, the European Council has decided that as soon as legislative action is taken by the African government to repeal the Group Areas Act and the Land Acts, the Community and its member states will proceed to an easing of the set of measures adopted in 1986. As of now, so as to contribute to combating unemployment and improving the economic and social situation in South Africa, and to encourage the movement under way aimed at the complete abolition of apartheid, the European Council has decided to lift the ban on new investments. At the same time, the Community and its member states, with the objective of sending a clear message of political support to the victims of apartheid, and intending to contribute to a new economic and social balance in South Africa, have agreed to strengthen the program of positive measures and to adapt it to the requirements of the new situation, including requirements related to the return and resettlement of the exiles. The Community and its member states hope in this way to be able to contribute to the speeding up of the process under way through sending to all the parties involved in negotiations a concrete sign of support for the establishment of a new South Africa, united, non-racial and democratic and capable of resuming the place which it deserves in the international community.\r\n'),(2199,2,'Walter Hasselbring\'s secrets for achieving the nation\'s highest corn yield are a lot of bull. The national corn king credits his top-notch crop to generous applications of the real thing from his cattle and his buffalo herd, Illinois\' largest. But he teases unsuspecting visitors with another success secret, telling them he grew 296 bushels per acre last year by serenading his corn. ``I tell them plants respond to music, so at crucial times I stroll through my cornfields singing to the plants and you can almost see them grow,\'\' chuckled Hasselbring, who has grown the nation\'s best-yielding corn crop seven times in the last 15 years. The National Corn Growers Association sponsors the contest, and 2,057 farmers entered during the 1989 growing season. There were seven divisions, depending on the type of tillage, the area of the country and whether irrigation was used. ``Farmers compete not only to see who can grow the most corn but also to come up with new management ideas that could make all farmers more efficient,\'\' said John Campen of the St. Louis-based association. Hasselbring\'s yield was the highest in the 1989 contest, said Campen, and established a U.S. record, topping his 1975 mark of nearly 289 bushels per acre. His winning yield was more than twice the 138-bushel-per-acre average in Iroquois County, where Hasselbring farms 1,800 acres in east-central Illinois with his two sons. ``You can do everything else right, but if you don\'t get the rain, you won\'t win,\'\' Hasselbring said in an interview Wednesday. A high level of fertility also is crucial. Hasselbring uses about 300 pounds of nitrogen per acre _ roughly twice his normal rate. He adds manure from his cattle herd and his 105 buffalo. Farmers pay $50 to enter the competition. They plant a contest plot of at least 25 acres. Hasselbring\'s corn went in May 5, and the growing season was ideal. As the crop matured, Hasselbring walked his contest field. ``I could tell things were looking up,\'\' he said. ``After all these years farming, you just get an inkling of what\'s going on. But, when it was harvested, it was even more than we expected.\'\' Judges approved by the National Corn Growers Association supervise the harvest of at least 1.25 acres from each contest plot. Hasselbring\'s was combined Nov. 13-14. Rules require farmers to harvest at random intervals so they cannot pick the best area of the field. University of Illinois agronomists Fred Welch and Bob Hoeft agree with Hasselbring that shooting for 300-bushel yields on a large acreage is a big gamble given high growing costs and the inability to control weather. ``Winning might not mean getting the best dollar-return for your inputs, and it is profit, not a record yield, that is really important for commercial farmers,\'\' Welch said. Although the national corn surplus is approaching 2 billion bushels, the idea that more corn means less profits isn\'t what would keep farmers from adopting high-yield techniques, Campen said. It is the expense of producing such yields. ``The economics, at least today, on a broad scale basis wouldn\'t warrant it,\'\' he said. Officials at Fred Gutwein & Sons Inc., a family-owned corn and soybean seed company based in Francesville, Ind., that provided hybrids to Hasselbring, said his success improved Gutwein name recognition and sales. ``Our hybrid met the challenge,\'\' said sales manager Eric Gutwein. ``But, it takes a very special individual like `Duke\' Hasselbring to achieve the pinnacle seven times.\'\'\r\n'),(2200,2,'Those fearful predictions of 20 years ago that environmental demands would cause unemployment and economic stagnation have turned out to be overstated, a business leader says. Experience has shown that combating pollution is compatible with economic growth, said Alexander Trowbridge, a former secretary of commerce and chairman of the National Association of Manufacturers\' Industry Coalition for the Environment. ``Environmental improvement has been a corollary to economic growth and has not come in spite of it,\'\' Trowbridge told a news conference Tuesday. He said the ``dire predictions about environmental improvement coming at the cost of jobs and national economic strength and high prices\'\' have proven to be exaggerated. At the same time, he said, environmentalists\' warnings ``that Lake Erie would be dead, urban dwellers would be wearing gas masks, rivers would be reaching a boiling point,\'\' also were overdrawn. Trowbridge said he was not contending there will not be tradeoffs between jobs and the environment. But, he said, the record since Earth Day 1970 ``indicates that economic growth, moderate but real, has taken place in these 20 years and environmental improvement has also taken place.\'\' ``My judgment is that we\'ve made progress both in the economy and the environment and I think we\'ll continue to do so,\'\' he said. Trowbridge presented a report that said production of six major pollutants has dropped sharply since 1970, while employment, productivity, per capita income, industrial production and the overall size of the economy have grown steadily. Environmentalists said they suspected that Trowbridge had made an Earth Day conversion. Earth Day is being commemorated on Sunday with events scheduled nationwide. ``Talk is cheap and action is not cheap,\'\' said David Gardiner, legislative director of the Sierra Club. ``It\'s the don\'t-worry-be-happy message at the same time the NAM and their members are spending millions of dollars lobbying against changes in law which would do a better job in improving the environment. ... What we\'re seeing from industry is Earth Day earth-hype.\'\' ``It is an encouraging-sounding message, but just in the last month and a half we\'ve seen from the Business Roundtable and other industry groups the most apocalyptical hype about how the Clear Air Act is going to kill the economy,\'\' added David Doniger, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. ``It will be interesting to see if, next time there is a piece of legislation to be acted upon, the NAM will take a more enlightened line,\'\' he said. But Trowbridge said a fundamental change has taken place in corporate America. Environmental considerations are now being taken into account in business decisions, he said. ``Environmental quality is a very key element of planning, designing, building and producing,\'\' he said, ``and this has been growing not only as a psychological factor but as a point of stated policy.\'\'\r\n'),(2201,2,'The first time Idaho delegate Joe Williams attended a Democratic national convention, he cast his vote to help nominate Franklin Roosevelt for a fourth term in the White House. Attending his ninth national convention this week, Williams, 84, says he\'s every bit as thrilled. ``It\'s still just as exciting. We get all the hoopla and hurrahs, even though it\'s cut and dried like this one,\'\' said Williams, Idaho\'s auditor for 30 years. Williams said the vote he plans to cast for Michael Dukakis will be his last as a national delegate. He said he plans to retire from politics when his present term expires in two years.\r\n'),(2202,2,'The fans who still buy Elvis Presley souvenirs now can pay for them with a flashy black credit card bearing the singer\'s image. ``Give your autograph to Elvis. ... Become part of the legend,\'\' says a brochure advertising the Presley MasterCard. Applications were sent to 200,000 people around the country this week, and Jack Soden, manager of Presley\' former residence in Memphis, said more than a million will be mailed over the next couple of months. Soden said the MasterCard is being issued by Leader Federal Savings and Loan of Memphis. The non-profit Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation will get half the $36 annual fee for the MasterCard, and a portion of the 17.88 percent interest applied to card balances also will go to the foundation, Soden said. He declined to say what portion of the interest charges will go to the foundation or to estimate how much money the card will generate. The foundation was set up in 1985 by executors of Presley\'s estate but it has had little operating income, he said. The singer died in 1977. Income from the credit card will support programs in music education, for medical care for the underprivileged and for assistance to the homeless, Soden said. The Elvis credit card has a black background with a drawing of Presley in a singing pose with a guitar in his hands. The drawing is surrounded by red and gold lights from a jukebox. ``The card is absolutely gorgeous,\'\' Soden said. More than 600,000 tourists and fans visit Graceland each year and the Graceland complex, which includes a 36,000-square-foot shopping center, takes in some $9 million a year. The estate is run for the financial benefit of Presley\'s only child, Lisa Marie Presley.\r\n'),(2203,2,'At least half the thousands of operations on Americans with ruptured discs in their lower back probably were unnecessary, says a study showing 90 percent of such patients can be healed without surgery. The three-year study indicates that surgeons should change how they decide whether to operate on patients with lumbar disc problems, one of the study\'s authors, Dr. Jeffrey Saal of the San Francisco Spine Institute, said Monday. Neurosurgeons often operate if a patient fails to improve after bed rest and suffers severe pain, leg weakness and if diagnostic exams show the disc\'s nucleus has broken through the disc wall and is pressing against a nerve root. Saal said none of those criteria should be used as overwhelming evidence that surgery is needed. He said the decision should be based on the patients\' level of function and whether that can be improved by an aggressive rehabilitation program.\r\n'),(2204,2,'About the time Nelson Mandela went to jail 27 years ago, Lenford Ganyile fled South Africa after a violent encounter that cost him all his teeth and most of an ear. A South African policeman\'s rifle butt knocked out his teeth, Ganyile said, and a bayonet sliced off the ear. Ganyile, 68, has been in exile since, first in Botswana and then in Zambia, where Mandela\'s African National Congress set up its headquarters. In February, President F.W. de Klerk of South Africa legalized the ANC and freed Mandela. ``I am waiting for Comrade Mandela to tell me what to do next,\'\' said Ganyile, a respected elder on the ANC\'s 7,200-acre Chongela collective farm in Zambia\'s fertile Ngwerere district, 25 miles north of Lusaka. Although he is eager to go home, Ganyile has difficulty remembering the wife and three children he left behind. ``In the early years, I sent them letters but had no reply,\'\' he said. ``I was afraid they would get into trouble, so I stopped writing.\'\' Occasionally, he heard news of his wife from newly arrived exiles. Then he lost all contact. ``The struggle became my family,\'\' Ganyile said. ``I saw my ear was not there and it reminded me always that I wanted all our people to be free.\'\' He is one of thousands of South African exiles scattered through the world whose lives were transformed by the lifting of a 30-year ban on the African National Congress and Mandela\'s release Feb. 12. The ANC has said most of its exiles probably would be home by the end of 1990. ``It is a dream to me,\'\' said Ganyile, a veteran of the Pondo rebellion of the late 1950s, when scores of blacks were killed in riots against South Africa\'s official apartheid policy of race segregation. Ganyile, who spent 20 months in jail, said he was arrested for leading ANC protesters in the Pondoland region near Mandela\'s home in Transkei. ``We were fighting one of the worst devils on earth, the Bantu Authorities Act\'\' and its discriminatory laws, he said. After fleeing South Africa, Ganyile used his farming experience to teach other exiles. He is on the Chongela farm\'s management committee. Farm manager Leslie Ponusamy said the property, three adjoining farms owned by whites before independence from Britain in 1964, feeds about three-quarters of the 2,000 ANC members who live in Zambia. Vegetables and maize grow on the farm, and the residents raise cattle, sheep, pigs and ducks. ``We don\'t produce everything for a balanced diet,\'\' said Ponusamy, a veterinarian who was a student activist in South Africa\'s Natal province. ``We sell the surplus of one thing to buy other things we need.\'\' Young exiles are sent by ANC headquarters in Lusaka to learn practical skills on the farm. Foreign donations help finance a dairy, slaughterhouse, several workshops and an auto repair shop. ``Most of our young people interrupted their educations when they left South Africa,\'\' Ponusamy said. Dan Twala, 22, said he fled after being assaulted by police in 1987, during a disturbance in a black township. ``I came to join the struggle,\'\' he said. ``Now all I want to do is to go back to see the family.\'\' What will happen to the farm when everyone returns home? ``Perhaps we will give it to the Zambian government,\'\' Ponusamy said. ``When we no longer need it, we will leave it as a momument, some sort of remembrance, to our struggle.\'\'\r\n'),(2205,2,'A bomb exploded Saturday near a polling booth in Dhaka, killing one person and wounding three as Bangladeshis cast ballots in nine districts where voting had been postponed because of earlier violence. Police said Borhanuddin Ahmed, 25, was killed in the explosion in downtown Dhaka. At least 13 people were killed and more than 300 were wounded in violence during the parliamentary elections held on March 3, and the government stopped and rescheduled the voting in 125 districts. Elections were held in nine districts Saturday, but no results were reported. The major opposition parties boycotted the elections. President Hussain Muhammad Ershad\'s Jatiya Party won 245 seats in the 300-member parliament in the March 3 balloting, according to results announced by the government. It said a coalition of 73 smaller groups and parties won 15 seats and independent candidates won 15. Ershad\'s party plans to celebrate its victory with prayer meetings on March 16. Opposition parties have called for protest rallies on March 24, the sixth anniversary of the bloodless coup that brought Gen. Ershad to power. Leading the opposition campaign are Sheik Hasina and Khaleda Zia who have demanded that Ershad resign.\r\n'),(2206,2,'Here are excerpts of the government\'s new regulations banning political activity by major opposition groups:\r\n'),(2207,2,'Legislation designed to protect government employees who disclose wrongdoing was approved unanimously by a Senate committee Thursday. The bill\'s sponsor, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said the measure makes it easier for whistleblowers to win a reprisal case and guarantees them the right to a hearing. The bill ``sends a strong message to federal employees that they will not be punished for disclosing government fraud, waste and abuse,\'\' Levin said. Thursday\'s approval by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee clears the way for consideration of the bill by the full Senate. Under the bill, the Office of the Special Counsel, an independent federal agency, would have responsibility for protecting employees who disclose wrongdoing. ``Recent statistics show that 70 percent of federal employees claiming knowledge of waste, fraud and abuse fail to report it,\'\' Levin said. ``These statistics are proof that the current system has failed to convince employees that they will be rewarded instead of punished if they disclose government wrongdoing.\'\'\r\n'),(2208,2,'More than 400 bird-watchers turned up at the crack of dawn at a sewage plant to get a glimpse of an apparently disoriented arctic bird rarely seen south of Canada, a Ross\'s gull. ``I woke up at 4:15 to come out here,\'\' said George Armistead, 16, of Philadelphia. ``I never thought I\'d see the day when a Ross\'s gull would land so close I could make the drive in a little over two hours.\'\' At 8:35 a.m. Sunday, someone finally spotted the gull in flight. It eventually settled down to preen for a half-hour near a creek behind the Back River treatment plant in suburban Baltimore. ``What makes this Ross\'s gull so unique is that every other past record has been a one-day wonder,\'\' said birdwatcher Rick Blom. ``This Ross\'s gull has already been in Baltimore for more than a week.\'\' Blom said the gull is a long-distance migrator that has a tendency to get blown off course. The first confirmed U.S. sighting of a Ross\'s gull was believed to have been in 1975 in Salisbury Beach, Mass. Unconfirmed sightings have been reported as far afield as Tennessee and Colorado.\r\n'),(2209,2,'The judge who set bail at $300,000 for the alleged killer of Rabbi Meir Kahane suspended it a day later, and the district attorney said the original motion granting bail was made over his objections. State Supreme Court Justice Alvin Schlesinger, who approved the $300,000 bail for El Sayyid Nosair on Wednesday, suspended it on Thursday and scheduled a new bail hearing for Monday. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said Thursday that his office had requested Nosair be held without bail. ``We pointed out to the court that he is accused of committing a number of exceptionally serious crimes, including both the murder of Rabbi Kahane and the wounding of a federal police officer,\'\' Morgenthau said. Nosair, 35, of Cliffside Park, N.J., is accused of shooting the Zionist activist last month as Kahane finished a speech at a New York City hotel. He also is accused of wounding two other men as he fled. One of the two, a postal service police officer, wounded Nosair. In a statement to police, attached to a disclosure form filed in court, Nosair told police Kahane was actually shot by another person and that he was framed. He said he went to hear Kahane\'s lecture because he agreed with much of the rabbi\'s philosophy.\r\n'),(2210,2,'An Illinois pastor has been chosen to succeed Dr. Oswald Hoffman as speaker of ``The Lutheran Hour,\'\' an English-language program broadcast internationally over 1,300 radio stations each week. Dr. Dale A. Meyer will take over for Hoffman, who is retiring Dec. 31 after 33 years as the program\'s speaker. Governors of the International Lutheran Laymen\'s League selected Meyer during a meeting last weekend in St. Louis. Meyer, 41, has been pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Collinsville since 1984.\r\n'),(2211,2,'Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III and Andre Gratchev, Soviet deputy minister for international affairs, debated at Oxford Monday night on the relative values of the U.S. Constitution and socialism. The motion proposed by Meese at Oxford University\'s venerable debating society that ``this house believes that the values of the American Constitution, not of socialism, will shape the world in the coming century\'\' was carried by 351 votes to 235. About 1,000 students packed Oxford Union to hear the speeches. The debating society is a training ground for politicians and a hotbed of talk, wit and showing-off. Opposing the motion, Gratchev urged: ``Do not bury socialism. Perestroika is being tried by us to allow socialism to win. Socialism is capable of providing answers to human problems.\'\' He said many Western writers had predicted perestroika would fail because, they said, it was impossible to reform socialism. But Gratchev said perestroika involved irreversible change. ``It will continue to alter the world and profoundly change the nature of socialism,\'\' he said. ``The purpose of perestroika is to subject socialism to historical change. The 21st century will be the century of change. Right now the change is coming from the East, from the Soviet countries, from Moscow. But it is not anti-capitalist.\'\' Meese said socialism had not worked, could not be defended and was being cast aside. He said the value of the U.S. Constitution lay in giving to people the ability to bring about change through democratic processes. ``We recognize the Constitution will not solve all the problems of mankind, but it allows the process whereby people can attempt to solve problems through their elected representatives,\'\' Meese said. He said this was a potential recognized by more and more oppressed people. ``That is why a copy of the Statue of Liberty was raised in Tiananmen Square,\'\' he said, referring to the pro-democracy demonstrations crushed by Chinese troops in Beijing last year.\r\n'),(2212,2,'Kenneth L. Peoples, acting president and chief executive officer of the Farm Credit System Assistance Board, was named to that post Thursday by Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter. Peoples had been general counsel and corporate secretary to the board before being named to the acting posts Aug. 15. Yeutter is its chairman. The board is a government corporation created by Congress in 1987 to provide help to the Farm Credit System, a farmer-owned network of cooperative lenders. Yeutter also announced the appointment of Kathleen M. Mullarkey as general counsel and corporate secretary. She had been acting in that capacity since Aug. 15. Before that, she was deputy general counsel to the board.\r\n'),(2213,2,'A former Salvadoran army intelligence agent who said he participated in ``death squad\'\' operations in his homeland was sentenced to six months in prison Friday for illegally entering the United States. Cesar Vielman Joya-Martinez was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton. Joya-Martinez, convicted Sept. 19, could have received a two-year prison term. The 27-year-old Joya-Martinez has said he took part in death squad operations of the Salvadoran army\'s First Brigade. Joya-Martinez, who had been deported from the United States in 1983, was arrested last spring after he appeared at an administrative hearing to determine if he were eligible for political asylum. Joya-Martinez\'s attorney, Daniel S. Alcorn, said his client returned to the United States because he feared Salvadoran soldiers were plotting to kill him to make him a scapegoat for death-squad killings.\r\n'),(2214,2,'Grain and soybean futures prices were mixed in volatile early trading today on the Chicago Board of Trade. All the markets opened lower, but then soybeans moved sharply lower while wheat turned higher. ``It\'s a bloodbath here this morning\'\' in the soybean pit, said Victor Lespinasse, a trader with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. in Chicago. Soybeans for delivery in November fell 10 cents a bushel in the first half-hour of trading. ``The market opened weaker than expected, then sold off sharply,\'\' Lespinasse said. ``There\'s just a bearish mentality that started after the bulls were unable to rally the market.\'\' Some blamed the early soybean sell-off on disappointment over the slow pace of grain sales for export. The Soviet Union bought a large amount of U.S. soybeans and soybean meal last week, but the Agriculture Department has not confirmed rumors of further large Soviet purchases. In early trading, wheat was \\ cent to 1{ cents higher with the contract for delivery in December at $4.16{ a bushel; corn was 1\\ cents to 2\\ cents lower with December at $2.75} a bushel; oats were 2{ cents lower to 2\\ cents higher with December at $2.14{ a bushel; soybeans were 2} cents to 11 cents lower with November at $7.82 a bushel. Livestock and meat futures were mixed in early trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Live cattle were .23 cent lower to .08 cent higher with December at 73.52 cents a pound; feeder cattle were unchanged to .10 cent higher with November at 81.60 cents a pound; live hogs were .10 cent lower to .40 cent higher with December at 41.67 cents a pound; frozen pork bellies were .05 cent to .45 cent higher with February at 46.60 cents a pound. Livestock and meat futures settled higher on Friday.\r\n'),(2215,2,'Brisbane M M M Brussels 68 50 clr Budapest 91 72 cdy B\'Aires 64 54 clr Cairo M M M Calgary 77 54 cdy Caracas 84 68 cdy Copenhagen 70 66 clr Dublin 62 51 cdy Frankfurt M M M Geneva 81 61 cdy Harare 73 45 cdy Havana 89 77 clr Helsinki 75 61 cdy Hong Kong 91 81 cdy Istanbul 86 72 clr Jerusalem 86 64M Jo\'burg 64 36 clr Kiev 82 63 clr Lima 63 55 cdy Lisbon 82 68 clr London 70 54 cdy Madrid 95 66 clr Manila 90 75 rn Mexico City 77 52 clr Montreal 79 61 cdy Moscow 70 55 clr Nairobi 68 55 cdy Nassau 91 82 cdy New Delhi 89 79 cdy Nicosia M M M Oslo 72 57 clr Paris 72 54 cdy Rio 91 67 rn Rome 90 64 clr San Juan 82 77 cdy Santiago 72 36 clr Sao Paulo 77 57 rn Seoul 86 64 clr Singapore 86 73 rn Stockholm 72 63 rn Sydney M M M Taipei 88 77 rn Tel Aviv 84 73M Tokyo 91 82 clr Toronto 82 64 cdy Vancouver 73 61 cdy Vienna 82 68 cdy Warsaw 82 59 clr\r\n'),(2216,2,'More than a dozen rockets slammed into Afghanistan\'s capital of Kabul today, killing 14 people and injuring 10, Afghan state radio reported. No one immediately claimed repsonsibility for the attack. But the Radio Kabul broadcast, monitored in Islamabad, blamed ``extremists,\'\' presumably referring to U.S.-backed guerrillas headquartered in Pakistan. Moslem insurgents have been fighting for more than a decade to topple Afghanistan\'s Communist-style government. In the past year, hundreds of people have died and thousands more injured in rocket assaults on the Afghan capital.\r\n'),(2217,2,'Delays in Illinois Medicaid payments could force private residential-care facilities to evict hundreds of mentally retarded patients in the coming months, officials say. ``If nothing changes, we will see 50 to 1,500 people discharged from community residential centers throughout the state,\'\' said Peter Mule, director of the Riverside oundation, a home for retarded adults in Lincolnshire. Earlier this week Riverside received a reimbursement check from the state Department of Public Aid for December, but is still owed at least $250,000 for care provided since then, Mule said. Another non-profit agency, Clearbrook Center in suburban Rolling Meadows, will have to close within three months if $446,000 owed by the state can\'t be found elsewhere, center president Guerin Fischer said. Reimbursements are slow now, and they\'re bound to get worse, said Edward Duffy, state public aid director. ``I\'m not choosing to do this, I\'m running out of money,\'\' he said. Duffy said because the General Assembly underfunded the Medicaid program by $159 million last year, reimbursement money will run out. Requests received after April 15 won\'t be paid until July, Duffy said. ``We\'re working along with banks to help these agencies get credit lines,\'\' Duffy said. ``But the only real solution is more money.\'\' If the private homes are forced to evict their residents, the state would have to make room for them in already crowded facilities. ``We would have to put these people up on cots in gymnasiums,\'\' said David Devane, a spokesman for the Department of Mental Health. ``They would be without programs, without any treatment that is not life sustaining.\'\' Gov. James R. Thompson\'s proposed $22.2 billion budget for fiscal 1989 includes a $342 million increase for the Public Aid Department to pay past-due bills and reduce the delays in Medicaid reimbursements.\r\n'),(2218,2,'The United States would be happy to consider negotiating a free-trade agreement with Japan along the lines of the treaty reached with Canada, Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III said Friday. While there are no current discussion about such a treaty, it would fit into this country\'s overall strategy to break down trade barriers wherever they exist, he said. ``We have a major trading relationship with Japan,\'\' Baker said. ``It (a free trade agreement) would be something that the United States would be pleased to consider if it were something that the government of Japan wanted to consider.\'\' Baker\'s comments came in a television interview with foreign journalists for broadcast outside the United States by the U.S. Information Agency. The session was a preview of the seven-nation economic summit opening Sunday in Toronto. President Reagan, addressing the annual conference of the USIA International Council, meantime, reiterated his belief in free trade while saying trade barriers of other countries are generating protectionist pressures in America. ``It damages the entire world economy when foreign countries fail to offer the same opportunity to American exports that America offers to their products,\'\' Reagan said. ``It is this basic sense of fairness that has helped generate protectionist pressures in America. Let me repeat protectionism, the closing of America\'s markets, is the wrong response; opening markets, that, I firmly believe, is the answer.\'\' Meanwhile, there appeared to be movement on another contentious trade dispute between Japan and the United States. U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter announced Friday that he was leaving immediately for Japan, saying a deal may be near on ending that nation\'s restrictions on beef imports. ``We certainly have not yet reached an agreement, but I\'m persuaded that the news is sufficiently encouraging to justify a trip,\'\' Yeutter said. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said, ``We remain hopeful,\'\' but added, ``Until there\'s a deal, there\'s no deal.\'\' The Agriculture Department has placed the overall value of the Japanese beef market at $2 billion. A U.S.-Japan free-trade agreement would presumably be of substantial benefit to this country because U.S. officials for years have pressured the Japanese to open their markets to American products as a way of reducing the huge trade imbalance between the two nations. The Japanese ran up a trade surplus with the United States last year of $59.8 billion, more than one-third of this country\'s America\'s overall trade deficit of $170.3 billion. The U.S.-Canada pact now being considered by Congress and the Canadian Parliament would end all trade barriers within 10 years. Some critics have charged that specific trade pacts such as the U.S.-Canada agreement or the plan to eliminate all barriers between the 12-nation European Economic Community by 1992 pose risks of returning the world to the trade cartels of the 1930s, which worked to shrink trade rather than expanding it. But Baker disputed this, saying the United States saw any trade liberalization agreements as beneficial. He said America preferred to pursue reduction of trade barriers through the discussions being held under the auspices of the 96-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. But he hinted that if those talks did not reach a successful conclusion, the United States would look to trade pacts with smaller groups of countries. Baker said the summit between President Reagan and other Western leaders would include a full-fledged discussion of Reagan\'s proposal to eliminate all farm subsidies by the year 2000. These subsidies are costing the major industrial countries $150 billion annually in higher government support payments and increased food costs to consumers. He acknowledged that the U.S. proposal to eliminate subsidies was facing intense opposition, with Washington hoping basically for a reiteration in Toronto of a pledge the industrialized nations made last month in Paris to press forward in negotiations on the issue. The U.S. delegation, led by Baker, had pressed for more specific language to adopt Reagan\'s call for a subsidy-free world in agricultural trade by a specific date. But Baker contended Friday that progress had been made in Paris. ``The fact that we are even discussing this very difficult problem of agricultural subsidies represents progress,\'\' he said. ``It is not going to be at all easy to move toward eliminating subsidies or reducing subsidies for any of us unless we are all able to go to our farmers and say the world is going to do this.\'\' European nations have argued that it is politically impossible to eliminate all farm subsidies and a proper compromise would be to reduce them, perhaps by cutting them in half. The United States is hoping to keep the pressure on so that hard bargaining to end protectionism in agriculture can take place at a Montreal trade meeting in December. The Montreal meeting will be a midterm review for the current round of global trade talks which were launched in 1986 in Uruguay and scheduled to end in 1990.\r\n'),(2219,2,'Using too much water to douse the fire aboard the Mega Borg could sink the oil supertanker, but firefighters using foam to smother the flames today faced another problem, salvage experts say. ``You have to get on that ship to extinguish it,\'\' said Les Williams, whose Port Arthur, Texas, salvage company has fought nearly two dozen offshore oil fires. ``If the fire\'s below deck, it\'s like trying to walk on a hot skillet. You can\'t do that.\'\' The fire burned since Saturday aboard the 853-foot Norwegian ship, crippled in the Gulf of Mexico 57 miles southeast of Galveston. It started with an explosion in the engine room on Saturday; five blasts Sunday sent blazing crude oil from the tanker\'s 38-million-gallon cargo into the sea. ``That\'s a very hard fire to fight, there in the engine room like that,\'\' Rudy Teichmann of T&T Marine Salvage Inc. in Galveston said. ``It\'s all closed up and you can\'t get to it. ``They can\'t flood that engine room with water. That could sink the ship. It\'s a lot different than fighting a forest fire,\'\' said Teichmann. The Mega Borg already was listing. Its stern dropped 58 feet since the first explosion, indicating either the cargo had shifted or the ship was taking on water, the Coast Guard said. The aft deck was reported just 5 feet above the water today. About 30,000 gallons of foam has been shipped to the scene, the Coast Guard said. But using it entails firefighting at close range. Wiliams said the usual procedure is for two or three firefighters, wearing fire-retardant jumpsuits that are light enough to swim in, to board the tanker. Carrying a 3-inch diameter hose leading to foam pumps aboard a nearby boat, they target the fire\'s point of origin, he said. The hose, or ``wand,\'\' can shoot 5,000 gallons of foam per minute. Attempting the job is Smit American Salvage Inc., the U.S. division of a Rotterdam company. Smit has helped fight more than 100 tanker and oil rig fires, including blazes in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war, company officials said. Steve Davis, captain of the 180-foot supply boat Tradewind, and his crew of four spent Sunday loading drums of chemical foam on board the boat to fight the Mega Borg fire. ``I would hate to see oil all over these beaches,\'\' Davis said as specialists from the Netherlands finished bolting high-powered pumps and nozzle connections to the ship\'s deck. Davis\' boat is one of six from Pelican Island near Galveston that were hired to fight the fire. ``God willing and weather permitting _ that\'s the saying in salvage,\'\' said Rick Chianelli, salvage foreman for Smit American.\r\n'),(2220,2,'A doctor accused of giving an anti-convulsion drug to pregnant women without their knowledge is fighting back with a $26 million slander lawsuit, saying the treatment was not secret and was aimed at helping his patients. Hospital officials have accused physicians Lawrence Lavine and Antonio Aldrete of secretly giving injections of the drug Dilantin to as many as 240 women _ nearly all of them pregnant _ as part of an improper experiment. But in a lawsuit Tuesday, Lavine accused Dr. Agnes Lattimer, medical director of Cook County Hospital, of slander for calling the Dilantin injections a violation of hospital policy and for labeling them unethical. ``They (Lavine and Aldrete) did what doctors do all the time .. . try to ensure the health of their patients. And because of the outcry, now the hospital is going to crucify them,\'\' said Lavine\'s attorney, Richard Brauer. Lattimer declined comment on the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon. ``I cannot discuss this issue since it is a legal matter,\'\' she said. Brauer said the doctors gave the Dilantin in the course of treating the women shortly before their babies were delivered and not as an experiment. He contended that informed written consent was obtained from every patient treated, while hospital officials have contended that many patients were given the drug without their knowledge or consent. The doctors, who face a disciplinary hearing July 18, administered the anti-convulsants for four months beginning last September, after receiving approval from the hospital\'s medical staff for a study involving 50 women undergoing emergency Caesarean section. One of the women allegedly given the drug at Cook County has filed a lawsuit against the Cook County Board, the hospital, the doctors and other staff members. Brauer said giving anti-convulsants to pregnant women with epilepsy just before they go into labor ``has been accepted medical procedure since 1938.\'\' Brauer said the doctors ``were aware of the medical literature (on Dilantin) and knew well in advance it would be helpful across the range of pregnancy,\'\' especially in cases where inadequate pre-natal care appeared likely to cause fetal distress from insufficient oxygen at delivery. Because of the frequency of fetal distress, he said, the rate of infant mortality at Cook County was 3{ times higher than in the general population. ``And it became so obvious the babies were born healthier, the mothers suffered less ... that instead of risking the health of their patients, they used the anti-convulsants where they were appropriate,\'\' he said. After media reports on the practice in late May, Lattimer said the doctors had gone beyond the scope of the experiment. A week later, she told the Chicago Sun-Times, ``It was wrong for the physicians to violate the ethical principles as well as the rules and regulations of the hospital.\'\'\r\n'),(2221,2,'A strong earthquake shook northern Taiwan on Sunday. Police said it unleashed rockslides that injured 13 people. They said the injured people were hit by falling rocks at three waterfall tourist sites in suburban Taipei. The quake, measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale, set off rock avalanches in an area covering 1,200 square yards, authorities said. The injured, who were all Taiwanese, were taken to a hospital, police said. One was reported to be in serious condition, and the others suffered only minor injuries. The Central Weather Bureau placed the epicenter of the early-afternoon earthquake in Sanchi, a coastal village about 10 miles north of Taipei. The earthquake was felt in the capital, where residents reported their houses shook violently, the bureau said. The Richter scale measures ground motion as recorded on seismographs. Every increase of one number means a ten-fold increase in intensity. An earthquake of magnitude 5 can cause serious damage in a populated area, and one of magnitude 6 can cause severe damage.\r\n'),(2222,2,'Leonard didn\'t stand tall when he patrolled his owner\'s car lot office, but Reggie Roberts says the 7-foot-long boa constrictor was the best guard he ever had. Somebody broke the office window Sunday, and Leonard is gone. ``I\'m just 99 percent sure somebody stole my snake,\'\' Roberts said Wednesday. ``I don\'t know why they did it.\'\' Roberts, who owns T.R. Roberts Motors, is offering a $100 reward for the return of his pet reptile. ``I won\'t ask any questions,\'\' he said. ``I just want my snake back. I miss the little fellow.\'\' He hopes Leonard will be found. The ``Beware! Guard Snake on Duty\'\' sign remains posted on the business\' door. Leonard was kept in a temperature-controlled glass showcase during the day so as not to scare customers. But at night the creature, which Roberts describes as ``just a big baby,\'\' was given the run of the office. Roberts bought the snake, who is about 8 years old, when the previous owner\'s landlady objected to Leonard as a tenant. He\'s had the snake nearly a year. ``I\'ve had him long enough to get good and attached to him,\'\' Roberts said.\r\n'),(2223,2,'The Federated and Allied department stores, which have been operating under bankruptcy court protection for nearly a year, said Tuesday they lost $86.7 million in the three months ending Nov. 3. The companies called the figure a sign of improved performance in the face of a weakening economy and lower-than-expected sales. They lost $92.5 million in the same period last year before they sought refuge from creditors. Federated Department Stores Inc. said total sales for Bloomingdale\'s, Lazarus and its three other store chains fell 6.2 percent to $1.1 billion for the quarter. Allied Stores Corp. said sales for its four store chains fell 2.8 percent to $624 million. For the nine months ending Nov. 3, Federated and Allied said they lost $312.6 million, a lower figure than the $330.1 million they lost in the year-earlier period. Federated said sales fell 5.3 percent to $3.1 billion for the first nine months of the year. Allied, whose chains include The Bon Marche and Jordan Marsh, said sales fell 2.4 percent to $1.7 billion. Federated and Allied sought protection from creditors Jan. 15 because of inability to service $7.7 billion in debts accrued when they were taken over by the Campeau Corp. of Canada in the 1980s. A bankruptcy court has given them until February to file a reorganization plan. After that time, creditors may propose their own plans. Individually, Federated lost $57.8 million during the quarter, 14 percent above the $50.7 million it lost in the same period last year. Allied lost $28.9 million, 30 percent below its $41.8 million third-quarter loss last year. ``The consumer has not demonstrated a great deal of faith in the nation\'s near-term economic future, and there is little indication that this will change significantly in the closing weeks of the year,\'\' Federated and Allied chairman and chief executive officer Allen Questrom said. ``Still, we expect our earnings from operations will be consistent with our plans for the season.\'\'\r\n'),(2224,2,'The Centers for Disease Control disputes a study by the Hudson Institute that the number of Americans infected with the deadly AIDS virus is actually twice the official estimate. In a study released Friday, the Hudson Institute said that up to 3 million Americans are infected by the AIDS virus, an estimate that is far above the calculation by CDC, the primary federal agency monitoring the spread of AIDS. Kevin R. Hopkins, a Hudson mathematician, said his study uses ``realistic\'\' assumptions not used by the CDC and, as a result, his estimate is closer to the true number of Americans infected by the human immunodeficiency virus which causes AIDS. ``The actual number of people carrying the HIV virus in the United States (at the end of 1987) was not the 900,000 to 1.4 million the official sources estimate, but probably more than twice that number,\'\' the Hudson report said. ``There were between 2 and 3 million people infected with the AIDS virus, with the most likely total of infections probably close to 2.4 million,\'\' the report said. Dr. Timothy Dondero, chief of a CDC branch studying the spread of AIDS, quickly disputed the claim, however. In a telephone interview from the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Dondero said he and his staff reviewed the Hudson study and the methods used and said, ``We do not feel a change in our data is appropriate.\'\' He said that for the Hudson model to be correct, about 2 percent of the young adult population in the United States would have to be infected with HIV. Yet, he said, ``their figures are inconsistently high within segments of populations for which there are test results.\'\' Dondero said tests from hospital patients, military recruits and prisoners show HIV infection rates of less than 1 percent _ 0.2 percent to 0.66 percent _ among young adults. Hopkins admitted, ``We\'re all in a guessing game\'\' when it comes to estimating the number of people infected with the AIDS virus. Nonetheless, he said he believed the Hudson method is a more realistic model or mathematical estimate of the situation. ``The CDC may be right and we may be wrong,\'\' Hopkins said. ``Until a national seroprevalence test is conducted, we will not know. ... The main conclusion is that we cannot be complacent about this disease.\'\' The study by Hudson, a privately financed public policy research organization with headquarters in Indianapolis, used basic CDC data on the number of AIDS cases. But Hopkins said Hudson used different computer models and more sophisticated statistical analysis techniques to estimate the rate of HIV infections. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which is caused by the HIV virus, is the end stage of the disease and may not develop for years after a person is infected with the virus. But an infected person can spread the virus before developing AIDS. For this reason, experts are attempting to estimate the rate of infection in order to gauge the future extent of the epidemic. HIV infection is determined by a blood test which identifies antibodies in blood serum. A person with such antibodies is known as seropositive. Hopkins said the Hudson study also estimated that the number of heterosexuals infected by the virus may be three times higher than CDC estimates. The CDC says the chief victims of AIDS, a contagious disease that attacks the body\'s immune system, have been homosexual men and intravenous drug users. The Hudson study estimates that of the 850,000 to 1.4 million heterosexuals infected with the HIV virus, between 200,000 and 500,000 are those who do not use drugs. ``There are vastly more heterosexuals infected today,\'\' said Hopkins. ``A breakout into the non-monogamous population is unavoidable.\'\' The CDC has estimated that the AIDS virus has infected only 80,000 to 165,000 of the non-drug-using heterosexual population. The Hudson report said about 118,000 of the heterosexuals infected are ``mainstream\'\' population members. ``They are not poor, and they are not IV drug users,\'\' Hudson said. ``But they are nonetheless carriers of the virus and, through their sexual contacts, can proceed to spread the disease to others of their same class.\'\' The CDC says that as of Aug. 15, 1988, AIDS had been diagnosed in 70,702 Americans, of whom more than half, or 39,898, have died since June 1, 1981. No one is known to have recovered from AIDS.\r\n'),(2225,2,'Students at Spelman College, a black women\'s school, should take the fruits of their education back to their communities and help the poor, the school\'s new president said at her inauguration. ``If we do nothing to improve our world, then we cannot call ourselves educated women,\'\' Johnetta B. Cole said Sunday. ``How can we call ourselves either educated or leaders if we turn away from the very reality that a third of black America lives in poverty? ``We must build sturdy black bridges into the very communities from which we have come. For if we do not build those bridges, then we will surely drown in our own selfishness.\'\' Ms. Cole, first black woman president of the 107-year-old liberal arts college, was inaugurated Sunday although she has been at the school since July 1987. Her speech wrapped up a weekend that included the announcement of a $20 million gift to the school from entertainer Bill Cosby. One of Cosby\'s daughters attended Spelman, and episodes of his hit TV series, ``The Cosby Show,\'\' have been filmed there. The donation will be used mostly to construct an academic center, which will double the college\'s classroom space. About $8 million will go to Spelman\'s endowment, currently at $42 million.\r\n'),(2226,2,'Share prices rose Friday in a lackluster session on the London Stock Exchange. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index rose 6.3 points, or 0.34 percent, to 1,858.4. Volume was 482.7 million shares, compared with the 593.5 million shares traded Thursday. Dealers said the market appeared to be resting after a fitful week of watching and waiting for an array of economic indicators. However, market analysts contended that the underlying tone of the market remained firm after Thursday\'s surprise narrowing of the British current account deficit to 560 million pounds, or $989 million, in September, less than half its August level. The Financial Times 30-share index rose 6.3 points to 1,508.9. The Financial Times 500-share index closed at 1,056.99, up 3.51.\r\n'),(2227,2,'The dollar drifted fractionally lower against most key currencies in European trading Tuesday afternoon. Gold prices fell. Late in London\'s trading day, the dollar was quoted at 1.6900 West German marks, down from 1.6923 marks late Monday. In Tokyo, the dollar climbed 1.70 yen to a closing 158.15 yen on Tuesday. Later, in London, it was quoted at 158.60 yen. The dollar held on to most of its overnight gains against the yen, a reflection of market expectations that the Japanese currency will remain under pressure without significant action on the interest rate front, or without clear signals that the Group of Seven nations are intent on supporting the yen. Finance officials from the seven countries met in Paris over the weekend. The G-7 includes Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, West Germany and the United States. The dollar gained against the British pound which was quoted late Tuesday at $1.6345, compared with $1.6397 late Monday. Other dollar rates late in Europe compared with late Monday\'s levels were: 1.4955 Swiss francs, down from 1.4960; 5.6750 French francs, down from 5.6805; 1.9030 Dutch guilders, down from 1.9043; 1,240.00 Italian lire, down from 1,242.00; and 1.1613 Canadian dollars, down from 1.1615. Gold traded in London at a late bid price of $375.15 a troy ounce, down from $375.50 late Monday. In Zurich, the bid price was $375.25, down from $376.25 late Monday. Earlier in Hong Kong, gold fell $2.16 an ounce to close at a bid of $376.97. Silver bullion traded in London at a late bid price of $5.13 a troy ounce, down from late Monday\'s bid of $5.14.\r\n'),(2228,2,'British publisher Robert Maxwell said Friday he will launch a $2.1 billion cash tender offer for Macmillan Inc. next week, but made clear his main interest is acquiring its information services business. Macmillan already is the subject of a $1.9 billion bid from Robert M. Bass Group Inc., a Texas-based investment group. In a letter to Macmillan, Maxwell said he would drop his $80-a-share tender offer if Macmillan would sell him the information company, which Macmillan proposed to separate from its publishing business in a corporate restructuring. Maxwell said his Maxwell Communications Corp. PLC would be willing to pay ``not less than $1.1 billion\'\' in cash for the information business, noting that Macmillan\'s investment bankers had valued it at ``a range of $800 million to slightly in excess of $1 billion.\'\' In the letter, Maxwell also told Macmillan Chairman Edward P. Evans he was ``willing to explore other forms of transactions with you\'\' that would allow current shareholders to continue to hold a significant stake in the company. Maxwell also reitereated he wanted to retain Macmillan management. Macmillan declined to comment on Maxwell\'s proposals. On Wall Street, the price of Macmillan stock rose $1.50 a share to $83.25, indicating investors expected the bidding to escalate. ``Some people suggested Maxwell isn\'t serious, but by launching a tender offer at $80 a share on Monday, we see he is serious,\'\' said Bert Boksen, who follows the publishing business for the brokerage Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla. But Boksen said by making the alternate suggestion that he be sold the information assets, Maxwell ``identified the piece he is most interested in.\'\' ``I think Macmillan is backed up against the wall and will try to find a white knight,\'\' he said. He said Macmillan could be worth $90 a share. The overture from Maxwell came only three days before a scheduled court hearing in Delaware on whether Macmillan should be allowed to proceed with its proposed restructuring. The restructuring, announced in late May, would split the company into separate publishing and information services concerns and pay shareholders a special dividend of $52.35 a share in cash. That plan was advanced after the Bass Group proposed to pay $64 a share for the Macmillan stock it did not already own. The Bass Group subsequently sweetened its offer twice, and launched its own tender offer for Macmillan at $75 a share. The Bass Group won an order from Delaware Chancery Court blocking Macmillan from proceeding with its restructuring. Macmillan appealed the decision to Delaware Supreme Court, which scheduled a hearing for Monday. Maxwell disclosed his interest in Macmillan in mid-July, saying he would be interested in paying $80 a share for its 25.9 million shares in a friendly transaction. A Maxwell spokesman said Friday that the tender offer at that price would commence on Monday. It is contingent on dropping the restructuring plan, among other things, but Maxwell said it is not conditioned upon obtaining necessary financing. Late last month, the Macmillan board rejected the $75 a share offer from Bass as inadequate, but took no position on the Maxwell proposal. Macmillan spokesman David Jackson refused Friday to comment on whether the board has since met to discuss the Maxwell proposal, or anything else. Maxwell has vowed to make Maxwell Communications one of the world\'s biggest media and communications businesses. Through that company and Pergamon Press, Maxwell controls the Mirror Group of newspapers in Great Britain, is one of America\'s largest printers of magazines and catlogues and has extensive holdings in publishing academic and scientific journals.\r\n'),(2229,2,'The Air Force and Northrop Corp. lifted the B-2 stealth bomber secrecy curtain another notch Tuesday, allowing reporters a peek at the sprawling factory where the radar-dodging planes are built. The 800,000-square-foot plant where Northrop performs final assembly from parts provided by itself, Boeing, LTV and other subcontractors was far quieter than a normal aerospace plant. Part of the technology that hides the B-2 from radar is the plane\'s smooth surface, which is achieved by using a minimum of rivets, nuts and bolts. That in turn makes for an eerily quiet manufacturing process. The second through fifth of the flying wings _ their graphite skins covering a honeycomb composite structure _ could be seen on their assembly lines in the plant in the desert city north of Los Angeles. Flanking them were terminals to a computer system whose sophistication Northrop says far exceeds any ever used to build a plane. Company officials predicted it will find wide use in civilian manufacturing. The first B-2 is performing beyond expectations in initial flight testing, completing stability control, in-flight refueling, landings and other tests with few problems, said Bruce Hinds, Northrop\'s chief test pilot. ``The airplane is maturing and we\'re able to operate efficiently much earlier than we thought,\'\' he said. The plane, which Hinds said can turn sharply _ more like a fighter than a bomber _ has been taken up to 35,000 feet and flown at 373 mph. It has won praise from all the pilots who have flown it, Hinds said. The tour came amid continuing efforts in Congress to kill the B-2, which critics contend is far too expensive, especially as the Cold War is ending. If the program were stopped with the construction of 15 planes, as some favor, construction costs would be $35.4 billion. Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard M. Scofield, the B-2 program director, said 15 planes would not be enough to provide a significant military deterrent. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has suggested building 75 B-2s, which would bring the total cost of the bombers to $62.4 billion. Ron Fraser, an analyst for the dovish Center for Defense Information in Washington, said the real cost of building 75 planes would be more than $110 billion, including $48 billion to operate and support the bombers. ``So cutting it off now, the savings are huge,\'\' Fraser said. ``It\'s a bomber we don\'t need at any price and the price is pretty darn stiff.\'\' Northrop Chief Executive Kent Kresa and Scofield said such concerns were shortsighted and that the United States should not give up on a plane that will be useful decades into the 21st century. They also argued that the manned bomber provides a needed complement to a U.S. defense system that includes nuclear armed submarines and land-based nuclear missiles. Kresa and Scofield disputed reports that stealth technology could be counteracted by some radar systems. One of those systems, reportedly in Australia, was among 40 supposed stealth-busting techniques that the bomber was tested against, Scofield said. He said the test showed the system had as much chance of locating a stealth bomber as an individual equipped with a flashlight would have of finding one person among a crowd of thousands in the Rose Bowl at night. Marion McHugh, vice president of operations for Northrop\'s B-2 division, said 11 of the bombers are now 50 percent or more complete. The 10th and 11th will take about 1.2 million worker hours to construct. That\'s compared to 3.5 million for the first bomber, which McHugh acknowledged took substantially longer to build than anticipated. But he said officials are happy with the progress being made.\r\n'),(2230,2,'Here is a transcript of President Bush\'s news conference Friday at the White House: BUSH: Good morning everybody. And I\'m leaving in a few hours and will be gone from Washington for several days. Congress is about to close up shop for the 4th of July holidays and so I thought it would be a good idea to bring you up to date on a wide array of current topics and respond to your questions. During the next two weeks the US will join its allies in considering a number of crucial political security and international economic issues. And seldom in the last 40 years have such questions had such direct impact on the lives of all Americans. Today in the US we are carefully examining the historic changes in Eastern Europe, the size of our military forces, our ability to compete in world markets, the assistance that we provide to help emerging democracies, and the size and priorities of our own budget and how to continue the 90 months of economic expansion that we\'ve enjoyed. These issues are not abstract. Every American has a stake in how we as a nation address these very complex questions. On July 5th and 6th in London the NATO alliance will gather to forge a new direction for the future. And at the Houston economic summit we will press for progress in the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, discuss economic support for various countries, and review progress on the environment. These international concerns are reflected in many of the decisions I made just this week. First, we are doing what is necessary to assure continuation of the economic expansion, now in its 90th month, and we want to keep it going. We now estimate a deficit of over $150 billion in fiscal 1991, not counting the costs of the savings and loan cleanup. And this means that unless Congress acts, there will be a cutoff in October of nearly $100 billion in government services under the sequester provisions of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings. The potential results are Draconian cuts in defense, student grants and a wide array of other necessary domestic services, and to avoid this, tough decisions must be made. And leadership is needed, and that is exactly what administration officials are seeking to provide and indeed, in these talks, I believe are providing. The budget negotiations now under way are a make-or-break effort at responsible government. The congressional budgeting process must succeed and the negotiators are facing tough questions about where to make cuts and where to raise the revenues, and these are not decisions that anyone relishes. They are decisions that Democrats and Republicans alike have got to face with candor and courage. And frankly, I believe that ultimately good politics is rooted in good government, and I\'m optimistic that we can get a budget agreement legislated which not only tells the world that America puts its fiscal house in order, but also will garner the full support of the American people. Secondly, this week we reached an agreement with the Japanese on (the) Structural Impediments Initiative that\'s going to help to open markets and create new opportunities for business and commerce. Next, we took an important step toward increasing jobs, opportunity, and economic prosperity throughout our own hemisphere _ Enterprise for the Americas, an innovative and I think visionary plan for increased trade and investment with Latin America and the Caribbean, and the response from south of our border has been overwhelmingly positive. And this included a new proposal on official debt in the hemisphere which will help our neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean resume the process of growth. We developed a plan for protecting our coastal resources _ this OCS decision _ while also endeavoring to protect energy independence. And as I leave for the 4th of July holiday, and then from there to the NATO summit, and then to the Houston economic summit, I just wanted to assure you that the America _ America will squarely face the challenges of leadership that are before us, both domestically and in terms of international affairs. Q. Mr. President, I\'d like to ask you about your reversal on ``no new taxes.\'\' Do you consider that a betrayal of your promise, and what do you say to Republicans who complain that you\'ve robbed them of the same campaign issue that helped get you elected? BUSH: Well, I don\'t. I think what I consider it is a necessary step to get stalled budget negotiations moving. And I am very encouraged with the approach taken now by Republicans and Democrats in this _ in these important discussions that are going on. I\'m not going to discuss details, what I\'ll accept and what I won\'t accept, but things are moving, and I think that much more important today is getting this deficit down, continuing economic expansion and employment in this country. So that\'s the way I\'d respond to it. MORE\r\n'),(2231,2,'Stocks finished slightly higher after a lackluster session on London\'s Stock Exchange Wednesday, as investors found little reason to buy. Dealers said the market appeared to be treading water, in anticipation of a barrage of British economic data and corporate earnings reports due to be released later in the week. Tuesday\'s news that Drexel Burnham Lambert Group Inc. filed for protection under U.S. bankruptcy law still overshadowed the market, dealers said. ``Any rise in the market will be short-lived,\'\' said the head of equities at a London firm. ``There\'s far too much concern on (the prospect for higher) interest rates and the possibility that New York will fall out of bed, sooner or later, over this Drexel thing.\'\' Although Wall Street got off to a healthy start, London traders said there wasn\'t any discernible leadership coming from New York. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index was up 5.1 points, or 0.2 percent, at 2,298.3. The Financial Times 30-share index was up 4.3 points at 1,822.4. The Financial Times 500-share index rose 2.67 points to close at 1,253.05. Volume amounted to a modest 465.2 million shares, compared with 436.4 million shares Tuesday.\r\n'),(2232,2,'President Bush on Wednesday tapped a dozen young professionals to spend the next year on special high-level government assignments as White House Fellows. The fellows, chosen from nearly 1,000 applicants, will begin their 12 months of government service on Sept. 1. A presidential commission helped make the final selections from 33 national finalists. They are the 26th class of fellows chosen since the high-level internship program was launched in 1964. They will work as special assistants to Bush\'s own staff, the vice president and members of the Cabinet. The new fellows are: _Andrew I. Batavia, 32, of Washington, a disability expert who directs the Health Services Research Program at the National Rehabilitation Hospital Research Center. _Samuel Dale Brownback, 33, of Topeka, Kan., the Kansas secretary of agriculture. _Robert Bruce Chess, 33, of Palo Alto, Calif., president and co-founder of Penederm, a biotechnology company. _Jody Ann Greenstone, 32, of Greenville, S.C., vice president in public finance of the Robinson-Humphrey Co., a subsidiary of Shearson Lehman Hutton. _Robert R. Grusky, 32, of Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., a vice president in the investment banking division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. _Air Force Capt. Willie Arthur Gunn, 31, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a circuit defense counsel defending service members in complex criminal cases in five Western states. _Air Force Maj. Randall Herman Kehl, 36, of Albuquerque, N.M., an attorney with the Judge Advocate General\'s office in Washington. _Navy Lt. Cmdr. John William Miller, 32, of Annapolis, Md., the head of the leadership section in the Naval Academy\'s Department of Leadership and Law. _Eric McLaren Phillips, 37, of Maplewood, N.J., a Guyanese-born district manager for AT&T International Communications Services. _Air Force Maj. Edward Augustus Rice Jr., 33, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, a manager in the Air Force\'s directorate of plans and operations in Washington. _Joseph E. Samora Jr., 34, of Albuquerque, who is chairman of the New Mexico Public Service Commission. _Kimberly Till, 34, of Prattville, Ala., an international management consultant with Bain & Co. in London. Appications for the 1991-92 program are available from the President\'s Commission on White House Fellowships, 712 Jackson Place, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20503.\r\n'),(2233,2,'A Democratic senator called Saturday for President-elect George Bush to meet with congressional leaders prior to his inauguration to find ``common ground\'\' for fighting the deficit. Sen. Jim Sasser of Tennessee noted the declining dollar and the drop in the stock market since Bush\'s election, and said the world is waiting to see if the incoming president has a plan for reducing the country\'s massive federal deficit. ``Congress, like the financial markets and the Federal Reserve, is anxiously seeking a sign from the incoming administration that the era of ideological stalemate is over, and the era of realistic deficit reduction has begun,\'\' said Sasser, in the Democrats\' response to President Reagan\'s weekly radio address. Reagan, in his broadcast, said the nation\'s factories are booming and farmers harvested more than the country could consume. He urged Americans on Thanksgiving to thank the Lord for ``peace, prosperity and freedom.\'\' Sasser said Democrats in Congress want to work with the new president for positive results ``but we can\'t wait for the next financial disaster before we again take the budget deficit seriously.\'\' ``And let me say to President-elect Bush: many of us in the Congress are experienced lip readers. We don\'t want new taxes any more than you do,\'\' said Sasser, addressing Bush\'s promise not to raise taxes. ``We stand ready to follow the new president\'s lead, so long as that leadership aims honestly and forthrightly at solving this country\'s number one economic problem,\'\' he said. Sasser proposed that a meeting of Bush with congressional leaders ``should aim specifically at getting to the common ground _ the objectives we all share _ with regard to fiscal policy.\'\' He said Bush also should give a fair hearing to the National Economic Commission set up to deal with the deficit and should get the Reagan administration to submit a realistic budget to Congress. ``Those are the kinds of meaningful actions that will command the confidence of the international financial community,\'\' Sasser said. ``They will help put to rest the rumors of early conflict between the Congress and the next president.\'\'\r\n'),(2234,2,'The elderly and students who are citizens of one country in the European Community at the end of 1991 will be able to live in any other EC nation if they wish, it was decided Wednesday. The decision by the 12 EC nations gives jobless nationals in the European Community the same rights as wage-earners. An elderly citizen who has dreamed of retiring in sunnier southern climates will be able to obtain a five-year, renewable residency permit in the EC country of his choice. The retiree must show only proof of health insurance and that he or she will not burden the adopted nation\'s social security system. And a student who can show proof of registration at a university or college in another EC nation as well as sufficient income will receive a one-year renewable residency permit. Those who are unemployed by choice and do not classify as being either elderly or a student will have to prove they have sufficient income not to need assistance from the social security system in their new country. The 12 EC members are Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal. In 1992, the nations will drop trade barriers among themselves to create a unified Euromarket. In Brussels Wednesday the 18 nations of Western Europe\'s two trading blocs began talks to pave the way for the so-called European Economic Space. The move would bring the six nations of the European Free Trade Association _ Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland _ closer to the European Community. Frans Andriessen, an EC commissioner, said he hoped broad agreement would be reached near the end of this year and be fully implemented on Jan. 1, 1993, when the EC\'s single market comes into force.\r\n'),(2235,2,'Preliminary results show that two of three joints on the redesigned space shuttle booster rocket did not leak during an April 22 qualifying test, a NASA official said today. Dave Mobley, NASA deputy project manager for the redesign effort, said that engineers have inspected the aft and center field joints and found both to be working as designed. Results of tests on the forward joint are expected Friday. Mobley said today that engineers found that the center field joint, which had an intentional flaw built into it for an April 22 test-firing at the Morton Thiokol plant 25 miles west of here, did its job. He said the center field joint flaw allowed superhot gases to reach insulation and the joint\'s O-ring, but the ring held. ``There was no damage to the O-ring at all,\'\' he said. ``There was no evidence the gas got past\'\' the ring. Failure of an O-ring seal is blamed for triggering the Jan. 28, 1986, explosion that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger and killed its seven-member crew. The booster tests are designed to evaluate the redesigned booster, which is made up of several sections that are joined together, and qualify the joints for use in an actual launch. Mobley also said engineers found no damage to the rocket\'s nozzle section. In a December test-firing, a redesigned boot ring on the section came apart. The April test used a boot ring that had proven reliable in the past. Mobley said engineering evaluations would be conducted late today on the redesigned booster\'s forward field joint, with results expected Friday. He noted that while thorough, results from the evaluations were tentative. A final report, based on more extensive study, isn\'t expected to be ready for several weeks, he said. Two more full-scale tests of the booster are planned for June and July, and the shuttle launch is tentatively set for late August or early September.\r\n'),(2236,2,'Iraq asked the World Health Organization on Saturday to help free medicine and equipment to combat hepatitis, which Iraq claims contributed to the deaths of some children since U.N. trade sanctions began. The official Iraqi News Agency said a national committee against hepatitis sent a telegram saying the sanctions halted imports of ``the equipment and special tools to discover the hepatitis B virus and also the vaccine against it.\'\' The report, monitored in Nicosia, did not refer to a specific outbreak or epidemic, but said the sickness ``is considered a big health problem in Iraq, especially among children.\'\' Without providing figures on hepatitis cases, the report said the committee told officials at the Geneva-based U.N. agency that 2,042 children under 5 years old have died since the embargo began in August. Iraq blamed the deaths on shortages of baby food and medicine, and claimed many of those who died suffered from hepatitis. The embargo is meant to retaliate for Iraq\'s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait. Hepatitis B is one of five strains of the blood virus that can be prevented by vaccine. Serious cases of hepatitis can lead to liver problems. ``The committee called in the telegram on the World Health Organization to interfere immediately to release the food and medicine seige and release imported medicine, vaccine, equipment and tools to control the hepititis virus in Iraq,\'\' the news agency said. Western diplomats in Baghdad say Iraq has received 120 tons of medicine from humanitarian groups worldwide since mid-October. Most of the shipments were in exchange for Western hostages trapped by the Persian Gulf crisis. President Saddam Hussein decided Dec. 6 to free all foreigners. Iraq\'s Red Crescent, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, announced recently it had received 22 tons of medical supplies from Italy and another 28 tons from the U.N. Children\'s Fund. But Irqai officials have said acute shortages exist in some areas, such as for polio vaccine and drugs to treat heart ailments.\r\n'),(2237,2,'Papa looked very beautiful in his crimson robe, but there was a terrible draft in Westminster Abbey, wrote the little princess after her parents\' coronation in 1937. The childhood essay of Queen Elizabeth II gets its first public showing beginning Friday in the Queen\'s Gallery, where royal treasures are displayed at Buckingham Palace. It\'s part of 271 exhibits called ``A Royal Miscellany\'\' showing through Jan. 13, 1991. The exhibition includes everything from clocks and jewelry to the embroidered linen overshirt worn by King Charles I as he knelt to the headsman\'s ax in 1649. Visitors can view a lock of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte\'s hair, a watercolor of Balmoral royal estate by Prince Charles, and a copy of the Mainz Psalter _ a 1457 German collection of prayers that was the first book printed in more than one color. Among the displays are the neat, proper letters of the 11-year-old princess Elizabeth. They are written in a lined exercise book that would have cost tuppence, four cents at that time. ``I thought it all very, very wonderful and I expect the Abbey did, too. The arches and beams at the top were covered with a sort of haze of wonder as Papa was crowned, at least I thought so,\'\' wrote the princess. Elizabeth, her sister Princess Margaret and their widowed grandmother Queen Mary had a grandstand view of the ceremony from a royal box in the abbey, where Elizabeth herself would be crowned in 1953. ``What struck me as being rather odd was that Grannie did not remember much of her own coronation. I should have thought that it would have stayed in her mind forever,\'\' Princess Elizabeth wrote. However, toward the end, the child found the service becoming ``rather boring\'\' as it was all prayers. ``Grannie and I were looking to see how many more pages to the end, and we turned one more and then I pointed to the word at the bottom of the page and it said `Finis.\' We both smiled at each other and turned back to the service,\'\' she wrote. ``The princess was probably asked by her tutor to record her impressions of the coronation,\'\' said Oliver Everett, director of the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, the favorite royal residence 21 miles west of London. Everett, a former diplomat, selected the essay and 270 other items for the exhibition. ``The library is closed to the public, but the queen takes her guests there. As the castle is being rewired and repaired, guests cannot be shown round so we took the opportunity to send some interesting things to the gallery,\'\' Everett said in an interview at Wednesday\'s preview. Even the prophetic thoughts of King George III after the British defeat by the American colonists in 1781 are displayed: ``America is lost! Must we fall beneath this blow?\'\' he wrote. But he was consoled by the thought that ``it is to be hoped we shall reap more advantages from their trade as friends than ever we could derive from them as Colonies.\'\'\r\n'),(2238,2,'The head of China\'s Communist Party says the massacre of protesters in Tiananmen Square last June should not stand in the way of economic and cultural cooperation with the United States. ``If both sides face realities and make efforts to remove the misunderstandings, which have not been created by us, we will have broad prospects in the future,\'\' Jiang Zemin, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, told U.S. News & World Report. ``I suggest that we look forward and try to find common ground,\'\' he said in the interview, appearing in the March 12 issue. ``In such fields as economic exchanges, cultural contacts and other areas there is still a lot of room for more cooperation.\'\' But Jiang emphasized: ``We do not regret, or criticize ourselves for the way we handle, the Tiananmen event. ``We believe it to be an internal affair while the U.S. is saying that we have gone against U.S. values and the American view of human rights.\'\' Jiang said continuing tensions with the United States resulted from ``a big misunderstanding\'\' created by inaccurate media accounts and a limited perspective on the part of the U.S. government and people. Jiang, who became party chief last June amid international condemnation of the Chinese government\'s actions, said his government would continue to welcome foreign investment and open the country to the outside world. ``Because business is not based only on one track, you have to take the long-term view,\'\' said Jiang. Continued economic development in his country would help change U.S. and international opinion of China, he said. The government also would gradually move away from the egalitarianism associated with socialist economic enterprises, Jiang said, by stepping up its policy of incentive and bonus pay. Jiang said it was contradictory for the United States to criticize China\'s use of troops in Tiananmen Square while saying it understood why the Soviet Union sent troops to quell riots between ethnic groups in Azerbaijan and Armenia. Additionally, he criticized the U.S. invasion of Panama and capture of Manuel Noriega as ``a manifestation of power politics.\'\'\r\n'),(2239,2,'Authorities moved to placate separatist Moslem militants Monday by dissolving the legislative assembly of Jammu-Kashmir state and acknowledging that the 1987 polls in which it was elected might have been rigged. Also Monday, at least three people were killed and six injured in confrontations between security forces and Moslem protesters agitating for the secession of the Kashmir valley from Hindu-majority India. State Gov. Jagmohan said the Jammu-Kashmir assembly was being dissolved because it had ``lost its representative character.\'\' The move clears the way for new elections to the assembly, which could form the basis for making peace overtures to the militants. Many of the militants say they were members of political parties earlier, and began agitating for an independent nation after what they claim was widespread rigging during the 1987 elections. ``It has been alleged that in 1987 some vested interests had rigged the election,\'\' Jagmohan said in a statement issued in Srinagar. In those elections, Farooq Abdullah was voted the chief minister, the top elected post in the state administration, for a five-year term. Abdullah resigned from the post on Jan. 19 to protest the appointment of Jagmohan as governor of the state. Jagmohan, a Hindu who uses one name, has said that quelling militant violence and holding new elections is the only way to defuse the separatist movement in the Moslem-majority state. Police reported at least three deaths Monday as Moslem crowds violated curfew orders in two towns in the valley. Police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two people were killed and six injured when police opened fire to control a rioting mob in the town of Bijbehara, 30 miles southeast of Srinagar. One person was killed in the town of Shopian, 33 miles south of Srinagar, in another incident of police firing, they said. The deaths raise to at least 103 the number of people killed since authorities launched a crackdown on the Moslem movement on Jan. 20. Most of the victims have been protesters killed in police firing on curfew violators. The movement for secession of Kashmir from India is at least four decades old, but has flared in recent months. The state of Jammu-Kashmir, which includes the valley and the plains of Jammu to the south, is India\'s only Moslem-majority state. India and Pakistan have both claimed Kashmir since the Indian subcontinent was divided along religious lines after gaining independence from Britain in 1947. The countries have fought two wars over Kashmir, and Pakistan occupies a slice of the valley. A U.N.-monitored cease-fire line divides the valley into Indian and Pakistani sectors. India accuses Pakistan of fomenting the trouble in Kashmir. Islamabad denies the charge but says the Kashmri people have a right to self-determination. About 64 percent of Jammu-Kashmir\'s 6 million people are Moslem. Nationwide, Moslems comprise 12 percent of the 880 million population. Hindus make up 82 percent.\r\n'),(2240,2,'Employees were low-key and passengers seemed mostly oblivious Monday after the parent of Continental Airlines filed for protection under federal bankruptcy laws for the second time in seven years. ``I\'m not worried as long as I can get home today,\'\' Gwendolyn Currie, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said. Her flight to New Orleans was detoured to Houston because of bad weather and she was among the crowd waiting for Continental flights at Houston Intercontinental Airport\'s Terminal C, the Houston-based airline\'s main hub. ``I just hope to get out of here today,\'\' she said. ``I hope I still have a way to get back,\'\' said Frank Dow, who was heading to Lafayette, La., from Houston. Some Continental employees were handed a printed message about the filing when they reported to work Monday morning and a text of the announcement was made availabletto others on computer monitors at passenger check-in gates. Passenger reaction to the announcement was minimal, gate attendants said, probably because so few people knew of it. The airline company said it intended to run normally despite the Chapter 11 filing in a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, where Continental is incorporated. ``The impact is zero,\'\' said one flight officer, who declined to be identified, saying employees are told to not speak with reporters. ``It\'s business as usual. ``Look around,\'\' he said, pointing to aircraft taxiing and passengers boarding. ``I don\'t have any anxiety.\'\' ``This is something external, with the fuel prices,\'\' a flight attendant with him said. ``It\'s all out of our control and there\'s very little I can do. I think it\'s important the public recognizes this is an administrative action. That\'s what\'s important. If you didn\'t watch the news, you would never know.\'\' The flight officer, who said he went through the 1983 bankruptcy filing when flights were halted, employees laid off and passengers stranded, noted the chaos of that time was absent on Monday. ``It\'s very relaxed,\'\' he said. ``This was a whole different background.\'\' Capt. Robert Finley, a senior pilot at Continental, said he was among four top pilots to meet with airline chairman and president Hollis Harris on Thursday to discuss the situation. ``Continental Airlines is going to wind up surviving and being a leader in the industry,\'\' Finley said. ``Mr. Harris is a very positive, people-oriented person which is something we haven\'t known a lot of around Continental for awhile. ``It seems like a breath of fresh air to see a man like him in that job. If anyone can pull us through these difficult times - where fuel costs are skyrocketing and all costs are elevating at an enormous rate while the fares are still being depressed and the fare wars are going on - I think Mr. Harris is the guy who can do it.\'\' Finley said he was not nervous about his future. ``I went through the last one,\'\' he said. ``That one made me nervous. But this I feel is necessary and is a positive move to strengthen the company so we can move forward.\'\' ``If I was an employee, I\'d really be concerned,\'\' passenger Robert Cloud of Houston said. Cloud was a reluctant Continental passenger and was sent to the airline on Monday by United Airlines when his United flight was canceled. ``I had heard they were having problems,\'\' he said while waiting to fly to San Francisco and then Bangkok. ``It\'s one of those hazards.\'\' ``I can just go to another airline,\'\' said Archie Buchanan, flying to Phoenix. ``Filing Chapter 11 doesn\'t normally mean you\'re going to quit flying - at least for the short term.\'\' ``I think we\'re too tired right now to worry,\'\' Beverly Zigal, of Austin, who was heading for Belize, Central America. ``Hopefully, we\'ll get back. It\'ll be interesting to see what transpires in the next few days. I hope it hits the newspapers down there but we\'ll be off on some remote island fishing.\'\' ``As long as we get there, we\'ll probably get back,\'\' added her companion, Jane Bessent. ``I\'ve been through it three times before with other carriers,\'\' said one Continental flight officer, who refused to provide his name but said he was based in Newark. `You position yourself. It\'s a little bit of a surprise and it\'s kind of strange to hear this from a reporter.\'\'\r\n'),(2241,2,'The Commerce Department reported Thursday that orders for ``big ticket\'\' durable goods, excluding the volatile defense category, climbed 1.8 percent in November, a healthy increase which economists took as a sign of continued strength in the new year. When defense orders are included, total durable goods orders edged up only 0.1 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted $122.89 billion. That followed a giant 2.9 percent rise in October. The overall figure was inflated by a big jump in military orders in October and then depressed when military orders returned to more normal levels last month. Discounting the swings in defense, orders in the civilian category climbed 1.8 percent in November, the best showing since a 5.2 percent August increase. Civilian orders had risen only 0.2 percent in October. Analysts said they were impressed by the strength in civilian orders, saying the orders should keep U.S. plants humming through the first half of 1989. ``This was an impressive gain and it should pretty much insure that the economy will keep growing next year,\'\' said Michael Evans, head of a Washington forecasting firm. Analysts were particularly impressed with a 2.6 percent rise in orders for business capital goods, which rose to $35.5 billion. This industry is closely watched for signals of business intentions to expand and modernize. It was the first increase in this category after two consecutive monthly declines and eased fears that business investment could be tapering off. ``With business investment bouncing back up, there is a lot less reason to worry about next year,\'\' said David Wyss, an economist with Data Resources Inc. ``On the whole, things look pretty good, with strong shipments and strong orders promising continued growth.\'\' The manufacturing sector has been a driving force in the economy this year as U.S. companies have benefited from a weaker dollar which has boosted overseas sales. The boom in exports has in turn led to a surge in investment spending as businesses rushed to expanded production facilities. For November, much of the strength in durable goods _ items expected to last at least three years _ came from an 8.1 percent rise in demand for electrical machinery, which climbed to $20.5 billion. Much of this increase reflected rising demand for defense communications equipment. Total defense orders, however, fell by 17.6 percent to $8.81 billion following a 43.1 percent surge in October. The defense category is highly erratic, depending on when big government contracts are signed. Transportation orders fell 6.3 percent to $32.69 billion as virtually all categories except civilian aircraft suffered setbacks. Orders for non-electrical machinery edged down 0.5 percent to $21.05 billion, the third consecutive decline. Orders for primary metals rose 0.8 percent to $12.52 billion and now stand 11.4 percent higher than they were a year ago. Shipments of durable goods increased 1 percent to $119.6 billion in November, following a 0.3 percent advance in October.\r\n'),(2242,2,'As shippers and other users probably suspected, the July drought dried up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to all-time lows and severely depressed flow in the Missouri, the U.S. Geological Survey said Friday. The survey\'s hydrogologists said the Mississippi at Keokuk, Iowa, averaged 10.5 billion gallons per day for the period July 1 through July 15, 74 percent below normal and 13 percent below the lowest previous July in 1936. At Vicksburg, Miss., the river averaged 93 billion gallons per day, 66 percent below normal and 22 percent below the 1934 record for the period. At Louisville, Ky., the Ohio averaged 5 billion gallons per day, 84 percent below normal and 3 percent under the smallest previous July flow recorded in 1930. The flow of the Missouri at Hermann, Mo., was 28.4 billion gallons per day, 42 percent below normal but still 31 percent above the July low-water record of 1936. The St. Lawrence River at Massena, N.Y. was still in the normal range, averaging 157 billion gallons per day or 11 percent below the normal mark. That was 21 percent higher than the July 1964 low-water record.\r\n'),(2243,2,'A manufacturer of outdoor picnic equipment on Tuesday recalled hoses for 30,000 smoker-cookers because of possible fire hazards. The Coleman Co., Inc. recalled the hoses that connect to the propane gas tanks of its ``Cookin\' Machines\'\' because they may loosen from the valve connection after repeated use, said the Consumer Product Safety Commission. ``If the hose should loosen when the valve is turned on, fuel may leak from the hose and could present a risk of personal injury or property damage if ignited,\'\' the agency said. There have been at least five reported incidents of loosened hoses causing fire damage, said the CPSC. The potentially hazardous hoses are installed on cookers manufactured by the Kansas-based company between November 1987 and March 1989. Consumers should discontinue use of the cookers immediately and contact Coleman at 1-800-835-3278 for instructions on free replacement of the hoses.\r\n'),(2244,2,'American Health Cos. Inc., parent of Diet Center Inc., a franchiser of diet centers in North America, has agreed to be acquired for $157 million by two investor groups. The company said Thursday the groups, CDI Holdings Inc. and DC Acquisition Corp., will pay $22.50 per share to acquire about 6.95 million shares of American Health stock. American Health\'s common stock rose 25 cents in over-the-counter trading Thursday, closing at $22 a share. The sale was announced Thursday after a meeting of American Health\'s board of directors in Salt Lake City. American Health spokesman Jim Liljenquist declined to discuss why the company agreed to the proposal. Diet Center is a leading franchiser of diet and nutrition centers, with about 2,300 outlets in the United States and Canada. Separately, American Health said Thursday it earned $3.5 million in the first quarter of its fiscal year. The profit in the three months ended June 30 was 16 percent higher than the $3 million earned in the opening quarter of last year.\r\n'),(2245,2,'Drunken-driving experts and bus safety officials will join witnesses to a bus crash that killed 27 people when testimony gets under way Tuesday in a National Transportation Safety Board hearing. The May 17 accident occurred when a pickup truck going the wrong way on Interstate 71 slammed into a bus owned by the Radcliff First Assembly of God church. Authorities contend the driver of the pickup was drunk at the time. NTSB spokesman Allan Pollock said accident survivors probably will not testify because the agency doesn\'t want to traumatize them. The pickup driver, Larry Mahoney, 35, has been indicted on 27 counts of murder, 13 counts of first-degree assault, 44 counts of first-degree wanton endangerment and one count of drunken driving. It will be the worst drunken-driving accident in U.S. history if he is convicted on the final charge, according to the NTBS and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The board will hear testimony on six issues, five of which concern drunken driving, Pollack said. The sixth involves bus safety. Pollock said testimony will be taken on the performance and capabilities of drivers under the influence of alcohol; the extent of the drunken-driving problem; and the effectiveness of alcohol education and treatment programs. He said the witnesses also will address the adequacy of sanctions Kentucky\'s courts impose on drunken drivers and the development of effective alcohol countermeasure programs like jail terms, fines and license revocation. The accident has raised questions about bus safety because all 67 passengers on board survived the impact but the victims died when the bus\'s gas tank was punctured, causing a fire that quickly engulfed the vehicle. The fire blocked the front door, leaving the rear emergency door as the only escape route. The safety issues to be discussed include emergency exits; the upgrading of buses built before April 1977 when stricter federal safety rules became effective; the flammability of seats; and the placement and protection of the fuel tank. The board will draft a report on the probable causes of the crash and make recommendations for avoiding similar accidents. The recommendations could be directed toward federal, state and local officials, as well as bus manufacturers, but the safety board has no power to require that any of them be implemented.\r\n'),(2246,2,'Amid escalating warfare between arts supporters and religious conservatives, the fate of the National Endowment for the Arts may be decided this summer in a bruising House floor fight. Legislators on both sides agree that when Congress votes on whether to extend the federal arts agency\'s life for another five years, it almost certainly will impose restrictions on the content of works that receive tax-paid grants from the endowment. The furor began more than a year ago with criticism of NEA support for exhibitions of sexually graphic images by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and artist Andres Serrano. In recent months, it has erupted in a barrage of emotional newspaper and radio commercials, letter-writing campaigns and court battles. Endowment chairman John E. Frohnmayer, caught in the cross-fire since he took office nine months ago, came under renewed attack last Friday when he overruled an NEA panel\'s recommendations and rejected grants to four avant-garde ``solo performance theater artists.\'\' The People for the American Way Action Fund, a liberal lobbying group, said Frohnmayer\'s decision ``has the smell of politics all over it\'\' and was intended to placate right-wing critics of the arts endowment. One of the rejected artists, John Fleck of Los Angeles, charged that ``there\'s a strong movement going on to wipe out different voices, to have a homogeneous voice that suits certain people\'s morals.\'\' Solo performer Rachel Rosenthal of Los Angeles reportedly refused to accept her $11,250 endowment grant, saying the four rejected artists were among the best in their field. ``Why should I be considered clean and they\'re considered dirty?\'\' she asked. Ms. Rosenthal also refused to sign a controversial pledge that she would not use endowment funds for obscene, indecent or blasphemous art _ a condition imposed by Congress last fall at the urging of Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. Endowment officials say that of the 2,000 grants awarded so far this year, 670 artists or arts institutions have signed the agreement and received government money, 12 have signed the pledge with letters of protest and a half-dozen have rejected grant awards. The rest haven\'t yet responded. On the same day he rejected the four grants, Frohnmayer told an audience in his home town of Portland, Ore., that the stakes in the mushrooming controversy were high. ``A remarkable experiment that has lasted the last 25 years and has so enriched our country is indeed threatened with either extinction or severe crippling because of 20 images out of a million we have funded,\'\' he said. Frohnmayer, who opposes the Helms amendment, said the arts community must share the blame for the bitter controversy that imperils the endowment, an independent, $171-million federal agency whose arts grants must be matched by local private funds. ``We\'ve acted much like spoiled children asking our parents to continue sending us money regardless of what we do, how we spend it or whether we are prepared to be held accountable,\'\' he said. NEA officials refused comment on published speculation that Frohnmayer might resign after the endowment\'s reauthorization bill passes Congress. When asked during his Portland speech if he planned to resign, Frohnmayer answered firmly, ``No way.\'\' Although no date has been scheduled for House action on the NEA bill, arts lobbyists expect a vote sometime before legislators begin their month-long summer recess in early August. Three or four major proposals circulating among House members include a conservative plan for severe restrictions on NEA grants and a major overhaul of the endowment that would shift a substantial portion of grant funds directly to state arts councils. Some conservatives favor abolishing the endowment. At the heart of the debate are conflicting arguments over the government\'s proper role in supporting the arts. The arts community and its supporters contend that restrictions on NEA grant recipients amount to government censorship. That argument is rejected by conservative lawmakers and religious fundamentalists, who say the real issue is the taxpayers\' right to decide where their money is spent. The conflict is dramatized in toughly worded newspaper ads and radio spots sponsored by People for the American Way and its nemesis, the Christian Coalition led by evangelist Pat Robertson, who was a conservative presidential candidate in 1988. ``Do you want to face the voters in your district with the charge that you are wasting their hard-earned money to promote sodomy, child pornography and attacks on Jesus Christ?\'\' Robertson asked in a full-page letter to members of Congress that was published in The Washington Post and USA Today. People for the American Way put such performers as Colleen Dewhurst, Kathleen Turner and Garrison Keillor on the air to counterattack. ``Imagine a world in which millions of people are at the mercy of a small band of extremists, in which works of art are subject to government censorship and freedom of expression is a crime,\'\' said Miss Dewhurst. ``Now stop imagining. Welcome to America, 1990.\'\'\r\n'),(2247,2,'Restaurateur by any spelling, whether with an ``n\'\' or without, is not a favorite word of keepers of the language, according to a survey. But if they have to use the word for keeper of a restaurant, they\'ll take it without the ``n,\'\' said respondents to the 12th English language usage survey by the Indiana University School of Journalism. ``Many in the survey found it stuffy no matter how it is spelled, though its use is patently expanding in this country,\'\' Professor Richard L. Tobin wrote in the survey released this week. The 10-question survey was mailed to 100 newspaper copy editors and 50 magazine editors in the United States and Canada and got a 60 percent return, Tobin said. ``The consensus throughout this year\'s survey was mighty close to unanimous in almost every example, which just goes to show that copyreaders know what they\'re doing and do it like the sterling language-usage guardians they are put there to be,\'\' the survey said. Nearly all editors agree ``percent\'\' should be one word and not two. Most editors agreed the region Deep South should be uppercase. Most copydesks caught the misuse of ``tremblor\'\' instead of ``temblor,\'\' in a line from a Maryland newspaper reporting a Palm Springs earthquake. Most changed ``forego\'\' to ``forgo\'\' in the sentence: ``The university decided to forego the traditional faculty banquet because of the financial situation.\'\' Copydesks were asked whether ``gibe\'\' or ``jibe\'\' was correct in the following sentence: ``Three suspects were taken to police headquarters but detectives announced later that their stories didn\'t gibe.\'\' The verdict was almost unanimous that ``jibe\'\' was correct. ``Complacent\'\' was correctly preferred over ``complaisant\'\' in an item saying a soccer team had become ``complaisant\'\' after four straight victories. Most Canadians agree a person of Scottish descent is ``Scotch\'\' rather than ``Scot,\'\' which is preferred in the homeland. ``Several respondents in our survey said they\'d given up trying to substitute `Scot\' for `Scotch,\' and anyway it really didn\'t matter all that much,\'\' the survey said. Editors chose ``theretofore\'\' over ``hitherto\'\' in the sentence: ``In 1864, President Lincoln spent the hitherto unheard of sum of $3,000,000 on naval construction.\'\' Almost no one chose ``peddle\'\' over ``pedal\'\' in the final question, which came from a Florida sports page: ``When you\'re riding a bicycle you use the brake and the peddle with caution on today\'s highways.\'\'\r\n'),(2248,2,'A boat overloaded with moviegoers sank in a canal in southern Andhra Pradesh state, and at least 20 people drowned, Indian news agencies said Friday. The boat was carrying 70 people at the time of the accident in the Yenamadaru canal late Thursday, said Press Trust of India. The bodies of 17 victims _ 10 women, three men and four children _ have been recovered, district officials told the United News of India news agency. The accident site is about 800 miles southeast of New Delhi. District authorities have issued warrants for the arrest of two boatmen absconding after the accident, UNI said. They have been charged with causing the accident because of negligence and overloading, the news agency said.\r\n'),(2249,2,'Families of murder victims from across Massachusetts gathered Monday to open the headquarters of a victims support group named for a high school student who was stabbed to death by Willie Horton in 1974. ``The ordeal my family has endured has brought us together with other families of murder victims,\'\' Donna Fournier Cuomo said in opening the Joey Fournier Victim Services\' office across from the Statehouse. The group provides free counseling to relatives of murder victims and plans to lobby for legislation to change the criminal justice system. Cuomo, the group\'s founder and executive director, was Fournier\'s sister. Fournier, a 17-year-old vocational high school student, was stabbed, stuffed in a trash can and left to die by Horton. The case of Horton, who escaped while on furlough from prison and attacked a Maryland couple, became a highly publicized issue during the 1988 presidential campaign. Then-candidate George Bush used it to criticize Gov. Michael S. Dukakis\' record on crime. Joey Fournier Victim Services already offers counseling in Lawrence in the northeastern section of the state, where Fournier grew up, and wants to open centers in other sections of Massachusetts. About 20 to 30 people attended Monday\'s opening, including Duane and Phyllis Hotchkiss of Saugus, whose 19-year-old son Brian was slain in 1989 in Lynn. ``I\'m determined that our son\'s death is not going to be in vain,\'\' said Hotchkiss, who donated $100 to the group. The group needs to raise another $100,000, said Cuomo, who would not say how much has been raised. Counseling ordinarily costs about $100 a session, but not everybody can afford it and not all health insurance plans cover it, said Cuomo. Cuomo\'s voice wavered as she read the names of victims whose families were present. ``One tragic result of violent crime is the lasting effect it has on the victim\'s family. I know my family will never be the same,\'\' said Cuomo, who is no relation to New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. In addition to offering counseling, the headquarters will serve as the center for a coalition of victim support groups, including Parents of Murdered Children, the Young Adult Sibling Group and Victims for Victims. The Joey Fournier group has already introduced bills to repeal the state\'s criminal records law, which shields criminal records from public scrutiny. The organization also has submitted legislation to limit the governor\'s powers to commute sentences and another measure to require ``truth in sentencing\'\' so that convicted criminals will actually serve the time of their sentence.\r\n'),(2250,2,'Amnesty International said today that Britain has refused entry to asylum-seekers who risk being returned to countries where they could face imprisonment, torture and death. A report by the London-based human rights group said Britain\'s refugee-determination system fails to uphold its obligations under the U.N. Convention on Refugees. ``As many as 100, and possibly many more, persons seeking asylum in the United Kingdom have been summarily and unlawfully expelled without a proper examination of their asylum claim,\'\' the 42-page report said without giving a specific number or time frame. ``In addition, an untold number of would-be asylum seekers have been prevented from gaining access to the United Kingdom\'s refugee-determination process,\'\' it added. The Home Office, in charge of immigration, said the report failed to recognize that most asylum-seekers were not fleeing political persecution under the terms of the 1951 U.N. convention. It said unfounded asylum claims were now widespread as a means of circumventing normal immigration controls and that Britain has been flooded with applications in recent years. The Amnesty report charged that Britain gives insufficient advice to asylum-seekers and that officials subject them to arbitrary and prolonged detention while their cases are being considered. It said most of those who arrive saying they are seeking asylum have no right of appeal when refused it. It said visa requirements and fines on airlines that arrive with foreign passengers who don\'t have proper travel documents have combined to obstruct bona fide asylum-seekers from gaining effective access to Britain\'s refugee-determination system. The Home Office statement said refugee-determination systems throughout Europe and North America are overwhelmed by unfounded claims and that backlogs in the two regions have doubled to more than 400,000 cases since 1985. It said that in Britain, applications for asylum have risen fivefold since 1988 and have reached more than 20,000 in the past 12 months. It said backlogged applications in Britain now number 27,000.\r\n'),(2251,2,'Two House committees on Thursday approved legislation that would sever virtually all economic ties between the United States and South Africa to pressure the Pretoria government to abandon its policy of racial apartheid. The measure was approved by the Intelligence and Armed Services committees, both meeting in closed-door sessions, after amendments were added that would permit the United States to share intelligence information about Cuban military activities in southern Africa and permit military cooperation with South Africa if the president determines such ties to be in the national interest, committee aides said. The bill, which still must clear two more committees before it can go to the full House for action, would require U.S. disinvestment in South Africa within a year and ban most trade between the two countries. As originally written, the bill also would have banned military and intelligence cooperation. But the two committees added language creating an exemption for diplomatic activities and intelligence sharing concerning Cuban activities in Angola, where U.S.-backed rebels are fighting the Marxist government. Committee aides said the exemption was granted in part to avoid having the sanctions bill become a vehicle for a renewed debate over U.S. support for the Angolan rebels. The Armed Services panel also approved an amendment by Rep. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., permitting military cooperation if the president deems it in the national interest. Both committees reported the bill out on voice votes. The measure still must clear the Ways and Means and Interior committees before being considered by the full House, where it is expected to pass. The measure is expected to have a tougher time in the Senate, however, because it lacks the Republican support which was crucial to passage of a limited sanctions bill two years ago.\r\n'),(2252,2,'A flower grower and seven other people are charged with enslaving more than 100 undocumented workers from Mexico and forcing them to work long hours at petty wages. Lured by promises of good pay, the Mexicans were smuggled into the United States, then kept at the 50-acre ranch until they could pay off a $435 smuggling fee, according to a federal grand jury indictment issued Tuesday. The ranch operators beat workers and threatened to alert immigration authorities if they tried to leave the compound, which was surrounded by a 7-foot fence, the indictment alleged. Ranch owner Edwin M. Ives, 54, and five other people face up to 52 years in prison and $2 million in fines if convicted of all 15 charges in the indictment, federal prosecutors said. The charges involve labor and civil rights violations and a federal anti-slavery statute, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Carol Gillam. Two ranch foremen, Naju Lnu and Paringer Singh, were named in a criminal complaint filed last month. ``This is a very significant case that involves very serious violations of people\'s human rights,\'\' Gillam said. The charges were developed based on allegations by former workers and ranch documents, Gillam said. Ives\' attorney, Robert M. Talcott, has maintained that Ives was not aware of any abuses at his Griffith Ives Co. ranch in Somis, in Ventura County about 50 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The indictment alleges that Ives supervised the ranch operation and on one occasion personally recruited an undocumented worker and told another that he could not leave the ranch until his smuggling fees were paid. Prosecutors maintain the workers toiled 16 hours a day for a fraction of the $4.25-per-hour minimum wage. In addition, workers were required to buy food and basic staples from a company store at inflated prices, the indictment said. ``As a result of these deductions, the alien workers often received net pay for over 160 hours of work in a 15-day period of less than $100, and in some cases, actually no pay, because the deductions exceeded the amount of the paycheck,\'\' the indictment said. One worker allegedly suffered permanent head and back injuries during a beating. Ives refused to pay for treatment in the United States and instead gave the worker $100 to help pay for treatment in Mexico, the indictment said. Also named in the indictment were Pedro Pinzon, 30, Rony Havive, 30, Alvaro Ruiz, 39, Josue David Pinzon, 23, and the alleged smuggler, Mauro Casares, 64.\r\n'),(2253,2,'President Maung Maung today rejected protesters\' demands for an interim government but said he will allow the formation of student unions, which have been illegal in Burma. Earlier today, striking employees closed Rangoon\'s airport despite a government warning. Striking public employees said 1 million people would turn out for an anti-government rally at a park, but only about 100,000 showed up. In a speech broadcast over state-run Rangon radio, Maung Maung said any changes in Burma\'s one-party government must follow constitutional procedures. He said the government already plans a Sept. 12 meeting to consider holding a referendum on one-party rule, a process that could lead to amendment of the constitution and general elections. He added that Article 11 of the Constitution, under which only the ruling Burma Socialist Program Party is legal, must be changed. In what was seen as a gesture to students who have been at the vanguard of pro-democracy protests, Maung Maung said the government would permit student unions as long as they were ``properly formed.\'\' He also said that after passions cooled, the government would rebuild the Rangoon University student union building, which the military destroyed in July 1962 after Ne Win led the coup that ended democracy in Burma. Ne Win, who resigned in July after 26 years of authoritarian rule, abolished all political parties except his own, outlawed all unions and opposition groups and imposed rigid controls on the media. Since Maung Maung came to power Aug. 19, replacing hardliner Sein Lwin, masses of demonstrators have rallied and held strikes demanding immediate formation of an interim government to restore democracy. On Aug. 24, Maung Maung promised the party would hold an emergency meeting to consider a referendum on the issue. But the call did not end protests. On Sunday, students announced they had formed an illegal student union. The airport strike halted all international flights and further isolated the Southeast Asian nation. Union Burma Airways last Friday suspended both domestic and international service, but flights by other carriers had continued from Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand. The All Services General Strike Committee, an illegal government association that was formed Tuesday, had called for 1 million workers from government departments and state-owned corporations to rally at Bandoola Gardens, the capital\'s largest park. People marched along Rangoon\'s main streets this morning and by noon, several thousand striking state employees and students had gathered outside the park. But the crowd appeared poorly organized and no attempt was made to enter the park. An hour later, all but a few hundred demonstators had peacefully dispersed. Two small rallies, one outside the nearby U.S. Embassy and one at a nearby government building, also broke up. On Wednesday, the government of President Maung Maung warned it would take action against demonstrators illegally occupying government buildings and facilities. Crowds in cities throughout Burma have taken over and sometimes destroyed offices of the government and of the ruling Burma Socialist Program Party. Government troops, who have not intervened in protests since five days of bloody riots forced Sein Lwin to resign Aug. 12, took over local government offices in the Bahan and Sanchaung areas of the capital Wednesday night and began repairing them. Members of former leader Ne Win\'s entourage, meanwhile, went to the Foreign Trade Bank on Wednesday and tried to transfer the equivalent of $3 million to a bank in London, a senior bank official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said junior bank employees heard about the request and demanded the bank not comply. They said Ne Win no long had authority to order such transfers. As word spread of the transfer request, a crowd gathered arond the bank and senior bank officials eventually rejected it, the official said. He declined to identify the people who sought the transfer or the bank in London. In another development, at least five illegal newspapers have appeared on the streets of Rangoon, selling briskly at 83 cents a copy, about 10 times the cost of the six government-approved newspapers. They have been reporting news of anti-government activities.\r\n'),(2254,2,'Movie buffs expecting to see a classic film about British military hero Adm. Horatio Nelson instead got a soft-porn flick about Nelson\'s love affair with an aristocrat. A spokeswoman for the Watershed Media Center said a mislabeled film container caused the mix-up Thursday night. The center planned to show ``Lady Hamilton,\'\' the 1941 film starring Vivian Leigh and Laurence Olivier that tells the story of Nelson and his love affair. Center spokeswoman Sara Davies said ``Emma Hamilton,\'\' the pornographic movie about the same subject, was mistakenly put in the film can. About half the audience of 20 walked out when shots of a half-naked woman appeared on screen. ``The film can was labeled `Lady Hamilton,\' and we believe it was a catalog error by the National Film Archives,\'\' said Ms. Davies. ``The projection staff soon realized something was wrong and stopped the film.\'\' ``Lady Hamilton,\'\' also called ``That Hamilton Woman,\'\' was a U.S.-made film designed to increase pro-British sentiment during World War II. It was reportedly Winston Churchill\'s favorite movie. Ms. Davies said irate patrons received their money back along with a free ticket to another show. The center showed ``Streetcar Named Desire\'\' that night.\r\n'),(2255,2,'Indications that the Brazilian soybean crop may be larger than expected sent U.S. soybean futures prices down modestly Thursday on the Chicago Board of Trade. Grain futures closed mixed to lower. Soybean futures opened lower on news that rain had eased dry conditions in the soybean-growing region of Brazil. Later in the morning, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics estimated the impending harvest would yield 19.4 million metric tons, significantly higher than the U.S. Agriculture Department\'s latest estimate of 18.5 million metric tons. ``This estimate was obviously negative for the U.S. market, and it took off any rallying attempt the beans might have had,\'\' said Walter Spilka, an analyst in New York for Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. Grain and soybean futures also retreated in reaction to generally lower prices for other commodities, Spilka said. Losses in corn were limited by expectations of new Soviet purchases, he said. At the close, wheat was 2 cents lower to 1 cent higher with the contract for delivery in March at $3.18 a bushel; corn was unchanged to { cent lower with March at $1.98{ a bushel; oats were { cent lower to } cent higher with March at $1.90} a bushel; soybeans were 1{ cents to 3\\ cents lower with March at $6.22 a bushel.\r\n'),(2256,2,'Michael M. Wiese has seen the Vietnam War twice: first-hand as a gunner on a helicopter, and through fleeting images captured by soldiers on 8mm home movie film. Wiese, 38, estimates he has collected 1,000 hours of amateur footage during the last decade. Some of it is entertaining and some is boring but little is gory. All of it helps neutralize the nightmare of Vietnam, Wiese says. He has pieced together some of his best footage in a 90-minute videocassette being test marketed in the Indianapolis area. The tape, ``Helicopter Gunship Assault,\'\' is the first of what Wiese hopes will be a series of at least six tapes. ``In 90 percent of the film, it\'s unknown to me who took it or where it was taken,\'\' he said. ``But still, everybody wanted to watch it because what a soldier would take a picture of over there just to show mom was not what they were showing on the news.\'\' To Wiese, who spent seven months behind a machine gun aboard an Army helicopter, the film ``is the best therapy I ever had. It\'s like reliving a nightmare. If you relive it long enough, it\'s not a nightmare anymore. I\'ve watched this 300 times, and I\'m never bored. ```Nam was such a hard story for everybody to tell people back home about,\'\' he said. ``This makes the memories bubble out of you.\'\' Some footage shows soldiers escaping the war on a muggy day by landing their helicopters on a riverbank and taking a swim. Another scene shows helicopters dropping down to rescue patrols under attack. There are scenes of helicopter gunships firing at ground targets and receiving return fire. Most of the footage is remarkably intact after 20 years; little of the color has faded. One pilot shows the hut he made from scrap wood and discarded rocket boxes after his tent rotted through. Another narrates as a dog yaps in the background. ``If you watch over to the left, you\'ll see the tracers coming up at us,\'\' he says. ``There they are.\'\' Wiese says he has come across few gory scenes. ``I have some helicopter accidents,\'\' he says. ``I got aftermath of an ambush. But actual combat footage, I don\'t have much,\'\' he said. ``Soldiers were paid to keep their heads down.\'\' Vietnam was the first war in which soldiers could carry a lightweight camera with automatic shutter control and focusing capability. Still, Wiese says very little 8mm footage was shot in Vietnam. His first three reels were purchased for $1 each at a flea market. ``They were very boring,\'\' he said. ``I wanted at one time to collect photographs _ I lost my own collection,\'\' he said. ``And everyone has photos. But the 8mm stuff is real rare.\'\' So he started placing ads in local papers and national publications asking veterans to send him their film. He then transferred the film to VHS tape, returning one tape and the original film to the owner, and keeping a copy for himself. When possible, he got the soldiers to send an audio cassette narrative. Wiese, who formed a company called ``Vietnam Archives,\'\' has the owner sign an agreement giving him rights to the film. ``I promise to give them a royalty on each cassette,\'\' he said. He hopes to place his videos in libraries. ``I\'m no Steven Spielberg,\'\' said Wiese. ``My intention is a real simple one: to collect this film and save it. I think some of it is worth being preserved. ``And it\'s great to get a bunch of guys together and sit down and watch this. You just can\'t believe the lies these guy will tell from their war stories.\'\'\r\n'),(2257,2,'The forecful editorial voice of Panama\'s La Prensa newspaper will be heard again Sunday for the first time in nearly two years if its exiled publisher can ``patch it together\'\' in time. ``We are running around like chickens with our heads cut off buying computer parts and so forth and hoping to get our first edition out on the streets by Sunday morning,\'\' Roberto Eisenmann Jr. said Thursday. Eisenmann, who has worked as a Miami bank executive while in exile, planned to travel to Panama City today in the absence of ousted leader Gen. Manuel Noriega. Pro-Noriega forces repeatedly shut down the presses of Panama\'s leading independent newspaper, the last time in February 1988. After receiving a dire report on conditions at the newspaper office, Eisenmann said, ``I don\'t know how we\'re going to do it with 95 percent destruction, but we\'re going to do it.\'\' Staff members returned to the newspaper plant on Christmas Day for the first time since the closure. ``The team came together immediately, and everybody\'s been working around the clock cannibalizing all the equipment to make one computer out of three,\'\' he said. ``We\'re going to patch it together with Band-Aids and be on the streets.\'\' Eisenmann, whose voice had been a thorn in the side of Noriega, said he had ``absolutely no problem\'\' with U.S. prosecution of Noriega on drug charges. ``Panama at this point has no capability. The judiciary system is not yet organized,\'\' he said. ``There isn\'t even a secure jail in the country at this point.\'\' The publisher said he expected Noriega to be returned to Panama for prosecution on human-rights abuses after the U.S. trial. Meanwhile, Eisenmann\'s time was occupied with ordering computer parts and preparing to fly home. ``When you\'re in exile, you live for the return,\'\' he said. ``Everybody that I know is packing bags and getting ready to go back.\'\'\r\n'),(2258,2,'BUSINESS EDITORS COMPOSING ROOMS The Associated Press will conduct another test transmission from its new market computer system on SUnday beginning at noon Eastern time. The test will be conducted on both Digital, Dataspeed and slow-speed circuits. This is ONLY a test. We ask those receiving the transmission to respond Monday by calling the AP in New York at 212-621-1568.\r\n'),(2259,2,'McDonnell Douglas Corp. became the Pentagon\'s top research contractor in fiscal 1987, winning awards totaling $1.7 billion, the Defense Department said Wednesday. Among educational and non-profit entities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology continued to hold down the top ranking, winning research contracts during the year worth $407.6 million. The Johns Hopkins University was close behind with awards totaling $354.9 million. Overall, the Pentagon increased its spending on research by more than 10 percent during fiscal 1987, with awards reaching a grand total of $21.8 billion. That compared with $19.8 billion in fiscal 1986. Much of last year\'s increase appeared related to work on President Reagan\'s Star Wars anti-missile system. The amount of money invested in research on ``missile and space systems\'\' climbed from $6.9 billion in fiscal 1986 to $7.9 billion in fiscal 1987. Moreover, the Martin Marietta Corp. _ a key Star Wars contractor _ vaulted from fifth place in the fiscal 1986 rankings to second place last year with contract awards rising from $695.3 million to $1.6 billion. The latest figures are contained in a report prepared annually by the Pentagon to rank the top 500 companies or non-profit groups performing ``research, development, test and evaluation\'\' work. The rankings are based on a review of all contracts totaling $25,000 or more awarded during the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30. McDonnell Douglas, whose overall ranking as the nation\'s largest defense contractor was announced just a month ago, displaced the Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. in assuming the top spot for research. McDonnell Douglas\' research contracts climbed from $928 million in fiscal 1986 to $1.7 billion in fiscal 1987. Because of Martin Marietta\'s abrupt rise, Lockheed fell to 3rd place in the research rankings, winning contracts in fiscal 1987 worth $1.54 billion compared with $1.48 billion the year before. The remainder of the Top 10 included the Boeing Co. in 4th place with awards totaling $1.2 billion, followed by the Grumman Aerospace Corp., $901.5 million; General Electric Co., $784.4 million; Raytheon Co., $593.8 million; TRW Inc., $556.6 million; Rockwell International Corp., $494 million; and IBM, $470.9 million. The $407.6 million in research contracts won by MIT was enough to give it the 11th place ranking overall. In fiscal 1986, MIT had won contracts worth $363.9 million and was ranked 14th overall. Among other educational and non-profit entities, Johns Hopkins was 2nd in fiscal 1987 with $354.9 million and a 15th ranking overall, followed by The Mitre Corp., $347.5 million, 16th overall; The Aerospace Corp., $338.9 million, 18th overall; and Charles Stark Draper Lab Inc., $164.7 million, 26th overall. All told, the top 500 concerns accounted for 97 percent of the total research contracts awarded, or $21.2 billion. The top 500 included 380 businesses, 100 educational and non-profit organizations, three U.S. government agencies and 17 foreign contractors. The research awards to foreign concerns totaled $114.3 million, up only slightly from the $106.9 million reported in fiscal 1986. The leading foreign contractor remained the same, the Canadian Commercial Corp., with awards totaling $25.9 million.\r\n'),(2260,2,'Rep. Barney Frank, whose personal and professional relationship with a male prostitute is being investigated by the House ethics committee, said Wednesday that he will decide soon whether to seek a sixth term. The Massachusetts Democrat had said he would make no political announcement until the committee discloses its findings into his relationship with Stephen Gobie. However, Frank said he would begin raising campaign funds. ``You reach the point where if you don\'t do anything, you\'ve decided by default,\'\' Frank said. Congressional candidates must formally submit nomination papers by May 8. A closed-door session of the ethics committee was set for Wednesday afternoon and there was speculation that an announcement would be made on the Frank case. Rep. Chester Atkins, D-Mass., a member of the panel, planned to attend the meeting. His attendance has been taken as a sign that Frank was not on the agenda because Atkins said last fall he would not attend meetings in which the Frank case was discussed. Atkins said his friendship with Frank and his role as the Democratic State Committee chairman in Massachusetts made him unable to remain impartial. Frank plans weekend fund-raisers in Boston and other towns to mark his 50th birthday Saturday. No Democrats have announced plans to run for Frank\'s seat. Two relatively unknown Republicans, lawyer John Soto and physician Jim Nuzzo, are running. The committee is investigating whether Frank violated House ethics regulations in his relationship with Gobie. Gobie alleges that Frank was aware he was running a sex-for-hire ring out of the congressman\'s Capitol Hill apartment. Frank said he fired Gobie from his job of personal assistant in 1986 after he learned of the prostitution ring. Frank has said he initially paid Gobie for sex, but later befriended him and gave him the job in an effort to change Gobie\'s life. Frank said he has testified before the ethics committee and has supplied it with all the documents and other information requested.\r\n'),(2261,2,'A storefront church collapsed Sunday afternoon, trapping an 84-year-old Baptist minister and a female worshiper under a pile of rubble, authorities said. The Rev. Romey L. Barber, his wife and two female parishoners were leaving the Southern Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church about 1:20 p.m. when the three-story building collapsed forward onto them, according to Fire Department supervisor Stephen Imszennik. The pastor and 53-year-old Jean Tucker were trapped for a half hour, authorities said. Barber suffered multiple fractures and was in serious condition at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, while Ms. Tucker was in guarded condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, spokeswomen said. The building appeared to have been ``structurally defective in some way,\'\' Imszennik said.\r\n'),(2262,2,'A journalist won the 1988 National Book Award for non-fiction with a book about the Vietnam War, and a newspaper columnist took the fiction prize for a novel about the murder of a girl in Georgia. Neil Sheehan, 52, author of ``A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam,\'\' and Peter Dexter, 45, who wrote ``Paris Trout,\'\' were honored Tuesday night at an awards ceremony attended by 500 people. The authors each received $10,000 and a Louise Nevelson sculpture. ``I feel like a man who was on a long voyage of discovery ... who\'s finally come home,\'\' said Sheehan, his eyes damp with tears as he accepted the award for his book, which took him 16 years to write. Sheehan was United Press International\'s Vietnam bureau chief in 1962 and worked for The New York Times from 1964 to 1972. He obtained the Pentagon Papers in 1971 while working for the newspaper. Sheehan is the author of ``The Arnheiter Affair.\'\' ``A Bright Shining Lie\'\' tells the story of the Vietnam War through the eyes of Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, a troubled but dedicated career officer who spoke out against the brutality and ineffectiveness of the early U.S. strategy in Southeast Asia. Sheehan, a resident of Washington, said he wrote the book hoping that ``it would help my country ... come to grips with the war. ``The most moving reactions I get are from Vietnam veterans who write or call and say, `You put me back there. That\'s what it was like. For the first time I know what it was all about. I know why it happened the way it happened,\'\'\' he said. ``That\'s very moving. That\'s what I wanted to achieve.\'\' Dexter\'s novel is about the murder of a 14-year-old black girl by a white man in a small Georgia town just after World War II. The book was inspired by a shooting that took place when he was a child in Milledgeville, Ga. ``I just started putting that together and remembering things and that sort of became the spine of the novel,\'\' he said. Dexter, a columnist for The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee and a frequent contributor to national magazines, said the novel\'s success would not lead him to give up his column, which he writes three times a week. ``I\'m not someone to hole up in the woods and produce a novel every two years. I like being on the street and hearing different voices,\'\' said Dexter, who has written two other novels. The books honored Tuesday were published by Random House, whose editorial director, Jason Epstein, also was honored. Epstein was the first winner of the National Book Awards Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. ``This is really a happenstance,\'\' Robert Loomis, executive editor of the publishing house, said of the awards sweep. Other fiction nominees were: Don DeLillo for ``Libra\'\'; J.F. Powers for ``Wheat That Springeth Green\'\'; Mary McGarry Morris for her first novel, ``Vanished\'\'; and Anne Tyler for ``Breathing Lessons.\'\' The other non-fiction nominees were: Peter Gay for his biography, ``Freud: A Life For Our Time\'\'; Eric Foner for ``Reconstruction: America\'s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877\'\'; Brenda Maddox for ``Nora,\'\' a biography of James Joyce\'s lifelong companion and muse; and Jack McLaughlin\'s ``Jefferson and Monticello.\'\' The National Book Awards, established 38 years ago, are awarded by a panel of judges chosen by the National Book Awards Inc., a non-profit institution dedicated to creating a wider audience for American literature.\r\n'),(2263,2,'For all the grand designs of the presidential nominees, a large number of Americans believe neither candidate could deliver on most of his campaign promises, a Media General-Associated Press poll has found. About half the 1,125 adults in the national survey saw both men as strong leaders, with Michael Dukakis rated by more as compassionate and George Bush rated by more as competent to manage the federal government. But just 36 percent said Bush could accomplish most of his stated goals in office, and only 31 percent said Dukakis could do most of what he wants. Nearly half said either would be stymied in office; the rest were unsure. Seven in 10 respondents agreed nonetheless that the outcome of the election will have a major impact on the nation\'s future. But they were divided evenly, 45-45, on whether the election will affect them personally. Results of the poll, conducted the week after Labor Day, underscored Bush\'s success since the Republican Convention at controlling the campaign agenda. Fifty-two percent said he had clear positions on the issues, while just 37 percent said the same of Dukakis. The results were released Monday. Bush also was perceived as the better government manager, 50-34, despite Dukakis\' claim to the issue. And 77 percent said Bush understands the complex problems a president faces, while only 44 percent said that of Dukakis. Bush won overwhelming endorsement as better able to maintain a strong defense, chosen over Dukakis by 67 percent 15 percent. Bush was narrowly seen as more likely to cut the federal deficit, 38-30. In a measure that bodes well for an incumbent party, six in 10 said they were better off now than they were four years ago or eight years ago, and 55 percent expected their family finances to improve in the next few years. Bush had mixed success in his effort to paint Dukakis as more likely to raise taxes: A plurality, 45 percent, said there wasn\'t likely to be any difference between the two when it comes to that issue. Dukakis was rated higher than Bush on some personal issues. Sixty-two percent said Dukakis cares about people like them, while 50 percent said that of Bush. Forty-two percent said Bush sometimes talks carelessly, without considering the consequences; just 30 percent said that of Dukakis. The two were about equal in some other ratings: Six in 10 said both offer a vision of where they want to lead the country and five in 10 said both were strong leaders. Six in 10 said Bush would have good judgment under pressure and five in 10 said that of Dukakis. Bush was rated as better for the rich and Dukakis as better for the poor, but respondents were split on which would do more for the middle class. They were nearly split on which candidate would do more to improve education, with 39 percent choosing Dukakis and 33 percent Bush. Bush led solidly among respondents who said they plan to vote and had definitely made a choice, partly because a greater share of Republicans said they had decided. The gauge is a different one than in other national polls. Fifty-seven percent said they planned to vote and had made a definite choice; they favored Bush by 56-39. Dukakis led, 48-42, in a late June-early July poll, indicating that even opinions expressed as firm are movable. The poll found a three-way split in ideology, with about a third each calling themselves Republicans, Democrats and independents. Other recent polls had similar results, a departure from the longtime Democratic lead in this measure. The Media General-AP poll was conducted the week after Labor Day, Sept. 6-14, among a random sample of adults nationwide. It had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points for all respondents, four points for those who said they planned to vote and had chosen a candidate. Media General Inc., a communications company based in Richmond, Va., publishes the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Richmond News Leader, the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune and the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, and operates TV stations WXFL in Tampa, WCBD in Charleston, S.C., and WJKS in Jacksonville, Fla.\r\n'),(2264,2,'As the trademark piano received a final tuning, sales help scurried around the new Nordstrom Inc. department store unpacking the remaining boxes, rearranging clothes racks and getting to know the inventory. The opening of the Nordstrom store at the Garden State Plaza shopping mall in Paramus, N.J., marks the retailer\'s first foray into the fiercely competitive Northeast. The official debut occurs Friday when the 245,000-square-foot store opens for business. Members of the media were given a preview tour of the store Tuesday. Operating in this area might pose the biggest challenge yet for the West Coast chain that has been migrating eastward as part of an ambitious expansion. A struggling regional economy has shaken consumer confidence and crimped spending. Crisis in the Middle East could further curb retail spending as the critical holiday season approaches. Nonetheless, Nordstrom executives seem optimistic about entering the market and private analysts say the retailer stands a good chance to thrive here. Its service-oriented brand of retailing, combined with broad assortments of reliable quality merchandise, will give it an edge over rivals with less favorable reputations, analysts say. ``I think it\'s probably one of the best _ if not the best _ department stores in the country,\'\' said Carl Steidtmann, chief economist at Management Horizons, the retail management and market research division of the accounting firm Price Waterhouse. ``The fact that the competition is in such a state of disarray might make it a good time to go into the Northeast.\'\' Richard Pyle, a retail analyst at Piper Jaffray & Hopwood Inc., said Nordstrom, which focuses on women\'s, men\'s and children\'s fashions, shoes and accessories, is in far better financial shape than its competitors. Some department stores, such as Macy\'s _ which is a Nordstrom neighbor at the Garden State Plaza _ are courting customers aggressively to boost business and pay off debts. Others, such as Saks Fith Avenue, are adjusting to life under new owners who are closely monitoring bottom lines. The 61-store Nordstrom chain dates back to 1901 when Swedish immigrant John W. Nordstrom founded a Seattle shoe shop with money made mining gold in Alaska. Nordstrom still emphasizes shoes; the Paramus store boasts an inventory of some 70,000 ladies\' shoes and 30,000 men\'s. The chain has historically prided itself on top-notch service and stories abound about its sales associates going to unusual lengths to please people. ``Nordies\'\' have been known to personally deliver merchandise to customers\' homes and to write thank-you notes to customers _ typically on their own time. The legendary service has been a key to landing customers in new markets. As elsewhere, the Paramus store employs personal shoppers who will help customers select apparel, assemble outfits and accessorize. A concierge stationed near the entrance will steer customers in the right direction and handle special requests. Shoppers have three restaurants to choose from on the store\'s three levels and a spa offering massages, facials, manicures, pedicures and waxing. James F. Nordstrom, one of three descendents of the founder who currently bear the title co-chairman, said shoppers appreciate being treated well no matter what part of the country they live in. Apart from minor adjustments in merchandise mix, he said there have been no special adaptations made in bringing the Seattle-based retailer east. The chain already operates two stores in the Virginia suburbs of Washington and intends to open two more in New Jersey over the next two years, plus one in New York in 1993. Its growth strategy calls for about four openings a year. ``We just think customers like a lot of selection, good quality and to be treated nicely,\'\' he said in a telephone interview from the company\'s headquarters. One blot on the Nordstrom name appeared earlier this year when the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries, acting after a union complaint, ruled that the company has failed to pay employees for some of the extras they provide. The agency ordered Nordstrom to properly compensate employees for work and to pay back wages. Industry analysts say Nordstrom has weathered the bad publicity without much damage to its reputation. A $15 million reserve the company set aside to pay back wage claims should be adequate. James Nordstrom said the labor problems, which have been confined mostly to the Seattle area, haven\'t impaired the retailer\'s results. Many employees have proven their commitment to the company, he said, by paying their own way to transfer to new stores. The Paramus store will have about 100 sales associates who have previously worked elsewhere for Nordstrom. An additional 100 managers were transferred by the company, which has a policy of promoting from within. About 900 employees overall will work at the Garden State Plaza store. Nordstrom\'s sales and profits haven\'t been as impressive lately as they had been in the recent past. Earnings slid 20 percent in the first half of this year to $49 million on sales of $1.36 billion. That deterioration came after a 7 percent income drop last year to $115 million despite a 14.7 percent sales gain to $2.7 billion. Nordstrom also has felt the pinch of the currently sluggish retail climate. Co-chairman Nordstrom said, ``It\'s fair to say that our planned increase in sales is greater than the increase we\'re experiencing.\'\' He said the retailer is taking a conservative approach to the coming season and will tighten inventory slightly. If business doesn\'t measure up chainwide for a prolonged period, Nordstrom may scale back its expansion plans. ``We\'re not going to leverage ourselves and grow for growth sake,\'\' Nordstrom said, noting that some openings may be delayed if necessary. At the Paramus store, retail analysts say the company is hoping sales will exceed $100 million in the first year. Nordstrom executives declined to disclose projections.\r\n'),(2265,2,'A jury was seated Monday in a trial to decide who is the rightful owner of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver Jack Ruby used to kill presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. The case before Dallas County Probate Judge Robert E. Price could end 23 years of legal wrangling between Ruby\'s heirs and Jules Mayer, a lawyer who knew Ruby and was named executor of the Dallas nightclub owner\'s estate. But with the twists and turns the case has taken through the judicial system since Ruby died Jan. 3, 1967, nothing is certain. The six-person jury selected Monday was expected to hear opening statements Tuesday. The court is dealing with the questions of how to distribute Ruby\'s assets and whether to remove Mayer as executor. Mayer still practices law at age 82. Attorneys for Ruby\'s brother, Earl, were expected to question Mayer\'s ability to handle the estate in light of his advanced age. Potential jurors were questioned about their views on mandatory retirement and a person\'s professional effectiveness beyond a certain age. The most valuable asset in the estate is the .38-caliber Colt Cobra Ruby used to kill Oswald in the basement of the Dallas City Jail two days after President Kennedy\'s assassination here in 1963. Ruby was convicted of murder in 1964 and sentenced to die in the electric chair. A Texas appeals court overturned the conviction in 1966, citing reasons that included failure to move the trial from Dallas. Ruby died at age 55 before a new trial could be held. For years since then, Mayer and Earl Ruby have been fighting over ownership of the gun Jack Ruby bought for $62.50 in a Dallas gun shop. The gun is stowed in a bank safe deposit box. Mayer estimates it could bring $125,000 on the collectors\' market. Whatever its value, Mayer contends money from sale of the gun should go to pay off Ruby\'s debts. He says they include the $65,000 it has cost him to handle the estate, including the expense of fighting Earl Ruby\'s lawsuits. Earl Ruby, of Boca Raton, Fla., who is also acting on behalf of his sister and a nephew, counters that Mayer is trying to profit from the estate. He wants the estate liquidated to pay off his brother\'s debts and ``wipe the slate clean.\'\' He also claims that Jack Ruby gave him deathbed instructions to tear up the will in which he had named Mayer executor. Apart from the coveted gun, the estate consists largely of the clothes and jewelry Ruby wore when he shot Oswald, and some personal papers. Earl Ruby said Monday that if he loses, he will ``go home and cry a little bit\'\' but will not appeal. Regardless of the trial\'s outcome, it\'s unlikely to be the last word on the gun matter. Last year, the Internal Revenue Service stepped into the case claiming that Ruby owed $17,000 when he died. That amount, the IRS said, has grown to $86,010 with interest and penalties. The state of Texas also claims the estate owes it $1,227 in back taxes. Earl Ruby says the IRS sacrificed any claim by waiting 22 years to act on it. Price has set a trial for February to hear the IRS claim.\r\n'),(2266,2,'The World Bank will increase its yearly loans nearly 50 percent by 1992 to help end poverty in the Third World, the organization\'s president said today. Barber B. Conable spoke in West Berlin during the annual meeting of the bank and its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund. Participants from 151 nations have spent a week exploring ways to lighten the debt load of poor nations. The meeting ends today. Leftist groups have mounted protests to criticize the international banks, which make development loans, for insisting on repayment by Third World nations. About 1,000 demonstrators gathered at a church nearby Wednesday and chanted ``IMF Murder Meeting.\'\' Thousands of riot police held them back with plastic shields. Third World countries owe about $1.2 trillion to international and private lenders as well as governments. Conable predicted that the World Bank will be lending $25 billion dollars a year by 1992 to Third World nations. It now lends about $17 billion a year, and the monetary fund provides about $8 million more. Speaking at a news conference, he said $5 billion will go to the poorest countries, which are mainly in Africa. Conable said the bank will strengthen its aid by sharing more financing with other donors. He said Japanese officials have told him they plan to help and promised to talk with him about a program. Contributions to the bank come from the 151 member governments. Conable also pinpointed trade imbalances as part of the debt problem faced by poor countries. He said they cause losses twice as great as the aid such countries receive from wealthier nations. Speakers from the Third World have protested repeatedly at the meeting that the industrial countries put up barriers to their exports that prevent debtor countries from earning money. In an interview before his news conference, Conable said he believed interest rates were stabilizing after recent increases. The financial leaders have listened this week to warnings that higher interest rates, used by the United States and other industrial countries to cool inflation, threaten the Third World. ``It would be highly undesirable if an excessive concern for inflation were to bring about a spiral of interest rate rises,\'\' said Giuliano Amato, Italy\'s treasury minister. At Wednesday\'s sessions, participants seeking new ways to ease the burden of debt heard about the cost of higher interest rates to Third World countries. Every 1 percent rise in interest rates costs the debtors $6 billion more a year, said Stanley Fischer, vice president and chief economist of the World Bank. The United States and other industrial countries view higher interest as a way of controlling price increases. In the United States, higher interest rates also attract money from abroad to meet the federal budget deficit. Third World countries pay more than $50 billion a year on loans subject to variable interest rates. They complain that too much of their earnings go to pay interest, leaving little to improve living standards. In many of them, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, people\'s incomes have been declining for 20 years.\r\n'),(2267,2,'Thirteen Americans and six Canadians were honored as heroes today by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. Three of the heroes, all Canadians, died risking their lives in their attempt to save others. The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission now has honored 37 people thus far this year and 7,218 people since it was founded in 1904 by industrialist Andrew Carnegie to recognize heroism in the United States and Canada. Heroes or their survivors receive a medal and $2,500. Those honored today include: _John Anderson Floyd, Garden Grove, Calif. _Rubin A. Vigil, Buena Park, Calif. _Christopher J. Young, Holland, Pa. _Robert G. Pourier, Winnipeg, Manitoba. _Robert E. Tindal, Shallotte, N.C. _Paul J. Myers, Oshawa, Ontario. _Theodore J. Gundler, Hamilton, Ohio. _Daniel H. Penney, Sidney, British Columbia. _Thomas H. Schneider, Redding, Calif. _Stephen W. Underwood, Tulelake, Calif. _Matthew H. Rokes, Yreka, Calif. _James C. Alvine III, West Caldwell, N.J. _Arthur Richard Palecek, Oakland, N.J. _Richard A. Bogert, Union, N.J. _Nobuichi Kasahara, Waimea, Hawaii. _Donald Howard Green, Palmdale, Calif. _The late John H. King, Winnipeg, Manitoba. _The late Richard C. Grant, Kingsville, Ontario. _The late Jeffrey Aaron Small, Caledonia, Ontario.\r\n'),(2268,2,'A judge banned an 18-year-old robbery suspect from riding the city\'s train system, calling the youth ``a menace\'\' to transit patrons. ``He\'s forfeited his right to use that form of public transportation. He can use the public sidewalk,\'\' Cook County Circuit Judge Michael Bolan declared Wednesday when Tommy Holloway appeared for the second consecutive day on charges he had robbed a train passenger. On Tuesday, Bolan found probable cause to charge Holloway with robbery for the theft of a gold necklace and $38 from a 16-year-old student riding an elevated train on April 22. Less than two hours after leaving court on $5,000 bond in that case, prosecutors contend, Holloway stole a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap and a book bag from another student waiting for a train. During that attack, Holloway and nine other youths punched and kicked the victim on the ground, said Assistant State\'s Attorney Mary Lou Norwell. Bolan on Wednesday set bond at $50,000 for each case. He didn\'t say how he would enforce that banning order. ``You\'re leading a marauding little pack of dogs out there,\'\' Bolan told the defendant. ``If I could hold you without bond, I would because you\'re a danger to the community _ a menace.\'\'\r\n'),(2269,2,'Two women are vying for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Tuesday\'s primary election, and the winner most likely will face Democratic Gov. Mike Sullivan. The GOP candidates are Mary Mead, daughter of former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Cliff Hansen, and state Rep. Nyla Murphy. Mead, a Teton County rancher, and Murphy, a 12-year state representative from Casper, seemed to agree on issues more often than not during the primary campaign. Both support abortion rights, oppose other states dumping garbage in Wyoming, and favor the death penalty. Where they differ is on Mead\'s call for a cut in minerals taxes to spur exploration. Murphy believes the current tax system is adequate and that the economy will improve under the state\'s diversification efforts. Sullivan is seeking his second term. His opponent for the Democratic nomination is Ron ``Suds\'\' Clingman, a Rock Springs motorcycle repairman who believes his stances on lowering the drinking age back to 18, legalizing gambling, and cutting the salaries of public officials are popular. U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, the Senate Minority Whip, is seeking a third term, and U.S. Rep. Craig Thomas is pursuing his first full term in office. Simpson faces two political unknowns in the GOP primary, while six unheralded Democrats are seeking their party\'s nomination for the seat. Thomas was appointed to fill Dick Cheney\'s unexpired term in office when he was appointed defense secretary last year. Thomas is unopposed in the primary as is his Democratic opponent, Pete Maxfield.\r\n'),(2270,2,'The White House and the weather cooperated to entertain Turkish President Kenan Evren in regal style at a starlit state dinner, where President Reagan lauded ties with the NATO ally as a ``solid structure\'\' for building peace and prosperity. Evren, the first Turkish president to make a state visit to the United States in 21 years, responded with a toast at Monday\'s Rose Garden event that praised Reagan for his efforts to lessen superpower tensions and slash the threatening arsenal of nuclear weapons. ``We support the efforts of your administration to seek better relationships with the Soviet Union,\'\' said the Turkish president, whose strategic nation borders on that country as well as Iran and Iraq. In his brief toast, Reagan hailed recent improvements in the U.S.-Turkish relationship. He said the 40-year history of bilateral ties was built upon a ``solid structure\'\' and predicted it would continue decades into the future. ``Our aspirations for our partnership remain large _ peace, security and freedom for our peoples, close cooperation in securing these objectives, and success in defending them,\'\' Reagan said. Turkey is the third largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel and Egypt, primarily due to its strategic location and usefulness as a listening post on the Soviet Union, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. Although strains have appeared in the relationship in recent years over the level of U.S. aid to the strategic NATO ally, no such problems were apparent at the elaborate state dinner. Usually, the black-tie events that are part of a formal state visit occur inside the executive mansion. But tempted by the balmy breezes that ended a heat spell and the clear moonlit skies, the dinner featuring shrimp parfait, filet of lamb and coconut ice cream was served in the torch-lit Rose Garden. Later, guests were entertained under the stars by classical guitarist Christopher Parkening. Earlier in the day, the two men met for 45 minutes after a colorful fife and drum welcome was accorded the Turkish leader. A senior administration official said the two men engaged in a ``general review\'\' of the bilateral relations, and touched on East-West relations and the Iran-Iraq War. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Reagan took the opportunity ``to assure President Evren that we would continue to work ... with Congress to give priority to our overall security assistance program with Turkey.\'\' The official said the Turkish president made no specific economic requests and that his remarks carried ``the theme of trade, not aid.\'\' Congress approved $520 million in aid for Turkey last year _ almost all of it military assistance _ down from the $570 million which the administration sought and the $1.2 billion that Turkey is seeking to help modernize its defense forces. For fiscal 1989, starting next Oct. 1, the administration has asked Congress to approve $620 million. The president said Americans ``have admired the way Turkey pulled itself back to democracy when challenged by the violent forces of terrorism and anarchy a year ago.\'\' Evren, a retired army general, led a 1980 coup in Turkey that helped restore public order after years of mounting violence by the extreme right and left. Democratic civilian rule was restored in 1983 and voters overwhelmingly approved a new constitution, making Evren president for a 7-year term. Reagan also praised growing U.S.-Turkish trade, calling it ``the surest way that Turkey can find to ensure the prosperity its people seek.\'\' And in a symbolic move, Reagan presented Evren with the Legion of Merit in gratitude for the contribution of the Turkish military during the Korean War. The medal represents one of the highest military honors America can bestow.\r\n'),(2271,2,'Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner is labeling as unrealistic and irresponsible Senate legislation that would require tougher auto fuel economy standards, saying it would cause hundreds of additional traffic deaths. Skinner denounced the legislation Friday only hours after the Senate voted 68-28 to consider the proposal next week. The measure would require automakers to increase average fuel economy of new cars to 35 miles per gallon by 1995 and to 40 miles per gallon by 2001. Supporters contend the higher fuel economy requirements, once fully implemented, would save 2.8 million barrels of oil a day, but key opponents promised to continue fighting the measure. Skinner told a news conference that if the measure clears Congress, he would strongly advise President Bush to veto it. But the measure likely will run into serious opposition in the House, where supporters must maneuver around the Energy and Commerce Committee, whose chairman, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., is strongly opposed to the legislation. Skinner said the bill is ``unrealistic, irresponsible and, more important, unattainable.\'\' He said auto executives have convinced him there is no technology to achieve the bill\'s goals without making cars smaller. ``It should be called the highway fatality bill,\'\' Skinner said. He cited a new study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that concluded there is a clear link between reducing the size of cars and increasing numbers of traffic deaths. Joan Claybrook, NHTSA administrator during the Carter administration and now president of the consumer group Public Citizen, disputed claims that cars necessarily will have to be made smaller to burn less fuel. She cited a Transportation Department research vehicle built in the 1970s that achieved 43 mpg while providing occupants improved protection over conventional cars. Sen. Donald Riegle, D-Mich., who has led the opposition to the plan, said he would continue the fight against bringing the measure to a vote next week. ``We\'ve just had the first inning of this nine-inning game,\'\' said Riegle. ``We hope and intend to win this fight.\'\' But the Senate vote reflected the growing support in Congress for an effort to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil, a subject in the spotlight since Iraq\'s invasion and annexation of Kuwait early last month. In floor debate, Riegle said the bill\'s fuel savings wouldn\'t likely begin phasing in until 1995 and a better response to today\'s oil crisis might be to return to a national speed limit of 55 mph. Later, a Riegle spokeswoman said the senator didn\'t necessarily support a change in the speed limit and would vote against such a measure if it were introduced. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., the bill\'s sponsor, described the measure as a message to the automakers ``that they\'re going to have to look at fuel economy and not just muscle cars.\'\'\r\n'),(2272,2,'The stock market showed a small loss today as traders studied the latest data on economic growth. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials dropped 3.32 to 2,852.94 by noontime on Wall Street. Losers outnumbered gainers by about 8 to 7 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 618 up, 695 down and 551 unchanged. As the business day began the Commerce Department reported that the gross national product grew at a 1.3 percent annual rate, after adjustment for inflation, in the first quarter of the year. The reduction in the figure, from a previous estimate of 2.1 percent, was larger than most analysts had been estimating. But the significance of the numbers was clouded by word that the difference stemmed to a great extent from a downward revision of business inventories rather than final sales. A shrinkage in inventories can be interpreted not as a clear sign of economic weakness, but rather as a possible portent of an approaching pickup in production demand. Interest rates were unchanged to narrowly lower in the credit markets following the news. Philip Morris led the active list, down 1&rsqb; at 43}. Brokers cited a federal regulator\'s push to ban cigarette vending machines, and news that the City University of New York and Harvard University had decided to sell their tobacco stocks. U.S. Shoe, which reported sharply higher quarterly earnings, climbed 1&rsqb; to 24~. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks lost .26 to 195.59. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was up .72 at 360.37. Volume on the Big Board came to 71.45 million shares at noontime, against 83.65 million at the same point Wednesday.\r\n'),(2273,2,'Just weeks ago, they were troublemakers, working their way through the criminal justice system, convicted of crimes from drug dealing to manslaughter. Today, they stand at attention, heads shaved, eyes straight ahead. Every phrase ends with an emphatic ``Sir!\'\' Every item in their foot lockers perfectly folded, every order perfectly obeyed. No, they haven\'t joined the military. Not exactly. They\'re probationers at Camp Sauble, Michigan\'s 5-month-old experimental ``boot camp\'\' prison, where ``shock incarceration\'\' is used to jolt 17- to 25-year-old offenders into straightening out their lives. On Monday, reporters got their first glimpse of the intense physical training and military-style discipline the probationers endure for 90 days. From the first day, the offender is ``told he\'s an embarrassment to society, ... a parasite to society,\'\' said Inspector Bruce L. Curtis, an ex-Marine drill instructor. ``We start working on their minds,\'\' Curtis said. ``It\'s the first time they\'ve ever been held accountable for anything. Instead of holding down a job or going to school, it\'s been easier for them to knock some old lady on the street and take her Social Security check.\'\' At first, 19-year-old Jesse Roberson of Pontiac didn\'t think he could make it through the program. ``When I first came here I was pretty scared,\'\' said Roberson, who was driving drunk when a passenger in his car was killed in a crash. He faced 15 to 30 years in prison for manslaughter. Roberson\'s now looking at graduation in two weeks. ``You come in a baby and you leave a man,\'\' he said. ``This program got rid of my temper and makes me want to go out and do something positive with my life.\'\' Scott Fetzlaff, 20, of Manistee, said he\'s had time to think about his mistakes, including his breaking and entering conviction. ``They scare everything right out of you the first day,\'\' he said. ``It\'s going to change my ways when I get out.\'\' The program, which began March 1 at a former minimum-security work camp in the Manistee National Forest, has had seven graduates and now has 70 probationers, about half its capacity. Two men escaped, only to be captured within 24 hours, and 16 others have flunked out, returning to the judge for resentencing, usually resulting in a multiyear prison term. Those who disobey orders may be required to carry a 25-pound ``motivational\'\' log on their shoulder for the day, or to perform ``motivational\'\' detail, possibly digging out a tree stump by hand. For the probationers, days begin at 5 a.m. with the screams of a corrections officer or the banging of trash can lids at their heads. Physical training, cleaning buildings and 7{ hours of chopping trees in county, state and federal parks make up most of the 17-hour days, followed by educational and substance abuse programs at night. One hour of free time may be spent watching television news or writing letters. No visits are allowed, and one 10-minute telephone call may be made each week after the first six weeks. The men march double time, chanting in unison after the officer in charge, ``Mental tough, mental hard! I can do it! You can do it! We can do it!\'\' A shifting eye while standing at attention may result in 15 push-ups on the spot. There is silence at meal time. The program is modeled after similar programs in other parts of the country, but is designed for more ``hard-core\'\' offenders than the others, said Donald Hengesh, state Department of Corrections project coordinator. While offenders must not have served any previous prison sentence, their convictions range from felonious assault and manslaughter to forgery and narcotics possession. ``There are no Sunday school cases here,\'\' said Hengesh. The Department of Corrections has notified judges and probation officers that the program is an option for offenders who, according to sentencing guidelines, would face at least one year of prison. The only exception would be a probation violator with a new felony conviction, who might be sentenced to a prison term of less than 12 months. Candidates must never have served any prison time and must be physically able to participate. Offenders convicted of sex or arson charges also are not admitted. The program is proving cost effective, with each inmate costing $3,846, compared with $20,000 each state prison inmate costs annually, Hengesh said. While civil rights activists argue intimidation and fear don\'t rehabilitate, state Sen. Jack Welborn, who sponsored legislation to fund the camp, said he\'s sold on the program. ``I believe a kid in this program has a better chance of going straight when he gets out than in any other program in the corrections system,\'\' he said. ``The kid that goes into prison comes out a better criminal.\'\'\r\n'),(2274,2,'Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Sunday that he would visit Japan as part of an effort to build ties with his country\'s Pacific neighbors. Gorbachev\'s disclosure, at a summit-ending news conference with President Bush, came on the eve of his planned meeting in San Francisco with President Roh Tae-woo of South Korea, which is actively seeking to normalize relations. The Soviet Union wants to upgrade its outdated and inefficient production facilities, and both Japan and South Korea could be valuable sources of inexpensive technology and consumer goods that aren\'t available in the Soviet Union or are in such short supply that they are practically unobtainable. The Japanese had been expecting a Gorbachev visit, perhaps in the spring of 1991, but relations between the two countries have been strained by a longstanding territorial dispute. The Kuril Islands, which lie to the north of present-day Japan, were seized and settled by the Soviets at the end of World War II, and the Japanese want them returned. The dispute thus far has blocked improved trade relations between the two countries. Meanwhile, the South Koreans have launched a major drive to open relations with former Communist East Bloc countries, and are seeking new markets for their high-technology exports. But Soviet officials have sought to play down the meeting between Gorbachev and Roh, pointing to the sensitivity of relations with North Korea, the Soviets\' longtime ally. Some members of the Soviet delegation also have suggested that Japanese business leaders are uneasy about the Gorbachev-Roh meeting because they view the South Koreans as competition for the Soviets\' huge market and natural resources. Gorbachev, in his remarks at the news conference, said the Soviet Union would like to help build a cooperative community among Pacific nations like the one in Europe. ``We must act with due regard for those specifics\'\' in the Asian region, he said, ``without copying blind the European process but borrowing something from it.\'\' ``Of course, I think this road will be longer and more thorny,\'\' Gorbachev said. ``But still, it is especially necessary over there because those peoples need an opportunity to reallocate their resources to overcome a lot of social problems that have been accumulated.\'\' He noted the increasing contacts between the Soviet Union and India and China, countries he has visited within the last two years. ``I am planning to go on a visit to Japan so as to open that area for discussion,\'\' he said. ``So we\'re going to intensify our efforts in that direction.\'\'\r\n'),(2275,2,'The dollar fluctuated in a narrow range in calm European trading late this morning as markets awaited news from a key meeting of the Soviet Communist Party. Gold prices rose. Traders said they expected little movement in the dollar until there were political developments in the Soviet Union and U.S. markets opened. The Communist Party\'s Central Committee is meeting today and Tuesday to debate a proposal, endorsed by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, to give up its exclusive claim to power. News of further Soviet democratization could fuel some dollar buying, dealers said. But the U.S. currency generally remains on a downward trend, traders said. ``The dollar is currently a sick currency,\'\' one Milan trader said. The huge U.S. budget and trade deficits, lackluster economic growth, persistent inflation and the prospect of lower interest rates are all weighing on the dollar, he said. In Tokyo, where trading ends as Europe\'s business day begins, the dollar rose 0.64 yen to a closing 145.60 yen. Later, in London, it was quoted at 145.70 yen. Other dollar rates at midmorning, compared with late Friday\'s prices, included: 1.6786 West German marks, down from 1.6860; 1.4868 Swiss francs, down from 1.4964; 5.7015 French francs, down from 5.7360; 1.8930 Dutch guilders, down from 1.9010; 1,246.50 Italian lire, down from 1,252.00; and 1.1875 Canadian dollars, down from 1.1884. In London, the dollar fell against the British pound. It cost $1.6915 to buy one pound, compared with $1.6820 late Friday. Gold opened in London at a bid price of $418.50 a troy ounce, up from $417.25 bid late Friday. At midmorning, the city\'s major bullion dealers fixed a recommended price of $418.75. In Zurich, the bid price was $418.40, up from $417.75 bid late Friday. Gold in Hong Kong rose $1.10 to close at a bid $416.86. Silver rose in London to a bid price of $5.31 a troy ounce, up from Friday\'s $5.29.\r\n'),(2276,2,'The European Community may suffer major political and economic damage by refusing to compromise in world trade talks over U.S. proposals for deep cuts in farm subsidies, Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter said Tuesday. If it comes to an agricultural trade war with the EC, said Yeutter, the United States is prepared to fight. Negotiations among 107 nations in the so-called Uruguay Round of trade talks collapsed Dec. 7 in Brussels after the EC refused to bend on U.S. proposals on major farm trade issues, including cutbacks in internal price supports and export subsidies. The United States, backed by Australia, Brazil and other major exporters, sought sharp reductions in subsidies, while the 12-nation EC, Japan and Korea were against the plan. Efforts are being made to reconvene the talks in mid-January, but Yeutter said further negotiations would have little chance unless the EC is prepared to change its hard-line stance. But Yeutter told reporters he thinks some internal pressures are developing in favor of a reassessment of the EC position. Yeutter said he was Europe last week in the aftermath of the Dec. 7 breakdown and found the community to be ``very embarrassed by what happened in Brussels.\'\' The community ``will probably not concede that publicly, but the fact is they suffered a major geopolitical defeat in Brussels, with essentially all of the world leaving with dissatisfaction and disappointment in the EC position,\'\' he said. ``A lot of folks in Western Europe are chagrined by the present status of the Uruguay Round and are concerned that the (EC) may bear the lion\'s share of the blame for failure, should it occur,\'\' Yeutter said. Consequently, he said, a number of ``working level\'\' people in the EC are trying to reassess the bloc\'s position in hopes the stalled talks can be rejuvenated. But Yeutter said he didn\'t know at this point whether this can translate into changes at the EC\'s leadership level. ``I\'m pessimistic about the potential outcome (of the talks) so long as the community maintains its present intransigent stance,\'\' he said. Earlier, in a telephone news conference with broadcasters, Yeutter he was not ready to tip off the EC what the United States might do if the Uruguay Round of talks fail completely. But Yeutter predicted that the EC potentially could be forced into spending all its allotted funds in 1991 trying to maintain high supports and export subsidies to keep pace with the United States. Of course, he said, the EC then could replenish its coffers but ``they would have to make a conscious decision\'\' to spend more on agriculture than they do now. ``We\'ll be spending more money, too, of course, and we\'ll have to find the financial resources to do that, and a lot of other countries will, as well,\'\' he said. Yeutter also hinted at other possible U.S. trade actions in case the trade talks fail but declined to be specific. ``I want them to be uncertain about what our response would be - and a bit frightened by the potential,\'\' he said. ``So, I\'m not going to discuss publicly what the United States might do.\'\'\r\n'),(2277,2,'Stock prices declined slightly in quiet trading today, marking time after last week\'s rise to a record high. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials dropped 7.18 to 2,812.73 in the first half hour of trading. Losers outnumbered gainers by about 7 to 5 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 405 up, 566 down and 501 unchanged. Volume on the Big Board came to 17.80 million shares as of 10 a.m. on Wall Street. Analysts said there was little in the news to encourage buyers to chase after the market\'s recently rally. Interest rates were mixed to slightly higher in the credit markets this morning. Yields on long-term government bonds hovered in the 8.70 percent-8.74 percent range. The upsurge in stock prices since the end of April has been attributed largely to a downturn in interest rates, and accompanying assurances that the Federal Reserve seemed less and less likely to tighten credit. In the past few days, however, rates have levelled off, and investors apparently have settled back to await signs of their next likely move. K mart dropped \\ to 34. The company reported earnings for the fiscal quarter ended May 2 of 50 cents a share, against 47 cents in the comparable period a year earlier. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks slipped .11 to 193.44. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was up .38 at 356.70. On Friday the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 11.80 to 2,819.91, reducing its gain for the week to 18.33 points. Advancing issues slightly outnumbered declines on the NYSE, with 745 up, 716 down and 526 unchanged. Big Board volume totaled 162.52 million shares, against 164.77 million in the previous session.\r\n'),(2278,2,'James Michener will use Canadian royalties from ``Journey,\'\' his first novel about Canada, to establish a fund for promoting the nation\'s fiction writers and their work, his publisher said Thursday. Judy Brunsek of McClelland and Stewart said ``Journey,\'\' just arriving in bookstores, should earn $164,000 in royalties the first year. A $8,200 prize will be awarded annually to a piece of Canadian short fiction selected from about 25 to 30 small literary journals across the country. It and others chosen by a literary jury will be published as a volume each year, with the first scheduled for 1989. In an interview with the Toronto Star, Michener was quoted as saying he felt it improper to ``barge in here and publish a book and take royalties out of the country.\'\' ``Journey\'\' is set in the Klondike in 1897-99, during the gold rush, and tells of four Englishmen and an Irishman who travel to the Canadian Northwest. Ms. Brunsek said the 220-page book began as part of ``Alaska,\'\' one of Michener\'s sprawling bestsellers, but was cut to bring the length down to 868 pages. ``He gets attached to his characters and decided he had read enough to perhaps expand it,\'\' she said in a telephone interview. ``Because it was set in Canada, he felt very strongly about getting published in Canada.\'\' ``He called us one day,\'\' she said, laughing. ``We couldn\'t quite believe it. ... We of course jumped at the chance.\'\' Plans are for ``Journey\'\' to be published in the United States next year by Random House, the author\'s American publisher. U.S. royalties will not be affected by the Canadian arrangement. The 81-year-old author agreed to the plans for a short-fiction prize during a promotional visit to Toronto earlier this week. He and Pierre Berton, whose popular histories of northern Canada figured in the research for ``Alaska,\'\' made a joint appearance Monday night. Michener was quoted by the Star as saying he was ``caught up\'\' by the story of the five men in the portion cut from ``Alaska\'\' and ``became intensely interested in what would have happened to them.\'\' He said his next long novel will be about the Caribbean and probably will be published in 1990.\r\n'),(2279,2,'Hopes for a successful Christmas shopping season all but vanished after the nation\'s biggest retailers said their business continued to deteriorate in October. Several companies including Sears, Roebuck & Co. and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. reported Thursday that their sales dropped from levels of a year earlier as consumers, preoccupied with concerns about the economy and the Middle East, avoided buying anything they didn\'t need. The disappointing October sales followed poor showings in August and September, and with Christmas less than seven weeks away, retailers and the industry analysts who track their performance expect consumers to remain frugal during the holiday season. ``They\'ll probaby be going in and buying the same number of items, but they\'re not going to pay as much ...\'\' said Thomas Tashjian, an analyst with Seidler Amdec Securities Inc. in Los Angeles. ``They\'re not going to buy $100 electronic toys for their kids, not this year.\'\' Analysts said shoppers will be looking harder for bargains and waiting longer for price reductions than in past years. ``They\'re going to be busy spending fewer dollars,\'\' said Daniel Barry, an analyst with Kidder Peabody & Co. Consumers cut spending as the economy weakened and after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait raised the specter of war, inflating prices of gasoline and home heating oil. The first items crossed off shopping lists were so-called discretionary items - clothing, furniture, home appliances and other extras that are the bread and butter of many big stores. If retailers have a difficult Christmas, it could contribute to a further deterioration of the economy, since two-thirds of the nation\'s economic growth is generated by consumer spending. Unsold goods on store shelves could also affect manufacturing - if stores don\'t place new orders, factories don\'t need to provide as many products and could lay off workers. And a poor Christmas season could be devastating for the retailers themselves, as they depend on holiday shopping for about half their annual sales and profits. Christmas 1989 was a disappointment for many storeowners after they were forced to slash prices to attract customers. Sears, the country\'s largest retailer, said October results from stores open at least one year fell 0.4 percent from a year earlier, while overall sales dropped 1.2 percent. Analysts believe sales from stores open at least a year - also known as same-store or comparable store sales - provide a more accurate assessment of a retailer\'s performance than overall sales do. New stores tend to have extraordinarily strong sales that can skew a retailer\'s results. One of the hardest hit last month was Penney, which said comparable store sales fell 6.3 percent from October 1989, while overall sales dropped 4.9 percent. Limited Inc., the nation\'s largest specialty apparel retailer, reported comparable store sales dropped 1 percent as overall sales rose 13 percent. Apparel stores were also affected by continuing warm weather in some parts of the country. May Department Stores Co., parent of big department store chains including Lord & Taylor, Hecht\'s, Filene\'s and Foley\'s, said comparable store sales dropped 4.4 percent, while overall sales edged up 1.1 percent. But Wal-Mart Stores Inc., one of the biggest discount retailers, continued to outperform the rest of the retail industry, reporting comparable store sales rose 10 percent while overall sales rose 25 percent. Analysts are already predicting trouble for some stores, especially those going into the Christmas season with high inventory levels and unexpectedly poor sales. These retailers are expected to be the first ones to mark down merchandise - and see their profits evaporate. Markdowns set off a spiral of sorts as consumers, having seen one round of price reductions, wait for more merchandise to be marked down and end up forcing retailers to take further cuts. When one retailer lowers prices, it pressures others to follow. Among other reports from retailers Thursday: -Dayton Hudson Corp. said comparable store sales rose 4.1 percent, while overall sales picked up 16.7 percent. -Kmart Corp. reported a 1.3 percent sales gain at comparable stores, and an 11.2 percent rise overall. -Woolworth Corp. said comparable store sales increased 1 percent, while overall sales rose 4.2 percent. The results announced Thursday differ from the monthly retail sales report from the government. The Commerce Department\'s figures includes sales from supermarkets, restaurants and car dealers.\r\n'),(2280,2,'With Michael Dukakis again holding the upper hand, the Democratic presidential candidates descended full force on New York today for a two-week run to the crucial April 19 primary. Dukakis picked up back-to-back wins in Colorado and Wisconsin this week over Jesse Jackson, to follow up on home turf victory in Connecticut. Before that, Jackson had piled up victories in Michigan and Illinois. Even before the polls closed in Tuesday\'s Wiscnsin contest, Dukakis and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. were prospecting in New York, hoping to stake a claim on the mother lode of the primary season thus far. ``I hope it\'s a sign of things to come,\'\' Dukakis of his Wisconsin win. Jackson, too, was upbeat abut his prospects. ``We go to New York with a good campaign, a broad-based campaign, momentum, a clear messge _ a message that applies to New York,\'\' he said Tuesday night. At stake in the New York primary are 255 delegates. At the national convention, only California\'s delegation, a 336-member giant, will be larger. And that primary isn\'t until June 7. ``We think that if we can win New York, we\'re going to be in a good position to dominate the last third of the primaries,\'\' said Paul Bograd, Dukakis\' New York campaign manager. ``But New York will be critical to that.\'\' ``No way you can underestimate the importance of this one,\'\' said John Marino, executive director of the state Democratic Committee and a political operative of Gov. Mario Cuomo. Cuomo\'s presence is felt in the New York primary race, as it has been to some extent in the entire campaign. Reluctant to run for president himself, Cuomo has been equally reluctant to endorse any other Democrat. Cuomo\'s apparent indecision has fueled speculation for months that he might want a deadlocked convention and desperate Democrats turning to him offering the nomination. Cuomo has insisted he doesn\'t want that, but thus far has refused to rule out accepting a convention draft. There is also a Republican primary on April 19 in New York, with 102 delegates at stake. But it is little more than a formality as Vice President George Bush rolls toward the GOP nomination. On the other hand, the Democratic primary could provide important answers, including: _Can Dukakis keep up the momentum he\'s regained with this week\'s victories in Wisconsin and Colorado _ and convince party leaders that he deserves the nomination? _Can Jackson\'s solid support among minority voters and the backing of several prominent New York labor leaders overcome Jewish uneasiness and produce the New York victory his campaign now needs? _Will Gore\'s decision to put most of his remaining eggs in the New York basket prove to be anything more than a windfall for television stations who run his paid ads? Along with Cuomo, most of the state\'s other major Democrats, such as New York City Mayor Edward Koch and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, have remained officially neutral. Recent polls among New York Democrats have Dukakis leading the field with support ranging from 37 percent to 45 percent, depending on the poll. Jackson has been consistently second at just under 30 percent while Gore and Simon have yet to crack double digits in any of the polls. Anticipating Dukakis\' victory in Wisconsin, Bograd declared Tuesday evening that the campaign had become ``clearly a two-man race\'\' between Dukakis and Jackson. While the Dukakis camp was ready to write off Gore, who finished a distant third in Wisconsin, the Tennessee senator has been campaigning hard here for more than a week. He\'s also hired New York political consultant David Garth, who runs Koch\'s campaigns and who occasionally advises Cuomo. Gore has been courting New York\'s politically important Jewish community, and has been attacking Jackson and Dukakis on the issue of support for Israel. If that message has any impact it could hurt Dukakis most; Jackson\'s support among New York Jews is already minimal following his 1984 ``Hymietown\'\' gaffe. However, Dukakis\' wife Kitty, who is Jewish, has been campaigning in the Jewish community. Jackson is relying on his strong minority support, coupled with a growing acceptance among white voters, to win more than the 26 percent he garnered in the New York primary four years ago. Jackson plans a big television buy in New York, a tool he hasn\'t used much in other states. He also has the support of influential labor leaders such as Stanley Hill, executive director of the 120,000-member New York City municipal workers union, and Jan Pierce, a top official with the Communications Workers of America. Bograd, Dukakis\' New York campaign manager, says the Massachusetts governor will spend at least $1 million on his New York effort; others put it as high as $3 million. The Massachusetts governor also has the support of some of the top officials from the state\'s politically powerful teachers\' unions.\r\n'),(2281,2,'Emperor Hirohito, the world\'s longest reigning monarch, received three blood transfusions today and was in stable condition after vomiting blood, imperial officials said. The Imperial Household Agency and other officials did not confirm a Kyodo News Service report that the 87-year-old emperor appeared to be in critical condition this morning despite night-long treatment by a team of court physicians. Kyodo attributed its report to an unidentified person who attended a Cabinet meeting this morning. It said a pre-dawn transfusion had not stopped a hemorrhage in his digestive tract. The imperial agency said no such announcement had been made. But in briefings later for Japanese reporters, Iwao Miyao, vice grand steward of the imperial agency, said doctors had given Hirohito 1.6 pints of blood during the night, then 0.4 pints more during the morning and 0.4 pints again during the afternoon. An Imperial Household Agency official quoted Miyao as saying in a briefing at 9:30 p.m. ``I don\'t think the emperor\'s condition is becoming worse, but rather that it is stabilizing.\'\' ``The emperor is in stable condition. He has a slight fever and is receiving intravenous drip,\'\' said palace spokesman Takenari Sugawara. Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita\'s Cabinet was expected to approve plans Thursday to place Crown Prince Akihito, 54, in charge of state matters, Defense Agency head Kichiro Tazawa told reporters. The emperor\'s worsening health caused one former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone to cut short a trip to London and return home. At least one morning newspaper, the English-language Japan Times, printed a single-page extra this afternoon. It bore the headline ``Ailing Emperor Vomits Some Blood\'\' and a photo of a jogger who paused to pray in front of the palace. In a briefing to palace reporters this afternoon, Miyao said the emperor would continue to receive blood and intravenous fluids, Kyodo said. Japanese news media mounted an intense watch on the imperial palace, in central Tokyo, and reported the arrivals of a stream of well-wishers, including Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita and U.S. Ambassador Mike Mansfield. The Japan Broadcasting Corp. reported that Hirohito said ``thank you\'\' to his son Akihito and the prince\'s wife, Crown Princess Michiko. The emperor\'s death would plunge Japan into official mourning. Hirohito has occupied the Chrysanthemum Throne since 1926 and, after renouncing his divinity after World War II, is a figurehead with the constitutional role of ``symbol of state\'\' but no power. Older Japanese grew up revering him as the divine descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu and still honor him highly, while younger people tend to have less interest in the imperial family. Marine biology is the emperor\'s passion. Indeed, Hirohito is a widely respected authority on the subject, having written or co-authored at least 12 books on hydrozoa, or sea animals, his specialty. Late Monday, court physicians were summoned to the palace to treat the emperor, and early today Miyao told a news conference that the emperor had vomited blood _ a sign of hemorrhaging _ and the doctor had administered the first transfusion. The monarch was conscious through the procedure, Miyao said. Hirohito has been frail since an intestinal bypass operation in September 1987 but he appeared in public for his 87th birthday on April 29 and on several later occasions. He and Empress Nagako, 85, spent most of the summer at an imperial villa outside Tokyo, returning to the capital on Sept. 8. Since late summer, he has suffered from colds and fevers and a news report last week said he had lost 20 pounds of the 130 pounds he carried before his surgery.\r\n'),(2282,2,'The legislators who most closely oversee America\'s defense budget reaped $2 million in campaign contributions last year from political action committees affiliated with the defense industry. The biggest chunks went to committee leaders and other legislators who are particularly influential on military matters, according to an Associated Press analysis of campaign receipts by members of four key congressional panels. The committees will play a major role in determining how the pro-democracy movement in Eastern Europe and improved relations with the Soviet Union are translated into Pentagon budget cuts that could have a big impact on defense contractors. Ninety-two of the 104 legislators who serve on the four panels got money from defense PACs, with the largest share going to Sen. J. Bennett Johnson, a Louisiana Democrat who sits on the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee. Johnston received $128,000 from defense PACs whose sponsors read like a who\'s who of military contractors. The AP analysis covered PAC contributions to members of the defense subcommittees of the House and Senate appropriations committees, and to members of each chamber\'s Armed Services panel. In good times and bad, it is common practice for special interests to target their PAC contributions to legislators with influence in their fields. Banking-related PACs, for example, gave nearly $6 million in the 1987-88 election cycle to legislators on committees with jurisdiction over banking issues, according to the newsletter PACs & Lobbies. Congress for years has been debating campaign finance reforms that would limit the role of PACs in congressional races. Yet many lawmakers and PAC officials reject the contention of public interest groups that special-interest money unduly influences congressional votes. A spokesman for Johnston, Tony Garrett, said ``It makes sense that people in the defense industry would support those who favor a strong national defense and who are key players in defense policy. They also know the senator through his efforts to bring more defense industries to Louisiana.\'\' A prominent player in the campaign finance deliberations, Rep. Beryl Anthony, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said there is nothing wrong with accepting PAC money but that the soaring costs of campaigns have perhaps created the perception that lawmakers are too reliant on special interest money. ``Taking a legal PAC contribution is not sleazy,\'\' Anthony said in an interview Friday. ``The culprit is in how much money it takes to run an election.\'\' The 1989 PAC contributions, detailed in year-end campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission, cover the first half of the 1989-90 election cycle. Fund-raising generally escalates during election years, and past donors are among the first targets to be tapped. On top of PAC contributions, additional money from defense contractors is channeled to lawmakers as honoraria for speeches and other appearances. In 1987, for example, members of the four defense-related committees received $521,000 in honoraria from the top 50 defense contractors, according to the Common Cause advocacy group. Legislators also receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from labor union PACs whose members work at defense plants and from PACs for lobbying firms whose clients include major defense contractors. The $2 million figure, however, covers only donations from PACs affiliated with defense contractors. PACs affiliated with companies that would be most affected by major reductions in defense spending were among the biggest financial backers of members of the four congressional panels. General Motors Corp.\'s PACs, for example, distributed nearly $140,000 last year among 75 members of the four defense-related committees, according to the AP analysis. GM\'s donations included those from its corporate PAC and from the PACs of its Electronic Data Systems and Hughes Aircraft subsidiaries. Not far behind was McDonnell Douglas Corp., whose two PACs gave $132,000 to 73 members of the congressional panels. Next were Textron Inc. and Lockheed Corp., whose PACs each made $103,000 in 1989 contributions to members of the four committees. Coming in just short of $100,000 in total donations to the committee members were the PACs associated with Grumman Corp., Northrop Corp. and Raytheon Co. Raytheon\'s totals include donations by the PAC of its Beech Aircraft subsidiary. PACs for Martin Marietta Corp., Rockwell International Corp., United Technologies Corp., Boeing Co., General Dynamics Corp., LTV Corp. and Westinghouse Electric Corp. contributed between $50,000 and $90,000 each to members of the defense-related congressional panels. While the chairmen and ranking Republicans of the congressional committees generally were among the biggest recipients of defense-industry PAC money, there was one major exception last year. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate defense appropriations panel, received just $1,000 in defense-industry PAC money; $2,150 in total PAC donations. Inouye, who is not up for re-election until 1992, received $52,000 in defense PAC money during the 1985-86 election cycle. The ranking Republican on that same panel, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, reported defense-industry PAC contributions of $112,500 in 1989 and total PAC contributions of $497,000. He is heavily favored for re-election this year. The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Democrat Sam Nunn of Georgia, received more than $489,000 from PACs in 1989, of which $88,000 came from the defense industry. The panel\'s ranking Republican, John Warner of Virginia, received $395,000 from PACs, $86,000 of it from the defense industry. Other big recipients of defense PAC money included: _Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee. He received $150,000 from PACs last year, $55,500 of it from the defense industry. _Rep. Joseph M. McDade of Pennsylvania, ranking Republican on the same panel. He raised $79,000 from PACs, $36,000 of it from the defense industry. McDade, who is under FBI investigation for his relationship with a now-defunct defense contractor, used all of his 1989 campaign contributions to pay legal fees. _Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Aspin received $135,000 from PACs last year, of which $41,000 came from the defense industry. _Rep. William L. Dickinson of Alabama, senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee. Dickinson received $52,000 last year from defense-industry PACs, representing 71 percent of his $72,000 in total PAC receipts.\r\n'),(2283,2,'A red oak tree a few miles down the road from Terry A. Anderson\'s hometown was just a sapling when Monica Stocum tied a yellow ribbon around it soon after he was abducted in Lebanon on March 16, 1985. Now, the tree has grown enough to burst the ribbon, engulfing parts of it in the tree\'s new growth. The one-time sapling will soon be big enough to shelter a picnic. ``My God, a tree grows slowly and look at how it has grown,\'\' Stocum said. Anderson is still a hostage, held captive longer than any other Westerner in Lebanon. But in this town of about 17,000 people, Stocum and hundreds like her are keeping his memory alive, even though they have never met him. An informal group organizes ceremonies to commemorate Anderson\'s birthdays and the anniversaries of his kidnapping. On Friday, the fifth anniversary of his abduction from the streets of Beirut, they will attend services and fast for 24 hours as a gesture of spirituality and support. Hometown solidarity and admiration for the efforts of Anderson\'s sister, Peggy Say, to free all the Western hostages in Lebanon have spurred those efforts, said Anne Zickl, a member of the group. ``Terry Anderson graduated from Batavia High School. So did my mother and father and I. So did my four kids. So you have a connection right there,\'\' said Mrs. Zickl. ``Plus, I think Americans don\'t like injustice.\'\' Stocum moved to nearby Le Roy 15 years after Anderson left the area, but said the hometown tie was important to her as well. ``I probably wouldn\'t know him if I fell over him in the street, even with the pictures,\'\' she said. ``It just seems like we should be more alert because he\'s one of us.\'\' Anderson left Batavia, in dairy country 40 miles east of Buffalo, in 1965 to join the Marines. He went on to a career in journalism that took him, as chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, to Lebanon. His father, Glenn R. Anderson, and brother, Glenn Richard Jr., remained here, and after Terry was kidnapped Say moved back to be with them, said Penny Anderson, a sister-in-law. The father and brother have since died. ``She was always the strong one of the family,\'\' Mrs. Anderson said. Since then, Say has been the most persistent and outspoken advocate of her brother\'s cause. Her efforts drew admiration and offers of help locally, from longtime friends like Marsha Barton and strangers such as Mrs. Zickl. They now form a support team for Say, who has moved to Kentucky but continues to travel the world to press for her brother\'s freedom. Working from Mrs. Zickl\'s dining room _ her family has not eaten there in 1{ years _ they publish newsletters, collect Valentine\'s Day and Christmas cards for Anderson and field inquiries from reporters from around the world. ``We just function here to give Peggy as much support as we can, because Peggy is the one who can do the most for the hostages,\'\' Mrs. Zickl said. There have been more than enough dashed hopes, and as they plan for the fifth anniversary of Anderson\'s capture, they find themselves trying to stifle excitement over Iran\'s recently softened stance on the hostage issue. ``My head is saying, `Now, don\'t get excited. We\'ve heard all this before,\'\'\' Mrs. Anderson said. ``My heart says he\'s coming home. I woke up Monday morning absolutely positive he\'s coming home.\'\' Friday\'s fast, they hope, will give the kidnappers one more nudge toward that goal. ``I think that people in other countries find Americans very arrogant and very self-indulgent,\'\' Mrs. Zickl said. ``For them to know that Americans are fasting, not on their own behalf but for peace and freedom in the Middle East, I think they\'ll find that very moving.\'\'\r\n'),(2284,2,'Stock prices hovered in a narrow range today in a sluggish summer session. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, down about 8 points in early trading, was up .89 at 2,132.11 by 2 p.m. on Wall Street. Gainers and losers ran about even in the overall tally of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 692 up, 688 down and 485 unchanged. Volume on the Big Board came to 153.59 million shares with two hours to go. Nearly half of that activity was concentrated in a single issue _ American Electric Power, unchanged at 28}. Analysts said the heavy trading in the stock stemmed from trading strategies focused on the company\'s impending dividend. Otherwise, analysts said the market was still beset by concerns that strong economic growth would prompt further moves by the Federal Reserve to restrain inflation. The Labor Department\'s monthly report Friday on the employment situation for July is expected to show continuing robust gains in payroll employment In the credit markets today, prices of long-term government bonds, which move in the opposite direction from interest rates, declined slightly. Insilco jumped 6\\ to 27{ on word that the company\'s management is considering a buyout proposal. Texaco, trading ex-dividend, rose } to 47|, and Texaco Canada added [ to 30~ on the American Stock Exchange. On Tuesday Texaco said its 78 percent stake in Texaco Canada was for sale. The NYSE\'s composite index of all its listed common stocks gained .25 to 153.79. At the Amex, the market value index was down .34 at 306.16.\r\n'),(2285,2,'A veteran jockey who had planned to retire at the end of the year was killed at Belmont Park when his mount broke a leg and the man fell to the track, where he was kicked in the face by another horse. Mike Venezia, the rider of more than 2,000 winners in more than 21,000 races since 1964, died in the fifth race on Thursday\'s card, officials said. Robbie Davis, the rider of the other horse, was taken to a hospital for treatment of shock. Venezia\'s mount, a 3-year-old gelding named Mr. Walter K., was humanely killed. Venezia, 43, was the first jockey killed at a New York Racing Association track since March 29, 1982, when Amado Credidio died after he was thrown over the top of a horse onto the ground and into the path of several other horses in a race at Aqueduct. Venezia\'s mount broke his right foreleg going down the backstretch of a 1 1-16 mile allowance race. Venezia attempted to pull up the gelding, then went off the horse to his left and fell crosswise on the track, directly in the path of the other horse, Drums in the Night. ``I think he was dead when the (ambulance) technician got to him,\'\' Dr. Leo Skolnik, the examining NYRA physician, said. ``He was apparently kicked in the face. He had no pulse, no respiration and his pupils were dilated and fixed. ``I don\'t see how a fall to the ground could have sustained this kind of injury.\'\' The last four races of Thursday\'s card were canceled. Racing was to resume today and a memorial service was to be held for Venezia, who had planned to retire at the end of this year.\r\n'),(2286,2,'The bloodiest of four army uprisings in four years was also the shortest, and President Menem\'s decisive management of the crisis may strengthen his government. Monday\'s uprising, two days before President Bush\'s scheduled visit, was quickly crushed. Menem said Tuesday the rebel leaders will be tried by military court and face the death penalty if found guilty. Late Monday, after the rebels had filed out of the last of the buildings they had seized before dawn, Menem told a news conference that ``my pulse isn\'t going to tremble\'\' if military officers who had rebelled repeatedly - and killed people in the proces - forfeit their lives. The unofficial death toll in the uprising rose Tuesday to 14 when a soldier died from wounds suffered in putting down the insurrection. Unofficial tallies put the number of wounded at nearly 60 and the arrested at more than 400. The government did not disclose its figures on casualties and arrests. Menem and Defense Minister Humberto Romero signed a decree that legally separated the rebel leaders from their followers. While the leaders could face the death penalty, the followers face charges in civil court, where the worst punishment is life in prison. Menem ``is convinced the death penalty should be applied to end these happenings,\'\' said Raul Granillo Ocampo, the president\'s legal adviser. That attitude found support in this capital city of 10 million, whose residents saw their democracy threatened by the uprising. In quelling it, air force planes bombed tanks on public roads and a bridge was dynamited. Rebels fired at and hit Vice President Eduardo Duhalde\'s helicopter. On Tuesday, rebels who hid overnight at a rural Buenos Aires Province farm gave themselves up, along with three tanks they had seized. Argentina\'s two biggest political groups, the governing Perronist Party and the Civic Radical Union, issued a statement with 23 other parties saying the government should punish the rebels ``with severity.\'\' The rebels had demanded a shakeup of the military high command and a bigger military budget. Observers said they also sought to embarrass Menem by forcing Bush to cancel a visit to Argentina on Wednesday. Bush was in Uruguay on Tuesday. Menem refused to concede a single point, and even while rebels still held the army headquarters, Bush said he would arrive on schedule. Menem was sworn in 17 months ago amid hyperinflation, recession, food riots and military unrest. He seemed to have strengthened his government by choosing to fight the rebels instead of negotiating as former President Raul Alfonsin did on three occasions. It did not escape Argentines\' notice that under Menem, the air force and navy for the first time helped put down an army rebellion. So no one would doubt that rebels surrendered unconditionally, they were ordered to walk out with their hands behind their necks and shoeless, a gesture meant to humiliate them. The rebels ``thought the president would be frightened and give in to their pressures,\'\' and become ``their puppet,\'\' said Adelina Dalesio de Viola, a national deputy with the opposition Union of the Democratic Center. ``But at every moment, Menem showed himself to be very firm,\'\' she said. Granillo Ocampo, Menem\'s aide, said the jailed leader of a December 1988 revolt, retired Col. Mohamed Ali Seineldin, admitted he played a role in the rebellion. He said Seineldin asked for ``a pistol with one bullet,\'\' presumably to kill himself, but authorities refused. Several other current and former officers under arrest sided with Seineldin or cashiered Lt. Col. Aldo Rico during the April 1987 and January 1988 military uprisings. Late Tuesday, Menem canceled the state-of-siege decree. Menem\'s brother, Eduardo Menem, who is president of the Senate, claimed Tuesday night the rebels intended to assassinate key political figures. The list included the president, at least one Cabinet minister and the leader of the ruling Peronist party bloc in Congress, Eduardo Menem told the independent news agency Noticias Argentina. He cited state intelligence agency information, but offered no proof to support his claim.\r\n'),(2287,2,'The dollar rose in quiet European trading this morning, boosted by some large buy orders in a market thinned by a British bank holiday, foreign exchange dealers said. Gold rose slightly in Zurich. ``The market is really dead because London is absent,\'\' said one trader in Rome. In Tokyo, where trading ends as Europe\'s business day begins, the dollar gained sharply, closing up 0.70 yen at 134.20 yen. Later, in Europe, it was quoted at 134.25 yen. Foreign exchange dealers attributed the dollar\'s strong performance in Tokyo to loss-cutting and said orders concentrated there because other major markets were closed. Hong Kong\'s financial institutions were also closed today for a national holiday. ``Those who had sold the dollar at around 133.80 yen bought it back above the 134-yen level today,\'\' said a dealer at a U.S. bank\'s Tokyo office. ``That caused the dollar to gain sharply.\'\' Other dollar rates in Europe at midmorning, compared with late Friday\'s London rates: _1.8663 West German marks, up from 1.8565 _1.5760 Swiss francs, up from 1.5655 _6.3372 French francs, up from 6.3010 _2.1077 Dutch guilders, up from 2.0970 _1,386.25 Italian lire, down from 1,380.50 _1.2375 Canadian dollars, up from 1.23725 In Europe, the dollar made solid gains against the British pound. One pound cost $1.6855, compared with $1.7025 in London late Friday. The London bullion markets were closed for the holiday, but in Zurich the bid price for gold was $432.35, up slightly from $432.00 bid late Friday.\r\n'),(2288,2,'Here are the companies known to be conducting investigations of possibly fraudulent stock trading based on advance leaks of Business Week magazine articles and any actions they have taken involving employees: _McGraw-Hill Inc., New York, publisher of Business Week: no employee dismissals or suspensions. _R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Chicago, printer of Business Week: one employee dismissed at Old Saybrook, Conn., plant and one employee suspended at Torrance, Calif., plant. _Merrill Lynch & Co., New York, investment firm: one broker dismissed in New London, Conn., office. _Prudential-Bache Securities Inc., New York, investment firm: one broker dismissed in Anaheim, Calif., office. _Advest Inc., Hartford, Conn., investment firm: one broker suspended in New London, Conn., office. _Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc., New York, investment firm: disclosure that three former brokers in Hartford, Conn., office of E.F. Hutton Group Inc. may have traded on leaked articles before Hutton was acquired. _PaineWebber Inc., New York, investment firm: disclosure that it had hired at least two of the former Hutton brokers. _Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., New York, investment firm: no action against employees. _Integrated Resources Inc., New York, financial services firm: no action against employees. _Quick & Reilly Group Inc., New York, discount brokerage: no action against employees. _Charles Schwab & Co., San Francisco, discount brokerage: no action against employees.\r\n'),(2289,2,'Bloodstains on a pillowcase and exercise bar found in Joel Steinberg\'s apartment came from his former lover, an FBI expert testified at Steinberg\'s trial on charges he beat his illegally adopted 6-year-old daughter to death. Hedda Nussbaum, who lived with Steinberg for 12 years, has testified that Steinberg beat her on the head and legs with the bar. FBI serologist Robert J. Grispino testified Thursday that was ``100 percent\'\' certain the bloodstains were not from Steinberg, Steinberg\'s daughter, Lisa; or Steinberg\'s illegally adopted son, Mitchell, who has since been returned to his natural mother. Grispino\'s testimony came Thursday afternoon after the morning session was canceled because judge Harold Rothwax suffered two broken wrists when he was hit by a car as he rode his bicycle to work. Rothwax\'s wrists were put in casts. When the 58-year-old judge returned to the courtroom, he followed doctors\' orders to keep his arms elevated by sitting with his elbows on the desk and hands in front of his face. As the session proceeded, his clerk had to put his glasses on for him and turn pages for him. ``I regret being delayed today,\'\' he told jurors at the end of the day. ``I\'m going to try to come down (to court) safely tomorrow. You try to come down safely, too.\'\' Lisa\'s death last year in an affluent, well-educated household shocked many New Yorkers and led to a re-examination of the duty and ability of neighbors, teachers and social workers to recognize and report evidence of child abuse.\r\n'),(2290,2,'When Ron Thompson sat down for lunch on New Year\'s Eve, he was the grandfather of five. At breakfast Monday, he was a grandfather of nine. Three of Thompson\'s daughters _ Mary Tolson, Joan Thompson and Carol Thompson _ gave birth to four boys at Seton Medical Center late Sunday and early Monday. When Ms. Tolson went into labor Sunday, she asked her 19-year-old sister Joan, who was in the ninth month of her pregnancy, to drive her to the hospital. After about five hours, Ms. Tolson, 28, gave birth at 2:40 p.m. to Shane Taylor Tolson, who weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces. At Ms. Tolson\'s delivery, Dr. Chris Seeker said Joan told him, ``You will probably be seeing me, too.\'\' Sure enough, seven hours later Joan was hustled to Seton by sister Carol. Joan gave birth to Jeremy Andrew Thompson Armendariz at 12:01 a.m. He weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces. Carol, 24, then went into labor and gave birth to twin boys just before 3 a.m. The mothers and four boys spent New Year\'s Day in good condition. ``This beats partying,\'\' Joan said. ``At least I have a (sense of) relief and not a headache.\'\'\r\n'),(2291,2,'A Navy anti-submarine helicopter crashed while preparing to land on a frigate in the North Arabian Sea and its three crewmen were presumed dead, officials announced Friday. The SH-2F helicopter was returning to the USS Barbey at the end of a dawn flight and crashed on approach, said Ken Mitchell, spokesman for North Island Naval Air Station. The Barbey is based at San Diego. The crash occurred about 7 p.m. PST Thursday, Mitchell said. Lost and presumed dead were Lt. Cmdr. Gerald C. Pelz, 37, of Coronado, Calif., Lt. j.g. Gerald T. Ramsdell, age unknown, of Ridgewood, N.J., and the anti-submarine warfare operator, Petty Officer 3rd Class William E. Martinie, 24, of Peoria, Ill. Helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, 70 miles away, and boats from the Barbey and USS California unsuccessfully searched for survivors. The craft was part of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 33.');
