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A 16-year-old student at a private Baptist school who allegedly killed one teacher and wounded another before firing into a filled classroom apparently ``just snapped,'' the school's pastor said. ``I don't know how it could have happened,'' said George Sweet, pastor of Atlantic Shores Baptist Church. ``This is a good, Christian school. We pride ourselves on discipline. Our kids are good kids.'' The Atlantic Shores Christian School sophomore was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, malicious assault and related felony charges for the Friday morning shooting. Police would not release the boy's name because he is a juvenile, but neighbors and relatives identified him as Nicholas Elliott. Police said the student was tackled by a teacher and other students when his semiautomatic pistol jammed as he fired on the classroom as the students cowered on the floor crying ``Jesus save us! God save us!'' Friends and family said the boy apparently was troubled by his grandmother's death and the divorce of his parents and had been tormented by classmates. Nicholas' grandfather, Clarence Elliott Sr., said Saturday that the boy's parents separated about four years ago and his maternal grandmother, Channey Williams, died last year after a long illness. The grandfather also said his grandson was fascinated with guns. ``The boy was always talking about guns,'' he said. ``He knew a lot about them. He knew all the names of them _ none of those little guns like a .32 or a .22 or nothing like that. He liked the big ones.'' The slain teacher was identified as Karen H. Farley, 40. The wounded teacher, 37-year-old Sam Marino, was in serious condition Saturday with gunshot wounds in the shoulder. Police said the boy also shot at a third teacher, Susan Allen, 31, as she fled from the room where Marino was shot. He then shot Marino again before running to a third classroom where a Bible class was meeting. The youngster shot the glass out of a locked door before opening fire, police spokesman Lewis Thurston said. When the youth's pistol jammed, he was tackled by teacher Maurice Matteson, 24, and other students, Thurston said. ``Once you see what went on in there, it's a miracle that we didn't have more people killed,'' Police Chief Charles R. Wall said. Police didn't have a motive, Detective Tom Zucaro said, but believe the boy's primary target was not a teacher but a classmate. Officers found what appeared to be three Molotov cocktails in the boy's locker and confiscated the gun and several spent shell casings. Fourteen rounds were fired before the gun jammed, Thurston said. The gun, which the boy carried to school in his knapsack, was purchased by an adult at the youngster's request, Thurston said, adding that authorities have interviewed the adult, whose name is being withheld pending an investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The shootings occurred in a complex of four portable classrooms for junior and senior high school students outside the main building of the 4-year-old school. The school has 500 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Police said they were trying to reconstruct the sequence of events and had not resolved who was shot first. The body of Ms. Farley was found about an hour after the shootings behind a classroom door.
The Bechtel Group Inc. offered in 1985 to sell oil to Israel at a discount of at least $650 million for 10 years if it promised not to bomb a proposed Iraqi pipeline, a Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday. But then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres said the offer from Bruce Rappaport, a partner in the San Francisco-based construction and engineering company, was ``unimportant,'' the senior official told The Associated Press. Peres, now foreign minister, never discussed the offer with other government ministers, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The comments marked the first time Israel has acknowledged any offer was made for assurances not to bomb the planned $1 billion pipeline, which was to have run near Israel's border with Jordan. The pipeline was never built. In San Francisco, Tom Flynn, vice president for public relations for the Bechtel Group, said the company did not make any offer to Peres but that Rappaport, a Swiss financier, made it without Bechtel's knowledge or consent. Another Bechtel spokesman, Al Donner, said Bechtel ``at no point'' in development of the pipeline project had anything to do with the handling of the oil. He said proposals submitted by the company ``did not include any specific arrangements for the handling of the oil or for the disposal of the oil once it reached the terminal.'' Asked about Bechtel's disclaimers after they were made in San Francisco, the Israeli Foreign Ministry official said Peres believed Rappaport made the offer for the company. ``Rappaport came to Peres as a representative of Bechtel and said he was speaking on behalf of Bechtel,'' the official said. ``If he was not, he misrepresented himself.'' The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday quoted sources close to Peres as saying that according to Rappaport, Bechtel had said the oil sales would have to be conducted through a third party to keep the sales secret from Iraq and Jordan. The Foreign Ministry official said Peres did not take the offer seriously. ``This is a man who sees 10 people every day,'' he said. ``Thirty percent of them come with crazy ideas. He just says, `Yes, yes. We'll think about it.' That's how things work in Israel.'' The offer appeared to be the one mentioned in a September 1985 memo to Attorney General Edwin Meese III. The memo referred to an arrangement between Peres and Rappaport ``to the effect that Israel will receive somewhere between $65 million and $70 million a year for 10 years.'' The memo from Meese friend E. Robert Wallach, Rappaport's attorney, also states, ``What was also indicated to me, and which would be denied everywhere, is that a portion of those funds will go directly to Labor,'' a reference to the political party Peres leads. The Wallach memo has become the focus of an investigation into whether Meese knew of a possibly improper payment. Peres has denied any wrongdoing and has denounced the memo as ``complete nonsense.'' The Israeli official said Rappaport, a native of Israel and a close friend of Peres, relayed the offer to Peres earlier in September. ``Peres thought the offer was unimportant. For him, the most important thing was to have an Iraqi oil port near Israel's border,'' the official said. ``The thinking was that this would put Iraq in a position where it would not be able to wage war with Israel, out of concern for its pipeline.'' A person answering the telephone at Rappaport's Swiss residence said he was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
A gunman took a 74-year-old woman hostage after he was foiled in an attempt to steal $1 million in jewelry belonging to the late Liberace, but police shot and killed the man outside the entertainer's museum. ``I just tried to stay cool,'' said hostage Margaret Bloomberg, who sat down to give police a clear shot at the man and escaped unharmed in Sunday evening's incident at the Liberace Museum. ``The man had a bag of tools, including a crowbar, and was going to smash into the jewelry case,'' said Dora Liberace, administrator of the museum and sister-in-law of the late entertainer. ``He wanted the jewelry and he came prepared to take it.'' Mrs. Bloomberg, who has worked at the museum 10 years, was closing the office when the man appeared, saying he wanted to deliver a plant, Mrs. Liberace said. The man produced a gun, forced his way inside and refused offers of money, Mrs. Bloomberg said. ``Margaret offered him the day's receipts, even offered him the money in her purse, but he wasn't interested,'' Mrs. Liberace said. ``He said `I don't want the cash. I want the jewelry.' He obviously had been in there before and checked out the place. He seemed to know where everything was.'' Mrs. Bloomberg was able to warn a cleaning woman, who slipped out a back door and called police. The gunman tied Mrs. Bloomberg's hands and feet, taped her mouth, then untied her, moved her to another part of the museum and tied her again. ``He was getting ready to pop the jewelry case when he heard a noise outside,'' Mrs. Bloomberg said. ``He went and saw the police. I told him I'd get him out the back door. When we tried that, police were there, too.'' The gunman walked out the front door with a gun pointed at the bound hostage. ``He told police he would shoot me if they didn't let him get to his car,'' she recalled. ``I just tried to stay cool.'' ``She just sat down on the sidewalk, pretending her legs had collapsed under her,'' Mrs. Liberace said. ``He tried to lift her in the car but couldn't. He leaned back for a minute and the police shot him.'' ``When I sat down I figured the police would pick him off, maybe,'' Mrs. Bloomberg said. Mrs. Bloomberg, somewhat shaken and her hands still bearing marks from the ropes, was back at work Monday. ``I thought I was better off working than staying at home and dwelling on it,'' she said. The gunman, identified as Hugh Perry, 47, of Las Vegas, had a lengthy arrest record dating back to the 1960s, said Metro Police Lt. Kyle Edwards. The museum is one of the city's top tourist attractions, featuring memorabilia of the entertainer who gained fame here and retained a home not far away. Mrs. Liberace said the museum has one of the most sophisticated security systems in the city but will now add guards. Liberace, who died in February 1987 of complications due to AIDS, founded the museum 10 years ago to fund the Liberace Foundation for the Performing Arts, which provides scholarships for music and art students at 27 colleges and universities across the United States.
Today is Saturday, Oct. 29, the 303rd day of 1988. There are 63 days left in the year. A reminder: daylight-saving time ends tomorrow at 2 a.m. local time. Clocks ``fall back'' one hour. Today's highlight in history: In 1929, ``Black Tuesday'' descended upon the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapsed amid panic selling, thousands of investors were wiped out, and America's Great Depression began. On this date: In 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh, the English courtier, military adventurer and poet, was executed in London. In 1682, Pennsylvania founder William Penn landed at what is now Chester, Pa. In 1901, President William McKinley's assassin, Leon Czolgosz, was electrocuted. In 1911, American newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer died in Charleston, S.C. In 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. In 1940, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number _ 158 _ in the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history. In 1947, former first lady Frances Cleveland Preston died in Baltimore at age 83. In 1956, Israel launched an invasion of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. In 1956, ``The Huntley-Brinkley Report'' premiered as NBC's nightly television newscast, replacing ``The Camel News Caravan.'' In 1964, thieves made off with the Star of India and several other priceless gems from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The Star and most of the other gems were recovered the following year; three men were convicted of stealing them. In 1966, the National Organization for Women was founded. In 1986, Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi Arabia's oil minister since 1962 and one of the best-known figures of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, was dismissed. Ten years ago: Responding to a rebuke from President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin reaffirmed his country's right to expand existing Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Five years ago: The coffins of 16 U.S. servicemen who had been killed in the Beirut truck-bombing on Oct. 23 and the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. One year ago: Following the confirmation defeat of Robert H. Bork to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, President Reagan announced his choice of Douglas H. Ginsburg, a nomination that would run into trouble over revelations of Ginsburg's past marijuana use. Today's birthdays: Singer Melba Moore is 43. Actor Richard Dreyfuss is 41. Actress Kate Jackson is 40. Thought for today: ``What one has not experienced, one will never understand in print.'' _ Isadora Duncan, modern dance pioneer (1878-1927).
Cupid has a new message for lovers this Valentine's Day and volunteers are lining up to spread the word from Loveland. People around the world send their Valentines through the Loveland post office each year to get the special postmark and cachet verse. Ted Thompson, 85, has been coming up with verses since he and his wife, Mabel, started the remailing program in 1947. An estimated 300,000 people will get Thompson's latest Valentine's verse: ``It might just be a song bird, ``Or perhaps some sparkling dew, ``That brings fond recollections, ``And a timeless cupid too.'' Thompson said recently he's not sure where he got the inspiration. ``It takes the whole year for me to get something I'm satisfied with. It's a hard thing for me. Some people are born to write a verse for you, but that's far away from me.'' Since it stamped 300 pieces of mail its first year, more than 7 million Valentines have passed through the program. The mail is hand-stamped by about 50 senior-citizen volunteers. There's no charge for the extra touch, which begins Monday and continues through Feb. 14.
The Reagan administration is weighing whether to invoke a law authorizing the seizure of tax payments made by U.S. businesses operating in Panama, national security adviser Colin Powell said today. Saying that economic sanctions applied so far ``have not yet created enough pressure'' to force the ouster of strongman Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, Powell said ``we are examining additional pressure that might be brought to bear.'' He briefed reporters not long after giving the vacationing President Reagan an update on the Panamanian problem. A senior administration official, disussing Panama on grounds he not be publicly identified, said the United States would encourage any move within the Panamanian Defense Forces to oust Noriega. ``He still is firmly in control, but not as in control as he was, perhaps, a month ago, and every effort we can take to foster that discontent in the PDF, I can assure you we are taking,'' he said. ``If the PDF, after examining the situation, think it would be useful to remove General Noriega, I think that would be a very sound decision for them to take,'' the official said. Powell acknowledged that some corporations operating in Panama have balked at having their tax payments placed in an escrow account because of a concern that it could hamper their operations. For this reason, he said, White House advisers and other administration officials are studying the implications of invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act _ which would authorize the government to seize these payments. ``We have to be cautious before you invoke ... because it is a very powerful tool, and the staff back in Washington is examining the pros and cons'' of invoking the act, Powell said. ``And if it is a sensible thing to do, to continue to apply pressure on General Noriega, we will provide that for the president for his consideration.'' Powell refused to discuss any military options being weighed, except he indicated there would be no immediate dispatch of troops beyond the 1,300 deployed to the Central American country early this week. Powell, an Army lieutenant general, said he believes there now is ``a reasonable degree of security'' for Americans living in Panama and the U.S. installations there. Meanwhile, the administration was taking a dim view of Jesse Jackson's contacts with Noriega, despite Jackson's diplomatic coups in the past during visits to Cuba and Syria. Following Jackson's disclosure that he had sent a letter to Noriega two weeks ago asking him to resign, State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said Monday that such communications could prolong Noriega's grip on power. ``The proliferation of channels is a tactic Noriega uses to buy time,'' Ms. Oakley said. ``We have available channels of communication with Noriega if and when they are needed. We think it would be best to continue to use these channels exclusively.'' White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, traveling with Reagan in California, also criticized the Democratic presidential candidate's involvement in Panama. ``We have a bipartisan coordinated plan for dealing with Noriega,'' he said. ``That's why it's important to Congress and the public, and we believe it's been working.'' Jackson has dealt successfully in the past with other U.S. adversaries. In 1984, he traveled to Cuba and persuaded President Fidel Castro to release 26 political prisoners. He later went to Syria and, during talks with President Hafez Assad, won freedom for an American military pilot detained there. His efforts earned him an enthusiastic White House welcome. Jackson said he has no plans to travel to Panama to try to help resolve the 6-week-old crisis in that country. About 1,300 Army soldiers and Marines were headed to Panama today, joining the 10,000 troops stationed at the U.S. Southern Command in Panama. The Pentagon said the soldiers are being sent to increase security for Americans and U.S. facilities in Panama. In a related development, a former Panamanian official told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday that Noriega probably has evidence of complicity by U.S. officials in Central American drug trafficking. Jose I. Blandon produced a document Noriega sent to the country's U.S. diplomatic offices in February saying he has proof that American officials knowingly established policies that supported people in the drug business. Blandon, a former intelligence official and consul general who defected last year, mentioned Panama, Guatemala and Costa Rica. Jackson says he agrees with the Reagan administration that Noriega should step down, but he has accused U.S. officials of overkill in trying to achieve that goal through economic sanctions that have contributed to economic paralysis in Panama. Jackson, appearing Monday in Milwaukee, renewed his call for Noriega to leave Panama and released a letter in which Noriega rejected ``any political and economic program that will be dictated from Washington, D.C.'' ``My duration as commander and chief of the defense forces is governed by the Panamanian constitution and law of the defense forces,'' Noriega's letter said. While releasing the letter, Jackson renewed his call for Noriega to go into exile. ``I remain convinced that it is in the best interests of the Panamanian people for General Noriega to leave,'' Jackson said. ``Today I reiterate my public moral appeal for him to depart.''
More than 120,000 skins of a protected species of alligator were smuggled into Japan during the past seven months using stolen or falsified export documents, a wildlife protection organization said Thursday. Traffic Japan, the wildlife trade monitoring group of the World Wide Fund for Nature, said the South American caiman skins were shipped by a complex route involving at least seven South American and Asian countries before they arrived in Japan. At least 46 tons of the skins, from more than 120,000 alligators, entered Japan in the first seven months of this year through Thailand alone, the group said. It said it believed the skins were part of a larger shipment that was loaded onto Asia-bound ships off the coast of Uruguay at the end of last year. The declared customs value of the skins was about 427 million yen (about $3.2 million), ``but retail value would be four to five times more,'' spokeswoman Cecila Song said. The skins are used in Japan mainly for belts and watchbands. Permits are required for the export of South American caiman skins under the regulations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), an international treaty regulating trade in protected plants and animals, Song said. Japanese officials allowed the shipments to enter the country without proper verification of the export documents, the group said in a statement. ``Traffic's 8-month investigation has revealed a serious lapse of CITES administration in Thailand and Japan, and has uncovered a long paper trail of illegal CITES documents and other ploys involving Thailand, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Singapore to mask the illegal origins of the poached skins,'' the statement said. It said Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry had responded to evidence of illegal caiman trade by instituting a new voluntary check system on all imports of the skins. ``But unless they come up with a system involving legal penalties, we don't think there will be any improvement, especially with the high profits involved,'' Song said. Ministry officials were not available Thursday night for comment.
There will be no organized union boost behind a single candidate in Saturday's Democratic caucuses in Michigan, a state where union members can wield more clout than almost anywhere else. While national labor leaders are assuming Michael Dukakis will be the eventual nominee, they are prevented from endorsing him by what appears to be growing rank-and-file support for Jesse Jackson, who has gotten more union votes than any of the other candidates in primaries so far. Richard Gephardt also has considerable union support. None of the Democratic candidates appears to have won the hearts _ or votes _ of a majority of the state's 750,000 rank-and-file union workers, nearly half of them members of the United Auto Workers.
Here is a summary of developments in forest and brush fires in Western states:
Jean-Pierre Stirbois, the No. 2 man in the extreme-right National Front after party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, died Saturday in an automobile accident, police said. He was 43. Stirbois attended a political meeting Friday in the city of Dreux, about 60 miles west of Paris, and was traveling toward the capital when his car ran off the road and smashed into a tree at about 2:40 a.m, police said. Stirbois was secretary-general of the National Front and a member of the party leadership since 1981. He was born Jan. 30, 1945 in Paris, held degrees in law and marketing and headed his own printing business. Stirbois was active in several extreme-right political movements before joining the National Front in 1977. In 1982, he won 12.6 percent of the vote in local elections in the district of Eure-et-Loir, west of Paris _ the highest vote percentage in France for a right-wing candidate. A year and a half later, he won the election for deputy mayor of Dreux. Stirbois was elected a deputy in the National Assembly in 1986. He lost his seat in legislative elections last summer. The National Front, founded by Le Pen in 1972, is strongly opposed to France's highly centralized and bureaucratic government and is against personal taxes. It favors the death penalty, priority to French citizens for jobs, and stopping immigration. In the first round of this year's presidential elections, Le Pen won a surprising 14.4 percent of the vote, worrying many who feared the National Front could awaken racist sentiments.
At least 15 people died and 25,000 residents of Surat town were evacuated after torrential rains flooded the west Indian town, United News of India reported Friday. UNI said the victims lived in slum localities which were the worst affected in the deluge Thursday night. It said 25,000 slum residents lost their homes in the floods and were moved to relief camps. Surat in Gujarat state is 560 miles southwest of New Delhi. At least 50 people have drowned or died in collapsed houses across India since the monsoon broke this month, newspapers reported. Worst affected are northeastern Assam state and eastern Bihar state.
Actress Betty Buckley sang ``They Can't Take That Away from Me'' at a Shubert Theater service Wednesday for George Rose, an actor killed May 4 at his vacation home in the Dominican Republic. ``George Rose was a teacher of mine. He was the epitome of elegance and high standards. I can only aspire to his standards,'' said Miss Buckley, who was a star with Rose in ``The Mystery of Edwin Drood.'' Rose, 68, was born in England but lived since 1961 in New York, nearly always working on Broadway. He won Tony Awards as the chairman in ``Drood'' and as Doolittle in a revival of ``My Fair Lady.'' Rupert Holmes, who composed ``Drood,'' said, ``His presence was a beam that lifts the ceiling of theater.'' Maureen McGovern, who played Rose's daughter for a year in ``The Pirates of Penzance,'' sang a vocalise by Faure which was a particular favorite of the actor. Actor Jack Gilford said, ``I never failed to marvel at Rose's honesty, depth, humor, skill and charm.'' Judy Kaye, who won a Tony on Sunday for ``The Phantom of the Opera,'' called Rose ``one of the best actors who ever walked the planet.'' Howard McGillan, who was in ``Drood'' and now is in ``Anything Goes,'' sang ``It's De-Lovely.'' Larry Kert, who said he and Rose walked their dogs together for 17 years, sang ``Anyone Can Whistle.''
For three years, Charles S. Robb was out of the spotlight that had become so familiar, first as the son-in-law of President Lyndon Johnson and then as Democratic governor of this conservative state. But on Tuesday, the 49-year-old lawyer re-entered the national arena in decisive style, fashioning a huge victory over Republican long-shot Maurice Dawkins, a retired black minister and Washington lobbyist. Robb said today he won because ``we attempted to identify with mainstream values that are crucial to success at the national level,'' such as strong defense and fiscal responsibility. With 99 percent of the precincts counted, Robb had 1,448,389 votes or 71 percent, to Dawkins' 587,887 votes or 29 percent. The former Marine combat officer has built a career by making Democrats electable in conservative Virginia. Once known only as the former White House military social aide who married LBJ's daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson, he won the lieutenant governor's race in 1977 in his first bid for elective office. Four years later, he ran for governor in the first sweep by Democrats of the state's top three offices since 1965. Robb was a popular governor who was credited with overhauling the state bureaucracy and making major gains in education funding. He also opened positions of authority in state government to blacks and women and appointed Virginia's first black Supreme Court member. The former governor was also one of the architects of last spring's Super Tuesday presidential primary, intended in part to give the Southern vote collective strength. But Robb's tenure was shaken by prison troubles that drew national attention when six death row inmates escaped in May 1984. Robb, who could not succeed himself under Virginia's constitution, had been out of office for three years and practicing law until his bid for the Senate. ``I've been unemployed for a long time, and it looks like I just got a job,'' he said.
An article in the August issue of the glossy Washington society magazine Dossier profiling the capital's ambassadors wound up its column on Iraq's Mohamed Sadiq Al-Mashat with the note that Congress had been considering sanctions against Iraq. It concluded: ``Amid all this, Iraq's man in Washington says his priority is reversing a tide of unflattering press reports about his country.''
The operating rate at U.S. factories, mines and utilities in November rose to the highest level in nine years, the government said today in a report likely to heighten concern about inflation. The Federal Reserve Board said the use of industrial capacity rose 0.2 percentage points to 84.2 percent last month, the highest since 84.3 percent in November 1979. It was the seventh increase in eight months. As capacity use edges toward 85 percent, economists fear factories will have trouble producing enough goods to meet demand, leading to shortages and price increases. In an accompanying report, the Federal Reserve said industrial production climbed a brisk 0.5 percent in November following an identical 0.5 percent rise in October. The Fed's industrial production index now stands at 139.9 percent of its 1977 base, reflecting gains in light truck manufacturing and production of equipment for businesses. The jumps in capacity use and the production index were in line with economists' expectations. Most government statistics have portrayed a robust economy in October and November, particularly in the manufacturing sector, which has been bolstered by strong export sales caused by the lower value of the dollar, which makes U.S. goods more affordable on overseas markets. At manufacturing plants, the operating rate climbed to 84.5 percent last month, up from 84.3 percent in October. Producers of both durable goods _ ``big ticket'' items ranging from bicycles to battleships _ and non-durable goods reported higher rates. The rate at durable goods plants was 83.1 percent in November, up from 82.9 percent. Non-durable goods producers recorded a 0.1 percentage point gain to 86.5 percent. The Fed said the operating rate for primary metals industries jumped to 92.4 percent, the highest since December 1978. Most of the increase was attributed to increases at steel mills. Use of motor vehicle and parts manufacturing capacity rose for the fourth consecutive month to 85.4 percent, reflecting gains in light truck production. Automobile plants, a subcategory, slipped to 76.7 percent, down from 77.0 percent. The operating rate at utilities was 81.0 percent in November, up from 80.8 percent. It had hit a peak for the year in August of 83.9 percent because of a surge in electricity use for air conditioning. In the mining sector, which includes oil and gas drilling, the operating rate increased to 82.2 percent last month. It was 81.6 percent in October. The Federal Reserve's production index has not declined since September 1987, a reflection of the export-driven manufacturing boom. A related surge in spending for capital equipment to expand and modernize factories has accompanied the boom. Production in the manufacturing sector rose 0.5 percent in November, following an even stronger 0.6 percent gain in October. The Fed said automobiles were assembled at an annual rate of 7.6 million units, down slightly from October. But production of business equipment rose 0.4 percent following a flat month in October and stood 8.8 percent higher than a year ago. Output at mines, which includes oil and gas drilling, rose 0.6 percent in November after three consecutive declines. Production at utilities increased 0.4 percent, on top of a 0.6 percent jump in October. Total output at factories, mines and utilities was 5.1 percent higher than a year ago.
Ferrets are increasingly popular as pets, but the weasel-like animals can be dangerous to young children, two doctors say. In three unprovoked attacks, two babies had their ears bitten off by ferrets and required constructive surgery and a third infant suffered scratches and bites requiring 39 stitches, John W. Paisley and Brian A. Lauer write in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. ``Two of the children were asleep in their cribs when they were bitten,'' the two University of Colorado School of Medicine doctors said. ``Although ferrets are increasingly popular pets, we believe that they are not suitable pets for families with small children,'' said the doctors, who claim Americans own more than a million ferrets and are buying them at the rate of 50,000 a year. All the babies recovered, the doctors said, adding that reports of severe injuries caused by ferrets are few. But ``a ferret may bite so tenaciously that it has to be pried off or killed to loosen its hold,'' the doctors said. One of the animals in the attacks described had to be killed before it would release the child, they said. The incidence of ferret bites is unknown because most states do not require bites to be reported to health officials, the doctors said. During an 11-month period in Arizona, the ratio of reported bites to the estimated pet population was 0.3 percent for ferrets, compared with 0.4 percent for cats and 2.2 percent for dogs, they said. Sale or ownership of pet ferrets is prohibited in California, Georgia, New Hampshire, New York City and Washington, D.C., the doctors said. A ban also has been proposed in North Carolina.
George Strait's path is clear. From Entertainer of the Year, to North Dakota, to Kansas and then back to the ranch. That's where music business success is leading the soft-speaking, hard-singing Texan. Backstage Monday night at the Country Music Association's awards ceremony, Strait smiled from under his black hat and talked about how it's been. ``It's hard not to be affected by this stuff. It's great,'' said Strait, who won the CMA's top award the second consecutive year. Strait, like most country acts, will tour small towns and cities across the naton this winter. But Strait will stop after 80 or so appearances and return to his ranch in early November. ``I made up my mind I wasn't going to tour as much,'' said Strait, known outside the country industry for his TV beer commercials. Members of the fast-rising group Kentucky HeadHunters figure two awards means they won't have to cut their hair. Their locks were longer than anyone's at the awards ceremony - except for Crystal Gayle's. ``Does this mean we get to keep our hair?'' asked Greg Martin, one of five HeadHunters taking home crystal trophies for Album of the Year, ``Pickin' on Nashville,'' and for Vocal Group of the Year. The only other double winner was Garth Brooks, with the Horizon Award (for career development) and Music Video of the Year for ``The Dance.'' Tennessee Ernie Ford was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, an honor that made the 71-year-old singer consider the youth of some other winners. ``These people who performed tonight, I've got neckties older than they are,'' Ford said on the nationally televised awards presentation. Clint Black won Male Vocalist of the Year and Kathy Mattea won top female vocalist honors. The Judds, Wynonna and mother Naomi, picked up Vocal Duo of the Year award. Single of the Year went to Vince Gill for ``When I Call Your Name.'' Vocal Event of the Year, for performers who do not normally sing together, went to Lorrie Morgan and her late husband, Keith Whitley. Song of the Year, a songwriter's award, was given to Jon Vezner and Don Henry for ``Where've You Been.'' Johnny Gimble received Musician of the Year award.
Republican nominee George Bush said he felt nervous as he voted today in his adopted home state of Texas, where he ended his presidential campaign telling voters the election is a referendum on a ``philosophy, a way of life.'' The vice president and his wife, Barbara, voted in a hotel conference room which had been set up as a polling place. The couple then visited a local Republican headquarters to talk to people working to get out the vote. Emerging from the voting booth, Bush was asked how he felt. ``Nervous ... everytime I vote here, I feel nervous,'' he said. Asked about the outcome, he replied, ``No predictions.'' At the GOP headquarters, Bush personally made a half-dozen telephone calls. ``No, I'm not kidding,'' he told one person who apparently expressed skepticism that Bush was on the line. ``Having done all the hard work, now the key is to get the vote out,'' he said. The vice president also showed off his French to a reporter from France. ``Je peux parler un peu de francais,'' he said, explaining he could speak the language a little. He added he felt ``tres heureux, aujourd'hui,'' or ``very happy, today.'' Bush told reporters he was ``very glad'' the campaign was over. He planned a ``relaxed family day'' with ``a lot of exercise.'' He planned to watch election returns on television with family members and friends at his home in a Houston condominium-hotel complex. Bush wrapped up his campaign Monday with a final swing through Michigan, Ohio and Missouri. He attended a raucus rally Monday evening at the Galleria shopping mall where country stars Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gayle and Mo Bandy entertained several thousand fans. Today's election is ``more than just a referendum on peace and prosperity,'' Bush told the crowd. ``It's a referendum on a philosophy, a way of life that's well and alive right here deep in the heart of Texas,'' he said. In a half-hour paid TV advertisment Monday night, the Republican presidential nominee summed up the themes of his campaign and said rival Michael Dukakis ``has no experience in national security affairs.'' ``I don't believe we can take a risk on an issue as important as our national security,'' he said on the ad broadcast on the three major networks right after Dukakis aired a half-hour spot of his own. Later, a soft-speaking Bush talked to viewers for a few minutes at the end of the half-hour commercial that featured biographical and campaign scenes set to music and narration, as well as an endorsement by President Reagan and various Bush family members. ``I respect my opponent, I admire his devotion to family, and I appreciate his decision to enter public service,'' Bush said. ``But I do believe we are guided by fundamentally different philosophies, a great divide, an honest difference of opinion on which approach will lead America in the '90s stronger and more secure than ever.'' Bush also echoed President Reagan's 1980 campaign line by saying, ``If you elect me president you will be better off four years from now than you are today.'' The ad made no mention of Bush's running mate, Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana, whose qualifications have been an issue in the campaign. Bush appeared in a jovial mood Monday as nationwide polls showed him holding his lead over Dukakis. Accompanied by his top campaign advisers, Bush spent the final campaign day addressing rallies in a suburb of Detroit, in rural Ashland, Ohio, and in St. Louis. While calling on voters to reject the ``failed liberal policies of the past,'' Bush also seemed in a reflective mood as he talked about what the campaign meant to him and what he sees ahead. ``Sometimes there's ups,'' he said. ``Sometimes there's downs. Sometimes you get written off by all the great experts and sometimes you bounce back. ``But I'll tell you where you get your strength, you get your strength from travelling around the United States of America and meeting and visiting with and listening to the heartbeat that comes from the American people themselves.'' Bush said he was confident that the negativism of the campaign would soon be behind him. ``What I will do is trust the good judgment of the American people who immediately shift gears and start looking to the future,'' he said in an interview with radio reporters.
Enron Corp., the nation's largest natural gas transmission company, said Thursday it was considering the sale of its oil and gas subsidiary, one of the biggest U.S. independent oil and gas concerns. ``Based upon prices paid in recent transactions for oil and gas reserves, the sale of all or part of EOG (Enron Oil & Gas Co.) would strengthen substantially Enron's financial position and provide the flexibility to pursue very attractive opportunities we see in the energy business,'' said Kenneth L. Lay, Enron chairman. Enron Oil & Gas had reserves of 1.42 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 42.3 million barrels of oil as of the end of 1987. For the entire year, it sold an average of 343 million cubic feet of natural gas and 12,000 barrels of oil per day. For the first three months of 1988, that rate has risen to 399 million cubic feet of gas and 13,000 barrels of oil, the company said. ``Assuming completion of a sale, we will be realizing for our shareholders the tremendous value inherent in these assets under current favorable market conditions,'' Lay said. He said proceeds from a sale would be used to reduce Enron's indebtedness and interest expense and enhance near-term earnings and future cash flow. Lay, speaking at Enron's annual meeting Thursday, said debt reduction was a major goal for 1988. Debt as a percentage of capitalization stood at 75.6 at the end of 1987 and was reduced to 67 percent by the end of the first quarter. Enron earlier Thursday reported first-quarter earnings of $69.4 million, or $1.20 per share, compared with $62.7 million, or $1.06 per share, for the year-earlier period. ``Among the primary causes was a return to more normal winter temperature patterns than the relatively warm heating seasons of the last three years,'' Lay said. ``The colder weather, resulting in increased natural gas use, was coupled with higher average prices for gas, which also proved beneficial to earnings.'' In releasing the financial figures, the company restated earnings for 1987 to reflect adoption of changed accounting rules, reducing 1987's reported first quarter earnings by $3.9 million, reflecting a lower federal income tax benefit due to a tax rate change relative to depreciation and amortization expenses.
NASA scientists rejoiced at ``pretty damn good'' test photos from the Magellan probe today but also grappled with communications difficulties as the spacecraft circled Venus. Fifteen hours after the spacecraft lost contact with Earth on Thursday evening, the signal was re-established. But the signal failed again at midday and was expected to continue to be a problem until scientists could send Magellan new instructions on how to properly aim at Earth, officials said. Meanwhile, project manager Tony Spear said the test pictures collected from the spacecraft's radar mapper before the problems developed had produced ``some raw images that looked pretty damn good.'' He said NASA will release the first pictures on Monday instead of waiting until September. Thursday's test returned far more pictures than expected, including several so-called ``noodles,'' or areas of the planet about 1,000 miles long by 15 miles wide, project scientist Steve Saunders said. The pictures show ``lava flows and faults and fractures and cinder cones with craters in the top,'' Saunders said. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory were concerned when they did not hear from Magellan as expected at 8:32 p.m. Thursday. But they stressed that the spacecraft is loaded with computer programs that automatically help it find Earth if contact is lost. Originally, scientists had expected that the outage would continue until this evening. But late this morning, as scientists were were conducting a news conference about the problem, Magellan manager Steve Wall rushed in with word that NASA's Deep Space Network station at Goldstone, Calif., had re-established contact with the spacecraft and locked onto its signal. ``It is Magellan,'' Wall said. ``The spacecraft looks healthy.'' The second loss of contact a short time afterward was not entirely unexpected, Spear said. Scientists now expect the spacecraft to be in and out of touch until controllers can send it new instructions on how to properly aim at Earth, he said. However, the second signal loss blunted some of the sense of relief at hearing from Magellan after the overnight silence. Wall said engineers had been out of contact with the spacecraft Thursday night as it fixed on two stars, a procedure Magellan routinely performs to make sure it is pointed properly. NASA should have heard from Magellan at 8:32 p.m. PDT Thursday when this ``star calibration'' was completed, but ``we did not re-establish contact,'' JPL spokesman Jim Doyle said. The last previous radio contact with the craft had been at Deep Space Network stations at Goldstone and in Australia. ``The assumption is that after it made a star calibration, it looked at the wrong star and then couldn't point back to Earth accurately,'' Doyle said. ``Then, the contact was lost.'' Project officials believe the spacecraft detected an unknown onboard problem and entered a protective ``safing mode'' in which it orients itself toward the sun so its solar array will continue to receive power and find a guide star, said Doyle. From that position, it was programmed to automatically start a routine of locating the sun, then searching for Earth, Wall said. The problem with Magellan comes in the wake of NASA's troubles with the flawed Hubble Space Telescope and with hydrogen fuel leaks that temporarily grounded the space shuttle fleet. Magellan's formal mission to map the surface of Venus is supposed to start Aug. 29. Contact was lost after Magellan started a two-day test meant to make sure the spaceship's radar can make pictures of Venus and to adjust the radar waves so the pictures are focused, said lab official Ed Sherry. Venus, the second planet from the sun, is covered by thick clouds that prevent optical cameras from seeing its rugged landscape. Magellan's $744 million mission will use radar to penetrate the clouds, then collect the reflected waves to make the best maps and pictures yet of Earth's nearest planetary neighbor. The spacecraft was launched from the shuttle Atlantis 15 months ago and went into orbit around Venus a week ago after a roundabout 948-million-mile journey. At least 20 U.S. and Soviet spacecraft have visited Venus, including some that landed and photographed a small area of landscape. Magellan will yield a global map. Its radar was designed to distinguish surface features as small as two football fields, a level of detail 10 times better than in pictures made by radar on two Soviet spacecraft that were launched in 1983.
A suspect bit the ear of a 4-year-old police dog and injured the animal's neck during a chase and arrest, police said today. The dog, Rex, was on patrol with Constable Philip Rajah in the Natal provincial capital during the weekend when they came across two ``suspicious individuals,'' police said. While Rajah searched one man, Rex chased the other _ and got the worst of it when his quarry turned on the animal and bit him. Rajah had to yank the man off the dog, police said. They said the dog was being treated for a serious neck injury at a veterinary clinic. The man who bit the dog may face a charge of malicious injury to state property.
The Nikkei Stock Average closed at 28,099.84 points, up 113.85 points, on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Tuesday.
Here is a brief summary of forest and grassland fires active Thursday in the West:
A biography of the elusive Greta Garbo will finally be published after being locked in a vault for 14 years. ``Garbo'' was written by the late novelist and poet Antoni Gronowicz. Publisher Simon & Schuster said the company acquired the book in 1976 on the understanding that it would not be published while the actress was alive. Garbo died April 15 at the age of 84. Much of the book is told in Garbo's own words as she talked to Gronowicz, with whom she became friends in 1938. The book ``tells of her relationship with her discoverer, mentor and lover Mauritz Stiller; and deals with her long and not always happy years as the greatest and most reluctant of movie queens,'' the publisher said in a statement. It also deals with the men in her life, John Gilbert, Robert Montgomery, Robert Taylor, Charles Boyer, Melvyn Douglas and others. ``In the book, Gronowicz also recalls Miss Garbo talking about the often rumored fact that `women pursued (her) more often and more persistently' than did men,'' the statement said.
Bank of New England Corp. is cutting 5,600 workers and slashing $300 million in costs, but the troubled company admits that even with the cuts its future is in doubt. The bank, operating under government orders for more than a month, announced the cost-cutting plan Wednesday. But the institution also filed federal documents this week saying it expects to see an increase in troubled loans. Furthermore, the bank acknowledged its future may hinge on whether the slumping New England economy continues to decline. ``Continued deterioration in the New England economy and the real estate market could adversely impact the corporation's recovery efforts,'' the bank said. The job reductions, which will lower the workforce by about one-third, will come through a combination of layoffs, attrition and asset sales. The bank also has frozen hiring, eliminated financial bonuses and suspended raises for bank officers. Analysts said that although the moves should strengthen the bank, its footing remains extremely shaky. The bank gave a similar assessment in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. ``If the corporation is unsuccessful in addressing the corporation's current difficulties, it is likely that external assistance from third parties and@or regulatory authorities will be required,'' the bank said. Bank of New England lost more than $1 billion last year, due largely to bad real estate loans. The bank said that in addition to $2.2 billion in non-performing assets reported at the end of 1989, it had $1 billion in loans that were still performing but where borrowers were experiencing some financial difficulty. The bank said it expects non-performing assets will increase in the first quarter. That could be a sign that problems could be spreading outside the bank's real estate portfolio into other business loans, said Gerard Cassidy, an analyst with Tucker Anthony Inc. ``The key is the economy,'' he said. ``The New England economy is not cooperating.'' The bank said it would lay off about 1,700 employees and would notify them over the next several days. ``These decisions were difficult and they are painful for all of us,'' bank Chairman Lawrence K. Fish said in a letter to employees. ``But difficult as these steps are, it is essential that we take them now to assure our future viability and our ability to rebuild as a stronger, though smaller, Bank of New England,'' he said. ``At the same time, our primary concern as we rebuild is customer service and maintenance of the highest possible credit quality,'' Fish said. An earlier staff reduction plan was canceled by Fish after he was named chairman on March 9. At the time, he ordered a thorough review of the organization's direction, structure, and personnel needs. Personnel cuts, asset sales and other measures are expected to reduce annual operating expenses by approximately $300 million, the bank said. Bank officials said the action was being taken as part of a strategic plan outlining new directions for the corporation. Details of the plan are expected next week. The bank last month announced it had signed federal orders that set tight guidelines for lending practices and other operations. James Moynihan, senior vice president of Advest Inc. in Boston, predicted the bank eventually will sell off all its subsidiaries in Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island. ``In order to survive, they will have to become a Massachusetts-only bank,'' he said. The results, if successful, would be a ``very competitive bank'' with assets below $20 billion, compared with a $32 billion level last year. The bank said its new strategic plan will try to concentrate on primary banking and lending businesses. Other operations will be eliminated, including processing services, large corporate banking outside of New England, leasing and discount brokerage services. The bank also disclosed that it was being sued in federal court in Pennsylvania by the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co., which has a $10 million, 14 percent Bank of New England bank note due in 1996. Penn Mutual maintains the bank's asset sales breached covenants in the note. The insurance company asked the court to order the bank to speed up its principal payments. The bank also faces a lawsuit from shareholders who claim company executives misrepresented the bank's financial status by not disclosing the mounting troubles sooner last year.
The U.S. Army's heaviest ground firepower reached Saudi soil today for deployment behind Arab forces manning the front line in the monthlong standoff with Iraq. Dozens of M1-1P tanks and M2 Bradley armored infantry fighting vehicles, and scores more heavy support vehicles, rolled off two huge transport ships at a port in northeastern Saudi Arabia and were readied for the trip north into the desert. The M1s are by the far the biggest ground weapon in the burgeoning U.S. arsenal in Saudi Arabia, weighing an imposing 60 tons and carrying a 105 mm cannon said to be accurate at 6,600 feet or more. The huge but speedy tanks _ which can travel about 45 mph _ left the 24th Infantry (Mechanized) Division's home in Georgia two weeks ago. The 24th's heavy firepower will be deployed in front of most other U.S ground forces in Saudi Arabia but still a good distance behind the Saudi-led Arab forces, which are just miles from the border with occupied Kuwait. The U.S. buildup _ which could reach 200,000-250,000 ground forces _ is not expected to be completed until October. Transport planes are arriving around the clock, but the M1s and the 24th's other heavy weaponry have been long awaited by U.S. military commanders. Until now, the U.S.-led multinational Saudi defense force has been short on heavy ground firepower. ``This is boss,'' Sgt. Ronald Ruff said as he showed off his M1 to a group of reporters. ``This is the Cadillac model. This is the top of the line.'' Up to now, the only U.S. tanks in Saudi Arabia have been Vietnam era M60s, brought by the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, and even smaller M551 Sheridans. Iraq has a formidable force of Soviet-made tanks, primarily the export versions of its T64 and T72 models. The T64 is comparable in armament and armor to the M1s that arrived today; the T72 is equivalent to the more modern M1, the M1-A1. The U.S. tanks are considered to have superior weapons sighting and guidance systems, and the strategy for any tank war with Iraq is to use the air superiority of the American, Saudi and British forces to inflict heavy early damage on Iraqi tanks. ``There's no doubt in my mind that we'll succeed here if we have to,'' said Lt. Col. Barry Willey. ``Bring them (the Iraqis) on,'' Ruff said. ``We've the training and technology; they've got the numbers. We'll take them out.'' Several M1 crews said they will have to clean and change the M1's filters more often because of the talcum-like sand of the Saudi desert.
The Sandinista government proposed on Thursday that the two-month cease-fire be extended by 30 days to allow negotiators to work out an enduring peace with rebels, but the rebels immediately said no. Azucena Ferrey, spokeswoman for the rebels, known as the Contras, said the Sandinista proposal ``shows they lack good will.'' She noted in a telephone interview that the current cease-fire expires at the end of May, and said that ``if they want to extend it (the cease-fire) they can propose it then.'' Gen. Humberto Ortega, the defense minister and the leader of the leftist government's delegation to the peace talks, told reporters such an extension ``will help improve the conditions under which the negotiations are taking place so that an overall agreement can be discussed to reach a final accord.'' The 60-day provisional truce, which started April 1, is part of an agreement reached by the U.S.-backed rebels and the Sandinistas at the southern border post of Sapoa on March 23. During the truce the two sides are to attempt to negotiate an end to the 6{-year-old conflict that has cost more than 26,000 lives, by government estimates. Ortega, the brother of President Daniel Ortega, announced the offer shortly before the delegations resumed high-level political talks. The government also offered Thursday to let the International Red Cross administer humanitarian aid immediately to the Contras even before rebel combatants gather inside safe zones established during previous talks. The Sandinista proposal was read by Deputy Foreign Minister Victor Hugo Tinoco, who said the offer was ``an attempt to facilitate the pacification process.'' Sandinista and Contra negotiators previously agreed upon seven safe zones in which the Contra fighters are to collect. The two sides differed over operational conditions inside the zones, however, and the rebels have yet to gather inside them. The three-day negotiating session marks only the second time the two sides have met in Managua since the war began in 1981. Recent reports have said that the Contra leadership is divided, with the rebel military commanders opposing any immediate agreement with the Sandinistas. President Ortega on Wednesday predicted an agreement can be reached if both sides bargain in good faith. However, the Sandinistas and the Contras remain far apart on essential issues. Humberto Ortega accused the rebel commanders of taking part in the talks ``not with the purpose of reaching agreement'' but to buy time. American and other sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said rebel leader Adolfo Calero tried unsuccessfully to oust the top rebel military commander, Enrique Bermudez, a week ago. A U.S. official said the Contra directors split 2-2 with one abstention on whether to remove Bermudez. He ostensibly takes orders from the five-member civilian directorate but believes he should have more influence over rebel decisions, the sources said. Calero argues that civilian control over the movement is essential and sees Bermudez as a threat to that objective. In an effort to dispel rumors of disunity, Bermudez and other Contra leaders issued a statement in Miami on Wednesday declaring support for the talks. Calero, in a telephone interview Thursday, denied there was any split in rebel ranks. ``There are obviously sectors who would be interested in there being such a split,'' he said.
Cuban authorities have broken up a black market ring that operated out of a major Havana food store, a government news report said Sunday. Police officers arrested ``numerous hoarders and resellers of basic necessities,'' Prensa Latina, the official Cuban news agency, said in a report monitored in Mexico City. Employees of Mercado Amistad, Havana's largest grocery, were believed to have been involved in a scheme that allowed the illegal resale of large quantities of basic goods at inflated prices, Prensa Latina said. Also, some of those arrested allegedly ``sold places in (the grocery store) line to the highest bidder and in this way earned more than a worker,'' the report said. ``The scarcity of various products caused by distribution, organization, inefficiency and bureaucratic problems, plus the lack of foreign exchange, encourages the proliferation of speculators,'' Prensa Latina said. The market, where consumers often wait in long lines for scarce goods, is in the old Sears, Roebuck and Co. building that was nationalized after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Private enterprise has been all but eliminated on the communist island. Two years ago, the government ended experimental farmers' markets that had allowed growers to sell surpluses.
The Soviet Union apologized Friday for one of the grisliest crimes of the Stalin era: the murder of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers shot during World War II and buried in mass graves in the Katyn Forest. The confession ended nearly 50 years of official Soviet denial and had been almost a prerequisite for improved Polish-Soviet relations. The Soviet Union previously insisted that Nazi Germany was responsible for the massacre. Polish and Western historians long have blamed the NKVD, Josef Stalin's secret police, for killing more than 4,000 officers in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk. They were captured by the Soviets at the beginning of World War II. More than 10,000 other Polish officers were killed in camps elsewhere. Their bodies have never been found, but in its statement Friday the Soviet Union clearly tied together the fates of all 15,000 officers, some of the cream of prewar Polish society. The admission came 47 years to the day when the Nazis announced the discovery of the Katyn graves. And it came one day after East Germany's new Parliament apologized for the Holocaust and for the deaths of millions of Soviets in World War II. The statement carried by the official news agency Tass was issued as President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Polish President Wojciech Jaruzelski. Poland had urged the Soviet Union to admit responsibility for the mass slayings, saying such ``blank spots'' in history were a barrier to better Polish-Soviet relations. Gorbachev gave Jaruzelski copies of the material from Soviet archives pertaining to the Poles imprisoned in the NKVD camps, Tass reported. In a speech at a dinner Friday night honoring Jaruzelski, Gorbachev referred to the massacre, Tass reported. He said the two leaders talked about ``those historical `knots' that even many years later cast shadows on our relations. Many of them are undone already.'' ``Recently, documents have been discovered which indirectly but convincingly testify that thousands of Polish officers who died in the Smolensk woods half a century ago became victims of (Stalin's secret police chief Lavrenti) Beria and his henchmen,'' Tass quoted Gorbachev as saying. ``The graves of the Polish officers are near Soviet people's graves, who fell from the same evil hand,'' he said. ``It is not easy to speak about this tragedy but we must speak about it for only through the truth there lies the way to genuine renewal and to genuine mutual understanding.'' The earlier statement said the ``Soviet side, expressing its deep regret in connection with the Katyn tragedy, states that it is one of the most horrifying Stalinist crimes,'' Tass said. ``It's good that criminals admit their crimes,'' Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said in Gdansk. But other problems remain, including war reparations, he said. The massacre has caused bitterness among Poles for years despite the previous Communist government's loyal statements supporting the Soviet Union. Jaruzelski is scheduled to visit a memorial at Katyn on Saturday, following pilgrimages of Poles whose relatives and friends died in the massacre. The officers were captured by the Soviet Union when it invaded eastern Poland at the beginning of World War II, shortly after Hitler sent his soldiers across Poland's western border to start the war. They were shot in the back of the head and stacked in layers in mass graves. The bodies were found in April 1943 by German soldiers who captured the area during World War II. They were immediately used for propaganda purposes. Stalin blamed the Nazis for the deaths. Soviet historians recently began questioning that version, but it stood until the Soviet Union admitted responsibility Friday. A U.S. congressional committee in the early 1950s blamed the Soviets. Under Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, the Soviet Union has brought to light many of the deeds of Stalin and his henchmen, but Katyn was one of the final affairs to be touched by the greater openness. Records indicate that only 394 of the 15,000 captured Polish prisoners were transferred to the Gryazovetsky prison camp. The rest were turned over to the NKVD, the predecessor of the KGB, in Smolensk; Voroshilovgrad in the Ukraine; and Kalinin northwest of Moscow. All the officers disappeared from NKVD records, Tass said. Beria and others were executed after Stalin died in 1953. Historian Natalia Lebedeva, writing in the weekly Moscow News on March 25, said the officers apparently were killed in a single operation as the NKVD evacuated three camps. The Soviets might have considered the Polish officers a threat as potential future leaders of Poland. Ms. Lebedeva, who used Soviet central archives and Soviet army records, called it a ``well-thought-through and carefully planned operation.'' In Warsaw, Polish relatives of the victims were pleased the truth finally had come out, but expressed regret it took so long. ``I awfully regret that my mother could not live until this day,'' said Wanda Zadrozna, crying as she recalled her father's murder. ``There is a great regret that it took 50 years and the wives of those people didn't live until this day.'' ``But whatever happens now, it is good that the truth will be finally written in history,'' she said.
The ARCO Chemical Co.'s inquiry into the plant explosion that killed 17 people has been stymied by a court order issued Saturday for the wife of a deceased worker. In response to her negligence lawsuit against the company, a judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing Atlantic Richfield Co. and ARCO Chemical from making any changes to the accident scene. Atlantic Richfield, based in Los Angeles, owns 83 percent of ARCO Chemical. ``We can't remove anything until OSHA releases the area to us,'' said Jack Johnson, president of ARCO Chemical Americas. He refused to comment further on the lawsuit, filed Friday by Sandra Lucas Davis. Her husband, Gregory Scott Davis, 27, was one of the names on a partial list of victims released by the company Saturday. State District Judge Shearn Smith issued the temporary restraining order, but it did not prohibit OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, from conducting its investigation. OSHA officials, who were sifting through the damaged area, expect to complete their investigation in about a week, Johnson said. Assistant Secretary of Labor Gerard F. Scannell said Friday his agency was focusing on maintenance reports and complaints that employees had to work especially long hours at the plant. Plant manager Earl McCaleb said workers normally work 12-hour shifts for four days, then are off four days. Harold Sorgenti, president of ARCO Chemical, said the company was concentrating on helping families and employees deal with the deaths, while making sure the plant is stabilized. The explosion at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday ripped through the plant's utility area on the extreme southern end of the complex where employees were doing maintenance work, officials said. What the employees actually were doing ``will be determined by the investigation,'' Sorgenti said. ``Initially, they were beginning to fix a compressor.'' Initial speculation was that the five ARCO workers and 11 Austin Industrial Inc. contract workers killed were cleaning the 900,000-gallon tank that exploded. The other worker killed was the driver of a vacuum truck that was in the area to remove rainwater from a sump, McCaleb said. Sorgenti also said the investigation will focus on why so many people were in the area when normally five people are assigned there. ``I think it's difficult to understand why there was that concentration of employees in that area at that time,'' said Sorgenti, who flew to Houston from Europe where he was on business. McCaleb said it would be several months before the plant begins operating again. The 350 ARCO employees at the plant, about 15 miles east of Houston, are working to restore the plant and will not lose any pay, he said. The ARCO plant annually produces 560 million pounds of propylene oxide, used to make flexible foam for seat cushions and bedding. It also produces 1.3 billion pounds of styrene monomer, used for insulation, foam drinking cups, packaging materials and automotive parts; and 1.7 billion pounds of methyl tertiary butyl ether, a high-octane blending component used as a replacement for lead in gasoline. The explosion was the second major loss of life at a Houston area petrochemical facility in nine months. On Oct. 23, a series of explosions ripped through a Phillips Petroleum Co. plant in Pasadena, claiming 23 lives and injuring 130 people.
Americans' spendin power sank again in September as the Persian Gulf crisis pushed prices up a sharp 0.8 percent for the second straight month, the government said Thursday. Still, inflation not tied to oil prices remained relatively mild. If the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index continued increasing at the September pace for a year, it would produce an annual inflation rate of 9.5 percent. Most economists believe price increases - absent the outbreak of a shooting war - will return to a more normal level by the end of the year. The oil shock nevertheless has added a new burden for an economy that was already on the brink of recession. ``You take out energy and the numbers aren't that bad. But on the other hand, people have to buy the energy and it gives you an annual inflation rate roughly double the rate of wage growth,'' said economist Donald Ratajczak of Georgia State University. ``It means that people won't have a lot of money to spend on Christmas,'' he said. The ``core'' inflation rate - prices excluding food and energy - was 0.3 percent in September, down from 0.5 percent in August. For the first nine months of 1990, prices increased at an annual rate of 6.6 percent, well above the 4.6 percent increase for all of last year. The rate for all of 1990, if it comes in close to 7 percent as now expected, will be the worst since 1981, when prices shot up 8.9 percent. The pickup in inflation so far this year helped bring about the biggest boost in Social Security benefits in 8{ years. Based on Thursday's report, the government announced a 5.4 percent rise in benefits beginning in January for the 40 million Social Security recipients. In addition to boosting consumer inflation based on oil and various energy products, the Aug. 2 Iraqi invasion and its aftermath hurt the U.S. merchandise trade deficit. It rose 2.4 percent to a seven-month high of $9.3 billion in August. Increasing oil prices pushed imports to a record high, more than offsetting a modest rise in exports. The stock market shrugged off the news, with the Dow Jones average of industrial stocks advancing. Analysts said traders were doing some cautious buying in the belief that worries about the economy had gone to unjustified extremes. In a separate report, the Labor Department said Americans' average weekly earnings, after adjusting for inflation, increased 0.4 percent in September. Still, they were down 1.5 percent from a year ago. In the inflation report, energy prices in September jumped 5.6 percent, the worst rise on record since the department began tracking the sector in 1957. Gasoline soared 9.5 percent, the largest increase in 17 months, and fuel oil rose 15.9 percent. For August and September together, gasoline rose 17.9 percent and fuel oil was up 33.7 percent. Electricity and natural gas charges also rose, but less steeply. Analysts expect the bad news to continue through November or December, even if oil prices stabilize near where they are now - around $40 a barrel, double the July price. In the next few months, the oil shock probably will begin feeding through to chemicals, airline tickets and other energy-related products and services. But it probably will not produce a permanent increase in the inflation rate, said economist David Jones of Aubrey G. Lanston & Co., a government securities dealer in New York. ``We simply don't suffer this time around from the same kind of inflationary psychology as we did during earlier oil shocks in 1973 and 1979. In the `70s, consumers were buying in anticipation of price increases. Now, consumers are waiting for a bargain,'' he said. Jones said recent increases in consumer prices are great enough to cause the Federal Reserve to be cautious about stimulating the economy with lower interest rates but not so great as to prevent a quarter-point cut in short-term rates if Congress and President Bush agree on a plan to cut the federal budget deficit. In other details, the Labor Department said: -Food and beverage prices rose a moderate 0.3 percent last month, the same as August. -Medical care was up 0.7 percent, bringing prices 9.3 percent higher than a year earlier. -Clothing costs also were up 0.7 percent in September. Men's and boys' clothing prices fell, but women's, girls' and infants' clothing costs rose, as did the price of shoes. -New car prices edged up only 0.1 percent after remaining unchanged in August. Car dealers beset with lagging sales have been unable to wean the public from rebate programs and discounted financing. -Housing costs were up 0.4 percent, held back by a decline in hotel and motel costs, which had been rising steeply earlier in the year. The various changes put the index for all consumer items at 132.7 in September. That means a hypothetical selection of goods and services costing $100 in the 1982-84 base period, cost $132.70 last month, up $7.70 from a year earlier.
Michael Dukakis was getting his early morning exercise walking down a Pittsburgh street, when someone gave a cry of recognition: ``Hey, isn't that Caliguiri?'' No, it wasn't Pittsburgh Mayor Richard Caliguiri: It was the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. ``I guess the mayor and I look alike,'' Dukakis said as he described the Sunday morning greeting. ``There's an old saying in Italian: `One face _ one race.' We're all part of the same family.'' Far ahead in the polls here for Tuesday's primary, Dukakis said the incident shows ``we need to do a lot of work to make sure people know who Dukakis is on the ballot.'' The Massachusetts governor himself is working hard _ taking a whistle-stop train tour across western Pennsylvania on Sunday and making a six-city flying tour of the state today. Dukakis is looking for a fourth straight big-state win here over his surviving competitor _ Jesse Jackson _ to tighten his grip on the front-runner's crown and widen his margin in the delegate count. ``If we can win big here Tuesday, it will give us a tremendous boost,'' Dukakis told a big crowd of students on the Pennsylvania State University campus, who were welcoming back his wife, Kitty, a Penn State graduate. Through the cold, cloudy day in Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Johnstown and Altoona, Dukakis hit over and over again on his message of good jobs and economic development in a region devastated by changes in the steel and coal industries. ``If we can't bring good jobs and economic opportunity back to the Johnstowns of this country, then there is something the matter with us,'' he told a crowd there. ``I believe we can. I believe we're going to.'' Dukakis drew the parallels between New England's economic troubles of the past and Pennsylvania's troubles of the present. ``As a New Englander, we went through the same kind of pain and economic distress as you have,'' he said in Greensburg. ``Our communities have come back and these communities are going to come back.'' Drawing on the two weekend debates between the Democrats, Dukakis talked of how he and Jackson agree on many issues. ``Instead of investing in a lot of exotic weapon systems of very marginal value, we've got to take these resources and put them _ as both Rev. Jackson and I said Saturday _ into our infrastructure.'' But on Sunday, Dukakis brushed off suggestions from Jackson that he should put out a budget. ``You can't prepare a budget now for next year _ that's absurd,'' he told reporters on the chartered Amtrak train, nicknamed the ``Pennsylvania Presidential Unlimited.'' And Dukakis resisted pressure from a new Jackson tactic, urging massive new spending on education, drug control efforts and other programs. The front-runner went down his own list of education programs _ which he says involve only modest spending increases _ while Jackson said the federal government should double its spending on education. ``We're not going to run the nation's school system from Washington,'' Dukakis said. ``The thing a president has to do is to set some priorities and get after them.'' The Democratic candidate also took a couple of swipes at George Bush, saying that the Republican nominee-to-be seems more interested in building aircraft carriers than in rebuilding the nation's railroads and highways. ``Mr. Bush was critical of me ... because I oppose spending $36 billion on two supercarrier task forces that we don't need and we can't afford,'' Dukakis said. ``If he thinks that's where we ought to put our scarce resources, then so be it. But it's going to be a fundamental issue in this campaign. ``I think I know where the American people are _ they are tired of crumbling bridges, congested airports, jammed highways, homeless people on streets and in doorways ... and they want a change.'' If Dukakis is the Democratic nominee, perhaps he will get a wish expressed wistfully in Pittsburgh. ``All of you know me. I suppose we'd all like to suppose that I'm a household word,'' he told the small crowd. ``I'd like one of these days to come to Pittsburgh and hear, `Hey, isn't that Dukakis?'''
The last group of communist guerrillas in Sarawak state signed a peace accord Wednesday and laid down their arms, the national news agency Bernama reported. Some of the 51 guerrillas brought their children, including a month-old infant, to the ceremony in Kuching, 540 miles southeast of Kuala Lumpur, Bernama reported. Guerrilla leaders Ang Chu Ting and Wong Lian Kui and Sarawak State Secretary Bujang Mohamed Nor and other government officials signed the agreement, the agency said. The North Kalimantan Communist Party operated in Sarawak state, on Borneo Island, for 30 years. A first group of 569 guerrillas made peace in 1973. Last December, 1,100 more communist guerrillas laid down their arms. Government officials said the guerrillas agreed to stop fighting because the people no longer support them. The officials said the collapse of communism in Europe may have disheartened the guerrillas.
_Require that many federal benefits be denied for five years from those convicted of two or more drug-related offenses within a 10-year period; and denial for 10 years for those convicted of drug distribution. Included would be public housing, licenses, contracts and student loans, and veterans' assistance in cases of distribution convictions. Excepted would be retirement, welfare, health and disability assistance. _Provide grants to states for enforcement of anti-drug programs that take away a convicted drug offender's right to drive. Suspension would have to last six months for a first conviction and at least one year for repeat convictions within a five-year period. _Provide grants to states to help implement drunken driving enforcement programs, provided the programs include immediate suspension of licenses of those found driving under the influence of alcohol. _Allow the Federal Aviation Administration to modify aircraft registration and pilot certificate programs to ensure positive, verifiable and timely identification of aircraft owners and pilots. _Establish an Office of Drug Enforcement Coordination under the president to establish policies, objectives and priorities for federal drug enforcement.
Diminishing winds helped firefighters battle a 9,800-acre brush fire on steep, rocky terrain in southern Arizona Monday, and in Montana most fire crews returned home after controlling a 17,000-acre grass fire that killed cattle and destroyed three homes. A small fire in southern California's Angeles National Forest may have been started by a killer disposing of a woman's body. Firefighters elsewhere in the same forest Monday evening contained a 710-acre brush fire that may have been the work of an arsonist. And in southwest New Mexico, firefighters struggled with at least five lightning-caused wildfires that charred more than 500 acres of grassland and trees. Authorities said the largest fire burned at least 400 acres of grass, brush, juniper trees and pockets of ponderosa pine trees on federal lands. Twenty-four fires were reported in New Mexico from the lightning of a Friday afternoon storm, authorities said. ``Things are looking very good down along the border,'' said Jim Payne, a spokesman with the U.S. Forest Service in Phoenix. Payne said winds died down Monday to 15 to 20 mph, allowing firefighters to work towards consolidating fire lines that have been cut along the flanks of the blaze. Payne said the fire, which started Friday in Mexico, has consumed 2,500 acres in northwest Sonora and 7,300 acres in Arizona. He said firefighters hope to have the blaze contained by Wednesday evening. The blaze was named the Peaks fire because it was on Coronado National Forest slopes so steep that the fire-line elevation ranged from 5,200 feet to 7,200 feet. In southern California, the charred body of a woman was found early Monday in a small brush fire was an apparent homicide victim, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said. Investigators believe the woman was killed elsewhere, dumped and set ablaze, said Deputy Gabe Ramirez. That fire was fanned Sunday night by northeasterly winds gusting to 35 mph, but during the day Monday the wind shifted to the southwest, bringing in moist ocean air, said Forest Service spokesman Mike Wickman. The only reported loss was an apiary, but firefighters managed to save another set of beehives, Mike Wickman said. No injuries were reported. A fire that raced across 17,000 acres of parched Montana grassland, destroying three homes and killing cows, was declared under control Monday. An Amtrak train apparently sparked the fire Friday in eastern Montana, said Roosevelt County Fire Chief Lyle Knudsen. The flames quickly spread into North Dakota's Williams County. No serious injuries were reported. Most firefighters were withdrawn Monday. ``We've just got a few guys keeping an eye out, spot checks, but all the (fire) departments have returned in,'' Knudsen said. Officials were unsure how many head of cattle were lost in the fire. Cattle displaced by the fire were widely scattered, Knudsen said, adding: ``We definitely need hay or pasture, because we've got hundreds of head of cattle without anything to eat.''
El Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani attracted dozens of protesters Sunday when he went to Harvard University, apparently to watch his son play in a squash match, officials said. Harvard spokesman Peter Costa said Cristiani was in town for ``a private, family visit.'' Costa said he was told Cristiani's son was a member of Princeton University's squash team, which was playing Harvard. Dozens of protesters opposed to El Salvadoran military policies demonstrated outside the Harvard gymnasium, banging pots and pans. Earlier in the day, protesters gathered outside the Cambridge hotel where Cristiani was staying. The demonstrators brought letters from Cambridge Mayor Alice Wolf and from the Cambridge, Belmont and Arlington sister city projects. The letters described how recent delegations that visited sister cities in El Salvador reported continuing human rights abuses by the military. In her letter, Wolf said children often have been the victims of military raids in Cambridge's sister city of San Jose Las Flores. ``Our president, George Bush, frequently justifies the military aid that our country sends your government on the grounds that you have at long last brought the armed forces of El Salvador under democratic civilian control,'' the letter said. ``Judging from their behavior towards San Jose Las Flores, this does not seem to be the case.''
Gov. Kay Orr said Tuesday she won't campaign for re-election in a county bitterly divided over a proposed radioactive waste warehouse because her life has been threatened. Boyd County, a sparsely populated ranching area on the state's northern edge, has been in turmoil since officials began considering it as a possible home for low-level radioactive waste from five states. A rancher who opposes the plan is on a hunger strike. The Nebraska State Patrol said a letter was received in early August ``that contained some implied threats.'' Patrol spokesman Jeff Hanson declined to release any further details, saying the matter was under investigation. Hanson said the letter lacked some elements needed before authorities could charge anyone with making terroristic threats. Orr spokesman Doug Parrott said he understands that the threat is related to the nuclear waste dispute. Mrs. Orr said she knows who made the threat but wouldn't disclose the name. She said she had hoped the situation in Boyd County wouldn't deteriorate to the point of threats. ``There are a lot of things that you consider when you step into a public office,'' Mrs. Orr said. ``I think most of it was pretty well understood by Bill (her husband) and me. ``It's dismaying to think that we have gotten to this point that people lose faith and confidence in their government.'' The proposed waste site lies about two miles outside Butte, a village of about 500 people. Supporters have welcomed the money the dump may bring. Opponents have said they fear accidents and long-term effects of the radioactive waste. US Ecology, a waste site developer chosen by the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission, has applied to the state for permits to build the waste warehouse. The reinforced concrete warehouse near the South Dakota border would hold waste from the five states that make up the commission: Nebraska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Kansas. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Nelson's campaign manager, Sonny Foster, said it was the first he had heard of any threat against Mrs. Orr. He said it had ``absolutely nothing'' to do with the Nelson campaign. ``I think that I can say on the behalf of Ben Nelson that we don't feel that threatening people is part of the political process and there's no way that Ben Nelson would ever condone that kind of activity,'' Foster said. Nelson has visited Boyd County and has said that he is concerned about the diisions in the community, Foster said. One rancher who opposes the waste site has been on a hunger strike for more than three weeks. Lowell Fisher of Spencer, who said Tuesday he had lost 29 pounds since his fast began on Sept. 17, said he didn't believe the threat against Mrs. Orr was a serious one. ``I think it's stupid but if you have enough people who are emotionally upset, they say something,'' Fisher said. Fisher said he intends to continue his water-only diet until the governor tells the waste compact commission that the community objects to the waste site or holds a special election to see if there is. An aide to the governor has said Mrs. Orr lacks the power to call such an election and noted that the village board has supported the waste site plans.
The Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington will stop representing Cuban diplomatic interests in the United States by March, the state CTK news agency reported Tuesday. CTK quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying the grace period should permit Havana ``to cope with the new situation, without jeopardizing its interests in the U.S.A.'' The Czechoslovak Embassy has represented Cuban interests in Washington since 1977. Diplomatic and consular ties between Cuba and the United States were severed in January 1961. Interests sections enable countries to maintain diplomatic contact without having to have full-fledged embassies. A senior Cuban diplomatic official in Washington, speaking on condition he not be identified, said the Cuban government has no alternate plan in mind at present to replace the current arrangement with the Czechoslovak government. He said he assumes both the Cuban and U.S. governments wish to maintain a diplomatic presence in each other's capital and that Cuba will seek a new arrangement. The official said he had seen news reports about Prague's decision but had heard nothing officially. U.S. diplomatic activities in Havana have been carried out under the auspices of the Swiss embassy. One diplomatic source suggested that Cuba may ask the Swiss to perform that function for Cuba in Washington. The source spoke on condition of anonymity. The news agency quoted an unidentified Foreign Ministry source as saying that ``the different opinions of the two countries on the exercising of human rights'' and other fundamental differences prompted the Czechoslovak decision. Czechoslovakia has become a democracy following the revolution that toppled the Communist leadership one year ago; Cuba remains Communist-ruled. The ministry source suggested that deteriorating relations after Czechoslovakia embraced democracy contributed to Prague's decision, CTK said. He singled out the storming of Czechoslovak embassy premises in Havana in July by Cubans who claimed they were dissidents but who the Czechoslovaks believe were in the pay of the Cuban government. The invasion of the embassy ``can be rightfully presumed to have been intended to discredit the new Czechoslovak regime in the eyes of the Cuban public,'' CTK quoted the source as saying. Efforts to contact the Czechoslovak embassy in Washington by telephone were unavailing.
The United States turned to two of its long-time Middle East adversaries, Syria and Iran, seeking potential partners to counter Iraq's aggression in the Persian Gulf. The dramatic moves were announced by Secretary of State James A. Baker III as he flew to Turkey with assurances to that nation of financial and military support for its ``forthright closing'' of two Iraqi oil pipelines and for freezing Iraqi assets. U.S. government sources said Turkey was seeking $2 billion to compensate it for revenue it will lose by closing the pipelines. Before stopping at a Portugese air base in the Azores for refueling, Baker also said he had received new assurances of Soviet support in enforcing an economic boycott of Iraq ordered by the United Nations Security Council. Baker told reporters traveling with him he would send John H. Kelly, assistant secretary of state for the Near East, to Damascus from Ankara ``to see if we can coordinate with the Syrians'' on collective efforts against Iraq. At the same time, Baker verified reports that the United States also has been in touch with Iran through ``third party contacts.'' The enmity between the Syrian and Iraqi governments is intense, with the only possible greater enmity being that between Iran and Iraq. Syria helped Iran in Iran's long and bloody eight-year war started by another invasion of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 1980. Syrian President Hafez Assad and Saddam Hussein are longtime rivals within the Arab world. The two nations are ruled by rival Arab socialist parties, each considering the other an outcast. Apart from that conflict, Syria's relationship with the United States has been as bad as U.S. reations with Iraq. In fact, Syria is one of six countries listed by the State Department as sponsoring terrorists acts. Iraq was removed from that list several years ago. Terrorist groups believed to be under the influence of Iran are holding six Americans hostage in Lebanon, the longest since 1985. Baker declined to say what `` collective efforts'' Syria and the United States might undertake against Iraq. ``I really don't want to get into the specifics of that,'' he said. Baker talked for about a half hour by telephone with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, their third conversation in two days. The secretary then said, ``They continue to support enforcement of the U.N. resolution. We can look toward continued Soviet cooperation to carry out the resolution.'' Baker said Moscow had dispatched naval forces to the Persian Gulf for use in any international blockade to enforce the sanctions approved unanimously Monday by the U.N. Security Council. Kelly, who was flying to Turkey with Baker, will go on to Saudi Arabia, whose oil fields the U.S is protecting with thousands of troops dispatched Wednesday. Kelly will meet with ousted leaders of the Kuwaiti government who were given sanctuary in Saudi Arabia, and with Saudi officials. A senior U.S. official who demanded anonymity said was up to Saudi Arabia to decide whether Syria and Iran could participate in defense of the kingdon against Iraq. Iran has mounted terrorist operations against Saudi Arabia in the past, according to Saudi officials.
Gasoline prices bucked a summer trend and dipped a quarter of a cent a gallon during the last two weeks, according to a nationwide survey of more than 12,000 stations. The Lundberg Survey said the average price of all grades of gasoline offered at all types of service stations was 99.98 cents as of Friday, down from the June 10 average price of $1.0023 per gallon. The average price was down nearly a full cent from comparable June 1987 prices, according to the survey released Sunday. ``It is untypical for retail prices to be falling at this time of year,'' when the demand from vacationing motorists usually pulls up the price, said survey director Trilby Lundberg. She blamed the dip on competition between dealers and price instablity on the global oil market. The survey found that average prices at self-serve pumps as of Friday were: regular unleaded, 90.84 cents a gallon; premium unleaded, $1.056 a gallon; and regular leaded, 88.09 cents a gallon. Self-service pumps account for eight of every 10 gallons of gasoline sold. At full service pumps, the average prices were: regular unleaded, $1.1964; premium unleaded $1.2978; and regular leaded $1.1592.
Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev's economic reform program ran into problems last year and things aren't likely to improve in the near future, U.S. intelligence agencies said in a report released Sunday. Unless Gorbachev can do something to turn the economy around, he may find himself in trouble, said the bleak review which was conducted jointly by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency. ``Tension within society and the leadership will increase,'' it said. ``Bureaucrats will become increasingly frustrated by loss of privileges and status and by demands that they show greater initiative. Military leaders are likely to become more and more uneasy if benefits from the industrial modernization fail to materialize.'' ``Soviet citizens will need to see some improvement in living standards if the regime is to achieve necessary gains in worker productivity and avoid widespread discontent,'' the study said. The report concluded that ``failure to head off these tensions would, at a minimum, make it more difficult to pursue his economic program vigorously and could, ultimately call into question his strong political position at home.'' Gorbachev and supporters of his reforms have acknowledged resistance at the highest levels, and there have been reports in Moscow of conflict over reform measures between Gorbachev and No. 2 Kremlin leader Yegor K. Ligachev. Criticism of the slow pace of Gorbachev's reforms earlier led to the firing of Boris N. Yeltsin as Moscow Communist Party boss. The U.S. intelligence study was presented April 13 to the congressional Joint Economic Committee, and a declassified version was released by the panel. The study is the annual review of the Soviet economy, three years after Gorbachev came to power. He inherited an aging, extremely inefficient economy and made its modernization one of his top priorities, the study noted. After some early success, ``Gorbachev's ambitious program to create a modern, more dynamic Soviet economy ran into trouble in 1987,'' the study said. ``Familiar problems with poor weather and transportation bottlenecks were compounded by the disruptions caused by the introduction of economic reforms,'' it said. The Soviet gross national product, the total value of all goods and services produced, grew only .5 percent last year, the study noted. That rate was ``reminiscent of the late Brezhnev period,'' it said, referring to Leonid Brezhnev, a Gorbachev predecessor who prevailed over a largely stagnant economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The study noted that the Soviet GNP grew by 3.9 percent in 1986, the first full year of Gorbachev's term, compared with .6 percent in 1985. By contrast, the U.S. gross national product grew 2.9 percent, both in 1986 and 1987. However, the American economy measures a much larger base and comparisons are difficult. The Soviet economy was hampered by bad weather last year, particularly in agriculture, where output fell three percent, the study said. But industrial quality control measures also ``proved to be particularly disruptive, especially early in the year.'' Thus, industry only grew 1.5 percent and the civilian machine-building sector didn't grow at all. ``The real loser in 1987 appeared to be the consumer, who _ now three years into Gorbachev's economic program _ has seen almost no increase in his standard of living,'' the study said. It also said that for a variety of reasons, ``the short-term outlook for Gorbachev's economic program is not good.'' Among those reasons are confusion about guidelines for self-financing reforms, deficiencies in 1987 machine-building that will slow the speed of modernization, transportation problems, and poor prospects for improved worker productivity. Gorbachev also needs to be better organized, the study concluded. ``Although Gorbachev's program is comprehensive, it is in some respects inconsistent, particularly with regard to timing. For example, his goals for an immediate acceleration in the growth of national income and a pronounced improvement in the quality of output are, in our view, fundamentally incompatible.'' In addition, ``his plan to change traditional economic planning and administrative procedures dramatically has been thrust upon a largely unprepared bureaucracy,'' the study said.
Black-owned businesses increased more than twice as fast as overall business growth over five years, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. But the money earned by black firms went up at only the same rate as business overall, reflecting that the minority-owned companies were relatively smaller than businesses overall. The bureau reported that black-owned businesses increased from 308,000 in 1982 to 424,000 in 1987, the most recent year for which detailed information is available. That was an increase of 38 percent, compared with a rise of just 14 percent in the total number of businesses in the country. During the same period, receipts of black-owned firms rose 105 percent to $19.8 billion. Total business income increased 106 percent to more than $1.9 trillion in the same period. According to the Census report, based on the 1987 Economic Census, 94 percent of black-owned businesses were sole proprietorships. Receipts per company averaged $47,000 for black-owned companies compared to $146,000 for all businesses. And 54 percent of black-owned firms had receipts of under $10,000. About half of all black-owned businesses were service companies, while 16 percent were in retail trade. By income, automobile dealers and service stations were the top black-owned business, followed by business services, health service, contractors and miscellaneous retail firms. New York, with 28,063 businesses, has the most black-owned firms, the report said. Los Angeles was second at 23,932, followed by Washington, 23,046; Chicago, 15,374 and Houston, 12,989.
People stare at the scars on his throat as he waits in grocery store check-out lines. Sometimes they ask if he has a cold. Sometimes they ask if he fought in Vietnam. He never served in Vietnam, but he tells people he did, because he knows from experience that they won't want the truth. The truth is, eight years ago a stranger jammed a knife into his gut, spilling the intestines out of his slight frame, then slit his throat as he lay calling for help. It's those details people don't want to hear - details that still rattle him, causing his hands to shake uncontrollably, calling attention to nails bitten down to nothing. The sandy-haired young father is just one of several million people victimized by aggravated assault in the past decade. The attack swept away his optimism and trust, his devil-may-care fearlessness. Taking its place is fear - fear so real that after telling his story, he asked that his real name and hometown be kept secret. ``We live with the realization that it doesn't happen to somebody else,'' said the boyish, 33-year-old we'll call Larry Roberts. ``We know that people will hurt you.'' Murders may steal the headlines, but the number of serious assaults dwarfs the number of killings. Assault victims survive, but often are changed forever. ``The trauma of having looked at the jaws of death is something that is very rough to deal with,'' said John Stein, deputy director of the National Organization for Victims Assistance. Some 559,270 people - roughly the population of Columbus, Ohio, - were injured in aggravated assaults last year alone, according to the National Crime Survey, which annually interviews members of some 49,000 households and extrapolates from that to the entire nation. The survey found that 1.1 million others were victims of an attempted aggravated assault with a weapon - a gunshot flew by them, for example. On the night of June 6, 1982, Roberts was on leave from the Navy and interested mainly in getting in a last day of scuba diving before his aircraft carrier departed in two days. He was pitching a tent in a park when two strangers struck up a conversation. They seemed friendly enough. Then without warning, one of them stabbed Roberts in the abdomen and ran off with his scuba gear, wedding ring and $4 in cash. ``When I thought he was gone, I started to holler for help,'' Roberts said, a catch in his now-raspy voice. ``He came back through the woods and he tilted my head back and slit my throat twice. And then he tied my feet together and my hands back to two trees.'' Roberts eventually worked free, dragged himself 250 feet to a dirt road, holding in his intestines and pressing his chin toward his chest to keep the blood from spurting out. Help finally arrived the next morning. He spent 10 months in the hospital, undergoing at least 10 operations. The fear took over when he emerged from the hospital April 18, 1983. ``I used to take a gun with me wherever I went,'' he said. ``I was scared to death.'' In the next two years, Roberts moved his family six times. ``Something would happen, something would trigger me and we'd be gone,'' he said. They stopped running five years ago in rural Maryland so their elder daughter could start school and enjoy a semblance of a normal life. Four years ago, Roberts and his wife had a second daughter. In the meantime, his attacker pleaded guilty to attempted murder and served six years of a 10-year sentence before being freed as a model prisoner. Roberts still fears him - even though he believes his fear is irrational. He also insisted that the assailant's name not be used, in part because he doesn't want to antagonize him. Even now, Roberts' home is guarded by a large, loud dog nicknamed Norad, after the nation's early warning system for nuclear attacks. At night, their home is awash in light. Two sheriff's deputies live across the street. Roberts and his wife never employ baby-sitters because they don't trust strangers. The attack destroyed Roberts' career plans. The Navy discharged him involuntarily because he could no longer perform his job. Desperate to catch up for time lost, Roberts pushed himself too far. He has had a drinking problem. He spent two months in a psychiatric hospital last year. Today, he takes things more slowly, teaching scuba diving only part time while attending college. And after years of shying away from the world, he now tells his story to police groups, hoping to sensitize officers to victims' needs. ``The victim is a piece of evidence,'' said Andrew Turner, a criminal justice instructor at Wor Wic Tech Community College and a former Maryland police officer who has arranged some of Roberts' talks. ``If the guy survived, you had a good case. He could come and testify against the perpetrator.'' Turner said. ``Police don't see a guy healed up'' but still needing emotional support. Roberts finds the speeches therapeutic, despite the toll they take, and he has established a network of people who will help him when he cracks from the strain. It is important to Roberts that he controls the impact of the attack and not the other way around, but he conceded, ``It has given my life a different direction.'' Now there's yet another fear: AIDS. Roberts had numerous blood transfusions in 1982, before blood was tested for the deadly disease, and he refuses to be tested now. ``If I'm going to die of it,'' he said with a grimace, ``I don't want to know about it.''
A zoo advocacy group is calling for an investigation into the cause of a half-dozen puncture wounds on the head and face of an elephant that injured a veterinarian who was trying to treat the wounds. ``What we're talking about here is abuse,'' Sandra Keller, spokeswoman for Citizens for a Better Zoo, said Sunday. ``We have been receiving complaints about the way these elephants are being mistreated for several months.'' Veterinarian Gail Hedberg was treating an abscess on the head of a 3{-ton Asian elephant named Tinkerbelle when the animal attacked her Saturday, fracturing her pelvis. Zookeepers said Tinkerbelle did a ``handstand'' on the woman. Hedberg was listed in stable condition today at San Francisco General Hospital. Some officials defended practices at the San Francisco Zoo. ``We have to use elephant hooks and other methods that may appear abusive because we're not talking about puppy dogs and pussy cats here,'' said zoo director Saul Kitchener. ``How do you get a 10,000-pound elephant's attention?'' Elephant keeper Michele Radovsky said beating an elephant is no different from ``people taking rolled newspapers and hitting their dog.'' But Paul Hunter, a keeper at the zoo for nine years, said the abscess on Tinkerbell's head was caused by someone hitting her too hard with a hooked instrument called an ankuf or elephant hook. ``The elephants get beaten up real bad, and I'm getting tired of it,'' said Hunter.
Two car bombs apparently set off by leftist guerrillas exploded in an affluent neighborhood of this capital. Rescue workers said six people were injured. Although there was no claim of responsibility, the bombings Tuesday night appeared to mark an escalation in the employment of the car-bomb tactic by urban commandos. The previous three car bombs this year were primarily incendiary devices. The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front claimed responsibility for those bombings. A nine-year civil war pits the Marxist-led guerrillas against forces of the U.S.-backed centrist government. The latest bombs were powerful, blowing one vehicle to bits and throwing parts of another onto a 20-foot-high roof. The bombs exploded about two minutes apart. One went off in the parking lot of the ``Biggest'' fast-food hamburger chain, which is Salvadoran-owned but imitates American restaurants. It shattered windows and destroyed part of the roof. The other exploded 200 yards away in front of a complex of boutiques and stores catering primarily to the wealthy in the Escalon neighborhood on San Salvador's western edge. The rebels' clandestine radio indicated in an Oct. 7 broadcast that urban commandos would increase activity in such areas. ``There is no more tranquil rear-guard for the exploiters,'' the broadcast said. ``Because it is not fair that bombs and explosions are heard only in the countryside, in the hamlets of the poor. .. . It is not fair that only the oppressed hear the noise of the war and suffer its consequences. ``The rich are in this war too.'' Rescue worker Miguel Angel Torres said five employees were injured by flying glass at the ``Biggest.'' Another rescue worker said one person was slightly injured by flying glass at the other bombing site. Torres said two of the injured might lose their eyesight. Nicolas Salume, owner of the ``Biggest,'' said about 40 people were inside the building when the bomb went off. He estimated damage at $100,000. A man outside the Biggest said, ``This is a great injustice. It is terrorism.'' He declined to be named, saying he was an industrialist and could become a guerrilla target if publicly identified.
The FBI has no quota system to ensure Hispanics are included in a program to train agents for top positions, one of the FBI's highest-ranking officials testified Tuesday. ``We're trying to recruit the best people we can for the program,'' said John Otto, executive assistant FBI director. ``There are no quotas at this time. But we want our very best people to include minorities and women.'' Otto, one of three men who share the bureau's No. 2 rank under director William Sessions, testified in a discrimination lawsuit against the FBI. Attorneys for the 311 Hispanic agents joined in the class-action suit contend the FBI routinely keeps Hispanics out of a fast-track promotion path that includes the four-day Management Assessment Program. The plaintiffs contend the FBI discriminates against Hispanics in hiring, promotion, assignments and discipline. They seek unspecified damages and changes in FBI policies. About 400 of the bureau's 9,400 agents _ or 4.3 percent _ are Hispanic, compared with 8 percent of the general U.S. population. During the first week of testimony, about 40 agents _ Hispanic and non-Hispanic _ testified that Hispanic agents are transferred more often to undesirable locations, are given less glamorous or more dangerous assignments and receive less recognition for their successes. Otto said the FBI's Career Board, which supervises the fast-track promotion program, holds an annual retreat in Quantico, Va., to discuss the problems of minorities. No Hispanics sit on the Career Board, he testified. In other testimony, Melvin Jeter, head of the FBI's equal employment opportunity office, said all 25 discrimination complaints brought in the past by agents in the class-action suit were determined to be unfounded. Asked by defense attorney Felix Baxter whether he considered himself anti-Hispanic, Jeter said: ``I certainly do not. I personally look forward to going to conventions and recruiting Hispanic agents.'' Margaret Gulotta, head of the FBI's linguist program, said any agent who speaks a foreign language can be required to use that skill throughout the agent's career. Agents can serve as language specialists for three years, then ask not to be requested to use the language again. But a loophole in the rule allows supervisors to ask those agents to do undercover work, listen to wiretaps and do other assignments in the language based upon the needs of the FBI. The plaintiffs contend the FBI abuses that loophole, keeping Hispanic agents doing routine tasks, such as listening to wiretaps, that do not lead to management jobs. The non-jury trial is scheduled to end Friday, and U.S. District Judge Lucius Bunton is expected to render a decision within six months. Federal employees are not entitled to jury trials when suing the government in discrimination cases.
Societe Generale de Belgique SA said Thursday it is ready to continue talks with Robert Maxwell that could result in the British publisher gaining a stake in Belgium's largest holding company. Maxwell and Societe Generale agreed in June to cooperate in creating a joint venture in communications, and the two sides had broached the possibility of Maxwell acquiring shares in Societe Generale. But the negotiations were interrupted when Maxwell turned his attention to Macmillan Inc., the New York-based publishing and information services company he has offered to acquire for $2.47 billion in cash. This week Macmillan agreed to a $2.5 billion cash-and-securities buyout by the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., but Maxwell said he was mulling his options. On Wednesday, Maxwell said he remained interested in acquiring a stake in Societe Generale and that talks may resume soon. A spokesman for Societe Generale said, ``We continue to be interested in having more international shareholders.'' Maxwell appears primarily drawn to Societe Generale's media interests, which are concentrated in Tractebel SA.
Many of the nation's leading filmmakers _ including Francis Ford Coppola, Barry Levinson and Paul Mazursky _ will ask the Motion Picture Association of America to change its movie rating system. In a petition to be delivered to the MPAA offices here Tuesday, more than a dozen top directors ask that a new rating be established for adult-oriented films that are not pornographic, according to a copy of the letter. ``The taint of an X rating clearly results in massive and arbitrary corporate censorship,'' the petition says. ``Failure to address this problem will help foster a new era of `McCarthyism' in the arts as during the 50's, when the networks claimed it was not they who blacklisted artists, but the sponsors.'' The letter says the X rating ``has come to be universally recognized as pertaining simply to pornography. ... We therefore strongly suggest that a new rating of A (for adult) or M (for mature) be incorporated into the system to indicate a film contains strong adult themes or images and that minors are not to view them.'' A number of critically acclaimed films _ included ``Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,'' ``Portrait of a Serial Killer,'' ``Scandal'' and ``The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover'' _ have been rated X in recent months. The petition also was signed by Spike Lee, Rob Reiner, Jonathan Demme, Jim Jarmusch, Ron Howard, John Sayles, Penny Marshall, John Waters, Edward Zwick and John Landis, among others. It follows a similar request made this week by the National Society of Film Critics to the MPAA asking they create a new rating for mature films. Mark Lipsky, the president of film distributor Silverlight Entertainment, said he organized the directors' petition because films with X ratings are denied newspaper and television advertisements and are refused by many theaters. Films carrying the X rating, he said, often are ignored by adult viewers who might enjoy them because the rating has such negative connotations. ``And that's censorship,'' Lipsky said. ``The MPAA is being irresponsible if they don't face the issue.'' A spokeswoman for the MPAA in Washington said the organization would not be able to comment on the letter until next week. Earlier in the day, Jack Valenti, the MPAA president, said the rating system works. A New York judge ruled Thursday that the MPAA's X rating unfairly brands films for mature audiences as pornographic, and called for the organization to devise a new rating system. Judge Charles Ramos, while saying he did not have the authority to change an X rating given to the acclaimed Spanish film ``Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,'' called the MPAA ratings system ``an effective form of censorship.'' In a scathing 15-page opinion, Ramos wrote that unless the MPAA reforms the rating system, it might find itself subject to legal challenge. He called on the organization ``to consider the proposals for a revised rating system that provides a professional basis for rating films or to cease the practice altogether.'' He said the problem ``is the need to avoid stigmatizing films of an adult nature, which ought not to be seen by children, but which are clearly not pornographic.'' ``Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!'' features one sex scene and a brief masturbation scene, and was given an X rating. Many newspapers and movie theaters prohibit advertising and exhibition of X-rated movies.
The latest appointee to the city's Emergency Shelter Commission has plenty of experience dealing with the problems of people who have no place to go _ he's been homeless himself for the past two years. Michael McGuire, 71, who immigrated from Northern Ireland to the United States 37 years ago and worked as a house painter for much of his life, was appointed to the commission by Mayor Raymond Flynn. The mayor announced the appointment at a Thanksgiving dinner at the Long Island Hospital Shelter, where McGuire has lived for the past year. City officials had decided to appoint a homeless person to the panel and McGuire impressed the mayor with his ability to get along with people and his concern on the issue of homelessness, said commission director Ann Maguire. ``He is someone who had been working his whole life and, all of a sudden, he became homeless. That is a perspective that is a little different than other people we're dealing with,'' she said. McGuire said he hopes to make the most of his new position. ``I'll try to do what I can,'' he told The Boston Globe in a story published Saturday. ``I'm not a politician. ... I'm a nice guy and I'm not trouble. Maybe I can help people.'' McGuire said he is content at the shelter: ``Everybody is friendly, the nurses are lovely and they don't holler at you.'' However, he said the menu could use a little revision. ``You get a lot of macaroni here,'' he said. ``Let's see a hamburger once in a while.'' He also would like to see things like a pool table, table tennis, shuffleboard and card tables at the shelter. And he would like to move into an apartment of his own. McGuire, who was divorced about 25 years ago and has four children living in Florida, said in a telephone interview Saturday that he moved from Florida to New Jersey in the 1970s, and retired in 1977. He wouldn't say where he lived in New Jersey. He said trouble began two years ago when he came to Boston by train with a casual acquaintance he met in Penn Station in New York City. After he got off the train, his friend disappeared and he found himself stranded in a city where he knew no one. He said he started drinking and hanging out in the street. Police referred him to Boston City Hospital where he was directed to the Long Island Hospital shelter. The other commission members are a minister and representatives of the city Department of Health and Hospitals, the city Public Facilities Department and the Pine Street Inn shelter.
Legislators praised Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev's announcement of a unilateral troop cut but said they want to see the words backed up with action and renewed East-West talks to reduce troop levels in Europe. With Congress out of session, few legislators were in the Capitol and most reacted cautiously, saying they wanted to see more details of how the Soviets will carry out the plan made public Wednesday by Gorbachev at the United Nations. They also noted that the Soviets now have a large numerical edge in troops and various categories of weapons in Europe. Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, the incoming Senate majority leader, said he welcomed Gorbachev's statement but added, ``while these proposals are commendable, they must be considered in view of overall levels of forces in Europe and the offensive structure of Soviet forces.'' Mitchell said he hopes the announcement will lead to ``the reinvigoration'' of long-stalled efforts to negotiate cuts in military strength in Europe. House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, called the speech ``certainly the most positive signal from Moscow in 70 years, much more positive because words at last are being accompanied by deeds.'' ``We must not abandon caution, but neither should we slam the door in the face of opportunity,'' Wright said in a statement. Senate Republican leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., said, ``Mr. Gorbachev has promised a lot, but can he deliver? Only his actions _ not just words _ will tell the world whether his U.N. speech becomes a one-of-a-kind Christmas gift or just another stocking stuffer. ``If we really see such cutbacks in Eastern Europe, then we might indeed be seeing a good-faith first step toward real conventional force parity; our negotiators in Vienna will be insisting on no less,'' said Dole. Sen. Tim Wirth, D-Colo., a member of the Armed Services Committee, said, ``we need to bear in mind that we in the West have heard about a number of interesting proposals from Gorbachev and other top Soviet officials. ``But what we haven't seen is any real change in Soviet military forces,'' said Wirth. ``What we have seen is largely improvements in Soviet forces.'' Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, was the most euphoric. ``Gorbachev's speech could be the end of the Cold War, the end of the arms race (and) the end of the danger of nuclear war,'' he said. ``Of course, we need deeds, not words. We have to see what the Soviets actually do.'' The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said, ``I would urge a note of caution.'' Even if the Soviets go ahead with the promised 10 percent troop reduction, Warner said, they will have ``two and one-half times as many tanks, three and one-half times as many artillery pieces.'' ``It's too early to tell exactly the impact of these dramatic announcements,'' he said. They may simply eliminate older, less capable weapons. ``The Soviet Union has quite a collection of antiquated military equipment.'' Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Gorbachev has ``done more than anyone thought he could do politically. ``His cuts are dramatic and significant _ especially that he will make them unilaterally.'' But Aspin warned: ``Don't be distracted by all the dramatic numbers you're hearing. We don't fight wars by the numbers.'' Gorbachev promised to reorganize the Soviet military, Aspin noted, explaining that ``a reorganization that removes the Soviet offensive capability declaws the Russian bear and is far more important than numbers on a chart.'' Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Gorbachev's statements ``profoundly welcome.'' ``If the Soviet government follows through on Gorbachev's pledge, this will challenge the United States and its allies to act imaginatively to start a similar process of arms reduction,'' said Pell. Pell said the administration should ``take advantage of the openings created by Gorbachev's speech to accelerate the momentum of arms control negotiations on conventional, as well as nuclear, weapons.''
The country's highest court today upheld the death sentence of a white man convicted of killing a black policeman and trying to make the slaying look like the work of black radicals. Henry Burt, 35, faces hanging unless President P.W. Botha commutes the sentence. No execution date was announced. Burt was convicted last year of beating Sgt. Johannes Ndimande into unconsciousness in June 1986, placing a gasoline-soaked tire around his neck, and setting it on fire. No clear motive was established in the trial. That method of killing is called ``necklacing.'' The government says scores of blacks were ``necklaced'' from 1984 through 1987 by black radicals who suspected them of collaborating with white authorities. Burt, a former soldier who worked for the state-run Nuclear Development Corp., pleaded innocent at his trial, though he said he gave the policeman a lift that night. Part of Burt's defense was that he attended a meeting before the killing at which white residents complained about rising black crime. But the Appeal Court rejected that defense in today's ruling.
Share prices ended lower on London's Stock Exchange Thursday, as the resignation of Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze created uncertainty in the financial markets. The resignation ``does add to the general economic uncertainty which makes markets nervous,'' said John Reynolds, equity strategist at the London brokerage firm County Natwest Woodmac. Wall Street also was having its share of jitters over the news. Throughout most of the European afternoon, the Dow Jones industrial average was under pressure, although by the close of the session in London, Wall Street appeared to be reversing its losses. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index was down 19.9 points, or 0.9 percent, at 2,158.8 at the close. The Financial Times 30-share index fell 19.9 points to close at 1,687.2. The Financial Times 500-share index fell 9.79 points to close a 1,143.22. Volume was 590.2 million shares compared with 509.3 million shares Wednesday.
Gov. Jim Florio accused Exxon Corp. of lax handling of a 570,000-gallon oil spill in a bird and fish sanctuary, and said the state had learned from the Exxon Valdez spill not to trust the company. Exxon, responding to Florio's comments Tuesday, defended its response to the Jan. 2 spill _ and to the Valdez disaster _ and said it would fulfill its responsibilities for the cleanup. Florio said the state Department of Environmental Protection has determined that a pipeline operator and supervisor on duty at the time of the spill in the Arthur Kill lacked the certification required by New York authorities, which shares jurisdiction for the waterway. A portion of pipe will be pulled out of the waterway, which lies between New Jersey and the New York City borough of Staten Island, and transported to Ohio for lab tests that could help determine the cause of the spill, Florio said. Exxon confirmed it was removing the pipe today for tests at its expense. Florio, the Democrat elected governor last year after a strong pro-environment campaign, said New York and New Jersey authorities had mapped out a strategy to restore the important East Coast spawning ground for birds and fish, which scientists say absorbed serious damage from the spilled heating oil. No dollar figure has been assigned to the damage, nor have cleanup costs been established. ``I want to make it clear to everyone in New Jersey that this will not be another Valdez,'' Florio said, referring to the March 28 wreck that spilled more than 10 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. ``Exxon will not be allowed to hit and run. ... ``My impression of what's happening in Valdez is that Exxon seems to be inclined to wipe its hands sooner rather than later,'' Florio said. ``We're not going to allow that approach to be duplicated here.'' Exxon spokesman Leo McLean defended Exxon's cleanup in Alaska and said the company was cooperating with authorities to ``assess potential impacts ... and work toward agreement'' on the Arthur Kill cleanup. Florio reiterated claims that pipeline operators ignored warnings of a possible leak. Exxon has attributed the slow detection of the pipeline's problems to equipment failure, rather than human error. Florio said James Fitzgerald, a console operator at Exxon's Bayway refinery, had not obtained the certification required of pipeline operators by the New York Fire Department. George Leth, the shift supervisor who trained Fitzgerald, also was not certified to operate the equipment, Florio said. The lack of certification ``was another piece of information we will factor into the on-going investigation the attorney general is conducting,'' Florio said. McLean said he could not confirm or deny the certification claim until the company completed its own investigation.
Clusters of olive-green parachutes drifted down to a Mediterranean beach Tuesday in a group jump by 120 paratroop veterans, most of them Americans, to mark Israel's 40th anniversary. Three U.S.-built C-130 Hercules transports circled the dunes of Palmachim Beach, about 15 miles south of Tel Aviv, to drop the members of the International Association of Airborne Veterans. ``This is my show of support for Israel,'' said Jim Costa, 58, of Charlestown, N.H., who said he lost his left leg in the Korean War and has jumped five times since with an artifical one. ``I also wanted to make this my last jump and I thought there's no better place to do it than the place where Christ walked,'' said Costa, wiping sweat from his face as he moved toward a table laden with cakes and fruits. Some paratroopers came to express solidarity with Israel, but others said a sense of adventure attracted them. Cleo Crouch of Boca Raton, Fla., at age 72 the oldest jumper, said: ``I landed on my butt and my back hurts a little, but I'm fine.'' Crouch, a retired trucking company owner, said Tuesday's jump was his third. He said he first parachuted over the Rhine River on a combat mission in March 1945, then tried a freefall on a dare in 1985. ``Everybody thinks I'm crazy,'' said Crouch. ``Where I live, the guys my age are just sitting around smoking, drinking beer and eating too much. I feel I can do everything I want to.'' In addition to 80 Americans, the group included 30 West Germans, a few Britons and Canadians, a jumper from Denmark and one from Singapore. It was the Chicago-based association's second jump over Israel since its founding five years ago. The last jump it organized was in Taiwan in November. Karl Houy, 43, a physician from Neuenkirchen, West Germany, said he participated to overcome fear that began when he broke his leg jumping in 1983. ``I was scared and I wanted to prove to myself that I can still do it,'' he said. ``I have to tell you, though, that I didn't see much of the view. I just wanted to get down safely.''
The company that prepares most of the nation's bar exams filed a federal lawsuit Friday accusing a preparation service of stealing questions and undermining the integrity of the tests. The lawsuit was filed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, or NCBE, a Chicago company that prepares the Multistate Bar Examination _ 200 multiple-choice questions administered to law graduates in 46 states. The suit accuses Multistate Legal Studies Inc. of Philadelphia and Santa Monica, Calif., of sending agents to purposely fail the bar exam, giving them the right to review the tests. While reviewing the exams, the agents memorized, photographed, hand copied or tape recorded the questions, according to the lawsuit. The suit names Multistate president Robert Feinberg as an agent. Feinberg, an attorney living in California, denied the allegations and noted that his company won a similar suit filed in 1978. The NCBE claims the ``integrity and quality of the process by which applicants are admitted to the practice of law'' was tainted by Multistate, which also operates under the name of Preliminary Multistate Bar Review. The suit seeks unspecified damages as well as injunctions against further copyright infringement. According to the suit, about 100,000 students in 40 states have enrolled in the courses with Preliminary Multistate Bar Review since 1977. The three- and six-day seminars cost $295 to $495 with an additional $395 for written materials, $100 for cassette tapes and about $50 for flashcards. The Multistate Bar Exam, used since 1972, is given twice a year on six subjects. About 58,000 applicants took the exam last year. Questions are prepared by committees of practitioners, judges and law professors and reviewed by others at a cost of about $250,000 per test form. The NCBE releases 50 questions to the public every other year, but does not reuse released questions. The NCBE also prepares other portions of the test, including a essay section and a section on professional responsibility. The Multistate Bar Examination is used in all states but Indiana, Iowa, Lousiana and Washington.
President Bush and his advisers went over final preparations today for a U.S.-Soviet summit that a top aide said will tackle ``bare bone essentials'' rather than tallying up agreements to sign. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev will likely issue a statement of progress on nuclear arms reductio as sign various cultural and economic agreements when they meet this week, said a senior admin talks, as wellnistration official who briefed White House reporters. But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, cast doubt on prospects for a U.S.-Soviet trade agreement before Gorbachev leaves. ``We're in a rather uncertain state about what exactly will happen on the trade agreement,'' the official said, citing U.S. unhappiness over Soviet actions in Lithuania and the Soviets' failure to enact legislation allowing free emigration. Still, the official said, ``This is not a summit devoted to the celebration of agreements that we can sign. It is a summit designed to do the hard work of trying to overcome the remaining obstacles that stand in the way of transforming East-West relations.'' ``We are now dow: Education Program.
World Jewish Congress officials said Monday economic hardship has fueled anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe and they planned a solemn ceremony at the site where Nazis plotted the extermination of the Jews. On the second day of the congress' annual meeting, a U.S. Justice Department official said Washington has rejected Austrian President Kurt Waldheim's repeated requests for a lifting of the ban that keeps him out of the country. The official said the ban remains in effect because of Waldheim's role ``Nazi-sponsored persecution.'' The three-day meeting in Berlin is the Congress' first in Germany since the organization was founded in Switzerland in 1936 amid the horrors of the Third Reich. Some delegates declined to attend, saying a visit to Berlin, the former Nazi capital, would be too traumatic. Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis between January 1933 and May 1945. On Tuesday, Congress officials will visit Berlin's Wannsee Villa, where on Jan. 20, 1942 leading Nazi officials plotted the Third Reich's so-called Final Solution to exterminate Jews worldwide. A solemn ceremony at the villa will coincide with the 45th anniversary of the Nazis' unconditional surrender in World War II. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir used the anniversary to speak out against arms sales to the Jewish state's Arab enemies. He told Israel's Parliament that a united Germany should ``learn the lessons of the past'' and not sell weapons to Arab nations. At a news conference Monday in the heavily guarded West Berlin Jewish Community headquarters, World Jewish Congress leaders warned about present dangers and emphasized the need to recall past tragedies. ``The Jewish people have something to say to the new Germany that is going to be created in a short time,'' said Congress President Edgar M. Bronfman. He opened the meeting Sunday by saying a united Germany must ``forever teach'' about the Holocaust, ``the lowest point ever reached in man's inhumanity to man.'' Congress leaders said that in Eastern Europe there were indications of growing anti-Semitism, fueled in large part by economic hardship. Decades of Communist mismanagement have driven the economies of East European countries to the brink. Many jobless youths have turned to right-wing extremism, often blaming Jews and foreigners for economic ills. ``Unfortunately, as the economic situation worsens ... and the search for scapegoats goes on, the age-old scapegoat _ the Jew _ again takes his place in the forefront of those to be kicked around,'' Bronfman said. ``When you see tens of thousands of Jews leaving the Soviet Union and going to Israel, one of the main reasons they're going is because of the rise of anti-Semitism,'' he said. Hundreds of thousands of Jews are expected to emigrate to Israel over the next years, in part because of looser Soviet emigration policy but also in response to what they say is increasing religious persecution at home. There are up to 2 million Soviet Jews. Bronfman said that when he visited Poland a few months ago, government leaders and Solidarity chief Lech Walesa issued ``strong statements'' against anti-Semitism. ``The only way to fight it is to expose it,'' Bronfman said of anti-Jewish feeling. Lionel Kopelowitz, head of the European Jewish Congress, said there were indications of growing anti-Jewish feeling in Romania. ``The people are hungry. They look for a scapegoat,'' he said of Romania, home to about 25,000 Jews. Heinz Galinksi, leader of West Germany's 35,000-member Jewish community, said he also sees increased neo-Nazi activities and anti-Semitism in East Germany. Neo-Nazis and other rightists recently went on a rampage in East Berlin, shouting insults against Jews and foreigners. Galinski, a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, said the Congress meeting in Berlin was ``perhaps one of the most important events'' since the downfall of Nazi Germany. The World Jewish Congress executive director, Elan Steinberg, said 10 percent of delegates from outside East and West Germany declined to participate. About 80 of the 600 delegates were from countries other than East and West Germany. ``There are people who will not come to Berlin, and they have a right not to come to Berlin,'' Bronfman said. ``We're dealing with huge, huge emotions here.'' Neal M. Sher, head of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, said in a speech to delegates that ``Kurt Waldheim had engaged in Nazi-sponsored persecution.'' The U.S. government in April 1987 put Waldheim, an officer in the German army during World War II, on a ``watch list'' of people denied entry into the country. The ban followed allegations Waldheim was involved in Nazi atrocities during the war. Waldheim has denied wrongdoing. ``It is also well-known that Waldheim has tried hard and often to be a removed from the list,'' Sher said. ``But all such approaches to our government have been rebuffed. He will remain persona non grata.''
ABC's ``Roseanne'' edged NBC's ``The Cosby Show'' as prime-time ratings champ in the just-concluded 1989-1980 season, NBC announced Monday. ABC's Tuesday comedy starring Roseanne Barr averaged a 23.3 rating, two-tenths of a ratings point more than the Bill Cosby family comedy which has been first in the Nielson ratings for the last four seasons. ``The Cosby Show,'' wound up in second place for the season. Cosby's series has been on the air for six seasons, and Barr's series for two. Each ratings point represents 921,000 homes. Final figures for the 30-week season, which ended Sunday, won't be available until Tuesday. But network research analysts say that NBC will easily win its fifth consecutive season, with ABC coming in second, and once-dominant CBS in third place for the third straight season. Still awaiting final figures for the last three days of the season, Preston Beckman, NBC vice-president for research, said that NBC thus far had a 14.6 ratings average, ABC a 12.9 and CBS a 12.2 during the season. NBC's ratings are down by nine percent, ABC's are flat, and those of CBS are down by three percent, he said. He cited competition from cable, the fledgling Fox network, and independent stations as factors in the overall ratings drop. However, he attributed 25 percent of NBC's decline to the absence of three sports events it had in prime time during the previous season _ the Summer Olypmics, the World Series and pro football's Superbowl.
Honduran security forces early Thursday arrested 16 Americans who demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy and at a U.S. air base to protest Washington's policy in Central America. Maj. Manuel Urbina, spokesman for the Public Security Forces, said four Americans who protested in front of the embassy were being held at the Casamata prison in the capital. Another 12 who staged a one-hour protest at the U.S. air base in Palmerola, about 40 miles northwest of the capital were being held at a police jail in Comayagua, four miles away, Urbina said. He said the arrests were made without resistance and the Americans would probably be expelled. U.S. officials in Honduras could not be reached immediately for comment. Urbina said none of the demonstrators carried passports or identification. In Guatemala City, four Americans threw blood on the steps of the U.S. Embassy Wednesday and chained themselves to the gates of the compound in a protest against U.S. policy in Central America. The protests were organized by a group called Project Independence and held one day before Central American countries celebrate the anniversary of their independence from Spain in 1821. John Mateyko, a spokesman for the group in Washington, said the protest was ``religious-based and non-violent'' against what he called ``the immoral and dangerous policy'' of the Reagan administration in Central America. Mateyko identified the four demonstrators in Tegucigalpa as John Bach, 41, of Hartford, Conn.; Teri Allen, 30, of Hartford; Patricia McCallum, 47, of Cambridge, Mass., and Mark Fryer, 31, of West Creek, Pa. The names of those being held in Camayagua were not immediately available. Mateyko identified the demonstrators in Guatemala City as Charley Litky, 57, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner for his service as a Roman Catholic priest in Vietnam, and Sara Story, 26, both of Washington, D.C.; Dale Ashera-Davis, 34, of Baltimore, Md.; and John Schuchardt, 49, of Leverett, Mass. ``At this time of remembering Central American independence from Spain we've come to join with Central Americans in declaring its independence from U.S. domination,'' a declaration read by the group said. ``In eight years neither (President) Reagan or (Vice President George) Bush seems to have figured out that that's all these people want,'' it said. The demonstrators, who threw blood on the embassy steps before chaining themselves to the gates, were demanding an audience with the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, James Michel. By Wednesday evening, the four were still chained to the embassy gates as Guatemalan National Police officers looked on.
The Nikkei Stock Average closed at 29,623.20, up 182.92 points, or 0.62 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Thursday.
Kraft Inc. said Thursday it was selling its fast-growing Duracell battery division to a group led by management and the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in a cash deal worth $1.8 billion. Kraft said it agreed to sell Duracell Inc., the world's leading maker of alkaline consumer batteries, to concentrate on its core food business. Proceeds from the sale would be used to buy back up to 12 million Kraft shares, to reduce debt and for possible food-related acquisition, the company said. ``... We are excited about the many opportunities available to Kraft in the food industry, and the sale of Duracell will enable us to focus our total management and financial resources on those opportunities,'' said Kraft Chairman John M. Richman. Kraft informed its shareholders of the definitive agreement at its annual meeting Thursday in Chicago. Kraft, which acquired Bethel, Conn.-based Duracell in 1980, had announced in December that it planned to sell the unit. Henry R. Kravis, a partner in New York-based Kohlberg Kravis, called the agreement ``the first step in the creation of a great new independent consumer-products company.'' ``We are very excited about the future growth prospects of the company and our future association with the management and employees of Duracell,'' he said. Some analysts expressed surprise at the price Kohlberg Kravis agreed to pay for Duracell, which had been widely expected to fetch between $1 billion and $1.2 billion. ``It never ceases to amaze me what a good brand is worth in today's marketplace,'' said John W. McMillin of Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. ``This was pleasant news for Kraft shareholders.'' In composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Kraft rose $1.50 a share to close at $53.50. McMillin said Kohlberg Kravis probably was attracted by Duracell's strong growth potential. Duracell, which has about 9,000 employees, had an operating income of $140 million and sales of $1.1 billion last year. Kraft's 1987 sales, excluding Duracell, were $9.9 billion. Duracell's copper-top alkaline batteries account for about 28 percent of all U.S. consumer battery sales. The company is tied with Ralston Purina Co.'s Eveready unit for the lead in domestic sales of alkaline batteries, the fastest-growing segment of the battery market. Together, Eveready and Duracell have more than 80 percent of the domestic alkaline-battery market, McMillin said. Duracell does not compete in the carbon-zinc battery market, which is dominated by Eveready. ``With all these Walkmans and portable tape recorders that have to use batteries, the alkaline segment has been exhibiting strong volume growth and that is what had to attract these investors,'' McMillin said. Analysts said they did not expect Duracell to diversify as a stand-alone company. ``It could happen in time, but certainly not immediately,'' said Lawrence Adelman, an analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. in New York. ``When you do a leveraged buyout you've got to use the cash generated internally to reduce debt, so you've got to pretty much stick to your own business.'' Duracell is being sold to Duracell Holdings Corp., the new company formed by Kohlberg Kravis and Duracell's management. Kohlberg Kravis specializes in leveraged buyouts, in which a company is acquired mainly through borrowed funds repaid from the target company's profits or asset sales.
The United States and its partners at the economic summit sidestepped differences on global warming Wednesday, but issued an environmental declaration that emphasized forestry protection. The seven leaders pledged to negotiate an international agreement to curb deforestation as expeditiously as possible. The environmental declaration contained mostly general language on global warming and called for an international convention on the subject to be completed by 1992. The United Nations is already working on the issue. The Bush administration prevailed in blocking European wishes to specify exactly how much the industrialized nations should reduce carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. Carbon dioxide has been estimated to account for about 55 percent of global warming, but the timing and the degree to which the earth is expected to become hotter are uncertain. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said Germany had wanted tougher commitments in the area of emissions, but added, ``We can live with'' the communique. Environmental groups immediately lambasted the summit as having failed to produce substantive progress on environmental concerns. President Bush fired back, saying he wasn't out to ``get some brownie points'' from the environmental groups. He told a news conference that the summit had produced ``a reasoned position, not a radical position that's going to throw a lot of American men and women out of jobs.'' The summit declaration emphasized forestry planks. It called for immediate negotiations to forge a worldwide forestation program; a World Bank plan to stop destruction of Brazil's tropical rain forests, and a toughening of the World Bank's current Tropical Forestry Action Plan to emphasize ``conservation and biological diversity.'' ``The destruction of forests has reached alarming proportions,'' the summit communique said. A forestry program could end up helping combat global warming eventually because trees absorb the carbon dioxide emissions that are contributing to the earth's warming. Scientists say 20 percent of global warming is due to deforestation. Kohl said he was pleased about the summit leaders' commitment on Brazilian rain forests. ``The continuing destruction of tropical forests must be stopped through an immediate program,'' he said. The leaders said the forestry agreement should be ready for signing by 1992. The general language of the summit communique stated: ``We as industrialized countries have an obligation to be leaders in meeting these challenges'' on climate change, ozone depletion, deforestation, marine pollution, and the loss of biological diversity. But environmentalists said the seven leaders had abandoned their promise at their Paris summit a year ago to take decisive, urgent action on environmental problems. ``Despite their green rhetoric, the G-7 leaders leave Houston in the red on the environment,'' the Envirosummit coalition of prominent environmental groups said. The group welcomed the promise of a forestry protection plan, however. ``The summit is a failure on the environment because they did nothing on global warming,'' said Dan Becker of the Sierra Club. ``In order to cover over their inaction on global warming, they've added a fig leaf on rain forests.'' On the contentious issue of global warming, the communique included vague compromise language calling for ``appropriate implementing protocols'' to stem global warming ``as expeditiously as possible'' but it was unclear whether such protocols would have to wait until after a 1992 convention on global warming. The Bush administration says more research is needed on climate change before dramatic steps are taken to curb carbon dioxide emissions.
In another sign of sluggishness in the nation's economy, businesses in July slashed orders for manufactured goods and reduced inventories, the National Association of Purchasing Management said Wednesday. It was the first drop in the group's measurement of the manufacturing sector in three months and gave further weight to a belief the nation's economy may be slipping into a recession. A measurement of activity by chief purchasing executives at more than 300 industrial companies tumbled in July to its lowest rate since January, in its sharpest monthly decline since January 1984. ``It reflects a weakening manufacturing sector, so the cutting edge is getting dull,'' said Robert Brusca, chief economist for Nikko Securities International Inc. ``Businessmen are going to become even more cautious.'' The association's Purchasing Managers Index fell to 47.4 percent in July from 51.1 percent the previous month, ending three months of increases. A reading below 50 indicates the manufacturing economy generally is declining. The index, a composite of survey results on order levels, prices, inventory and other areas, had been below 50 for 11 straight months. It averaged 48.8 percent in the first seven months of 1990. July's reading was the lowest since 45.2 percent in January. The decline was the sharpest since the index fell about nine percentage points in early 1984, economists said. Orders from manufacturers tumbled to 46.2 percent from 54.9 percent in June. The rate was the lowest since January ``and will undoubtedly weaken, if not decrease the recent modest growth in production,'' the association said. The group's production index was above 50 for the sixth straight month, but fell to 52.1 percent from 53.9 percent. It was the lowest level in five months. Inventories declined for the 20th straight month, at a pace sharper than the previous month. The group's inventories index fell to 39.3 percent from 42.9 percent in June as purchasers cut the volume of July orders and used existing inventories. ``The sharp decline in new orders apparently caused purchasers to reduce the quantity of purchases and work off existing inventories,'' said Robert J. Bretz, chairman of the association's business survey committee. ``The weakness of new orders in July now casts a shadow over the previous expectations for continued growth in the economy in the third quarter,'' he said. Bond prices, which improve on news of economic softening, surged after the report was issued. The bellwether 30-year Treasury bond finished up more than $6.50 per $1,000 in face value, with its yield tumbling to 8.35 percent from 8.41 percent late Tuesday. Some economists play down the significance of the purchasing managers report because manufacturing accounts for only about 20 percent of economic activity. But others said manufacturing is a leading indicator of overall business activity, and that even the service sector has shown signs of weakness. ``I think it's telling us the economy is weak again and businesses are making an effort to reduce inventories,'' said Robert Chandross, chief economist with Lloyds Bank PLC in New York. In other segments, the report said export orders increased while imports declined for the third consecutive month. Prices for manufacturing products, which include metals, textiles, sulfur, lumber and fuels, held steady, indicating no movement in inflation. Employment decreased for the 17th straight month, at a slightly lesser rate than in June.
Modern dance pioneer Alwin Nikolais is accustomed to worldwide acclaim, but he confesses he was terrified by the squirming second-graders who attended the world premiere of his new ``space fantasy'' for children. ``Children frighten me,'' said Nikolais, a 79-year-old bachelor. ``You never can know what their reaction might be, unless you're around them a lot. I'm not around children very much, so it was doubly terrifying.'' Nikolais needn't have worried. Moments after the curtain rose Tuesday on ``The Crystal and the Sphere,'' his stage voyage through the galaxy of a child's imagination, Nikolais clearly had won the hearts of 500 local school children who packed the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. The kids squealed as the house lights dimmed and the rumble of thunder shook their seats. They oohed and aahed as the rising curtain revealed a 20-foot balloon rocking gently on the stage, like a strange new planet, and a 12-foot shard of crystal bathed in celestial lights. They giggled at the wondrous aliens that cavorted across the stage _ a mermaid who teasingly tied her kelp tresses to an angler's hook, a pair of fat, web-footed birds that splashed in musical mud puddles, herky-jerky androids ablaze in ultraviolet hues who disappeared in the twinkling of an eye. Nikolais did it all _ choreography, synthesizer musical score, scenery and costumes _ in creating the $20,000 centerpiece for this year's ``Imagination Celebration,'' the Kennedy Center's annual arts festival for children. His new work, performed by five hand-picked dancers from New York, is being presented nine times this week at the Kennedy Center before it travels to children's festivals at the El Centro Theater in Dallas, April 18-20, and the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, Calif., April 25-26. ``The first show is a terror,'' said Nikolais, sighing happily after the curtain fell on his latest premiere. He hadn't created a dance work for youngsters since he was director of the Henry Street Playhouse in New York in the late 1940s, when his company staged a dozen popular ``dance plays'' for children. Since then, he has been cheered by audiences and critics around the world _ and received the coveted National Medal of Arts from President Reagan in 1987 _ as a modern dance visionary. In a way, Nikolais said, his work on ``The Crystal and the Sphere'' meant returning to the world of children after a 40-year absence. ``They haven't changed,'' he said. ``They're made the same way and they behave the same way. It's that I'm rediscovering them again.'' Nikolais tried to envision the unearthly creatures a child might encounter on an imaginary exploration of the planets. ``Like most artists, I have a childlike mind with a certain innocence that allows me to do things that others don't dare to do,'' he said. ``I do know that children love color, and they like motions that they don't see all the time. I thought they'd like these curious, angular body shapes, and dancers who suddenly appeared and disappeared. ``Children also like strange sounds. You don't hear them humming Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. They like the big bang, like the world's coming to an end. And what really scares them is the lights going out, and being left in the dark. That always makes them yelp.'' Nikolais' vision scored a hit with at least one member of the audience Tuesday. When the lights went up after the 45-minute show, a little girl turned to a schoolmate and asked, ``It's over already?''
Many of the nation's big retailers reported that they got what they expected but not necessarily what they wanted for Christmas: conservative sales growth. General merchandise chains, department stores and discounters on Thursday posted December results that mostly met their expectations for a moderate holiday season. Analysts said the industry was saved from a lackluster sales performance by price discounts, aggressive advertising and special promotions.
China's Communist Party has proposed amending the national constitution to protect the rights of private businesses and permit the transfer of land-use rights, the official China Daily said Monday. The report said the amendments would ensure privately owned entities, an increasingly important sector in the Chinese economy, the right to exist and develop as a complement to China's socialist system. Private businesses, defined as individually owned enterprises with eight or more workers, have existed since 1981, two years after China launched economic reform programs based on encouraging personal initiative and a market-oriented economy. The newspaper said there are now about 225,000 such enterprises. China also has what it calls an individual economy, about 18 million people who run street stalls and other one-man or family operations. The newspaper said the party has submitted the proposals to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, which opened a meeting Saturday, and asked the committee to put them on the agenda of the annual full session of the NPC, convening later this month.
A fast-moving storm brewing in the southwestern United States dumped up to a half a foot of snow on parts of Utah on Wednesday and threatened Wyoming and Colorado with heavy snow. Utah's higher elevations got 6 inches of snow before skies cleared Wednesday afternoon. Salt Lake City received 3 inches of snow in six hours; in Utah's western desert, Tooele got 5 inches. Snow advisories were issued through Thursday morning for southwest Utah and the northern and central mountains of Colorado, where up to 8 inches was expected. A winter storm watch also was posted for south-central and southeastern Wyoming, where up to 10 inches of snow was forecast. Farther south, showers and thunderstorms developed along a stationary front extending from Texas' lower Rio Grande Valley across Louisiana into Mississippi. The eastern United States continued to enjoy unseasonably warm weather, with highs in the 70s from the central and eastern Gulf Coast to the Middle Atlantic States. Heavier rainfall totals for the six-hour period ending at 1 p.m. EST included 1.56 inches at Alexandria, La., and 1.29 inches at Baton Rouge, La. Temperatures around the nation at 2 p.m. EST ranged from 24 degrees at Yellowstone Park, Wyo., to 87 at the Southwest Regional Airport in Fort Myers, Fla. The early morning low for the nation was 3 degrees above zero at International Falls, Minn. Thursday's forecast called for showers and thunderstorms extending from the southern and central Appalachians through the mid-Mississippi Valley and across much of the southern and central Plains. Rain was expected from Kentucky and Tennessee into Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas. Snow was forecast for the central Rockies and the central high Plains, eastern Colorado and western Nebraska. Fair skies should prevail over the rest of the nation. High temperatures should be below 50 degrees from much of the Rockies to the upper Great Lakes, including highs only in the 30s and upper 20s from northern Arizona across much of Colorado and Wyoming to western South Dakota. Highs should reach in the 60s and 70s from the southern and central Pacific Coast through southern Arizona and the southern high Plains to the southern and mid-Atlantic Coast, and in the 50s in most of the rest of the nation.
The number of illegal aliens apprehended on the southern U.S. border has reached a six-year low, but the numbers of non-Mexican aliens arrested increased over fiscal 1987, immigration officials said Friday. ``The decline in apprehensions confirms the downward trend that began immediately after passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act and shows that the law is working as it was intended,'' said Alan C. Nelson, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Apprehensions totaled more than 940,000 in the fiscal year ending Oct. 1, while there were 1.12 million apprehensions in fiscal 1987 and a record 1.62 million in 1986. At a news conference, Nelson acknowledged that temporary reassignment of some border control agents during the fiscal year may account for some of the decline. He said other factors are the decreased number of illegal aliens in the United States because of mass legalizations under the 1986 immigration act and the fact that drought conditions contributed to less demand for farm laborers. The number of non-Mexican immigrants apprehended increased last fiscal year to 39,000 from 37,000 in 1987, other officials said, with about a fourth of those each year from El Salvador and the rest from more than 100 other countries. Nelson said the fact that the trend has not been the same for non-Mexicans is probably ``a function of distance.'' He said people who have to travel greater distances from other countries to the border are more likely not to be deterred by aggressive enforcement or changes in immigration laws. Nelson said the INS increased its Border Patrol forces to record numbers during the year, with plans to have 1,400 new agents on duty by next June, bringing the total along the southern border to 4,300. Investigation staff has increased 75 percent since last fiscal year, he said. This has resulted in apprehension of 50,000 criminal aliens, up from 33,500 a year earlier, Nelson said. ``These figures show we are making more effective use of our enforcement resources by concentrating them on the most serious problems of illegal immigration _ that is, we go after the aliens who are causing the most harm to society,'' he said. Border Patrol seizures of narcotics along the southern border increased from 2,751 cases to more than 3,000 last year, increasing in value by $100 million to $681.1 million for the fiscal year, Nelson said. He said the INS has received 2.65 million applications for temporary resident status under the immigration law, including nearly twice as many as expected under the less restrictive program for special agricultural workers _ more than 890,000. Nelson said 97.5 percent of regular applications and 92 percent of those under the agricultural program are approved. Farm-worker applicants have to show only that they worked on a U.S. farm for 90 days during the previous year to get legal status. Officials say there are some cases of obvious fraud in the program, including applicants who obviously are too well manicured to be farm workers and some who claim such things as having picked strawberries from trees. Of pending cases, 168,000 are suspected to be fraudulent applicants, including 136,000 for the agricultural program, said Nelson. He said fewer than 51,000 applications have been denied under the immigration act, with 2,844 involving fraud.
Sudan and the Central African Republic announced Monday the resumption of diplomatic ties broken last May. The official Sudan News Agency said the announcement came during an unexpected visit to the Central African Republic capital Bangui by Lt. Gen. Omar el-Bashir, Sudan's military strongman. He met with Andre Kolingba, president of Central African Republic, and they later issued a joint communique saying the two neighbors were restoring diplomatic relations, reopening their borders and resuming air service. The two countries severed links May 30 after Sudan, then under civilian Prime Minister Sadek el-Mahdi, refused to allow a Central African plane to cross Sudanese airspace en route to Israel. Kolingba was aboard the plane, but Sudan said it had not known it at the time. It said it was merely following a general Arab ban on flights heading for Israel. A junta led by el-Bashir overthrew el-Mahdi's civilian administration June 30.
Demolitions experts disarmed three powerful homemade bombs at a New Jersey Turnpike rest area and arrested a man for possession of explosives, police said. Lt. Barry Roberson, a state police spokesman, said the bombs and some leftover explosive materials were discovered in the car of a man attempting to flee a trooper Tuesday morning. Trooper Robert Cieplinsky told his superiors he had noticed the man acting suspiciously near a parked car at turnpike rest area less than 10 miles west of New York City, Roberson said. Cieplinsky stopped the car and noticed a black gym bag filled with gunpowder canisters and small pellets, which Roberson described as objects used to make homemade bombs. The trooper discovered the three bombs in the trunk of the car, Roberson said, and arrested the man for possession of an explosive device. Roberson declined to give the man's name and said an investigation was continuing. Cieplinsky closed off a portion of the rest area and called for assistance from the state police bomb and explosives investigative team, who used a water cannon to saturate the devices and render them inoperable, Roberson said. In Tokyo, a Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the ministry had received information through the Japanese Embassy in Washington that the man detained in New Jersey for possession of explosives was carrying a Japanese passport. He said the ministry would seek more details about the man and provide information to U.S. investigators, but declined to give further details. Japan's Kyodo News Service reported that Japanese authorities believe the man held in the United States may have a forged passport or may have obtained it illegally. Kyodo said Japanese investigators would ask the United States to send the fingerprints of the man detained for identification.
The U.S. Embassy will provide $25,000 to help victims of floods and mudslides that killed at least 196 people and left more than 10,000 homeless in Rio de Janeiro state, it was announced Friday. U.S. Consul-General Louis Schwartz will give a check for that amount to Gov. Wellington Moreira Franco on Saturday, the consulate's press office reported. It said the money is the total amount in the embassy's emergency fund. Such funds are provided by the U.S. government to its embassies around the world. In addition to the embassy fund, the United States has offered to provide Brazil with emergency supplies. Most of the money is expected to go to Petropolis, a mountain resort 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro city. Civil defense officials said Friday that 12 days of rains caused flooding and landslides that killed 163 people in Petropolis and left 3,947 people homeless. U.S. consular officials visited Petropolis to check on the families of two U.S. citizens living there and found they were not seriously affected, the press office said. Other countries that have offered Brazil aid supplies include Britain, France, Italy and Nicaragua.
A county prosecutor said he would investigate the fatal shooting of a Hispanic man by an off-duty police officer, and for the first time in three nights this industrial city was relatively quiet. Some people drove by police and yelled insults at them Friday night, witnesses said, adding that police yelled insults back. However, unlike Wednesday and Thursday nights, there were no incidents of violence reported. Mayor George J. Otlowski and Hispanic leaders hammered out an agreement in a three-hour meeting with Middlesex County Prosecutor Alan Rockoff, less than 24 hours after about 1,000 rioters clashed with police following the funeral for the slain man. Rockoff said after Friday's meeting that his office will investigate the shooting and present the case to a county grand jury. The two sides also agreed to form a commission to investigate bias in the city of about 39,000 and to form a community council to hear grievances about police conduct, he said. ``Most of the people here really want justice,'' said the Rev. Richard Todd of Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church, where the funeral for the slain man was held Thursday. ``But they also want peace in our town. ``A lot of what happened last night was because when crowds get big there is not a lot of control,'' Todd said Friday. Terms of the agreement were printed and distributed in the city's Hispanic community Friday. The population of Perth Amboy, about 15 miles south of Newark, is evenly divided between whites and Hispanics. The earlier violence was touched off when off-duty narcotics officer Allen C. Fuller shot and killed Carmen Coria and critically wounded Coria's brother, Matteo, outside a bar early Monday. Fuller said he fired at the men because he believed his life was threatened by Carmen Coria, who he said approached him holding a bottle. Fuller was suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation.
A major Japanese trading firm and an agricultural group that imports about 40 percent of the nation's feed grain will jointly purchase a U.S. grain company, a spokesman said Wednesday. The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, or Zennoh, and C. Itoh Co., one of Japan's three largest trading houses, are completing an agreement to buy Consolidated Grain and Barge of St. Louis, Missouri, said a C. Itoh official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said final details, including the purchase price and the share of investment by each party, would be worked out by the end of April. A Zennoh official said his organization planned to link its New Orleans-based export arm, the Zennoh Grain Center, with Consolidated Grain, which handles 3.3 million tons of corn and 750,000 tons of soybeans a year. Consolidated Grain, which operates primarily in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, controls 30 grain silos and 650 barges used to transport grain. The Zennoh official, who also insisted on anonymity, denied a report in the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun that Zennoh would use the company to apply pressure on grain-growing regions where farmers are pushing for an end to Japan's restrictions on beef and citrus fruit imports. Zennoh, which handles almost 40 percent of the 1.5 million tons of feed grain imported annually into Japan, has condemned U.S. demands for an end to the quotas.
Sacha Pitoeff, an actor and director best known for his stage productions of Chekhov and Pirandello, has died of a heart ailment, associates said today. He was 70. Pitoeff, who died in a Paris hospital Saturday, was the last survivor of a theatrical dynasty founded by his Russian-born parents, Georges and Ludmilla Pitoeff. Born in Geneva on March 11, 1920, Pitoeff joined his father's company in 1938. His father died in 1939, and his mother took over the company and kept it functioning in Switzerland during World War II. Pitoeff formed his own company in France in 1949, and become renowned for productions of Chekhov classics such as ``The Sea Gull,'' ``The Cherry Orchard'' and ``Uncle Vanya.'' He also produced on several occasions, most recently in 1977, one the plays favored by his parents, Luigi Pirandello's ``Six Characters in Search of an Author.'' He acted in several films, including ``Last Year At Marienbad.'' Funeral arrangements were pending.
The daughter of former Campbell Soup Co. Chairman John T. Dorrance Jr. has reaffirmed her vow to fight any attempt by rival family shareholder groups to sell the food industry giant. In a statement released Sunday by their New York law firm, Mary Alice Malone and her husband, Stuart, owners of about 10 percent of the company's outstanding stock, confirmed their ``commitment to the continued independence of Campbell Soup Company.'' ``We have always considered our investment in Campbell to be long-term,'' said the statement attributed to Ms. Malone. Signs of a possible rift in the Dorrance family, which has controlled the Camden, N.J.-based company for nearly a century, has fueled speculation that major stockholders are split on the issue of whether to sell the company. Ms. Malone, a company director, and her two brothers, John T. Dorrance III and Bennett Dorrance, together hold about 31 percent of the company's outstanding shares. In recent weeks, a group comprised of Dorrance cousins has announced its intention in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission to press for a sale of the company. Last week, Campbell filled its long-vacant top spot by hiring David W. Johnson, former head of Gerber Products Co., as its new chief executive officer. ``We are extremely excited about David W. Johnson's immense managerial talents and his contagious enthusiasm,'' Ms. Malone's statement continued. ``In particular, we are inspired by his proven track record of dealing successfully with the myriad of complex intangibles that arise in very large family-held companies.''
Moderator: Jon Margolis, question for Sen. Quayle. Q: Sen. Quayle, in recent years the Reagan administration has scaled back the activities of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, prompted in part by Vice President Bush's task force on regulatory relief. The budget for the agency has been cut by 20 percent, and the number of inspections at manufacturing plants have been reduced by 33 percent. This has had a special effect in this area where many people work in the meat-packing industry, which has a far higher rate of serious injuries than almost any other injury, a rate which appears to have been rising, although we're not really sure because some of the largest companies have allegedly been falsifying their reports. Would you acknowledge to the hundreds of injured and maimed people in Nebraska, Iowa, and elsewhere in the Midwest that, in this case, deregulation may have gone too far and the government should reassert itself in protecting workers' rights? Quayle: The premise of your question, Jon, is that somehow this administration has been lax in enforcement of the OSHA regulations, and I disagree with that, and I'll tell you why. If you want to ask some business people that I've talked to periodically, they complain about the tough enforcement of this administration. And furthermore, let me tell you this for the record, when we have found violations in this administration there has not only been tough enforcement, but there have been the most severe penalties _ the largest penalties in the history of the Department of Labor _ have been levied when these violations have been found. There is a commitment, and there will always be a commitment, to the safety of our working men and women. They deserve it, and we're committed to them. Now, the broader question goes to the whole issue of deregulation, and has deregulation worked or has deregulation not worked? In my judgment, deregulation has worked. We have a deregulated economy and we have produced through low taxes, not high taxes, through deregulation, the spirit of entrepreneurship, the individual going out and starting a business, the businessman or woman willing to go out and risk their investment and start up a business and hire people _ we have produced 17 million jobs in this country since 1982. Deregulation as a form of political philosophy is a good philosophy. It's one that our opponents disagree with. They want a centralized government. But we believe in the market; we believe in the people. And yes, there's a role of government and the role of government is to make sure that those safety and health and welfare of the people is taken care of. And we'll continue to do that. Moderator: Sen. Bentsen? Bentsen: I think you see once again a piece of Democratic legislation that's been passed to try to protect the working men and women of America. And then you've seen an administration that came in and really didn't have its heart in that kind of an enforcement. A good example of that is the environmental protection laws that we were talking about a moment ago. This administration came in and put in a James Watt and Anne Gorsuch. Now that's the Bonnie and Clyde, really, of environmental protection. And that's why it's important that you have people that truly believe, and trying to represent the working men and women of America. Most employers do a good job of that, but some of them put their profits before people. And that's why you have to have OSHA, and that's why you have to have tough and good and fair enforcement of it. And that's what a Democratic administration would do to help make this working place a safer and a better place to be employed. Moderator: Jon Margolis, another question for Senator Bentsen. Q: Sen. Bentsen, since you have been in the Senate, the government has spent increasing amounts of money in an effort to protect the family farmer. But most of the subsidies seem to go, do go, to the largest and richest farmers, who presumably need it least, while it's the smaller farmers who are often forced to sell out, sometimes to their large farmer neighbor who's gotten more subsidies to begin with. Despite the fact that I believe you, sir, are rather a large farmer yourself, do you believe it's time to uncouple the subsidy formula from the amount of land a farmer has and target federal money to the small- and medium-size farmer? Bentsen: Well, I've supported that. I voted for the 50,000 limitation to get away from the million dollar contributions to farmers. You know, of the four that are on this ticket, I'm the only one that was born and reared on a farm, and still involved in farming. So I think I understand their concerns and their problems. Now, I feel very strongly that we ought to be doing more for the American farmer, and what we've seen under this administration is neglect of that farmer. We've seen them drive 220,000 farmers off the farm. They seem to think the answer is, ``Move 'em to town.'' But we ought not to be doing that. What you have seen them do is cut farm assistance for the rural areas by over 50 percent. We're seeing rural hospitals close all over the country because of this kind of an administration. We've seen an administration that has lost much of our market abroad because they have not had a trade policy. We saw our market lost by some 40 percent. And that's one of the reasons that we've seen the cost of the farm program, which was only about $2.5 billion when they took office, now go to about $25 billion. Now we can bring that kind of a cost down and get more to market prices if we'll have a good trade policy. I was, in January, visiting with Mr. Takeshita, the new prime minister of Japan. I said, ``You're paying five times as much for beef as we pay for in our country -- pay for it in our country -- six times as much for rice. You have a $60 billion trade surplus with us. You could improve the standard of living of your people. You're spending 27 percent of your disposable income on food. We spend 14 or 15 percent. When you have that kind of a barrier up against us, that's not free and fair trade, and we don't believe that should continue. We would be pushing very hard to open up those markets, and stand up for the American farmer. And see that we recapture those foreign markets, and I think we can do it with a Dukakis-Bentsen administration. Moderator: Sen. Quayle. Quayle: Sen. Bentsen talks about recapturing the foreign markets. Well, I'll tell you one way that we're not going to recapture the foreign markets, and that is if, in fact, we have another Jimmy Carter grain embargo. Jimmy --Jimmy Carter grain embargo -- Jimmy Carter grain embargo set the American farmer back. You know what the farmer is interested in? Net farm income. Every 1 percent of increase in interest rates -- a billion dollars out of the farmer's pocket. Net farm income -- increase inflation another billion dollars. Another thing that a farmer's not interested in and that's supply management the Democratic platform talks about. But, the governor of Massachusetts, he had the farm program. He went to the farmers in the Midwest, and told them not to grow corn, not to grow soy beans, but to grow Belgium endive. That's what his -- that's what he and his Harvard buddies think of the American farmer. Grow Belgium endive. To come in and to tell our farmers not to grow corn, not to grow soy beans, that's the kind of farm policy you'll get under a Dukakis administration, and one I think the American farmer rightfully will reject.
Republican George Bush said today Americans should think about the words peace and prosperity as they vote for president Nov. 8 and ask themselves whether ``dark clouds of pessimism'' would be cast if Democrat Michael Dukakis wins the White House. ``Now that we have peace and prosperity, we can't afford to put them at risk,'' Bush told a group of business leaders. Comfortably ahead of Dukakis in the polls nationwide, Bush is locked in a pitched battle in California for the big prize of 47 electoral votes. He told the businessmen that the Reagan-Bush administration has dramatically cut interest rates and inflation and he recited a long list of economic statistics to show that Americans are better off now than they were eight years ago. In his remarks, Bush seemed to shelve his promise of a night earlier that ``we're not going to be talking on the negative side'' in the closing days of the race. The vice president said Dukakis ``wants to torpedo the prosperity we've worked so hard to achieve.'' Bush said that when American go into the voting booth he hoped they remember the words peace and prosperity: ``peace means you can sleep at night knowing the world will still be there in the morning; prosperity means you can sleep at night knowing that opportunity will still be there in the morning. ``You know about our mornings,'' Bush said. ``But I ask you to consider: What kind of morning would electing the liberal governor of Massachusetts bring? Will it be gloomy? ``Will the dark clouds of pessimism and limited possibility obscure our vision?'' Bush asked. ``Will we be able to hope for a brighter day?'' Saying that the nation cannot afford to put peace and prosperity at risk, Bush added, ``The stakes for the cause of freedom around the world are too high.'' Addressing a crowd of celebrities Thursday night at the home of entertainer Bob Hope, Bush said, ``I'm sorry Clint Eastwood isn't here. Remember how he'd say, `Make my day.' Now my opponent says, `Have a nice vacation' as the prisoners come out of the jail.'' The audience laughed and applauded. Some of the best-known stars of an earlier generation were on hand, including Gene Autry, Buddy Ebsen, Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Danny Thomas, Esther Williams and others, along with younger celebrities such as Jaclyn Smith. Bush was campaigning today in Los Angeles and Sacramento and then stopping im Omaha, Neb., for a rally before a flight to Chicago. On Saturday, Bush will take a bus tour around the outskirts of Chicago. Bush is being attacked by Dukakis, as well as by other critics, for running a negative campaign _ a charge that now is being leveled at Dukakis. ``We're coming down to the wire, Tuesday, 12 days from today,'' the vice president said Thursday night. ``Things have come along well. We are not letting up. ``We're not going to be talking on the negative side anymore,'' he added, immediately launching into his criticism of Dukakis and the furlough program for Massachusetts prison inmates. Bush concluded by saying, ``Now it's going to be a kinder and quieter finish to this campaign.'' Earlier in the day, Bush also voiced some reservations about the way the campaign had been waged. In a white, circus-sized tent at Applied Materials Co., in California's Silicon Valley, Bush said that ``some of the modern campaigning with TV and spinning and sound bites might have gotten out of hand.'' Spinning is the term applied to efforts by campaign lieutenants to shape the perception of their candidate's performance. Sound bites are the 15 to 30-second snatches of a speech that wind up in a television or radio broadcast. Bush, in his Santa Clara speech, accused Dukakis of ``trying to scare the American people by putting Japanese flags'' in his television commercials, and said the right way to gain world markets for U.S. exports is by opening them, not shrinking from competition. He said Dukakis should explain ``why his thinly veiled comments about foreign investment only mention Japan,'' which he said ranks only third as a source of foreign investment in the United States. Footage of the Japanese flag appears in a Dukakis ad challenging Bush's record as head of a commission that examined U.S.-Japanese trade relations. The ad is running in Ohio. Bush said he would promote U.S. trade, but not with protectionist measures. ``It doesn't make sense to stick our heads in the sand, as some in the other party have suggested, and try to build walls around America,'' the vice president said. ``It doesn't make sense to launch a trade war and plunge America and the world into a recession. ``And it is beneath the dignity of the presidency, and of the voters, to try to incite fear of foreigners as a cheap means of winning a few votes,'' Bush said. Later, at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, Bush toured a Holocaust museum with his wife, Barbara, and then told a courtyard audience, ``We have no room in our communities for hidden Nazi fugitives or war criminals. Every last one of them must be found and brought to justice.''
The Republican war for Virginia's gubernatorial nomination has heated up with U.S. Sen. Paul S. Trible Jr.'s announcement of his candidacy, with opponents attacking his fund-raising, reasons and timing. U.S. Rep. Stan Parris, an announced candidate for the nomination, charged Saturday that Trible's fund-raising for next year's election is taking money away from this year's GOP candidates for the U.S. House, Senate and presidency. ``There is only a finite amount of money you can look for in any one year,'' Parris said Saturday after Trible supporters announced they already had raised $527,400 in cash and pledges for his campaign. Parris said he would not raise money for his campaign until after the November elections. Former state Attorney General Marshall Coleman is an all-but-declared candidate. Democrats are expected to nominate Lt. Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the state's highest elected black official. Trible, who announced his candidacy Saturday, had announced last year that he would not seek a second term in the Senate because it took him away from his family too much, and because he was frustrated with the slow pace of the Senate. Coleman said Trible should not look upon the governor's job simply as better working conditions. ``My interest in the governorship is not in better working conditions. What is needed is to change the course of the state. What the Republicans in Virginia are going to want to know is what a candidate for governor is going to do to make the state better. I don't look at the governorship as a seat to warm,'' Coleman said. Parris and Coleman have charged that Trible is giving up his Senate seat to avoid a tough campaign against former Gov. Charles S. Robb, the Democratic nominee for the Senate. The GOP nominee, Maurice Dawkins, is given little chance of beating Robb. Mark Rozell, a political scientist from Mary Washington College, said Trible faces problems with the party's conservative wing, which is unhappy with his performance on the Senate committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair. They charge that Trible, who criticized the administration's handling of the matter, unfairly attacked President Reagan.
A gene found to be key to schizophrenia medication will trigger ``an avalanche of research'' that could improve treatment for psychosis, Parkinson's disease and other brain ailments, a scientist says. Scientists worldwide ``have really been poised to take advantage of this development,'' which could provide insights into the body's potential role in mental illness, said Kenneth L. Davis, chairman of the psychiatry department at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. The results could include improved treatments for diseases that include psychosis, which is a loss of touch with reality seen in schizophrenia and sometimes in depression, manic-depression and other disorders, he said. It also could lead to better treatment of Parkinson's disease, which is often characterized by tremors and rigidity, Huntington's disease, which hinders movement and intellectual abilities, and Tourette syndrome, which includes jerky movements and vocal mannerisms, Davis and other researchers said. Davis was responding to a report in today's issue of the British journal Nature. In the article, researchers said they had isolated the gene that acts as a blueprint for a protein called the D-2 dopamine receptor, which is made by brain cells. The receptor, which sits on the surface of the cells, is where anti-psychosis drugs exert their effects on the brain. Normally, the receptor's role is to respond when adjacent brain cells secrete a substance called dopamine, allowing brain cells to communicate. The defining of one receptor in the past has led to discovery of a related family of them, Davis said. If a family of dopamine receptors is found, scientists may be able to design drugs that affect only the receptors linked to disease and avoid side effects of current medications, he said. Side effects of current anti-psychosis medications, for example, include tardive dyskinesia, a syndrome of involuntary movements of the mouth, tongue, limbs or trunk. In the study, researchers said they identified the receptor gene in rats, defined its chemical makeup and made functioning copies of it. Since then, they also have isolated and partially defined the human receptor gene, Olivier Civelli said in a telephone interview. The researcher reports the work in Nature with James Bunzow and others at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, and with researchers at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Portland and the Oregon Regional Primate Center in Beaverton. Other scientists called the discovery an important boost for research into the dopamine receptor. Davis predicted ``an avalanche of research'' by investigators. ``We've all been waiting for it,'' he said. ``This is an important and essentially fundamental step'' in helping scientists understand how anti-psychotic drugs work, ``and thereby indirectly understand what may be the biological mechanism underlying psychotic disorders.'' Scientists also may be able to learn about the mechanisms that turn the receptor gene on and off, which may shed light on schizophrenia, he said. In addition, focusing on the receptor gene may help scientists study the inheritance of a tendency toward schizophrenia and perhaps other diseases, said Arnold Friedhoff, psychiatry professor at the New York University Medical Center. That in turn could lead to better matching of patients to proper medications, he said. He said other follow-up studies could help scientists understand the overall dopamine communication network among brain cells, which is ``undoubtedly going to provide extremely important new insights into its role ... in regulating mental processes.'' Since it is the target of drugs that ease psychosis caused by a wide range of conditions, it ``must have a regulatory role in keeping things on track,'' he said. ``The more we understand about its function, the more likely it is we'll be able to not only treat mental illness, but in the long run prevent it,'' Friedhoff said.
The big summer heat wave rolled on Tuesday with temperatures boiling past 100 to record highs from the eastern Plains to the Ohio Valley, but the steamy Northeast finally got a break with a surge of cooler, drier air from Canada. Utilities posted more records for demand for electricity as air conditioners and fans were turned on full blast. Some school districts in Illinois plan to open schools early and reduce class periods by almost half when school opens next week to avoid the hottest part of the day. ``By noon during summer school, it was very uncomfortable. If it was 90 outside, it was 95 to 100 in the classrooms. That's not a good atmosphere for learning,'' said associate principal Don Tokarski of Rantoul Township (Ill.) High School. ``I think this will be the hottest weather of the summer, taking both temperature and humidity into account,'' said Norm Reitmeyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Louisville, Ky. ``We've had an oppressively hot and humid summer without a doubt,'' Reitmeyer said. ``But particular days such as this or tomorrow are rare.'' The temperature at Paducah, Ky., reached 102 degrees and Reitmeyer said that and the humidity would push the heat index, a measure of how hot it feels, the opposite of winter's wind chill factor, to 115. He said that is near life-threatening for some people. Kentucky has had a total of 48 days of above-90 degrees this summer. Milwaukee reached a record high of 100 degrees, and that made it a record five times the city has hit 100 or higher this year. The old record was four times in 1936. Some other records included 90 at Duluth, Minn.; 104 at Fargo, N.D.; 103 at Fort Dodge, Iowa; 103 at Huron, S.D.; 102 at Indianapolis; 102 at Madison, Wis.; 101 at Peoria, Ill., and Sioux Falls, S.D.; and 102 at Springfield, Ill., the National Weather Service said. The 103 degrees at Rockford, Ill., was the hottest reading since July 27, 1955. La Crosse, Wis., marked the 44th day that the temperature achieved the 90 degree mark, another record. The 102-degree heat wilted about 10,000 competitors wearing heavy uniforms and carrying musical instruments at the Drum Corps International World Championships on the artificial turf at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. ``You can feel it right through your tennis shoes,'' said Donald MacDougall, a member of the Edmonton Strutters of Canada. ``One of our melophone players almost passed out.'' The 136th Indiana State Fair opened Tuesday with livestock exhibitors taking extra precautions, like putting ice in front of large fans to keep animals cool. Four chickens that were to be entered died when their owners left them in cars with the windows rolled up, fair officials said. The official high in the 48 contiguous states at 3 p.m. EDT was 105 degrees, not in Texas, Arizona or southern California but at Chamberlin, S.D. But nature's own air-conditioning _ in the form of a cool front from Canada _ settled over the Northeast. Unfortunately, forecasts said the heat would soon return. After 32 days of 90-degree temperatures and swamp-like humidity, including a high of 97 Monday, New York City had a high Tuesday of merely 86 degrees. And the humidity was only around 39 to 42 percent, making it feel almost like early autumn compared to preceding weeks. ``The downturn in temperatures is certainly going to help not only Con Ed but all New York utilities,'' said Bill Murphy, spokesman for the utility that supplies New York City's power. Con Edison had a record demand Monday of 10,160 megawatts of electricity. The failure of several feeder cables on Staten Island knocked out service to more than 13,000 customers. And earlier Monday, the utility cut off power to 16 large apartment buildings on Manhattan's Upper East Side to prevent a wider blackout after several feeder cables failed, blacking out some 10,000 residents. The cooler air also brought relief for utilities in Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia Electric Co. was forced to impose a 5 percent voltage reduction Monday. But the clash of the hot and cool air also touched off thunderstorms, which knocked out power to thousands of customers across the state Monday. Farther south, utilities across Kentucky reported record electrical demand Monday and expected to exceed those amounts Tuesday, but no problems were reported. ``We've been going wild this summer,'' said Dick Lovegrove, a spokesman for Ashland-based Kentucky Power, which had records for power use almost every day during the past week. Louisville Gas & Electric has set all-time peaks 13 times this summer, said spokesman Calvin Anderson. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the big federal utility, hit another record peak summer demand Tuesday of 21,304 megawatts. A record Monday of 20,618 megawatts forced the utility to buy about 2,500 megawatts from neighboring utilities, said Robert C. Steffy Jr., senior vice president of power for TVA. TVA's all-time power peak was in the winter of 1983 at 22,478 megawatts.
Pope John Paul II, sure of his direction, strong in his faith, has thrust the church into moral and political controversy in countries as diverse as the United States and Nicaragua. He could do no different on his eight-day tour of Mexico, Roman Catholicism's largest Spanish-speaking nation. For starters, the visit outlined in flashing neon one of Mexico's most delicious contradictions _ a country 90 percent Catholic, a constitution that forbids the church to own property, educate children or peep about politics. The pope violated the constitution just by appearing in public in clerical garb, not to mention saying Mass for 500,000 people dressed in a golden chasuble on national television. The church was quick to say the vast crowds served as a virtual plebiscite on the binding element, the notorious article 130. ``Only Albania has a constitution like that,'' said Javier Navarro, in charge of the Vatican office for Latin America and Spain. But the dance between church and state in Mexico is more complicated than the lambada. The church bet on conservatives in the Mexican Revolution of 1910; when liberals won, they took revenge on their reactionary foe. Although its public role was circumscribed, the church retained much of its strength. The motto of the papal visit is: ``Mexico _ Always Faithful.'' Breaches of the constitution have been winked at for decades. Politicians send their children to Catholic-run schools, even universities, because they are better than public schools. ``The pope's visit proves that the problem with article 130 of the constitution is not how to change it, but how impossible it is to enforce,'' columnist Gaston Garcia Cantu wrote in Excelsior, an influential newspaper. President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has been winking hard. He took office on Dec. 1, 1988, with the weakest mandate an Institutional Revolutionary Party president ever had. His party was accused of fraud. There was violence in the streets on Inauguration Day. But Salinas surprised his opponents by locating a new constituency. He invited Roman Catholic prelates to his inauguration and hinted that the relationship between church and state should be brought in line with reality. He sent a personal envoy to the Vatican, establishing diplomatic relations of a kind for the first time since 1926. Salinas greeted John Paul when he arrived and had the pope to morning coffee. The president's office provided security and press arrangements for the visit, including an extra plane. The church, sniffing the carrot of increased recognition, has been grateful. ``I pray every day for President Salinas,'' said Monsignor Genaro Alamilla, spokesman for the Mexican church. Salinas' opponents know it doesn't pay to attack the pope, and the government has ruled out real constitutional change. So they pick around the edges: the pope is talking politics, they say. The government of a poor nation is spending too much on showtime for the pope. ``We welcome this distinguished visitor, the spiritual guide to millions of Mexicans,'' said Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, runner-up to Salinas in 1988. ``But the government made it into politics.'' But if the pope allowed himself to be used politically, he got plenty back. Again and again he addressed controversial issues, always pleading the church's cause. He demanded the freedom to provide education to the faithful _ a role that would expand greatly if it were free of restrictions. He attacked contraception in a country with a rising population of 85 million that suffers all the Third World problems of poverty and malnutrition and where family planning is government policy. He attacked materialism and greed before Mexico's richest businessmen, but in Monterrey found himself giving a homily flanked by enormous Carta Blanca beer signs. He linked capitalist culture with contraception and abortion, saying material lust makes people want to limit their families. He visited the Indian communities of southeastern Mexico in an effort to fend off Protestant evangelicals who are learning the native languages and converting the poor, the homeless and those who lost their native culture to encroaching ``progress.'' ``I think his visit could help revitalize the faith here,'' said Benjamin Cruz, a 51-year-old psychiatrist among a throng of 200,000 at Villahermosa. ``Catholics here are disoriented. It's sad to see.'' It was almost forgotten amid the political wavelets, but to most in the crowd, the pope's role was to focus shared faith. Hundreds of thousands gathered to sing, to listen, to catch a glimpse. When he leaped off an isolated podium and charged through a fence to mix with murderers and drug traffickers in a prison yard, a prison chorus broke into Beethoven's ``Ode to Joy.'' Municipal officials engaged in a game of one-upmanship over who gave the best reception. Some Mexico City authorities claimed a questionable 8 million to 10 million people lined the nine-mile parade to the Basilica of Guadalupe; there were more like 250,000. In Aguascalientes, the city fathers were told the pope would stop at the airport but wouldn't come into town. So they built giant replicas of their finest buildings on the tarmac. They claimed a crowd of 700,000; more mathematical minds calculated 50,000, tops. But whatever the crowd, the pope gave something back. In a thousand ways, John Paul provided an experience people will recount for years. In Tuxtla Gutierrez, he sparkled with jokes about his trouble pronouncing Indian languages. In Durango, squads of bicyclists chased a waving, bemused figure in the popemobile for miles. In Mexico City, 1,500 people outside his bedroom fell suddenly silent when he told them he loved their singing but wanted to sleep. ``For us it is the ultimate to come here,'' said Aurora Hinojosa Casillas, who rode 225 miles by bus from Ciudad Juarez to Chihuahua. ``Since I was born, I've been a Catholic and it's important. He is closer to God.''
The government kicked off the Wedtech racketeering trial today by accusing Rep. Mario Biaggi and his six co-defendants of theft from the defunct Bronx defense contractor. ``This is a case about corruption and greed,'' Howard Wilson, an assistant U.S. attorney, told the 12-person jury in U.S. District Court. ``It is a case about public officials who want to get paid twice.'' Wilson pointed to Biaggi and former Bronx Borough President Stanley Simon at the defense table and said they and the others stole from Wedtech. Some had been promised more money, he said. At the trial's opening, Judge Constance Baker Motley told the jury: ``An indictment is simply a series of charges. ... A defendant on trial is presumed innocent and this presumption of innocence is presumed throughout the trial.'' The case involving the defense contractor includes charges that the seven defendants looted millions of dollars in cash and stocks from the company. The trial is expected to last several months. In addition to Biaggi, 70, and Simon, 57, the defendants are: Bernard G. Ehrlich, 59, Biaggi's former law partner and a former major general in the New York National Guard; Biaggi's eldest son, Richard, 38; Peter Neglia, 39, the former regional administrator of the Small Business Administration; former Wedtech chairman John Mariotta, 57; and Ronald Betso, 39, a former city police officer and close friend of Neglia's. They are charged with racketeering and conspiracy, which each carry maximum 20-year penalties upon conviction, as well as various other alleged crimes. Biaggi is also accused of extortion, bribe-receiving, wire fraud, perjury and filing false tax returns.
A coach from communist Romania's Olympic team met with immigration officers at a secret location Wednesday after appealing for asylum in Canada, an Immigration Department spokesman said. ``He's in a secluded place, a safe place with security,'' spokesman Gerry Maffre said in Ottawa. The coach was not identified, but Olympic sources and Canadian news media said he was Dumitru Focseneanu, the Romanian bobsled coach whose team had 27th and 30th place finishes at the Winter Olympic Games in Calgary last week. ``We're trying to find out what he really wants to do,'' Maffre said. The bobsled coach reportedly refused to board a bus taking the 22-member Romanian team to Calgary airport Monday night and sought refugee status. The federal Immigration Department was handling the case. The Soviet Union filed an angry protest over an immigration hotline set up in Calgary to handle emergencies and possible defection cases. The Romanian was the only known defector among more than 1,800 Olympic athletes and 1,000 coaches and officials from 57 countries. But three Romanian speed skaters and their coach left Calgary abruptly the day before the Games began amid speculation the athletes planned to defect. City Police Superintendent Len Esler said the defector approached two police officers at the athletes' village at the University of Calgary about 9:30 p.m. Monday and ``requested political asylum.'' Esler said the man was taken to a police station where immigration officers picked him up. He refused to give the man's name ``for his safety and the safety of his family.'' Focseneanu was in Calgary last December during a bobsled World Cup competition. The Romanian Embassy in Ottawa refused to comment. Wilf Lindner, manager of the Calgary immigration center, said the man would be allowed to stay only after a medical examination, a security check into his background and an Immigration Department hearing. ``All decisions are made on a case-to-case basis,'' he said.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) Hundreds of mice, rats and hamsters used for research were released from their cages at the state University of New York at Buffalo Medical School, but no animal rights group claimed responsibility. The animals were found scampering around five rooms Saturday morning by a technician arriving for work, said school spokeswoman Linda Grace-Kobas. ``They opened the cages, and the mice and the rats (and hamsters) got out of the cages, but they did not escape from the rooms,'' she said. There were no signs of a break-in or indication why the animals were released. ``Usually animal rights people leave a message,'' she said. ``There were no notes. No `Save the Animals.' This was strange. It seemed random. It seemed pointless.'' University officials were trying to determine what effect the animals' release will have on research projects in which they were used, she said. ``By letting them out, it disrupts the experiments,'' she said, adding that some of the experiments are based on the animals being in a closed enviroment. Also, since not all the animals were tagged, researchers may not be able to determine which animals belonged to what experiments.
U.S. officials remain skeptical of Soviet explanations for a mysterious anthrax outbreak in 1979 despite a recent public relations blitz by the Soviet government. The Carter administration demanded a full accounting from the Soviets in 1980, saying it had ``disturbing indications'' that the epidemic was caused by ``some sort of lethal biological agent.'' But according to a lecture and slide show presented by Soviet health officials over the last week in Washington, Baltimore and Cambridge, Mass., the outbreak stemmed from a batch of contaminated bone meal fed to livestock, whose meat, in turn, caused the deaths of 66 people in Sverdlovsk, a city of 1.2 million in the Ural Mountains. The long-awaited Soviet explanation ``leaves many questions unanswered,'' said Gary B. Crocker, a State Department analyst specializing in questions relating to Soviet military use of biological and chemical weapons. ``It does not fit with the evidence and facts we have collected on the issue,'' he said. In 1986, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency released a report alleging that the anthrax came from the Microbiology and Virology Institute, a top-secret military research facility in Sverdlovsk. The Pentagon report said ``a pressurized system probably exploded'' at the institute, spewing as much as 22 pounds of anthrax spores into the air, and that ``hundreds'' of Soviet citizens died. Anthrax, an infectious disease which occurs naturally, is considered a deadly candidate for use in biological weapons. A 1975 treaty signed by both superpowers bars possession of biological weapons and significant quantities of biological agents, but allows research ostensibly aimed at biowarfare defenses. James Oberg, author of the recent book ``Uncovering Soviet Disasters,'' said he believes the Soviet health officials ``are telling the truth'' in blaming the outbreak on a batch of contaminated meat rather than germ-warfare experiments. ``But they are not telling the whole truth,'' said Oberg. ``They should have said this eight or nine years ago,'' said Oberg, who urged the Soviets to open the Sverdlovsk research facility to Western observers. ``The damage has been done,'' he said. ``It will take a lot more of this kind of disclosure to undo the damage that Soviet paranoid secrecy has inflicted on international relations.'' The Soviets had long denied the U.S. allegations, but had offered little evidence to refute them. The more detailed rebuttal last week came from Dr. Pyotr N. Burgasov, former deputy Soviet health minister, Dr. Vladimir N. Nikiforov, chief infectious disease specialist at the Moscow Institute for the Advanced Training of Physicians, and Dr. Vladimir P. Sergiyev, of the Soviet health ministry. The heart of their argument, bolstered by gory autopsy slides, was that the victims suffered severe damage to their intestines, indicating they ate rather than inhaled the anthrax. The DIA report had said ``hundreds of Soviet citizens died from inhalation of anthrax,'' and that others suffered after eating the meat of animals who had inhaled the deadly spores. The Soviet officials declined to answer questions about the work performed at the Sverdlovsk research lab. But, in circumstantial refutation of the U.S. allegations, they said no one at the lab became ill during the outbreak.
Marion Barry's lawyer is portraying Rasheeda Moore as a vengeful ex-lover who trapped the mayor in an FBI sting operation because he had abandoned her for another woman. Moore, a former model, denied the suggestion Friday at the mayor's cocaine and perjury trial, insisting, ``I was not out to get Mr. Barry.'' But she acknowledged that she had repeatedly steered the conversation around to drugs during the secretly videotaped encounter with Barry in a Washington hotel room last Jan. 18. She conceded that Barry was primarily interested that evening in having sex with her. In her second day of cross-examination by Barry's chief lawyer, R. Kenneth Mundy, Moore also acknowledged that she broke the FBI's instructions and tried to persuade the mayor to use drugs. Midway through the FBI videotape in which Barry ultimately smoked crack cocaine, Moore asked the mayor if he wants to use drugs. ``No, not tonight,'' Barry replied in the tape, which was played in court Thursday. ``You felt you were going beyond your mandate not to persuade, influence, coerce or beguile'' Barry into using drugs, Mundy asked Moore. ``I did,'' she replied. ``Why did you do that?'' the lawyer asked. ``Just in the gist of the evening,'' said Moore, who said she got ``overcarried'' in performing her duties for the FBI. ``In your zeal to get Mr. Barry,'' Mundy said accusingly. ``For all you knew, he had been off drugs since May'' 1989 when Moore moved to California. ``Not in my zeal,'' the witness insisted. ``I was not out to get Mr. Barry.'' ``What was your intent?'' Mundy asked Moore. ``Working this operation'' with the FBI, she replied. The defense lawyer suggested that Moore had been badly treated by the mayor and motivated by revenge. ``Were you mad at Mr. Barry because he didn't return your calls'' throughout an eight-month span in 1989, Mundy asked. ``No, I wasn't,'' Moore replied. She also denied that she was angry because the married mayor was involved with another woman, Maria McCarthy, or because he had slapped her when they broke up their romantic relationship. Had Moore been scorned? a reporter asked Mundy after the day's court session. ``A woman scorned,'' Mundy agreed immediately. ``Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.'' McCarthy was jailed for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury looking into the mayor's alleged drug use. She later relented and is now listed as a possible witness at Barry's trial. Barry is charged with 10 misdemeanor counts of cocaine possession charges, one misdemeanor cocaine conspiracy count and three felony counts of lying to a grand jury about drug use. One of the possession charges stems from his arrest in the sting operation. Meanwhile Friday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, presiding in the Barry case, barred black activist clergyman George Augustus Stallings, a Barry supporter, from attending the trial. Stallings, a former Roman Catholic priest, broke with the Vatican by starting his own African-American church. Mundy and the American Civil Liberties Union said they were asking the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn Jackson's decision regarding Stallings as well as his order Thursday barring Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Jackson said Stallings' and Farrakhan's presence in the courtroom would be potentially disruptive. Barry told reporters he could ``not understand why any citizen'' who wanted to use one of the four courtroom passes provided to the defense cannot do so. ``So I think that we are in a totalitarian situation where Bishop Stallings or Minister Farrakhan (cannot attend.),'' Barry said. ``It's like in Nazi Germany.''
The stock market has gotten a modest boost from new government reports pointing to an economic slowdown. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 7.29 points Monday to 2,140.47. The Commerce Department reported that goods held on shelves and backlots in August rose 0.8 percent to $733.7 billion, following a 0.7 percent gain in July. It was the 20th consecutive monthly increase. Rising inventories can be a sign of economic sluggishness as manufacturers order production cuts and layoffs while goods in reserve are sold off. In another government report, the Federal Reserve Board said the overall operating rate last month at U.S. factories, mines and utilities fell to 83.6 percent of capacity, down 0.2 percentage point from August. The strain on the nation's industrial capacity eased for the first time in seven months as utilities scaled back after the summer heat wave, the Fed said. The latest government reports also supported bond prices, driving interest rates lower. The yield on the Treasury's closely watched 30-year bond fell to 8.86 percent from 8.90 percent late Friday. In foreign-exchange trading, the dollar rose against most major currencies after reports of intervention by the Bank of Japan lifted it from its lows of the day. The U.S. currency finished in New York at around 127.07 Japanese yen, up from 126.70 yen late Friday. As part of its business inventories report, the Commerce Department said August sales totaled $487.7 billion, up a brisk 1.1 percent from July, when the gain was a slight 0.1 percent. It was the ninth increase in a row. In other economic developments Monday: _A Harvard Business Review report concluded that an entrenched budget deficit and fundamental policy flaws have destabilized the nation's economy, and the next president will have to take major steps to turn it around. _The oil ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council said they supported an increase in OPEC's output quotas as a way to try to stabilize prices. Analysts said stock traders took a generally upbeat view of the current state of the economy, believing that growth has slowed of late to a steady, sustainable pace. But inflation worries haven't been entirely snuffed out on Wall Street, and brokers said investors were looking ahead warily to Friday's scheduled report on the consumer price index for September. Furthermore, just about all market-watchers agree, investors are likely to be leery of stocks all week with the anniversary Wednesday of last fall's crash, and all the attendant publicity.
The 10th tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season gradually strengthened as it followed a course that could threaten the Lesser Antilles in two or three days. At 6 a.m. EDT today, Tropical Storm Joan was centered near 12.2 north latitude and 50.8 west longitude, or about 575 miles east of Barbados, moving west-northwest at 15 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. The system has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph with some stronger gusts, according to the center. Little change in strength was expected today, and Joan was expected to maintain the same speed and direction for the next 24 hours, the center said. Joan, first spotted by satellite late last week in the mid-Atlantic, was upgraded from a depression to a tropical storm Tuesday. Tropical storms are named when sustained winds reach 39 mph and hurricanes when winds hit 74 mph. Four hurricanes have formed this season, including Hurricane Gilbert, which killed more than 300 people and caused billions of dollars damage as it ravaged Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Mexico. The hurricane season runs from June to November.
The stock market posted a broad loss today, registering little enthusiasm over the latest news on the nation's international trade balance. The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit in February shrank to its narrowest reading in more than six years. Imports exceeded exports by $6.49 billion, down from $9.32 billion in January. Analysts said that held out the prospect of stronger-than-expected growth in economic output, and improved profits at many companies with a substantial international business. At the same time, however, the figures touched off fresh worries about the outlook for interest rates. In the credit markets prices of long-term government bonds fell more than $10 for each $1,000 in face value, increasing their yields to the 8.84 percent-8.90 percent range.
Testimony about a near-drowning last year involving a Navy swimming instructor will be allowed in the instructor's court-martial for his role in the death of a recruit in March, a judge ruled Tuesday. Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Combe, 28, of Tempe, Ariz., is charged with involuntary manslaughter, battery and conspiracy to commit battery in the March 2 drowing of Airman Recruit Lee Mirecki, 19, of Appleton, Wis. Combe is accused of holding Mirecki's head under water after Pensacola Naval Air Station instructors forced the panic-stricken recruit back into a swimming pool when he climbed out and shouted he wanted to quit the voluntary training. Opening arguments in the court-martial were scheduled to begin later Tuesday. In pre-trial motions, the military judge, Cmdr. Newell D. Krogmann, rejected a defense motion to bar testimony and prohibit the introduction of an accident report about the Sept. 30 near-drowning of Christopher Coccitti, a Navy reservist from Jacksonville. Coccitti testified last week in the court-martial of the former officer in charge of the swimming school that he blacked out under water while Combe had him in a head hold. Coccitti had been participating in the ``sharks and daisies'' drill, the same exercise being conducted when Mirecki died. An attorney for Combe, Robert Heath Jr., argued that Coccitti's testimony was irrelevant because the earlier emergency was unrelated to Mirecki's death. The lead prosecutor, Lt. Cmdr. Larry Wynne, contended the information is pertinent because it showed Combe had a ``cavalier attitude'' toward students who passed out in the swimming pool. It was an occurrence known as ``smurfing'' because the skin of victims would turn blue like that of ``Smurf'' cartoon characters, former students have said. Mirecki, who had a phobia about being dragged under water, drowned after suffering a fear-induced heart attack, a pathologist testified last week in the court-martial of Lt. Thomas A. Torchia, former officer in charge of the Navy Rescue Swimmer School. Torchia, 32, of Princeton, Ill., was acquitted Thursday on both of two dereliction-of-duty charges. He is not scheduled to testify in Combe's court-martial, but four other instructors who received non-judicial punishment are listed as defense witnesses. The prosecution granted them immunity after defense lawyers said their testimony was vital to Combe's case.
Question: How many Board of Education bureaucrats does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Fill this out in triplicate and check back in a month. That's the level of absurdity facing new schools Chancellor Joseph Fernandez as he delves into bureaucracy and red tape at the New York education headquarters. According to the Daily News, hundreds of teachers received a memo last year titled, ``Proper Handwashing.'' In seven easy steps, the teachers were reminded that ``running water is necessary to carry away dirt and debris,'' advised to use ``a circular motion and friction, for 15 to 30 seconds,'' and told to ``discard paper towels in receptacle.'' Fernandez, faced with a system of 950,000 students, 1,000 buildings and a backlog of 33,000 repair requests, asked departments what their urgent needs were. The director of the Office of Professional Development and Leadership Training said her top priority was a ``Concretizing Mission.'' A what? ``Capacity building of personnel resources,'' the director wrote, ``and personal abilities of central board of education, districts and school (sic) to facilitate generating vehicles to assist schools in nurturing student achievement ...'' Oh. The official, who was not identified in the News story, showed off her abilities as an empire builder when she proposed the creation of a Coalition of Professional Developers to provide help to the schools. The coalition, she said, would be assisted by District Support Teams. Eventually, the school board could create an Academy of Learning, Teaching, Supervising and Management that would consist of four institutes, including an Institute for Intellectual and Creative Development. The bottom line: a modest $2 million would pay for the entire lot _ the CPD, the DSTs, the ALTSM and the IICD, as they might eventually be known. Another priceless piece of paperwork came from Public School 140 in the Bronx, whose principal decided to ease congestion in the school office. Her solution: ``Request Form for Permission to Come Behind the Counter in the Main Office.'' That form was discontinued last year after being ridiculed by the teachers union.
Carlos Batalla Cordero believes in ticket scalping _ believes in it so strongly that he's founded a union and gone on a hunger strike to promote honest, legal scalping. Batalla Cordero has been keeping a vigil at the doors of the Metropolitan Cathedral here since Tuesday without eating. He has asked for a meeting with President Miguel de la Madrid to press his case for legalization. Ticket scalping is illegal, but it is much more common here than in the United States. At almost any popular movie, scalpers called ``resellers'' buy tickets and sell them for a premium to latecomers or to those who don't want to stand in line at the box office. Batalla Cordero, looking thin and unshaven during a Friday interview, said he thought legalization might reduce some abuses. ``There are three people in Mexico City who have about 70 people working for them who resell tickets for as much as 1,000 percent more than they paid,'' said Batalla Cordero. He said they will sometimes try to buy up all the tickets to an event to push up the resale price. ``They mistreat and cheat their customers,'' said Batalla Cordero. He said he believes scalpers should be limited to a 20 percent premium on the face value of the ticket. Nowadays, a ticket to a popular play can cost $19 and be resold for as much as $86. Batalla has founded a union that claims about 80 members. The union, called the Authentic Union of Independent Ticket Resellers in the Service of the Public for Theater, Cinema and Spectacles, has an office in Mexico City. ``The authorities have told me they won't answer my request for an interview with the president until Monday,'' said Batalla Cordero. Scalping was legalized in Mexico in 1952 but was outlawed again in 1961. Telephone calls to the press offices at the National Palace on Friday afternoon were not answered. Police at the cathedral said they had not seen Batalla Cordero eat anything, although he has been taking liquids.
A South Carolina legislator had a suggestion to end discussion on bills designating ``official'' state animals, vegetables and minerals: Designate an official everything. ``We ought ... to have everyone fill out the darn list with everything they can think of and we would never have this come before us again,'' said Rep. Woody Aydlette. ``We could have a state cat, a state snake, even a state disease. After that, we would be finished with it. Why do them one at a time? Just go ahead and get them on a list and let's go.'' The reaction of fellow House members to Aydlette's proposal was less than enthusiastic. They ignored it. The Republican lawmaker was trying to block a bill to make the loggerhead sea turtle the state reptile, but the measure raced through the House anyway Wednesday. The Senate recently approved the bill, along with a measure to make the praying mantis South Carolina's state insect. The state already has a state fish, deer, bird, wild game bird and dog, not the mention a state flower, tree, flag, stone, shell, fruit, beverage, stone, two state songs and a dance. Aydlette says its a waste of time and money to pass legislation adding state symbols. But, he said, ``it's beginning to take up too much time to even fight the thing now.''
Parliament's Finance Committee said Tuesday it approved spending $20.5 million to improve Jewish settlements in the occupied territories at the request of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. The decision came Monday after a plea from Shamir, who asked the committee in a letter to allocate the funds to the Housing Ministry. A copy of Shamir's letter was obtained by The Associated Press. Shamir asked that the money be used to develop settlements and roads beyond the Green Line, which divides Israel from the territories it captured in the 1967 Middle East War. A Shamir spokesman insisted the money would be used only to improve existing settlements, not build new ones. Two new settlements established by Shamir's caretaker government have sparked protests from the United States, which says settlements in the occupied areas are an obstacle to peacemaking. Shulamit Aloni, a Finance Committee member and left-wing legislator, condemned the decision to allocate the money. ``This decision was passed by a completely insane system at a time of political unrest,'' Aloni said. He said it could hurt U.S. aid to Israel and endanger Soviet Jewish emigration. Thousands of Soviet Jews are expected to immigrate to Israel this year, and there is concern in the Soviet Union and among Arab countries that some could settle in the occupied lands. Israel denies it has a policy of steering immigrants to the occupied territories. A report by an Israeli diplomat in Washington released Tuesday in the daily Haaretz supported Aloni's claims. Yoram Ettinger, aide to deputy Foreign Minister Benjamin Natanyahu, said the U.S. Congress appeared to be less motivated to maintain strategic cooperation with Israel and more inclined to support Palestinians in their struggle for statehood, Haaretz reported. The Arab states see any settlement move as an attempt to push out Palestinians from the occupied territories. Government officials insisted that the money approved by the Finance Committee would not be used to form a new Jewish presence in the occupied West Bank or Gaza Strip. ``We are talking about already existing settlements, not forming new ones,'' Shamir's spokesman Avi Pazner said. The allocated money included $2.5 million to ``strengthen'' new settlements and $3 million for developing and expanding existing settlements. A separate sum of $2.5 million was allocated to purchase prefabricated houses and strengthen settlements in the West Bank. Ariel Weinstein, who represents Shamir's Likud bloc on the Finance Committee, said the government decided on a policy of settling the occupied territories and they should be treated as any other Israeli town. ``They need new roads, schools. Nobody thinks the government can decide not to fulfill these needs,'' Weinstein said. In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak warned Tuesday that settlement of Soviet Jewish immigrants in Israeli-occupied lands threatens ``new bloody confrontation'' in the Middle East. He spoke at the opening session of Socialist International, a non-governmental grouping of 89 socialist parties from 47 countries.
Officials in eight Northeastern states are working to adopt California's strict air pollution standards for cars and trucks in an effort to reduce smog. Fifteen cities or rural areas in the region have been named by the Environmental Protection Agency as failing to meet its ozone standard. Eleven cities violate the standard for carbon monoxide, most of which comes from motor vehicles. Metropolitan New York is the nation's worst offender for carbon monoxide and third worst for ozone. The eight states _ New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont _ already are implementing regulations to reduce gasoline volatility in the summertime, starting next year, in an attempt to lower smog levels. Air pollution directors of those states are slated to discuss the ``California plan'' again this week before formally proposing regional adoption, according to Michael Bradley, executive director of the Boston-based Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management. Environmental officials in Vermont, Massachusetts and New York have authority to proceed without legislative approval, he said. Experts agree that much of the ozone at any point on the northeastern seaboard originates with pollution upwind in the Boston-Washington megapolis, and it is practically impossible for any state to control the problem by itself. An EPA gasoline regulation, expected to be issued later this year, would not lower volatility to the new NESCAUM level until 1992. Gasoline vapors help form ozone, the major component of smog. The more volatile the fuel, the more vapor that escapes and the more smog that is formed. Few states have been willing to get out in front of the federal government on initiatives against air pollution, with California the most notable exception. California pioneered auto air pollution controls in the 1960s and the Clean Air Act of 1970 gave the state the right to impose stricter requirements than the federal standards for the rest of the country. To avoid the confusion of 50 potentially different standards, Congress said no other state could develop its own plan _ but any state, with EPA's permission, may adopt the entire set of California regulations. So far, none has. According to NESCAUM, the regional adoption of the California standards would cut emissions of the three principal auto pollutants _ carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and gasoline vapor _ by 50 percent within 15 years, as the car and truck fleets are replaced with models with superior pollution controls. ``One of the questions we're researching is, are we buying into future revisions of the California standards?'' Bradley said. The assessment, though, is ``extremely favorable to air quality,'' and ``My directors have said, `Let's go forward.''' The move likely means the elimination of the entire fleet of light-duty diesel vehicles, and the emission requirements could mean a slightly higher pricetag for gasoline-powered cars and trucks. California models look the same, except for required dashboard indicators tied to pollution control components. California exhausts may contain only 40 percent of the nitrogen oxides and 64 percent of the unburned gasoline permitted elsewhere. California permits twice as much carbon monoxide as the federal standard, but is planning to bring that limit down to the federal level. The auto industry has built cars to the California standards since the mid-1970s, although they don't like building two versions of the same car. California accounts for 11 percent of the national auto market. The eight Northeastern states account for 13 percent of the market. For some makes of cars, only the California version is built and it is marketed nationwide. All basic models are offered in California, but some engine-transmission combinations may not be available there. Bradley said NESCAUM had discussed its intention with the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association and MVMA had not raised any concerns. Ann Carlson of MVMA's Washington office said, ``I don't know that we've taken a position.'' Bill Noack of General Motors Corp. said he was unable to locate any executives who were aware of NESCAUM's plans. According to the EPA, the cities or areas in the eight states which have violated the carbon monoxide standard are, in descending order of severity, New York City; Hartford, Conn.; Manchester, N.H.; Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y.; Syracuse, N.Y.; Nashua, New Hampshire, Newark, N.J.; Springfield, Mass; Bergen-Passaic, N.J.; Jersey City, N.J.; and Boston. Those identified as failing to meet the ozone standard are New York City and suburbs, a Connecticut-Massachusetts area including the cities of Springfield, Mass., and Bristol, Hartford, Middletown, New Britain, New Haven and New London in Connecticut; Providence, R.I.; Knox County, Maine; York County, Maine; Atlantic City, N.J.; Boston; New Bedford, Mass.; Portland, Maine; Hancock County, Maine; Jefferson County, New York; Lincoln County, Maine; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Worcester, Mass.; and Kennebunk County, Maine.
Greyhound and its striking drivers exchanged barbs after negotiations broke down when company officials charged that union leaders failed to negotiate and were ``stepping up the violence.'' Union leaders presented a new contract proposal in talks held in Tucson on Saturday, but the company said it was unacceptable. Negotiations broke off Sunday after only about an hour. A federal mediator said he is disappointed but not surprised that the first negotiations in the 18-day-old Greyhound bus drivers' strike quickly broke off. ``The issues remaining are serious and they are many, and it's not unusual at this stage of negotiations for both sides to remain very firm in their position,'' said Paul F. Stuckenschneider. Greyhound and union officials were less diplomatic. ``There is no way to reach an agreement with people who are trying to break down the company through intimidation, violence and terrorism,'' the company's executive vice president, Anthony Lannie, said in a statement Sunday. ``They had nothing new for us today or yesterday while stepping up the violence,'' Lannie said. ``There were a half-dozen new acts of terrorism yesterday while we were in the meeting.'' In Washington, Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for the Amalgamated Council of Greyhound Local Unions, said Lannie's statement ``sounds to me like the desperate words of a desperate man. ``We clearly condemn violence and anything we can do to discourage our members we are doing so,'' Nelson said. Unions representing 6,300 drivers and an estimated 3,000 other Greyhound workers walked out March 2 over wages, job security and grievance procedures. Greyhound operates the only nationwide intercity bus service, and the strike has stranded many smaller communities for which buses are the only public transportation. The company said it has been operating roughly one-third of its buses with replacement and non-striking drivers, with about 400 union drivers joining 1,000 permanent replacements on the job. The union says fewer than 100 of its drivers have crossed the picket lines. Greyhound officials said there have been at least 14 shooting attacks on Greyhound buses, 46 bomb threats and numerous other incidents of vandalism or threats during the walkout. One new report of strike-related violence involved a union vice president accused of striking a driver in Fayetteville, N.C. Cumberland County, N.C., Magistrate Sam Mathis issued a warrant Saturday for the arrest of Fred Ingram of Charlotte, N.C., accusing him of assaulting Greyhound driver Stanley Harvey, 57, of Jacksonville, Fla. Ingram, who is also president of a local in Charlotte, denied striking anyone. Steve Scarpino, a Greyhound spokesman in Dallas, said other new complaints involved harassment by pickets in Mobile, Ala., an assault on a driver in Tulsa, Okla. and damaged buses in Tucson and Phoenix. In an earlier incident, driver Edwin J. Ludwigsen, 46, of Spring Lake, N.C., said he was struck on the he!e by a man. o -Bgistratwissmou$a criminalp`ummo(s for William DaniYs,fghom Greyhound said was a union member. In Florida on Sunday, the State Patbol arrested the drivers of tree vehicles that surrounded a New York-to-Miami Greyhound bus on Interstate 95 near Fort Pierce and forced it to slow down. No one on the bus was hurt, Scarpino said. Union officials said their proposal involved a $40 million three-year package that included modest pay increases of 4 percent to 5 percent and the addition of new drivers to the pension plan. A union spokesman said the company has offered a plan that included no guarantee of `ny pay hikes, but would have made raises contingent on$increased profits and ridership. Lannie said the union is ``stonewalling'' on contract talks. But union President Edward M. Strait said Greyhound never came to the bargaining table in good faith, and ``refused to make an} compromises, any concessions, from their previous unacceptable proposals.'' Stuckenschneider said he was not giving up on the negotiations. ``We hoped to have stayed longer, but we're not discouraged,'' he said. ``We hope to be back very soon.''
The country's top opposition leader said Friday he may visit North Korea to discuss reunification and ways to ease tension on the divided peninsula. If Kim Dae-jung makes the visit, he would be the first South Korean political leader to visit the Communist country since the 1950-53 Korean War. ``The visit will be by myself or a party delegation,'' Kim said. Kim, head of the largest opposition political group, the Party for Peace and Democracy, said the visit would be arranged with government approval. An unauthorized visit would violate National Security Laws. Kim declined to elaborate on his plans and said he would announce further details next week. The opposition leader said he raised the possibility of a trip in talks with President Roh Tae-woo on Thursday and said Roh responded favorably. There was no comment Friday from Roh's office. If Kim visits the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, party officials said he would expect to contact Communist officials. Officials of Kim's party said the visit may take place in the first half of the year. Aides to Kim said the primary purpose would be to meet North Korean President Kim Il Sung and help create a good atmosphere for an inter-Korea summit. Roh has proposed a meeting with the North Korean president several times in the past two years, but his proposal has not been addressed specifically by the North Koreans. Two days ago, Roh told a nationally televised news conference that he wanted to meet Kim Il Sung to discuss possible free travel between the two nations. In a New Year's speech, the North Korean leader invited Roh and South Korean opposition leaders to the North for unification talks. Government officials said the invitation was a ploy to lump Roh and opposition leaders in the same category, thus undermining Roh's leadership. Government officials said the opposition leader's indictment on charges related to the other lawmaker's secret trip to North Korea would not pose a problem for his own trip. The 64-year-old opposition leader was indicted last summer for allegedly failing to report to authorities the 1988 secret trip to North Korea of one of his party's lawmakers. Kim has denied the charge. Several dissident leaders are in jail for making unauthorized trips to North Korea. Vice Unification Minister Song Han-ho said South Korea would propose creating a hot line with Pyongyang so military leaders can communicate in an emergency. Song also said his government plans to propose peaceful uses for the demilitarized zone between the two countries, exchanges of military personnel, prior notification of major military exercises and invitations for delegates to observe such maneuvers. The two nations have opened several channels of talks on personnel, economic, parliamentary and political exchanges since the early 1970s but have made little progress. Reunification is a frequent demand of anti-government protesters.
Here is the text of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's decree banning firearms sales in Lithuania and ordering residents to turn in their guns. The text, transmitted in Russian by the official news agency Tass, was translated by The Associated Press.
Snow and heavy rain was on the menu Wednesday in the West, threatening to hamper Thanksgiving travel. Snow fell at 2 to 3 inches per hour Wednesday over parts of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. Yellowstone National Park received 2 to 5 inches of snow overnight, with as much as a foot in higher elevations. Rainfall was heavy over the Sierra Nevada foothills and valleys of northern California with street flooding early Wednesday in Sacramento. In Colorado, winds gusted to 80 mph west of Fort Collins. A 70 mph wind gust was reported southeast of Casper, Wyo. Heavy snow warnings remained in effect Wednesday over the Cascade Range in Washington state and Oregon, for the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon and the Sierra Nevada in California and for high elevations of parts of Nevada, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Tropical storm warnings were discontinued along the Florida and Georgia coasts as tropical storm Keith, with 50 mph winds, moved east-northeast into the Atlantic Ocean on a track that could bring it near Bermuda in 36 hours. Much of the central and southern Plains had fair weather and temperatures in the 50s and low 60s. North Platte, Neb., reached 69 degrees Wednesday, a record high for the date. The previous high was 67 degrees set in 1902. Temperatures from the northern Plains to New England were in the 30s and 40s. Readings over much of the Intermountain region and Pacific Coast were in the 40s and 50s. Temperatures around the nation at 2 pm EST ranged from 28 degrees at Limestone, Maine, to 80 degrees at Key West, Fla. The low in the nation Wednesday morning was 3 degrees at Alamosa Colo. The forecast for Thanksgiving Day called for snow over the northern and central Intermountain region and the northern and central Rockies. Rain was expected across most of California and the Pacific Northwest. Much of the eastern half of the nation was expected to have mostly sunny skies. High temperatures were expected in the 20s and 30s over northern New England; in the 30s for the northern and central Rockies, North Dakota and eastern Montana; the 40s and 50s from the northern and central Pacific Coast across much of Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, the upper Mississippi Valley, the Great Lakes, the Ohio Valley, the central Appalachians, southern New England and the middle Atlantic Coast; in the 80s over south central and southeast Texas and southern parts of the Florida peninsula. Much of the remainder of the nation was expected to have high temperatures in the 60s or 70s.
Andy Warhol's plastic wristwatches of Fred Flintstone, Judy Jetson and Gumby reached $2,640 in a ``wild'' bidding war _ $2,590 more than the timepieces cost the late artist in a department store, Sotheby's said. Kitschy collectibles were only some of the objects on sale Wednesday during the fifth day of the 10-day auction of Warhol's possessions. There was also serious jewelry on the block. American Indian art, including ``no end of turquoise jewelry'' was to be sold at today's auction, said Diana Brooks, president of Sotheby's North America. So far, Warhol's collection has fetched $9,072,000, more than twice Sotheby's high estimate of $3,951,000. Only 37 out of some 1,400 lots have not sold, she said. The highest bid Wednesday was $55,000 for a pair of surrealist ear clips by artist Salvador Dali, according to Ms. Brooks. The buyer, a private collector, was not identified. The ear clips, asymmetrical ruby-studded hearts with a honeycomb center set with round diamonds, had a pre-sale estimated value of $10,000 to $15,000. An 18-karat gold, garnet and diamond circular pendant, also by Dali, brought $47,300, Ms. Brooks said. The pendant, estimated at $7,500 to $10,000, depicted the profiles of Tristan and Isolde separated by a chalice. The brightly-colored cartoon watches, made by Lewco, were decorated with raised, full-length figures of Fred and Dino, his pet dinosaur; Judy Jetson standing with hands on hips; and a smiling Gumby. Warhol bought them in 1985 and 1986 at Bloomingdale's, Ms. Brooks said. In their original plastic packaging, the watches bore the original price tags of $20 and $10, she said. ``People were so wild to have the three plastic watches in the sale. They sort of symbolize the sale of the whole collection _ something people will remember,'' she said. The pre-sale estimate was $60 to $80 for all three. But in ``wild bidding'' that came down to a telephone contest between four people, the price climbed to $2,640, Ms. Brooks said. A private collector, who was not identified, won the bidding. Bloomingdale's still sells the watches in some stores, said Miraed Smith, a store spokeswoman. Another wristwatch that did well at the auction was a stainless steel piece, dated 1948, with a photo image of Gene Autry and signed ``always your pal Gene Autry.'' Sotheby's estimated it would sell for $50 to $100 but it went for $1,870, Ms. Brooks said. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which will award grants to cultural institutions in the United States and abroad. Warhol died at age 58 last year.