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GOP calls for debt reduction ■ Republicans discuss proposal for surpluses by Alan Fram Associated Press WASHINGTON — The two top Re publicans in Congress appealed to Pres ident Clinton Saturday to agree to use 90 percent of next year’s federal surplus for debt reduction, a goal that has be come the GOP’s top pre-election bud get theme. “While we may not agree on all as pects of the budget, we can, at the very least, do something on which we can all agree — reduce the debt and strength en Social Security and Medicare now and in the future,” House Speaker Den nis Hasten of Illinois said in the week ly Republican radio address, given with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi. They said their proposal would en sure that the surpluses of Social Securi ty and Medicare are used only for debt reduction, while also strengthening the economy. The leaders’ remarks spotlighted the turnaround that the GOP has executed in its budget goals as the November pres idential and congressional elections ap proach. Clinton “has been committed to debt relief for seven years now ... (and) we are pleased to see the Republican lead ership backing away from their risky tax scheme for this year,” said White House adviser Joel Johnson, traveling with Clin ton in California “What we don’t know yet is the Republican spending plan for this year. They haven’t sent the presi dent their spending bills.” Johnson challenged Republican lead ers “to commit to that kind of debt re duction next year and the year after that and the year after that.... If you only do it for one year, it is a political game.” Appearing on CNN’s “Evans, No vak, Hunt & Shields,” the minority leader of the House had a similar reaction. While saying the Republicans waited too long to produce the plan, Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., said, “I’m not opposed.” But he added: “I’d like to have 90 percent over the next five years.” At a White House meeting with Clin ton two weeks ago, GOP leaders pro posed using 90 percent of next year’s projected $268 billion surplus, $240 bil lion, to reduce the $3.4 trillion publicly held debt. The remaining 10 percent, $28 billion, would be used for tax cuts and spending increases that congressional and White House bargainers are negoti ating. While Republicans haven’t men tioned it publicly, their plan would ac tually provide an additional $13 billion for extra spending or tax cuts. That is be cause of a gap between the spending as sumptions GOP leaders are now mak ing and the more frugal, initial versions of Congress’ spending bills. Hastert said that when Republicans presented their debt-reduction plan to Clinton, he replied that “whether we can do it this year or not depends upon what the various spending commitments are.” “Mr. President, we can do this if we work together,” said Hastert. Democrats have noted that Clinton’s own budget proposed using more than 90 percent of next year’s surplus for debt reduction. They also have accused Republicans of backing big tax cuts that over 10 years would consume much more than 10 per cent of projected surpluses. GOP pres idential nominee Geoige W. Bush has championed a 10-year tax cut exceed ing $1.3 trillion. College’s rank tumbles, senior official resigns by Ben Dobbin Associated Press GENEVA, N.Y. — Small, private U.S. colleges that rely on tuition for survival ignore at their peril the guidebooks and magazine lists catering to parents and students zealously seeking the perfect school. So when Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a liberal arts campus on the leafy slopes above this Finger Lakes town, took a tumble in this month’s U.S. News & Vvbrld Report rankings of Amer ica’s best colleges, retribution was swift. Sociology professor Sheila Bennett was ousted as senior vice president of the men’s and women’s colleges. She had failed to submit fresh data that the magazine uses each year in assessing the academic merits of 1,400-plus schools nationwide. “I don’t believe this was intention al — it probably was just an adminis trative oversight,” said Professor Jack Harris, the faculty’s presiding officer. The episode brings into focus the enormous competitive pressures uni versities encounter in luring students and teachers, particularly private insti tutions with small endowments that need to flesh out their budgets with high tu ition fees. “In the absence of other measures of reputation, these rankings and a se ries of other guidebooks can have con siderable import,” Harris said. “The U.S. News survey is one of the most public demonstrations of our quality and rep utation, whether you buy into it or not.” A year’s stay at Hobart and William Smith costs $25,200, plus $6,800 for room and board. Hobart, a men’s col lege, was founded in 1822 and William Smith was started for women in 1908. Their 1,800 undergraduates share fac ulty, classrooms and an 180-acre cam pus but each has its own dean, admis sions office and athletic programs and awards its own degrees. Only 84 schools failed to return sur vey data to U.S. News this year, some for philosophical reasons, the magazine said. Reed College in Portland, Ore., has refused to participate since 1995, say ing it finds the survey too simplistic. Bennett came to upstate New York from Emory University in 1990 as provost and faculty dean. She stepped down from those posts this spring amid criticism of her management style, tak ing a one-year appointment in chaige of off-campus and international programs. One of her duties was to supply U.S. News with such statistics as gradua tion rates, financial and faculty resources and alumni donations. The magazine said it made repeat ed calls and sent a certified letter but ended up using data reported in previ ous years. That ended the school’s long time inclusion in the magazine’s “sec ond tier” of liberal arts colleges, dropping it to a “third tier” of schools ranked from No. 81 to No. 120. Bennett, who retained her faculty job, refused to be interviewed. The Chronicle of Higher Education said she resigned her executive post at school President Mark Gearan’s request soon after the U.S. News rankings came out. Gearan would not say if the resig nation was tied to the magazine poll. However, he stressed that “but for the regrettable circumstances of U.S. News not having received the information, there would have been no change” in the school’s ranking. I German family survives nine days adrift on dinghy in Atlantic Ocean by- Ciaran Giles Associated Press MADRID, Spain — Four Germans, including a toddler, spent nine days adrift on a dinghy in the Atlantic with only rainwater to drink before they were rescued and flown to a Spanish hospital, news reports said Sunday. The four — a couple, their 2-year old daughter and the captain of their yacht — set sail Sept. 13 from the north western Spanish port of A Coruna, bound for the Netherlands. But a day later, as they headed for the Bay of Bis cay, an explosion and fire in the ves sel’s engine forced them to abandon ship. Their yacht sank within minutes. They spent the next nine days afloat with no food, surviving on rain col lected in a plastic bucket, Martina Hoff man told The Associated Press in a tele phone interview Sunday front her room at Xeral hospital, in the northwestern port city of Vigo. “My little girl Lisa is better now, she can talk and laugh and eat. She’s a hardy girl,” said Hoffman, 31. “Now I feel well, but we were re ally afraid,” Hoffman said. “Especial ly as the days went by and nobody ' picked us up.” Hoffman, who comes from the small town of Schettorf in northern Gennany, said 11 boats passed but none apparently spotted them, although they fired four flares. She said she spent most of the tune hugging her little girl close to keep her warm and alive. “We were terribly cold and could only sit up and hold on,” she said. A Tunisian cargo vessel plucked . them from the water Friday, about 70 miles from land. Once aboard the ves sel, Hoffman said they were treated as if they were in a hotel and were giv en plenty of food, drink and clothes. But the child’s health was worri some and on Saturday, the Tunisian ship radioed for help from Spain. A helicopter was flown out and, at one moment during the rescue opera tion, panic spread when the child slopped breathing and had to be resus citated in the helicopter. The two men — the child’s father, Joig Hoffman and his brother, Jan, the yacht’s captain, were released from the hospital Saturday, but the mother and child were still recovering there Sun day. Lazio, Clinton drop soft money ads by Beth Gardiner Associated Press NEW YORK — Rep. Rick Lazio and Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared to have reached a deal late Saturday banning the use of so-called soft money advertising from the New York Senate race. “I think the two sides have come to a close enough point that we effec tively have a deal,” said Clinton’s cam paign manager. Bill de Blasio. Lazio told reporters, “It appears that we have an agreement, based on what I am hearing about what Mrs. Clinton said.” Soft money refers to the unlimit ed funds collected by political par ties. While hard money contribu tions, limited to $2,000 per donor, can be used for ads that advocate voting for or against a candidate, soft money can only be used to advocate an issue, boost a candidate or attack a candidate. The verbal agreements came after a day of public back-and-forth, and about a week and a half after Lazio sprung his version of a soft money ban on Clinton during their first televised debate and demanded she sign it on the spot. Clinton refused and later called Lazio’s action a stunt. Clinton said Saturday that the Democratic party had agreed to stop running ads on her behalf if Republi cans promised to cease paying for com mercials boosting Lazio. She said she would urge independent groups who support her to refrain from running ra dio and television commercials and asked that Lazio do the same. Lazio said he had secured promis es from Republicans in New York and Washington to stop spending money on ads for him. He said he hoped soft mon ey ads would be off the air by Monday, Clinton said the Democrats would stop running their commercials on Wednes day. Any violation of the agreement would result in a proportionate response — if a group on one side released a 5100,000 ad, the other side could re spond with a $100,000 ad of their own, de Blasio said. The tentative agreement appeared to cover spending by political parties but not by outside organizations. Defense to examine peacekeeper training by Robert Burns Associated Press WASHINGTON— The Army’s ad mission that some soldiers on peace keeping duty in Kosovo used excessive force against civilians puts a spotlight on a difficult question for the Penta gon: Would peacekeeping be more peaceful if the Army had a separate force trained specifically for such non combat missions? The Defense Department intends to explore this issue early in the next administration in reassessing its securi ty strategy and the shape of the armed forces. Some foreign policy experts favor creating a separate constabulary force, with special training in crowd control, civilian searches, interrogation and oth er skills. Such a force would be pre pared to go anywhere, for peacekeep ing as well as humanitarian missions. Regular Army combat troops would handle combat missions. Among those who have aigued this point, retired Army Col. Richard J. Dunn says the instincts developed by warriors — to “be brutal” — are not needed in peacekeeping, which em phasizes using minimal force. The idea of creating a “peace brigade” within the armed forces does not play well among today’s military leaders, although the Kosovo case brings it back to the fore. An Anny report released hist week stud some members of tut 82nd Airborne Division unit, whose motto was “shoot ’em in the face,” threatened, abused and beat ethnic Albanian civilians last winter. The aggression was so egregious that it violated basic standards of hu man decency, the report concluded. Although the misconduct was not widespread, the Army colonel who wrote the report said the training these paratroopers received before going to Kosovo failed to temper their “com bat mentality.” In other words, the warrior mind set that is essential to success — and survival — on the battlefield can lead to trouble in the more ambiguous cir cumstances a soldier encounters on peacekeeping duty. In the case of the unit in Kosovo —Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment — some soldiers said they were confused about what peacekeeping meant or were not prepared for the mission. “Our train-up for this... was noth Peacekeeping seepages Putin bringing stability to Russian political system by Angela Charlton Associated Press MOSCOW — Despite a fiasco over a sunken submarine and a feud over control of the media, President Vladimir Putin has brought a fragile political stability to his unwieldy na tion, replacing the chaos that para lyzed Russia for much of the 1990s. Since he was elected six months ago, the former spy has confounded critics’ predictions that his adminis tration would succumb to the cor ruption that stained Boris Yeltsin’s tenure or smother Russia’s nascent democracy. Yet observers warn that Putin’s position is precarious. Poverty and crime remain pervasive. Putin has stressed the need to tackle the prob lems that matter most to the majority of Russians — poverty and unem ployment. But the economy remains in deep trouble and the government has yet to come up with a strategy to revive the economy beyond promises to contin ue market reforms. “The people believe in Putin. But they cannot wait forever. He must show through real actions that wages will always be paid on time, and that they will someday grow, and that the country has become safer than before,” said Andrei Ryabov of Carnegie En dowment for International Peace. Putin has pushed through tax re forms and nuclear arms control pacts that snagged under Yeltsin. He has brought autocratic regional leaders to heel. While trying to revive Russia’s in ternational influence, he has been re alistic in admitting that Moscow ca^’t afford to be a superpower and has be gun to trim the bloated military. He has charmed foreign leaders and wooed Western investors — and let a 10-year old Japanese girl toss him on a judo mat. Political stability also has been boosted by major changes in parlia ment, where centrist parties recent ly ended the domination of the Com munists, who fought Yeltsin and reform for years, often deadlocking the gov ernment. Human rights groups paint a dark er picture. They say the security ser vices under Putin have covered up atrocities in Chechnya and persecut ed minorities, environmentalists and journalists. They are wary of Putin’s KGB background and note that he rose to power with the help of the scandal tinged Yeltsin. Still, Putin remains Russia’s most popular politician. His ratings barely dipped amid criticism of his bungled reaction to the Kursk sub marine disaster last month. Clearly surprised by public anger over the Kursk, Putin showed himself more sensitive to public opinion than any other modem Russian leader. Support for Putin has come from broadly differing camps — including renowned dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, persecuted by the So viet KGB that Putin served for 15 years, and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Solzhenitsyn said after meeting with Putin this week, “the president has an excellent understanding of the incredible difficulties... which he has inherited.” i News Briefs ■ Cubans in America after crash in Gulf of Mexico MIAMI (AP) - The pilot’s view from the sputtering, stolen vintage crop-duster wasn’t encouraging: endless, swelling sea and gray sky. America was not in sight. The fuel was almost gone. But the 10 people on the pirate flight out of Cuba had one thing left: faith. So they prayed as their plane headed into the water of the stormy Gulf of Mexico west of their island homeland. All but one survived and realized their dream to come to Amer ica. While the journey was extraordinary, it is a trip regularly taken by Cubans try ing to escape their communist country. Many don’t survive. Just last year, 11 people drowned when their boat sank off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The only survivors were two adults — and Elian Gonzalez. ■ Child critically injured in accident at Disneyland ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - A 4-year old boy was in critical condition Satur day after he became trapped on Disney land’s Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin ride, police said. Disneyland authorities and city Fire Department paramedics freed the child after he became trapped on the theme park ride Friday night, Lt. Joe Vargas said. He remained hospitalized Saturday at the University of California, Irvine, Medical Center. Details about how the boy was in jured were not immediately available, but Vargas said the accident did not ap pear to have been caused by a mechan ical malfunction. The Car Toon Spin is a slow-moving, 5-minute ride in which passengers take a cab through a cartoon world. Calls left for a park spokesman were not immedi ately returned. ■ Ford: Increase pressure of tires on Explorers DETROIT (AP) - Ford Motor Co. is recommending that Explorer owners add more air to their Firestone tires. On Friday, Ford released a letter say ing it’s raising its recommendation to 30 pounds per square inch from 26 psi. On Thurday, a Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. executive told Congress that the 26 psi level Ford has been recommending is lower than what Bridgestone/Firestone suggests. , The Ford letter says the new pres- 1 sure recommendation applies to Explorer owners with Firestone P235/75R15 tires, but does not say whether it applies to other tires installed on the Explorer. Bridgestone/Firestone last month re called 6.5 million ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires, most of which were original equipment on Explorers. ■ Plan to disband spy agency seen as easing crisis r LIMA, PERU (AP) - President Al berto Fujimori has sent Congress a plan to disband Peru’s disgraced spy agency, a move praised by observers as a step to ward easing the severe crisis that is cut ting short his rule. Beset by a bribery scandal engulf ing his spy chief, Fujimori last week promised to deactivate the much feared National Intelligence Service and stunned Peru by saying he’d call a new election, but not run in it. On Friday afternoon, Fujimori sent the spy agency proposal to Congress and promised to confirm by Monday that the spy chief is out of office. 0 !