Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.news From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: news Tue, May 26 1992 Date: Tue, 26 May 92 05:20:39 EDT Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: News USA TODAY Update May 26, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network USA WON'T MATCH INITIATIVES: U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney Monday rejected proposals that Washington halt or reduce U.S. nuclear tests in line with Russian and French initiatives. Cheney, in Belgium for a NATO meeting, said that half a dozen underground tests a year are the minimum needed to ensure the safety and reliability of U.S. nuclear arms. PEROT MAY BE SHORT-SELLING: Wall Street critic and likely independent presidential candidate Ross Perot appears to be dabbling in selling stocks short. Short sales appear to be a tiny share of the billionaire's investments but cast him in the speculator's role. His financial report, filed last week with the Federal Election Commission, suggests that Perot has wagered against some of the USA's largest firms. YALE PRESIDENT ABRUPTLY QUITS: Yale University President Benno Schmidt Jr. stunned his school Monday by announcing he is resigning to lead the creation of a national system of private schools. Schmidt, 50, who became Yale's 20th president in 1986, informed trustees before Monday's commencement. He gave no date for leaving. Schmidt will head a Whittle Communications venture to develop the for-profit schools. HAITI ORDER TO BE CHALLENGED: President Bush's decision in ordering the Coast Guard to direct all Haitian refugee boats back toward Haiti may go to federal court. Ira Kurzban, a Miami lawyer working for the Haitian cause, and others believe that the order is in violation of an international treaty protecting refugees from being forced back to their country when their lives or freedom could be at stake. GENETIC FOODS PROBED: Foods that contain genes from other life forms may be a step closer to the market. Vice President Dan Quayle, Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration Tuesday announce new FDA guidelines on genetically engineered foods. The guidelines fail to treat the foods as products containing additives, says consumer advocate Jeremy Rifkin in protesting the move. CITIBANK ON TROUBLED LIST: The nation's biggest bank - Citibank - is on a USA TODAY analysis list of 375 troubled banks, making it the first top-10 bank to make the list since its debut in 1990. As of Dec. 31, 1991, Citibank's problem assets were equal to 113% of its capital and reserves. The bank is weighed down by troubled real-estate loans. It lost $470 million last year. WAR DEAD HONORED: U.S. flags marked the grave sites at Arlington National Cemetery and thousands more around the USA Monday as the nation honored war dead on Memorial Day. In Oradell, N.J., Gov. Jim Florio unveiled a monument honoring Maj. Marie Rossi, the first female combat commander to fly into battle. She was 32 when she died during a mission one day after the cease-fire in the Persian Gulf war. GOP FOCUSES ON ABORTION: The long and bitter debate within the Republican Party over abortion takes center stage Tuesday when abortion-rights supporters try to persuade GOP officials to overturn the party's formal opposition to abortion. The Republican National Convention Platform Committee will hold a public hearing on education, health care, crime and family values. ARKANSAS PRIMARY IS TUESDAY: Three states, including Democrat Bill Clinton's home base of Arkansas, vote Tuesday as the primary season enters its final week. The presidential races, all but decided, are focused more on wild card Ross Perot than Tuesday's votes in Arkansas, Kentucky and Idaho. But Clinton and President Bush expect sizable wins. Perot cannot be written in on any of Tuesday's ballots. AMNESTY AFTER RIOTS URGED: About 100 protesters marched in south central Los Angeles Monday demanding amnesty for those arrested during rioting that erupted last month after the acquittal of four officers accused of beating a motorist. Also, a judge ruled Friday that the retrial of L.A. Police officer Laurence Powell will be Oct. 19 in Los Angeles. PROTESTERS WANT PELTIER FREED: About 300 people rallied outside the Leavenworth, Kan., federal prison Monday calling for the release of activist Leonard Peltier. Peltier, 48, a Chippewa-Sioux, is serving two consecutive life terms for the 1975 deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, who were killed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. COLD RAINS TO HIT EAST: Chilling rains will douse the eastern third of the nation Tuesday, with Northeast temperatures in the 50s. Thunderstorms will rumble through the Gulf Coast states. The Rocky Mountains will get partly cloudy skies and will be in the 70s and 80s. Dry weather has a hold on the West. A cooling trend will snap the record heat wave that has gripped the Pacific Northwest. DOW JONES OPENS ON UPSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Tuesday at 3386.77, after closing up 8.06 Friday. The market was closed Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 228.20, up 0.73. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 392.46, up 0.83. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 580.30, up 1.20. News Editor: Beth Mann. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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