September 19, 1992

Ross Perot today took to his favorite forum, talk television, with a new twist to his on-again, off-again designs on the White House. The Texas businessman said he might want to run for President, but not because he actually wants to be President. Instead, he said, re-entering the race would make it easier to buy television time from the networks for commercials pushing his prescription for the ailing economy.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl exchanged sharp criticisms with British leaders today over whether high German interest rates caused the turmoil in currency markets this week. But Mr. Kohl renewed his pledge to work with Britain and other European nations for economic and political unity. After a week in which the European system of monetary coordination seemed headed toward collapse, Mr. Kohl met Prime Minister Giuliano Amato of Italy and called for a summit meeting of European leaders to assess the prospects for cooperation.

The Olympic flag arrived in the heart of the South today, two years to the day after Atlanta was designated as the surprise host for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. But even before the flag got here something else did: a recognition that having sold the world a vision of itself as an amicable, multiracial, civil rights capital in a world increasingly racked by racial and ethnic strife, Atlanta now has to live up to it.

From officers on the beat to commanders in precincts and detective squads, a pervasive anger at Mayor David N. Dinkins, spawned by months of smoldering resentments over his handling of street disturbances and other police matters, has swept large segments of the New York City Police Department. Interviews yesterday with many officers -- white, black and Hispanic, men and women at all ranks from the street to Commissioner -- also showed profound racial divisions in a department that is 74 percent white, 11.5 percent black and 13.6 percent Hispanic.

Albany Pressure on Shelters Pressing for more permanent housing for the homeless, state officials plan to limit New York City's ability to expand its shelter system. Page 21. Deadly India-Pakistan Floods Officials say deforestation and road building are partly to blame for flooding that killed 2,500 over the last 10 days in Pakistan and India. Page 3. Plan to Raise Suffolk Taxes The Suffolk County Executive, elected as an anti-tax candidate, presented a $1.5 billion budget with a 20 percent property-tax rise. Page 21.

Germany has quietly concluded an agreement with Romania that is expected to lead to the deportation of thousands of Romanians, most of them gypsies. The plan is apparently an attempt to appease German public opinion, which has become increasingly critical of the Government for failing to stop the flood of foreigners seeking asylum. Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Government, in its initial comments to the press, is presenting the plan as an important step toward ending the current outbreak of violence against foreigners. Gypsies have been the targets of some of the most violent attacks, including the firebombing of a hostel for asylum-seekers in the eastern German port city of Rostock in late August. That attack set off five consecutive nights of riots against foreigners.

With the finance ministers of the leading industrial nations scheduled to meet here Saturday, American and British officials teamed up today to put pressure on Germany's central bank to cut its interest rates. Lower German rates would encourage world economic growth and help to stem the currency crisis in Europe. Though the Bush Administration was actively urging Germany to ease its tight money policy last year, it has been relatively quiet recently, even as Europe's system of economic coordination seemed in near collapse this week. But a senior Administration official said the White House now saw in the European chaos an opportunity to "demonstrate leadership" on a high-profile economic issue and "be a force for stability."

Gov. Bill Clinton's campaign organization acknowledged today that the candidate sought help from Senator J. W. Fulbright's office in 1969, when he was trying to win a spot in the University of Arkansas Reserve Officers Training Corps to avoid being drafted. The question of what constitutes help is murky and illustrates the subjective nature of what has become a long and tortured debate on just what Mr. Clinton did or did not do to escape the draft during the Vietnam War.

Saying their companies' prosperity rests on approval of a european unification treaty, executives are vigorously promoting a yes vote.

Mayor Dinkins said yesterday that the acts of rowdy officers at a demonstration reminded him of times he was verbally abused in racial terms by the police as a young man.

An article on Thursday about the standings of President Bush and Gov. Bill Clinton in the latest public opinion polls in Florida misstated the state's voting record in Presidential elections. Democrats have won the state twice in the last 40 years. President Johnson carried Florida in 1964, and so did Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Some Nicaraguans complain that it looks like a mosque, others say a giant egg carton, but its defenders say it will be a cathedral for the 21st century, something to help this deeply wounded nation begin to recover both spiritually and physically. The new Roman Catholic sanctuary, rising on 26 acres several miles south of what used to be downtown Managua, will be by far the most impressive building in a country regularly devastated by earthquakes, hurricanes and war.