October 3, 1992

In the last chance for an improved job report that could help President Bush's re-election chances, the Government said today that the United States lost 57,000 more jobs in September and that the unemployment rate posted a statistically insignificant one-tenth point decline, to 7.5 percent. The figures, the most comprehensive measure of the economy's performance last month, were greeted with some relief by economic analysts, most of whom had expected job losses twice as high along with a possible uptick in the unemployment rate.

President Bush said today that the United States was ready to use its military forces to impose a ban on combat flights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a step that could introduce American air power into the Balkan war for the first time. In a written statement issued by the White House, Mr. Bush said he was seeking a United Nations resolution banning all flights in Bosnian airspace except those authorized by the world body. He said Serbian bombing attacks showed a "flagrant disregard for human life." [ Excerpts, page 5. ]

New Leader Jolts Brazilians Taking over as Acting President, Itamar Augusto Franco startled Brazil by naming an obscure tax lawyer as Finance Minister. Page 3.

Two weeks after a bitter police demonstration at City Hall, Mayor David N. Dinkins has begun an effort to repair relations with the Police Department and lower the oratory, including his own, over the racially charged issue of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. In the last two days, he has met with police chaplains and members of the clergy from throughout the city, asking them to help him to reach out to the department's rank and file and to all New Yorkers to calm the racial divisions that the debate over his proposed board has aroused.

After 37 years of marriage, Abelardo and Amanda M. have told the Government that they have separated. They are lying. But, after decades of hard work, it is the only way, they say, that they can survive retirement. By filling in fake addresses on a couple of forms, they scrape by, guiltily, with an extra $294 monthly from a Federal program called Supplemental Security Income. Still, they run out of money at the end of each month, and search their cupboards for whatever food remains.

The Republican and Democratic Presidential campaigns reached agreement today on staging three Presidential debates and one Vice-Presidential debate to be held in a remarkably compressed period of nine days. The first Presidential debate is scheduled for Oct. 11, a week from Sunday, followed by debates on Oct. 15 and Oct. 19. The Vice-Presidential debate is set for Oct. 13. Officials close to the negotiations said each debate would last 90 minutes.

A Senate report made public today accuses the nation's senior prison official of punishing an inmate for political reasons on the eve of the 1988 Presidential election, after the convict maintained that he had repeatedly sold marijuana to Dan Quayle many years earlier. The report reopens an embarrassing episode for the Justice Department that has survived only through the persistence of the prisoner, Brett C. Kimberlin.

One day after Ross Perot announced that he would be running for President after all, he committed to spending almost $1 million next week to buy three half-hour blocks of advertising on network television. An advertising firm, called the 270 Group, has been formed to produce shorter television and radio commercials for him. And since the Texas billionaire is not accepting Federal election funds, he can spend as much money as he wants on advertising over the next four weeks.

An article yesterday about Senate endorsement of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty referred incorrectly in some copies to the new lending approved by the Senate for the International Monetary Fund. It was $12 billion.

Because of an editing error, a sports article on page B9 yesterday, under the headline "In the Yankees' Book, Perez Is a 20-Gamer," was replaced in some copies by a reprinted article from Thursday's issue.

A movie review in Weekend yesterday about "The Story of Qiu Ju" at the New York Film Festival rendered the name of the title character incorrectly in some references. She is Qiu Ju.

A sports article yesterday about the imposition of sanctions on the athletic program at Syracuse University referred incorrectly to the sport for which the University of Michigan was placed on probation. It is baseball, not basketball.