Koji Sasahara/AP

Around the World

Iraq airstrike pending

WASHINGTON - As the Clinton administration pressed Congress to support a possible attack on Iraq, the U.S. commander in the Persian Gulf said yesterday he'll be ready for an airstrike ''within a week or so.''

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should be ''nervous,'' Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, the overall commander of U.S. forces in the oil-rich Gulf region, told reporters there.

In Washington, lawmakers were also nervous - about whether the planned U.S. airstrikes, if launched, will succeed in pushing Iraq to comply with international arms inspectors.

President Clinton sent his senior foreign policy team to Capitol Hill yesterday to seek a congressional show of support in a nonbinding resolution backing the use of force against Iraq.

''We all hope we can avoid the use of force,'' Clinton said. ''But let's face it, in the end that is up to Saddam Hussein.''

The Iraqi leader, he said, ''must let the weapons inspectors back with full and free access to all suspect sites.''

Around the Nation

Lewinsky could haunt election

WASHINGTON - If you want to make Democratic candidates squirm, ask if they want President Clinton's help on the campaign trail.

Many will hem and haw, stall for time or dodge the subject. Some just won't answer.

Interviews with candidates and Democratic leaders around the country reveal strong undercurrents of anxiety: Despite the president's high poll numbers, party leaders fear the Monica Lewinsky controversy could haunt them in November's elections and make it harder to recruit candidates.

''It has had a very chilling effect on candidates running for office,'' said Philip Perington, chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party. His problem is double-barreled: Democratic Gov. Roy Romer, who is married, admitted last week to a ''very affectionate relationship'' with a former aide.

Republicans are wary of the issue, too.

They want to capitalize on Clinton's woes without appearing mean-spirited. So far, the GOP strategy has been to question the president's integrity on a wide range of issues, not just his sex life.

Few Democrats have linked the Lewinsky matter to their decisions not to run, but a handful of top-tier candidates have pulled out since the scandal broke.

Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff, said the controversy ''established another challenge'' in his potential bid for governor of California. He decided not to run.

Two highly touted Georgia Democrats announced in late January that they would not challenge vulnerable GOP congressmen. John Ellington and David Bell did not blame the Lewinsky matter for their decisions, but the timing still raised eyebrows.
Students at Ozarks college build lecture hall

POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. - There's a new classroom building going up at the College of the Ozarks.

No big deal in that. New buildings spring up on college campuses all the time. Except elsewhere, the students don't usually build them.

Here they do, and that's not the half of it. Students also run the college's fire department, airport and restaurant, and raise cattle and pigs, some of which wind up, in one form or another, on the menu.

In exchange for all that, they get a free college education.

All students at the College of the Ozarks are required to work 15 hours a week on the 930-acre campus of rolling hills and mountain vistas.

Glen Thompson works not one but three jobs, as a jack-of-all-trades in the music department, a firefighter and a groundskeeper.

In the music department, he hauls equipment, helps set up for concerts and does clerical work. As a groundskeeper, he was in charge of a mowing crew in the summer. And at the fire department, he has done everything from battling a brush fire to administering aid to athletes with broken bones.

''The only time I run into trouble studying is not with work but if I start goofing around,'' he says.

Around the State

Interracial adoption approved

CLEVELAND - Yesterday, the Ohio Supreme Court decided not to intervene in a four-year custody battle involving a white couple seeking to adopt two black children.

The attorney for Tim and Cherie Burich, of Eastlake in eastern Cuyahoga County, said the ruling means the couple can move quickly to complete the adoption of Shampail Hitchcock, 4, and her brother Hastings Hitchcock, 3.

The Buriches presently have custody. But a black couple, Abdul and Mary Abdullah of suburban Cleveland Heights, have custody of three Hitchcock siblings and have sought to keep Shampail and Hastings with their sister and two brothers.

The natural parents of the children have shown no interest in gaining custody of them, said Joanna Canitia Brady, a court-appointed lawyer for Shampail and Hastings.

Race became an issue early on in the custody battle. The Buriches contended Cuyahoga County social workers preferred the Abdullahs have custody because they are black.

The Abdullahs asked the state's high court last year to overturn a 1995 appeals court decision that gave custody of Shampail and Hastings to the Buriches.

The Buriches had been Shampail's foster parents since she was an infant until they were ordered to take her to the Abdullahs in 1995.

House okayed school funding tax increase

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Yesterday, the House took the first step toward placing a penny-per-dollar sales-tax increase before voters to improve school funding and provide property tax relief.

The House approved a bill 59 to 39 that would put the tax increase on the May 5 ballot. It goes to the Senate, which will open hearings on the bill today. If the Senate approves it, the bill will go to Gov. George Voinovich, who supports it.

Opponents have promised to sue the state if Voinovich signs it into law. They say the Legislature has no authority to ask voters to pass laws.

Around Athens

Investigated rapes not related

Although the three women who reported being raped last week live in the same dorm at Hocking College, the incidents are not related, said Athens Police Department Patrolman Rick Olexa.

Two Hocking College women reported they were raped last Thursday by three men at Carriage Hill Apartments after they were invited there for a party, according to an affidavit for a search warrant executed by the APD.

The APD has three suspects in the case but has not made any arrests or filed any charges, Olexa said.

The third alleged rape occurred at Hocking College Saturday in Hocking Heights, a residence hall on the campus.

A Hocking College student told Hocking College Police Department officers that two men raped her in a residence hall room after she went there to visit one of the room's residents, who was not present, according to a search warrant affidavit executed by the HCPD.