Across The Nation

NEW MOTTO FOR KING DAY: `SERVICE, NOT SHOPPING'

UNITED NATIONS - With the slogan "Service, not shopping," Coretta Scott King has begun a nationwide drive to rededicate Rev. Martin Luther King Day.

"We want the King holiday to become a time for every American to make a contribution to alleviate homelessness, . . . fight drugs and crime and violence in whatever form . . . to reach out to make a difference," King said at a news conference in a U.N. meeting room yesterday. "And on the other side of town," she added.

This year is the federal holiday's 10th anniversary, and the slain civil-rights leader's birthday wil be observed Jan. 18, the third Monday in the month. King was born Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta.

Mrs. King said the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission will begin a national public service ad campaign to ask Americans to change the way they think about the holiday.

The goal, she said, is to observe it in the way it was originally designed, not as a day only for blacks, but as a day of peace and unity for Americans of all backgrounds when people perform community service.

N.J. CAMPAIGN DEBACLE COSTS STRATEGIST ED ROLLINS TWO JOBS

Political strategist Ed Rollins has resigned as a commentator on NBC's "Today" program and has been fired from his job as a consultant to a Republican running for governor of Pennsylvania in 1994.

Rollins, who managed the successful gubernatorial campaign of Christine Whitman in New Jersey, has found himself in hot water after telling reporters following the Nov. 2 win that the campaign spent $500,000 to suppress the black vote.

"Yesterday I asked Ed Rollins to withdraw from my campaign," Pennsylvania candidate Barbara Hafer said today. "We mutually agreed that, for us both, this is best."

Rollins on Monday discussed his status with NBC News vice president Bill Wheatley, who said yesterday: "There was a mutual belief that his effectiveness as an analyst had been called into question. He offered his resignation, and we accept it. Given the circumstances it was absolutely appropriate."

COURT OVERTURNS 1987 ORDER FOR DEMJANJUK'S EXTRADITION

CINCINNATI, Ohio - A U.S. federal appeals court today overturned the 1987 order under which accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel. The appeals court said government prosecutors committed a fraud on the court in obtaining it.

The decision by a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit found that the U.S. Justice Department committed "prosecutorial misconduct" in stripping Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk of his U.S. citizenship and sending him to Israel, where he was sentenced to death for being a camp guard known as "Ivan the Terrible."

Demjanjuk, 73, was freed by Israel after courts ruled that he was a victim of mistaken identify. He returned to the U.S. in September and is living in seclusion at his home in suburban Cleveland.

The ruling clears the way for Demjanjuk to fight a 1981 order by U.S. District Judge Frank Battisti of Cleveland that stripped him of his citizenship. A Justice Department spokesman said the government remains convinced that Demjanjuk committed war crimes and would seek to deport him.

PRISON EMPLOYEES CHARGED IN BRIBERY, DRUG SMUGGLING

LORTON, Va. - Fourteen current and former employees are charged with taking bribes and smuggling drugs at a prison run by the District of Columbia.

Walter Hill, spokesman for the city corrections department, said 10 guards were among the 14 people arrested in raids early yesterday and accused of arranging to deliver heroin, cocaine, crack and money to convicts at Lorton prison. The money allegedly was used to buy more drugs.

"Even in the most secure environment, it's difficult to keep drugs out," said Frank Scafidi, an FBI spokesman. "But it doesn't help when the staff is greasing the skids and circumventing the system."

The arrests came hours after a federal judge refused to return a prisoner with a drug problem to Lorton because he said it was easy to get drugs in the prison, which has 7,000 inmates convicted of crimes in the District of Columbia.

"Drugs are as easy to come by in Lorton as on the District's streets," said U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis.

Ellis ordered the inmate in question to the Alexandria, Va., city jail instead.

DOWNTOWN HOUSTON TORNADO BLOWS OUT HIGH-RISE WINDOWS

HOUSTON - A tornado struck downtown Houston yesterday, blowing out more than 30 windows in a high-rise and causing other damage.

No serious injuries were reported. Three people from the 50-story office tower were taken to a hospital.

The tornado struck just before 10 a.m. as thunderstorms moved through Houston, creating havoc over a wide portion of the central business district

Traffic signals went dead, power lines danced across sidewalks, limbs were ripped from trees and shards of glass flew like sparks as dislodged office windows hit the ground.

Chunks of glass from the Enron Building were found on the fifth and sixth floors of a parking garage more than a block away, said Bridgette Whitten, ticket auditor at the garage.

Earlier, a thunderstorm hit Galveston, causing blinding rains that were blamed for a rush-hour traffic accident. About 30 cars were involved in the pileup, which clogged the Causeway, Galveston Island's link with the mainland. There were no serious injuries.

OFFICER DRIVES OVER TOURIST SUNBATHING ON FLORIDA BEACH

MIAMI - A Peruvian tourist was in good condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital yesterday after a Beach Patrol officer drove over her in a four-wheel-drive truck while she was sunbathing on the beach Monday morning.

City spokesman David Reddick said Sylvia Garcia, 28, was lying on her stomach on the beach when Lt. Russell Tongay drove a Dodge Ranger "up her torso and over part of her head." Garcia suffered broken ribs, a broken clavicle and external head injuries.

Tongay estimated he was driving about 5 miles an hour when he ran over Garcia, Reddick said.

Reddick said Tongay's job includes driving up and down the beach, keeping an eye on swimmers and pedestrians on the boardwalk. No signs were posted that would have warned Garcia that a truck could drive through, Reddick said.

"I was just surprised," Garcia said yesterday from her hospital bed. "With the pain, I couldn't say anything - just scream."

Garcia, on a seven-day visit from Lima, Peru's capital, said a representative of the city had visited her in the hospital and told her not to worry about medical costs.