A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

work and many of our notions about worker-management relations were made for a 1

930s ' world not the 21st century , '' Reich said . Reich also deplored the grow

ing gap between more highly skilled workers and those at the bottom of the pay l

adder . A long-term decline in the rate of growth of American productivity , or 

employee output per hour , limits the increases in wages and benefits that can b

e paid by firms without sacrificing their ability to compete in an increasingly 

global economy , the commission said . ( Optional add end ) In addition , the de

clining power of labor unions and the fall in the buying power of the federal mi

nimum wage has also played a role in widening the gap between more highly paid a

nd lower paid workers . Referring to the `` working poor '' who remain in povert

y despite putting in 40 hours on the job every week , the commission said their 

numbers have increased greatly in the last 15 years . `` About 18 percent of the

 nation 's year-round full-time workers earned less than $ 13,091 in 1992 a 50 p

ercent increase over the 12 percent who had low earnings in 1979 , '' the report

 said . `` These workers consist disproportionately of women , young workers , B

lacks , Hispanics and the less educated . '' The number of bargaining rights ele

ctions and the number of labor union victories has diminished sharply over sever

al decades , the report also noted , with an increasing probability that workers

 will be fired for pro-union activity .

 WASHINGTON The Immigration and Naturalization Service is testing an automated s

ystem in the San Diego area that would free Border Patrol agents from paperwork 

burdens so they can concentrate on tightening U.S. borders , Attorney General Ja

net Reno announced Thursday . `` Border Patrol agents have , up until now , been

 spending 40 percent of their valuable enforcement time doing paperwork , '' sai

d Reno , who complained after a border visit last August of finding agents drivi

ng buses and performing other tasks that could be handled by technology . At her

 weekly news conference , Reno also announced that a fingerprint system currentl

y under development for the INS will identify criminal illegal residents at the 

border within minutes . The automated paperwork system , called ENFORCE , was tu

rned on Wednesday at three border patrol sites near San Diego and `` will provid

e the equivalent of redeploying 48 agents to the line , '' Reno said . The syste

m handles by computer 43 of 51 forms that agents completed with typewriters or b

y longhand , freeing Border Patrol agents from 60 percent of the paperwork invol

ved in processing illegal immigrants . In the future , it will be used to track 

cases by linking immigration enforcement and deportation systems that currently 

lack the means of exchanging data , officials said . In unveiling the technology

 , Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner noted the current budget includes on

ly enough money to run the pilot effort for six months . Final enactment of Hous

e and Senate crime bills now in conference to resolve differences would provide 

$ 200 million for INS technological developments , including the ENFORCE system 

and the fingerprint identification . That would be the largest part of the two t

o three years of funding needed to fully implement the system , according to Mei

ssner . `` If we are going to deploy these technologies all along our border and

 develop others , Congress needs to pass the crime bill and appropriate funds , 

'' Reno said . The fingerprint system , which was described as in `` the late st

ages of development , '' will enable Border Patrol agents to identify an illegal

 immigrant from an electronic fingerprint within three to five minutes and to re

trieve the individual 's criminal records , photographs and other information . 

Meissner said the technology would help close a gap in the IRS fingerprinting sy

stem that allows private companies to take prints from illegal residents for use

 on their INS applications without requiring them to prove their identities . ( 

Optional add end ) The INS has failed to regulate the private companies and has 

no means of preventing immigrants intent on hiding their arrest records from enl

isting someone with a clean history to submit their prints instead , according t

o a report by the Justice Department 's Inspector General . In a related develop

ment , the Justice Department announced that 53 Mexican nationals now in U.S. pr

isons for committing crimes here will be sent back to Mexican prisons Friday . I

t will be the third transfer under an accelerated program that resulted from Ren

o 's meeting in Mexico last October with Jorge Carpizio , Mexico 's then attorne

y general . Reno praised the Mexican government for its role in the transfer , s

aying , `` it is a common sense answer to help ensure that U.S. prison space is 

used for U.S. citizens . '' Some 186 criminal illegal immigrants were returned t

o Mexico in the stepped-up transfers , which began last December .

 NEW YORK His mortar board tipped , and he fumbled with his hood , but alumnus-c

omedian Jerry Seinfeld Thursday did not miss a punch line after receiving an hon

orary doctorate from Queens College . Before an audience of 3,500 cheering Queen

s College graduates , his mother , Betty Seinfeld , and sister , Carolyn Lieblin

g , Seinfeld delivered a two-minute stand-up . `` When my parents were pushing m

e to become a doctor , I could have at least said to them , ` All right , all ri

ght . Just let me tell jokes to strangers in nightclubs for 18 years , and I 'm 

sure after that they 'll make me a doctor , ' ' ' Seinfeld said . As the audienc

e cracked up , Seinfeld added : `` I tell you with the job market you 're facing

 , you 're a terrific audience . '' Above the traditional pomp and circumstance 

, and the toll of the Queens campus bells , rose the chant : `` JER-RY , JER-RY 

. '' Robed in cap and gown , Seinfeld , 40 , who graduated in 1976 , joined Quee

ns College President Shirley Strum Kenny , who gave her farewell commencement sp

eech before leaving to head the State University of New York at Stony Brook in S

eptember . Occasionally smiling for photographers and waving to fans , Seinfeld 

barely said a word . Still , people laughed . `` What 's interesting is how funn

y everybody gets around him , '' Kenny said . As Seinfeld walked onto the grassy

 lawn , graduates and guests cheered wildly as they perched atop folding chairs 

, straining for a glimpse . One feisty fan waved a poster that read : `` Hey Jer

ry , Even Kramer knows librarians are the best . '' Kenny gave him a copy of `` 

Seinlanguage '' in Hebrew . On a more serious note , Seinfeld said : `` I 'm ver

y proud to be an alumnus of Queens College , and it 's truly a wonderful feeling

 to know that you are all very proud of me . Good luck , Class of '94 ! '' As se

curity guards whisked Seinfeld into a waiting car , a lone voice bid the comedia

n a New York farewell : `` Hey Jerry , I got the money I owe ya . ''

 ROME The mayor of Rome thought he had chosen just the right gifts to present Pr

esident Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton when they visited the stately Palazzo

 Senatorio , or town hall , Thursday . For the president , Mayor Francesco Rutel

li had a small bronze statue of the wolf that , according to legend , had nursed

 the infants Romulus and Remus , founders of Rome . For the first lady , he had 

a watercolor by the Italian artist Manzu . But the Italian-language Il Messagger

o reported Thursday that the mayor had second thoughts over the painting 's titl

e , `` The Lovers . '' Could that cause offense , given the allegations of infid

elity that have been leveled at her husband ? Just to be safe , when she arrived

 in the City Council chambers , Hillary Clinton was given a large picture book o

f Rome .

 ROME The international tension over North Korea 's nuclear program reached the 

point of confrontation Thursday as the United States announced it would urge the

 United Nations to impose economic sanctions against Pyongyang . The long-debate

d move toward sanctions began when the International Atomic Energy Agency formal

ly notified U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali that it could no longer

 certify that North Korea wasn't diverting nuclear fuel to weapons production . 

So President Clinton , in the midst of a largely ceremonial European trip to com

memorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day , was plunged instead into a deadly serio

us conflict over the Korean peninsula where the United States helped wage war in

 the 1950s . `` I believe that in the end , when we move to the Security Council

 discussions , we will come out with a policy that will show resolve , '' Clinto

n told reporters after a day that also included meetings with Pope John Paul II 

and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . `` I just don't think we can walk

 away from this . '' South Korea 's ambassador for nuclear affairs , Kim Sam-Hoo

n , said the United Nations could no longer avoid imposing sanctions against Nor

th Korea . `` Warnings have been delivered to the full . It has now become inevi

table to seek punitive measures against the North , '' Kim said . But Clinton fa

ces a daunting diplomatic mission . He must persuade China and Russia , both wit

h veto power in the Security Council , to put aside their reluctance to impose s

anctions . He also must be prepared for the unpredictable course a confrontation

 with the Communist regime in Pyongyang could run . North Korean Foreign Ministe

r Kim Yong Nam already has sent a letter to Boutros-Ghali warning that sanctions

 would `` bring devastating consequences menacing peace in Asia and the rest of 

the world , not to speak of the Korean peninsula , '' the North Korean news agen

cy reported . And the North Korean envoy to the international atomic agency , Yu

n Ho Jin , warned that Pyongyang was close to withdrawing from the nuclear Non-P

roliferation Treaty . The treaty pledges members not to develop nuclear arms and

 to keep facilities open to international inspection . A North Korean withdrawal

 would end any hope of monitoring whether it is building nuclear bombs . Any san

ctions would further isolate what is already one of the world 's most isolated n

ations . `` They have more than 750,000 troops along the DMZ ; they could go to 

war , '' said Rep. Gary Ackerman , D-N.Y. , the last U.S. official to have met w

ith North Korean President Kim Il Sung last October . `` They have said they wou

ld consider economic sanctions an act of war , and they are still capable of inf

licting horrible damage . They can certainly punch their way through the border 

, and they could destroy Seoul before we could react . '' The CIA has said there

 is a better than 50-50 chance that North Korea has already used the plutonium i

t extracted from its experimental nuclear reactor in 1989 to build one or two bo

mbs . Meanwhile , South Korean officials announced that a major joint U.S.-South

 Korea military exercise would be held in August to test the combined military o

perations of the two allies against possible North Korean provocations . The esc

alating tensions came after months of diplomatic maneuvering over North Korea 's

 refusal to allow atomic agency inspectors to verify the amount of plutonium bei

ng produced in its experimental reactor at Yongbyon . Agency Director Hans Blix 

formally informed Boutros-Ghali Thursday that all possibility of establishing th

e history of the reactor 's fuel had been lost , White House officials said . ( 

Begin optional trim ) In his letter , Blix said the United Nations ' nuclear wat

chdog agency `` has drawn the conclusion that the discharge of spent fuel from a

 five-megawatt experimental nuclear power reactor has now made it impossible to 

select fuel rods for later measurements which would show whether whether there h

as been any diversion of fuel in past years . '' That prompted the United States

 to begin full-scale international consultations to build support for sanctions 

. The White House tried to schedule a telephone call between Clinton and Russian

 President Boris N . Yeltsin. U.N. . Ambassador Madeleine Albright and other sen

ior U.S. officials were conferring with the other four permanent members of the 

Security Council Britain , France , Russia and China as well as with South Korea

 and Japan , the nations that probably would be most affected by sanctions . `` 

I recognize it is a more difficult question for China and for Russia than for th

e United States and for Britain and for France , '' Clinton said . `` It also ma

tters a lot to Japan and to South Korea . I think we all have a common desire to

 see North Korea return to the former path '' of compliance with atomic agency s

afeguards . ( End optional trim ) The North Korean situation left frazzled the W

hite House officials who were trying to track the developments in the midst of a

 busy schedule in a foreign country . At one point , a senior administration off

icial briefing reporters was handed a scrawled note and announced that the atomi

c agency letter had been delivered to the United Nations . Fifteen minutes later

 he reappeared and announced that the information `` was not accurate . '' A hal

f-hour later , another senior official appeared to declare that the letter , in 

fact , had been delivered .

 WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it is scrapping de

velopment of a system to guide airplane landings after an investment of 27 years

 and $ 400 million , because the program has been overtaken by an alternative te

chnology . The move came as the agency was preparing major changes in a troubled

 multibillion-dollar contract to modernize the computers in the country 's air t

raffic control system . Officials said the agency plans to announce Friday that 

it will scale back efforts to develop new equipment and focus on buying `` off-t

he-shelf '' technology that it hopes will lower costs . Both steps reflect major

 rethinking of how aircraft should be guided through the skies in the 21st centu

ry . Finding ways to allow more planes to fly safely in already crowded airways 

is a key to the growth of air travel . The Microwave Landing System ( MLS ) had 

been intended to replace the instrument landing system ( ILS ) now in use to gui

de planes to runways under conditions of limited visibility . But the FAA reache

d a conclusion long espoused by some aviation industry groups that satellite-bas

ed technology has greater potential . `` Continuing the MLS development program 

is not an economically sound strategy , '' FAA Administrator David R. Hinson sai

d in a press release . The FAA 's decision could cause some confusion internatio

nally , because the United States and many other nations had agreed to switch to

 MLS by 1998 . FAA officials said Thursday that MLS was no longer on schedule fo

r global implementation in 1998 , and they added that technology may overcome an

y international inconsistencies by allowing planes to navigate by any of the thr

ee technologies-ILS , MLS or satellites . The FAA Thursday canceled contracts on

 the MLS project with Raytheon Corp. and Wilcox Corp. , saying the move would sa

ve taxpayers $ 59 million through 1997 . The MLS system would have required exte

nsive ground-based equipment as well as new electronics aboard airplanes . The F

AA 's new plan is to use the Defense Department 's network of so-called Global P

ositioning Satellites ( GPS ) . The satellite system requires only minimal groun

d equipment , and airlines generally favor it because it would be much less expe

nsive for them than MLS , according to Roger Fleming , senior vice president of 

the Air Transport Association , which represents airlines . The satellite system

 is the same one the military used to guide the movement of tanks and troops dur

ing the Persian Gulf War . But it also is used widely for civilian purposes , su

ch as pleasure boating and private aviation . One thing that changed since the g

overnment embarked on the MLS program is that , with the waning of the Cold War 

, the Pentagon became willing to allow civilian use of the militarily sensitive 

satellite capability , said Clark Onstad , a Washington lawyer who specializes i

n aviation matters . The computer project is far larger , seeking to replace agi

ng machines in hundreds of facilities scattered across the country . Forecast to

 cost $ 4.3 billion when the job was let to International Business Machines Corp

. in 1988 , the estimate has grown year after year . The FAA 's current predicti

on is about $ 7 billion , a number that has shocked Congress and led to demands 

for swift action . Much of $ 2 billion spent to date on the job has focused on d

eveloping new software for computers in 22 regional control centers that guide p

lanes between airports . Plans to be announced call for that work to be slowed d

own somewhat while a 90-day audit of the work is conducted , a Transportation De

partment official said . Officials said the new safeguards would be put in place

 to monitor progress and create a greater sense of keeping to schedule and budge

t . Aerospace firm Loral Corp. earlier his year bought the IBM division handling

 the work . FAA officials cast it as a major change . `` The new concept will be

 more affordable and it should be more technologically feasible to achieve , '' 

said deputy administrator Linda Daschle .

 JERUSALEM Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked a Hezbollah traini

ng base in eastern Lebanon 's Bekaa Valley early Thursday , killing dozens of pe

ople in the deadliest Israeli assault on the Muslim guerrilla organization in ne

arly a year . Later , three volleys of about 25 Katyusha rockets were fired from

 Lebanon into western Galilee just inside Israel 's northern border . Most fell 

in empty farmland , and there were no reports of casualties , although glass was

 broken in some buildings . Residents were ordered into bomb shelters , and Isra

el 's army was put on alert . Israel described the raid as part of its continuin

g campaign against terrorists who threaten its security from bases inside Lebano

n . But the surprise attack which comes less than two weeks after Israeli comman

dos abducted a Muslim guerrilla leader inside southern Lebanon could have broad 

repercussions for Middle East peace , further complicating efforts by the United

 States to broker a settlement between Israel and Syria . The raid was immediate

ly denounced by Lebanon and Syria . Syrian Information Minister Mohammed Salman 

said in a statement that `` the timing of this aggression underscores Israel 's 

endeavors to undermine the peace process and hinder U.S. efforts to steer peace 

negotiations out of the logjam . '' The Israeli attack was aimed at a camp in Ei

n Dardara near the border with Syria . The Lebanese army said most of those kill

ed were 12- to 18-year-olds who died in their beds , according to news service r

eports . Israeli officials said the timing of the raid was determined by intelli

gence showing the camp had only recently been populated . `` They are not always

 there , '' said Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin , who is also defense mini

ster . There were conflicting accounts of the number of casualties . The Lebanes

e army said nearly 30 guerrilla trainees were killed and dozens wounded . Hezbol

lah said 31 were killed . Israel television said the death toll may be as high a

s 45 , but Israel 's military chief of staff estimated 30 dead . Security source

s quoted by the Reuter news agency said that four helicopter gunships struck bef

ore dawn , firing machine guns into the tents of the training camp , 44 miles ea

st of Beirut . Six Israeli warplanes then fired rockets into the camp . Lebanese

 and Syrian troops in the region responded with antiaircraft fire , but Israel s

aid all its forces returned safely . Rabin said the raid was part of Israel 's `

` continuing war '' against Hezbollah , an Iranian-backed political party of Isl

amic extremists with an active military wing . `` In every place where there is 

a possibility to strike at terror organizations , at Hezbollah , without it caus

ing injury to civilians , we have done it , we are doing it , and we will contin

ue to do so , '' he said . Hezbollah vowed `` swift and merciless '' revenge for

 the attack . It has also vowed to retaliate for the kidnapping of the guerrilla

 leader , Mustafa Dirani , whom Israel wanted to interrogate about a missing Isr

aeli military aviator . Lebanese President Elias Hrawi summoned Lebanon 's Supre

me Defense Council and said , according to Beirut Radio , `` This is a massacre 

, an inhuman massacre that stands as a disaster for what is left of the peace pr

ocess . '' The bombing occurred at a point when peace talks appear to be bogged 

down between Israel and Syria , the regional power broker with about 40,000 troo

ps in northern , eastern and central Lebanon . Earlier this week , Rabin said re

cent messages carried by the United States between Damascus and Jerusalem had pr

oduced no results . Peace talks in Washington between Israel and Syria have been

 suspended for several months , and the latest violence may further stall the ne

gotiations . In Washington , U.S. officials said the violence appeared to be par

t of a pattern of Israeli-Hezbollah tensions that go up and down according to th

e circumstances of the moment . `` We 've seen it before , and we frankly expect

 it to break out from time to time , '' one official said . Last July , Israel l

aunched a week-long offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon , forcing ha

lf a million residents to flee their homes and killing 149 people . Thursday 's 

attack was the most severe carried out by Israel since then . After last year 's

 operation , Israel and Hezbollah agreed on an unwritten cease-fire arrangement 

under which neither side would attack civilian targets . Rabin claimed Thursday 

's air blitz remained with those rules , because the training camp was a base fo