CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ In his foreign policy debut as Syria's president, Bashar Assad met Sunday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in talks on Mideast peace and the escalating violence in the Palestinian territories.   Assad, on his first trip abroad since becoming president in July, also dealt with the issue of Iraq in the talks with Mubarak, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mussa said.   The Syrian leader's visit came on a fourth day of clashes that have raged in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, leaving more than two dozen Palestinians dead.   ``There is complete agreement (between Mubarak and Assad) as to the seriousness of the situation and that the negative repercussions would adversely effect the peace process, which is in itself in a very precarious state,'' Moussa said.   Assad, 35, has focused on domestic issues since his father, Hafez Assad, died in June after 30 years in power. He has taken steps to modernize his nation's bureaucracy and revive its stagnant economy.   ``This was the first meeting of the first visit of President Bashar Assad after the funeral of his father, so it was only normal for the discussions to have a general tone ... in addition to certain specifics of special importance to both countries and the Arab world,'' Moussa said.   The late Syrian president rarely traveled abroad. In his last few years, however, he had sent Bashar, educated as an eye doctor, on foreign trips as part of his grooming to become president.   Prospects appear dim for progress on either the Syrian or Palestinian peace track. The deadlock in Palestinian-Israeli talks is exacerbated by the worst violence in four years. Syria's government-run media said last week that no progress could be expected now because of the U.S. elections and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's precarious situation as leader of a minority government.   Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations broke down in January, with Syria demanding a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel in 1967. Israel insists on waiting to settle borders until it knows what it will gain by returning Golan land.   Assad has made it clear he intends to follow his father's course in any negotiations with Israel.   Mubarak and Assad met after a week when Russia, France, Jordan and Yemen sent planes to Baghdad, challenging U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Iraq is hoping other Arab countries will follow, despite U.S. complaints, easing its isolation.   Moussa said the presidents discussed the situation in Iraq and would return to it Monday. However, he would not comment on whether Syria and Egypt were planning to send planes to Baghdad.   Egypt and Syria are on good terms, but they have had their differences. Hafez Assad's attempts to rally Arab leaders to present a unified front against Israel gained little ground. He derided Egypt for signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.


MERGER &QL; By ALEX BERENSON &QC; &LR; &QL; &UR; c.2000 N.Y. Times News Service &QC; &LR; &QL; &UR; &LR; Back in January, when Internet stocks were hot, America Online agreed to buy Time Warner with AOL stock. The deal, if approved by regulators, would leave AOL shareholders with 55 percent of the merged company, even though Time Warner's revenue and cash flow are far greater.    Since then, AOL's stock has fallen by almost a third, destroying most of the premium the company had offered for control of Time Warner. So a Time Warner shareholder might conclude that America Online's chairman, Stephen Case, had bamboozled his Time Warner counterpart, Gerald Levin, into taking AOL's shares at the worst possible time.   ``Short term, anyone objective would say probably Steve got the better part of the deal,'' said Larry Haverty, a senior vice president at State Street Research in Boston and a longtime media investor.   But Haverty, like many other Time Warner shareholders and industry analysts, hardly cares. With the merger likely to be completed later this month, he predicts that the merged company will grow quickly by combining AOL's marketing skills and captive base of online users with Time Warner's huge library of films, magazines and the like and its relationships with major advertisers.   ``The deal strategically and financially makes all the sense in the world,'' Haverty said. ``Five years out, if you're a shareholder in this company, you're going to be a happy camper.''   That view is widely shared. ``Strategically, it makes a lot of sense,'' said Tom Wolzien of Sanford C. Bernstein. ``These companies fill the holes of the other one. They're subscription-advertising combo models. The reality is the pieces are very compatible.''   To be sure, the recent history of big media mergers is hardly comforting for shareholders in either AOL or Time Warner. Disney stumbled badly after it bought Capital Cities/ABC in 1996, and Time Warner stagnated for five years after it was created in 1990 by the merger of Time and Warner. ``Huge deals are really hard to do and create a lot of uncertainty,'' said Roger McNamee of Integral Capital, which sold its 404,000 AOL shares the day the merger was announced.   But if the merged company can overcome that hurdle, it will have big advantages over Disney and other traditional media companies, which are still struggling to figure out how they can profit from the Internet, said Jessica Reif of Merrill Lynch.   ``Given the multiple distribution platforms that they have, it's obviously a very powerful consumer engine,'' Reif said. ``There's a reason that you see Disney and to a lesser extent NBC screaming in Washington.''   John Schreiber, an assistant portfolio manager at Janus Capital, the mutual fund company that is Time Warner's largest shareholder, with more than 120 million shares, said the companies had already begun to demonstrate how they would work together. For example, AOL has pitched Time Warner's magazines to its users, resulting in hundreds of thousands of new subscriptions. And the companies are trying to sell big advertisers on deals that will reach both America Online users and the people who watch Time Warner cable channels and read its magazines, Schreiber said.   ``Once the merger closes, I think you'll see some very powerful cross-promotional deals across all of Time Warner's advertisers,'' he said.   Schreiber also says the risk of cultural clashes between the companies is limited, because the companies disclosed publicly where top executives would stand in the combined company only a few weeks after the merger was announced. So people who feel their responsibilities have been diminished have had months to look for new jobs, and some have already left, he said.   Given the strength he sees in the combined company, Schreiber said the question of whether Levin could have negotiated a better deal with America Online is moot. Shares in cable companies like Comcast have fallen 15 percent or more this year, while big media companies have been flat or up slightly. So ``it's not as if Time Warner shareholders have lost out on a great deal of upside,'' Schreiber said.


ST. LOUIS (AP) _ As Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore prepared to perch on stools and take voters' questions in a crucial third debate, the sudden death of Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan cast a pall over their final meeting.   After talk of cancellation or a postponement for mourning, plans were made early Tuesday to continue the 9 p.m. EDT event on schedule, officials of both campaigns said.   ``In the end, there was general agreement that Mel Carnahan would have wanted us to go forward,'' a senior Bush campaign official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.   Bush's wife, Laura, canceled plans for a morning rally. Bush campaign officials also decided to tone down a post-debate rally, and were even considering canceling it. Gore hadn't planned any events before the debate.   Carnahan, a Democrat who was running for the Senate, campaigned with Gore whenever the vice president was in Missouri and would have accompanied Gore aboard Air Force II to a Kansas City rally on Wednesday. Gore called Mrs. Carnahan with his condolences after the news broke Monday night, aides said.   ``We're all waking up, honestly, to the tragedy and the pain of it and the shock of it,'' Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman said Tuesday morning on CNN.   The Bush and Gore campaigns did not talk to each other directly about the possibility of postponement, but went through the debate commission's director, Janet Brown, in a series of pre-dawn phone calls.   Eventually, Brown recommended that the debate should go on, and neither side objected, according to campaign officials.   The commission was to announce the plans later Tuesday, with each candidate given time at the debate's start to say a few words about Carnahan, who died Monday night in the crash of a small plane.   With the larger bloc of uncommitted voters across the nation apparently holding the key to the election, both candidates were clearly mindful of the high stakes if the encounter goes forward as planned.   The informal question-and-answer format is one Gore is comfortable with, and he promised on Monday to ``just have an open meeting,'' as he had done many times before.   Bush, who has less formal debate experience than the vice president but whose standing in public opinion polls rose after the first two face-offs, vowed to ``just tell it like it is.''   The debate, just three weeks before the Nov. 7 election, will be held on the campus of Washington University.   While the moderator will be the same as in the Boston and Winston-Salem, N.C., debates _ Jim Lehrer of PBS _ questions this time will come from the audience.   The Gallup polling organization, assigned by the Commission on Presidential Debates to recruit questioners, started with a random sample of all registered voters in St. Louis and its suburbs, and then screened out all but ``uncommitted voters,'' said Frank Newport, Gallup's executive editor.   The result was a group of area voters who say they could support either Gore or Bush _ though they might be leaning one way or the other.   The theater-in-the-round stage will be informally set with two stools and surrounded by 100 questioners and an additional 500 onlookers.   Tuesday night's debate marks the beginning of the final stretch.   And, with polls continuing to show the race to be neck-and-neck, any stumble could have major impact on a contest in which both candidates are fiercely wooing a dwindling band of undecided voters.   Gore held a mock debate on Monday, inviting 23 voters to the Innsbrook resort outside St. Louis to help him practice.   ``I'm going to do what I've done a lot of times in Tennessee, and that is, just have an open meeting,'' Gore said.   In 16 years in Congress, Gore held some 1,000 town meetings with Tennessee constituents, and they've become a regular feature of his presidential campaign.   After an uncharacteristically muted demeanor in last week's debate, Gore, was looking to do better this time.   ``I don't think you play it safe,'' said Gore's campaign chairman, William Daley, previewing the Tuesday night encounter. ``I think you try to be very natural and lay out in a forward way the compelling reasons for the election to go your way.''   Bush had long resisted the town-hall-style session, but in recent weeks on the campaign trail has been doing them almost daily.   ``I've felt comfortable about it,'' the Republican said Monday.


Jerusalem 7-15 (AFP) -  A high level Israeli army official has said today Saturday that Israel believes Iran is set to begin acquiring nuclear capability for military purposes from 2005 and will be in a position to equip missiles with nuclear warheads, capable of reaching Israel, within ten years.   The official, who wished to remain anonymous, told journalists: "Iran will start accumulating nuclear capability for military purposes from 2005 and will be in a position, within the space of 10 years, to produce nuclear warheads that can be fitted to missiles capable of striking Israel."   The official made these statements after Tehran announced today Saturday that it had "successfully" completed a new test on the Shahab 3 ground-ground missile with a range of 1300 kilometers.   The official further said: "Iran is not capable of developing a nuclear program without Moscow's help."   He said that according to information obtained by Israel, tests on the Shahab 3 ground-ground missile were in fact "successful and reached their maximum range of 1300 kilometers which allows them to reach strategic centers in Israel."   The official said that the design of the Shahab missile is based on a North Korean missile called Nodong, itself developed from the Soviet Scud missile.   The official also stressed that Iran regards the "destruction of Israel as legitimate," saying that "Tehran is embroiled in strategic terrorist activities targeting Israel, especially alongside Palestinian and Lebanese organizations."   The official further considered that "the Shahab missile will not come into operation for two years and that an improved range of 2000 kilometers would only be achieved after this period."   Israel's Deputy Defense Minister, Ephraim Sneh, said today Saturday that Israel would "know how to find a suitable response" to the Iranian Shahab 3 ground-ground missile with a 1300 kilometer range.   Sneh said on army radio that "Israel will prepare itself to find a suitable response to this threat," without giving any further details.   The Iranian army announced today Saturday that it had "successfully" completed a new test on Shahab 3 ground-ground missiles.   An official at the Iranian Ministry of Defense told Tehran Radio that the "Shahab 3 defense missile was tested a second time to ensure it conforms to international standards."   In July 1998, the first test on this missile was announced. It is capable of reaching the majority of countries in the region, including Israel.


Bandar Seri Begawan 11-15 (AFP) -  The United States today Wednesday deemed the order issued by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for a ceasefire in territories under Palestinian Authority control as a positive gesture but considered that it does not release constitute a release form the terms of the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement.   James Stewart, the White House's spokesman in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the Sultanate of Brunei which American President Bill Clinton is visiting, said "of course we positively welcome the announcement aimed at stopping the violence. But the important point is that Palestinian and Israeli officials take the right steps to provide a safer climate in the whole region."   Clinton is to take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) in Brunei.   The American spokesman said President Bill Clinton spoke to Arafat on the telephone after arriving in Brunei yesterday evening Tuesday.  He said "their conversation focused on ways to stop the violence because we believe that it is extremely important for the sides to take immediate measures to end the tension and reduce the violence."   A high-level Palestinian source said today that the Palestinian Superior Security Council led by President Yasser Arafat issued orders to stop shooting inside area "A" under Palestinian control.   The source who wished to remain anonymous said that "the Palestinian Superior Security Council led by President Yasser Arafat issued orders to stop unknown armed persons from shooting inside zone "A" under complete Palestinian control and from between buildings and civilians in the Palestinian Territories."   Zone "A" covers areas controlled completely by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.


Reformist allies of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica have scored a decisive victory in today's Serbian parliamentary elections. The Democratic opposition of Serbia, which supports the President, estimates it has won 65% of the vote. The coalition took power after a popular uprising ousted long time Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in October. Mr. Milosevic's Socialist Party and its allies won about 1/5th of the vote.


The eighth Andes parliament meeting was convened in Lima on the 13th.  Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru presided over the opening ceremony.   President Fujimori appealed at the opening ceremony for the countries of the Andes to strive together to achieve local integration, in order to shake off the state of being undeveloped.   He also appealed for all countries to unite as one to deal with foreign debt, drug trafficking and violent activities. This session of the Andes parliament meeting will last until the 16th.


Bandar Seri Begawan 11-15 (AFP) -  American President Bill Clinton attempted today Wednesday to reassure money markets about doubts caused by the battle between the Republicans and Democrats on the result of the presidential elections in the United States, which is still unknown and dependent on the results of the recount in the State of Florida.   Clinton told a group of businessmen on the periphery of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Brunei that "one of the issues both Vice-President Al Gore and Governor George Bush agree on in these elections is the need to maintain a strong and pioneering role by the United States in order to achieve flourishing trade and greater integration for the world's economy [...] and the world should not be concerned because the two candidates are strongly committed to following this path."   The American stock market saw an upheaval as a result of the delay in announcing the final results of the presidential elections in the United States but it improved on Tuesday.   Initial results in Florida on Tuesday evening showed Republican candidate George Bush to be 300 votes ahead of Democrat candidate Al Gore but some voting stations were still recounting votes today Wednesday.   In Brunei, President Clinton refused to make any predications about who might win the presidency in this exceptional election battle between the Democratic and Republican candidates.   He said "we must be careful when we talk about predictions; the only thing I can predict with confidence is that I will not be taking part in the next Apec summit next year and at present, I can't say who will be representing the United States."


Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, April 3rd, by reporter Jierong Zhou  Recently, HSBC has moved its Shanghai branch to the China Shipping Mansion in the Pudong Lujiazui financial trading district, becoming the third foreign capital bank to be approved to operate RMB business and shift to Pudong.   At the moment, Shanghai already has 8 foreign capital banks approved to operate RMB business. They are the US's Citibank, Hong Kong's HSBC, Japan's Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank, Japan's Industrial Bank, the Shanghai Branch of the Standard and Chartered Bank, Shanghai's BNP Paris Bank, the Shanghai Branch of Japan's Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Shanghai Branch of Japan's Sanwa Bank.  According to regulations, these 8 banks will all move to Pudong soon.   After the policy was formally announced for the Pudong Lujiazui Financial Trade District to allow foreign capital banks to operate RMB business, more than 40 foreign capital banks and financial institutions have submitted applications to establish branches in Pudong.   When selecting locations in Lujiazui, some foreign financial institutions do not mind the real estate prices, but focus more on whether the class of the building is compatible with the standing of the company.  The Franklin Templeton Company, whose headquarters are in California, the US, and has registered capital of 130 billion US dollars all around the world, decided to establish its local China headquarters in Pudong.  The president of the company and the Asian regional president personally surveyed Pudong and decided to choose office locations in the Shanghai Securities Building, which has a floor rate of more than 2700 US dollars per square meter.  Now, the Templeton Company has formally signed a contract, and bought the floor area of the entire 18th floor of the Securities Building.   Currently, foreign-capital banks and financial institutions such as Hong Kong's HSBC, the Shanghai Branch of the Japan Industrial Bank, the Holland Co-operation Bank, Shanghai Branch of the Belgium Credit Bank, etc., have successively settled down in the Lujiazui Financial Trading District.  Soon, a large number of domestic and foreign financial institutions, and large companies will also come to successively settle down, including the finance street which has already formed in the Waitan district, and the Shanghai central commercial district framework that is forming.  (End)


Documented. From NPR news in Washington, I'm Corey Flintoff. A Florida State judge has ordered local election officials to ship thousands of ballots to the state capital. The move comes as the judge decides whether to order a recount of those ballots in the presidential election. NPR's Steve Inski was in the courtroom. Steve, what are the issues that came up in this hearing tonight?   Corey judge N. Sander Sauls is deciding whether to order a recount as you said of those ballots, 9000 or more actually from Miami Dade County that apparently were never counted at all, at least according to the Democrats in the presidential election and about 3300 ballots from Palm Beach County that were considered by local officials but then thrown out, disallowed. Judge Sauls is deciding whether to count those ballots and go through them and perhaps add some votes to Al Gore's final total, which is exactly what the Democrats want. He is not ready to do that yet. He did not agree to the Democratic proposal to begin counting tomorrow morning but he has ordered that the ballots be shipped up. Later this week, Miami Police apparently are going to escort them upto Tallahassee and they will be ready to be counted if the judge decides at a later time to do so.   Now time is a big consideration from here. What's the judge's timetable?   Not as fast as the Democrats would like, not as slowly as Republicans would prefer. He is going to order a major hearing on Saturday to review all the legal and evidentiary issues, look at evidence, perhaps hear from witnesses and after that the judge will decide if there are any ballots to count. It might take another five days or so to do it. Neither side seemed particularly pleased by the timetable but the judge said, well, I am going to make everybody equally unhappy.   Thank you. NPR's Steven Inksi reporting from Tallahassee, Florida. As the battle over votes goes on in Florida, Washington State is in the middle of recounting the votes cast in its very tight US Senate race. Jennifer Nesan reports from member station KPLU in Seattle.   The recount of the votes cast for Democrat Maria Catwell and Republican Senator Slate Gordon is calm and organized. The State's Elections Director Garry Macintosh says the process is about as exciting as watching paint dry.   There are a lot of things about the election's process I think that are fairly complex. This isn't probably one of them.   Catwell leads Republican incumbent Slate Gordon by fewer then 2000 votes. At this point neither of the candidates plan to contest any of the votes. State law requires a recount when the margin of victory is less than one half of 1 percent. The recount is expected to be completed by the end of the week. No statewide recount in Washington has ever changed the initial outcome. For NPR news, I'm Jennifer Nesan in Seattle.


The Palestinian faction headed by Yasser Arafat said today that, it will avenge the deaths of four of its members who were killed today by Israeli soldiers. Later in the day, a car bombing in the Northern Israeli town of Hadera, killed two people and injured at least 50. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said he would retaliate. Corey Flintoff, NPR news, Washington.


Beirut 10-15 (AFP) -  The Saudi Soccer Federation sacked the team's Czech coach Milan Machala from his post today Sunday and appointed his assistant, Nasser Jawhar, in his place.   The title-holding Saudi team suffered a bitter defeat (1-4) against its Japanese counterpart in its first match in the championship yesterday Saturday.   The Youth and Sports Bureau in Saudi Arabia released a statement saying: "Prince Sultan Ben Fahd, president of the Youth and Sports Bureau and president of the Saudi Soccer Federation, has issued a decision by order of which Czech coach Machala has been discharged and Nasser Jawhar has been placed in charge of training the team during the championship."   He carried on: "This decision is the result of the Saudi Federation ensuring the best technical conditions for the team in order to reflect the true level of Saudi soccer."   In a telephone call with Agence France Presse at his hotel, Machala refused to give his opinion regarding the decision and said "no comment."   Machala is the first victim of the 12th Asian Nations Cup finals hosted by Lebanon until this October 29 as the Japanese blow was fatal, especially since the Saudi team holds the title from the previous series in the Emirates in 1996.   Machala took over training the Saudi team in February 1999 and led it in the Continents Championship hosted by Mexico in July of that year.   Machala is considered one of the best-known coaches in the Gulf region and has achieved remarkable results with the Kuwaiti team, which he led to win the Gulf Cup on two occasions and to take fourth place in the last Asian Nations Championship in the Emirates, as well as second place in the Asian Games in Bangkok in late 1998.


JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ The youngest son of ex-dictator Suharto disobeyed a summons to surrender himself to prosecutors Monday and be imprisoned for corruption.   Hutomo ``Tommy'' Mandala Putra, 37, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Sept. 22 by the Supreme Court, which overturned an earlier acquittal by a lower court.   It found him guilty of enriching himself through a property deal with the state's main food supply agency. Prosecutors said the 1997 deal, made when his father was still in power, had cost the Indonesian state $10.8 million.   Tommy, a multimillionaire with a playboy image and love of fast cars, is the first member of Suharto's family to be convicted of graft.   Because the Supreme Court's decision to imprison Tommy did not come into immediate effect, prosecutors served a summons on Tommy to be taken into custody Monday. He instead sent a legal team to discuss whether he would appeal the ruling or admit his guilt and seek a presidential pardon.   The delay of Tommy's arrest comes just days after another court dismissed other corruption charges against his 79-year-old father on grounds of ill health, enraging pro-democracy activists and triggering violent demonstrations.   Critics of Indonesia's legal system have accused it of going soft on the Suharto clan.   A co-defendant in Tommy's case, businessman Riccardo Gelael, separately admitted his guilt Monday to prosecutors and said he would appeal to President Abdurrahman Wahid for a pardon.   Antasari Ashar, chief of South Jakarta Prosecution Office, said Tommy would again be summoned to meet prosecutors on Wednesday.   If Tommy opts for a judicial review of the case, his fate will be decided by the same court that last week dismissed graft charges against his father.   The decision to let Suharto off triggered fierce street demonstrations, in which one man died and dozens were injured.   For weeks Suharto's trial had been marred by a series of bombings in Jakarta, including a blast at the city's stock exchange building in which 15 people were killed.   Many suspect supporters of Suharto, who ruled for 32 years until his ouster in 1998, were behind the attacks.


TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) _ Tornadoes destroyed homes and overturned cars in several areas of Alabama on Saturday and more than two dozen people were reported injured.   At least one person was killed in Tuscaloosa, said Debbie Watson, spokeswoman for the Tuscaloosa County Emergency Management Agency.   Twisters struck just before noon in the state's rural southeastern corner, then hit Tuscaloosa and the northern part of the state as lines of thunderstorms swept across the South.   The Tuscaloosa twister struck a subdivision, Watson said. The National Weather Service said there was extensive damage. Twenty-one people were injured, according to broadcast reports.   Another tornado hit Geneva, near the Alabama-Florida line, said Mayor Warren Beck. He said vehicles were overturned and homes were destroyed.   Geneva County Emergency Management Agency director Margaret Mixon said eight people were injured, two of them severely.   That tornado also damaged about a half-dozen homes in Dale County, destroying a peanut mill at Abbeville and damaging a textile mill, authorities said.   Dale County Commissioner Buddy Stapleton said he counted about a half-dozen homes hit near Newton.   In northern Alabama, about eight homes were reported destroyed and trees and power lines were toppled in Limestone County.


Gaza 11-15 (AFP) -  A high-level Palestinian source said today Wednesday that the Palestinian Superior Security Council led by President Yasser Arafat issued orders to stop shooting inside area "A" under Palestinian control.   The source said that "the Palestinian Superior Security Council led by President Yasser Arafat issued orders to stop unknown armed persons from shooting inside zone "A" under complete Palestinian control and between buildings and civilians in the Palestinian Territories."   The Palestinian decision comes a few hours before discussions between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his top security advisors to explore the measures to be taken against Palestinians after four Israeli soldiers were shot in Palestinian areas last Monday.


WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. (AP) _ Republican Rep. J.C. Watts joked Saturday night that he had revised returns on the presidential election: ``Al Gore, 9,834 lawsuits. George W. Bush, 7,652.''   Watts, chairman of the House Republican Conference, bantered about the Florida election dispute in a speech prepared for a dinner of The Gridiron Club at the Greenbrier Hotel.   ``I knew things had really deteriorated when Yasser Arafat offered to broker a peace between Bush and Gore,'' Watts said.   The Gridiron Club is an organization of 60 Washington journalists. Its dinners feature parodies of politics and government, and humorous speeches by political figures.   Watts noted that the presidential election of 1876 was so disputed that a congressional commission was created to settle it. ``I didn't know this until Strom Thurmond told me he cast the deciding vote.   ``Strom will be 98 next Tuesday,'' Watts said. ``Of course, he was only 67 when the recount of Florida ballots began.''   Watts said he had fond memories of Florida because he was the quarterback when the University of Oklahoma won the Orange Bowl there in 1980 and 1981. ``But our victory in '81 was by a single point and it was weeks before it was confirmed,'' he said. ``By the way, I recently learned Al Gore was pulling for Florida State and demanded a recount.''   As is traditional in Gridiron speeches, Watts concluded on a serious note. ``Once-in-a-century oddities may leave an election result up in the air for a time, but the fundamental strength of our democracy is never in doubt,'' he said.   ``Better a process driven by an army of lawyers than an outrage led by an army with guns,'' he said.


Albus (Lebanon) 11-15 (AFP) -  Thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon commemorated in their camps today Wednesday the twelfth anniversary of the symbolic announcement of independence by the Palestinian National Council in Algeria in 1988.   Around five thousand Palestinians form the Albus Camp near Souer (83 km south of Beirut) gathered and followed a march by children dressed in military clothing who held stones and raised pictures of Mohamed al-Dura, the 12-year-old Palestinian child killed by Israeli army bullets in the Palestinian Territories in early October.   A France Presse correspondent reported that around 200 Palestinians marched along the streets of Ayn Alhilwa refugee camp near Saida, one of southern Lebanon's main cities, toward the headquarters of the Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat carrying the Palestinian flag.   A group of young people burned the Israeli and American flags outside the headquarters.   Khalid Arif, am official with the Fatah movement in Saida, said the Intifada against Israel which started late last September and has resulted in over two hundred deaths would "continue until the Israeli occupiers and settlers were chased out of the Palestinian Territories."   He added, "The Intifada will continue until a Palestinian state with holy Jerusalem as its capital is created and the refugees return to their homes."   In the nearby Ayn Alhilwa refugee camp, students between ages fifteen and sixteen marched through the camp's alleyways, chanting "Jerusalem is ours" then the burned Israeli and American flags.   Fatah movement called on Palestinians to declare today Wednesday as a day "to embody national independence" and to stop "Israeli occupying forces and settler bandits from entering occupied Palestinian territory," as a commemoration of the twelfth anniversary of the symbolic announcement of Palestinian independence.   Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had symbolically announced a Palestinian state on November 15, 1988 in Algeria when the first Palestinian Intifada was at its height and which continued for seven years until the Oslo peace accords were signed in 1993.