INTERNATIONAL

NATO begins last stage of weapons collection in Macedonia

Associated Press

SKOPJE, Macedonia - Ethnic Albanian rebels adhering to a Western-backed peace plan surrendered a prized battle tank to NATO soldiers yesterday, and a senior insurgent commander said the armed struggle was over in Macedonia. "There will be no continuation of the fighting," Said Gezim Ostreni, military commander of the National Liberation Army - the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force that began its insurrection in February. "We remain resolved to continue disarmament."

Ostreni spoke by telephone to The Associated Press as NATO began the third stage of Essential Harvest to gather the last of about 3,300 weapons the rebels agreed to give up under a peace agreement signed last month.

At Radusa, a village in rebel-held territory near the border with Kosovo, Col. Philippe Bras, in charge of the final stage of the arms-culling effort, said he expected about 200 weapons to be handed in the next two days.

LOCAL

School districts sue for extra state funding for poor children

Associated Press

PHOENIX - Seven school districts sued the state on yesterday, contending that its school funding system violates the Arizona Constitution by not providing extra money to instruct poor children. Attorney Tim Hogan of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest filed the suit on behalf of the districts against the state, the state Board of Education and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jaime Molera. The lawsuit estimates there are about 200,000 so-called ''at-risk'' students in Arizona who receive free or subsidized lunch at school but contends the state does not provide specific funding for instructional programs to aid those children meet state academic standards. "By any measure, at-risk students generally and disproportionately fail to achieve the academic standards adopted by the state Board of Education,'' the lawsuit states. ''As a result, they fail to meet the competency requirements prescribed by the state Board of Education and is proportionately fail to meet the standards established by the AIMS test.''

The lawsuit asks that the court declare that the current funding system violates the Arizona Constitution's guarantee of a fundamental right to education and its requirement that the state provide a ''general and uniform'' public school system. It also asks that the state be ordered to provide necessary programs and funding. Hogan said he didn't know how much the lawsuit will seek from the state but that it could reach $100 million to $200 million. "These kids don't have much of a voice at the Legislature; they're not politically powerful,'' he said. ''It's about giving everyone an equal shot.'' Molera said the lawsuit could stigmatize children. "I have major problems with labeling a kid 'at risk' and using a family income as the barometer of how successful kids are going to be,'' Molera said. ''It's like saying that without more money these kids can't make it. And I just don't buy that.'' Molera said parental involvement, not more money, is the most important tool to improve test scores. State House Speaker Jim Weiers called the lawsuit ''one of the most lamebrained ideas I've ever heard of at the legislature.''

STATES

Utah polygamist Tom Green appeals bigamy conviction

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY - A self-proclaimed polygamist on yesterday appealed his conviction on charges of bigamy and failure to pay child support after the trial judge refused to grant him a new trial. Tom Green, 53, was sentenced Aug. 24 to spend up to five years in prison for bigamy. He lived in Utah's west desert with five wives and 30 children. Green had asked state District Judge Guy Burningham for a new trial but was turned down. He also asked the judge to release him from prison so he could prepare an appeal, but that request also was denied. Green filed the appeal with the Utah Court of Appeals. Green's case was the first to go to trial in the state in nearly 50 years. He had appeared on TV talk shows including Sally Jessy Raphael's to discuss his ''original Mormonism.'' The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brought plural marriage to Utah but abandoned it as a requirement for statehood. But it is still an open secret in Utah and elsewhere in the West, where there are about 30,000 people practicing it.