Scott Dalton/AP A young girl cries as firefighters carry her from a boat full of people evacuated yesterday in Puerto Santo Tomas on the Atlantic Coast of Guatemala. Hundreds who live along the coast are being taken to shelters to protect them from approaching Hurricane Mitch. The winds dropped from 180 mph to about 155 mph, reducing Mitch to a Category 4 hurricane, one category below the most powerful.

DAHANIYA, Gaza Strip - Gaza International Airport has new terminals, a control tower ready to be filled with state-of-the-art equipment and a VIP lounge. It has everything except planes and passengers. That's about to change.

The airport, a symbol of Palestinian statehood hopes, is to be inaugurated in a matter of days. Its long-delayed opening was cleared under the land-for-peace accord signed Friday in Washington.

But it remains to be seen whether the airport, with security responsibilities shared by Israel and the Palestinians, will turn out to be a showcase of cooperation or a new source of tension.

Palestinians want to stage a festive inauguration of the 1,125-acre, $64 million airport sometime in early November. But the specific date, like many other operational decisions, still needs Israeli approval.

Once the airport is running, Palestinians will carry out passenger check-in, but a second and likely more stringent document and luggage inspection will be done in a joint Israeli-Palestinian wing.

Hurricane Mitch roars off Honduran coast

LA CEIBA, Honduras - Hurricane Mitch cut through the western Caribbean yesterday, pummeling coastal Honduras and Belize with driving rain and winds that snapped trees and sent thousands of people fleeing for higher ground. Ten storm-related deaths were reported.

Honduran President Carlos Flores Facusse declared the highest state of alert and sent troops to evacuate thousands of people from villages on the coast. Thousands more made their way to safer ground by themselves.

Nicaragua's Red Cross said at least eight people had died in flooding caused by outer bands of the 350-mile-wind storm.

As of 4 p.m., Mitch was about 60 miles north of Honduras and moving roughly parallel to the coast at 6 mph. Its winds dropped from 180 mph to near 155 mph, reducing Mitch to a Category 4 hurricane, one category below the most powerful.

Forecasters said the most likely track would carry the storm into central Belize by early Thursday.

GOP out-raises Democrats in 1998 campaign funds

WASHINGTON - The Republicans have out-raised Democrats in campaign funds by roughly $92 million, but both parties are bringing in more money than they did for the last midterm election.

The record-setting figures, released yesterday by the Federal Election Commission, were unexpected in light of an independent review of campaign finances that suggested relatively few races are competitive this election season.

''The fact that you don't really need it doesn't seem to reduce the fervor with which they're trying to raise the money,'' said Larry Makinson, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics.

According to the FEC study, the most dramatic increase in campaign money has come in unregulated ''soft money'' donations.

As of Oct. 14, Republican committees had raised nearly $94 million in soft dollars, a 144 percent increase over the 1994 elections. The Democrats had raised nearly $79 million, or 84 percent more than in 1994.

Overall, the Democrats' reported $186 million trailed the Republicans' $278 million, but not for want of trying. In addition to the rise in soft money, Democrats raised 40 percent more ''hard dollars," which can be spent directly on candidates, than they did in 1994.

The Center for Responsive Politics report showed that in 60 percent of House races, one candidate held a 10-to-1 fund-raising advantage. It labeled just 15 House races and nine Senate races ''financially competitive.''

Navistar workers agree to contract, end 3-week strike

SPRINGFIELD - Workers at Navistar International, a truck-customizing plant, approved a new contract yesterday, ending a three-week strike that shut down the facility.

The workers voted 72-49 for the five-year contract, which includes wage and pension increases. They were scheduled to return to work last night, said Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley and Charlie Bush, president of United Auto Workers Local 402.

The economic provisions of the new contract were the same as the old, with annual wage increases of 3 percent each of the first two years, 2 percent the third year and 3 percent each of the final two years. The new contract also increased the number of workers permitted to take a day off at the same time from five to eight.

Of 5,000 workers at the plant, 150 went on strike Oct. 5 after rejecting a tentative contract agreement reached between the company and union leaders.

Bush said after the strike began, the union brought in financial experts to go over Navistar's books and concluded the company was offering as much as it could in wage and pension increases.

''I think a lot of them really didn't like it but came to the realization there was nothing else there to get,'' Bush said.

Akron schools questioned for discipline equity

AKRON - The U.S. Department of Education has begun a review of school discipline in Akron to make sure African Americans aren't victims of bias, the district said yesterday.

There were 20,000 suspensions during the 1997-98 school year involving 7,900 youngsters, 63 percent of whom are black.

At each of Akron's eight high schools, where most suspensions were handed out, the percentage of blacks suspended was higher than the black enrollment percentage.

Karen Ingraham, a spokeswoman for the 32,000-student district, said any student can appeal a suspension, which is based on a violation of a behavior code manual provided to each student's family.

The government began investigating after finding that a disproportionate number of black students were disciplined, education department spokesman Rodger Murphey said.

More counties to get their own 911 service

COLUMBUS - The number of Ohio counties without 911 emergency telephone service is about to shrink.

Within 100 days, Wyandot County in northwestern Ohio expects to have 911 service up and running, Sheriff Mike Hetzel said yesterday.

''It's been a long, long haul,'' Hetzel said. ''It's been the culmination of a lot of effort that has come to a climax for that.''

Wyandot County government has agreed to team up with the cities of Upper Sandusky and Carey to provide the service without asking voters to approve a levy, Hetzel said.

''Each of the three governments will pay out of their general fund with no additional taxes,'' he said.

Hocking County hopes to get 911 service soon. Last year, Hocking County voters approved a tax to pay for it, but the county still has to buy a building to house operators, Chief Deputy Sheriff Tom Wheeler said.

Last week, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio said 12 counties without county-wide 911 systems remain. Lawrence County in southern Ohio was on PUCO's map of counties without 911, but the county does have the service, the sheriff's office said.

Lawrence County has had problems with its 911 system. Technical glitches have caused some calls to end up in other counties, Chief Deputy Sheriff Jim Cochran said. Telephone upgrades in recent months have made the system more efficient, he said.

Taft said he opposes ban of dove hunting

LIMA, Ohio - Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Taft said he will vote against a ballot issue that would ban the hunting of doves in Ohio. Democrat candidate Lee Fisher supports the ban.

Taft said yesterday that state wildlife officials are in a good position to determine whether doves should be hunted. Fisher announced his support for Issue 1, the only statewide issue on the Nov. 3 ballot, in September.

''I'm going to listen to the experts in the Department of Natural Resources in the wildlife division, and they think a limited hunting period for mourning doves is appropriate from the standpoint of the conservation of wildlife,'' Taft said. ''I'm going to be voting no on the issue.''

Taft had withheld taking a position until a dispute over the ballot language was resolved. As secretary of state, he is Ohio's chief election officer. The pro-hunting group Ohioans for the Conservation of Wildlife had said the ballot language was too vague. But the group decided Sept. 18 not to appeal a court ruling that created the final ballot language, spokesman Rob Sexton said.

Issue 1 would remove doves from the list of game birds that may be hunted in Ohio. The Legislature authorized the hunting of doves in 1994.

Proponents of Issue 1 say doves are harmless birds that hunters use for target practice. Opponents say the doves are a popular and abundant game bird.