News Briefs

Military releases data on chemical weapons

January 23, 1996
Web posted at: 2:55 p.m EST

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon is making information about U.S. chemical weapons stockpiles open to the public.

"The information has been classified until recently for national security reasons," said Army Maj. Gen. George Friel. But he said "the stockpile that we are currently preparing to destroy is no longer considered part of the national stockpile that we would use for war. Therefore, it is no longer of national security interest."

The United States plans to spend at least $12 billion to destroy more than 30,000 tons of "unitary" or "single agent" chemical weapons by 2005, Friel and Maj. Gen. Robert Orton said.

"It's an effort to rid "our country and the world of the threat of chemical weapons," Friel said.

So far, the Army has destroyed only about 3 percent of its stockpile, Orton said.

Army general to lead U.S. anti-drug efforts

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton Tuesday night named Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey as the new federal drug policy director, Pentagon and White House sources say.

McCaffrey, a four-star general, has a reputation as a "can-do" leader. As leader of the Southern Command, he has assisted law enforcement officials in the battle against drug rings in Central America and South America. During the Persian Gulf War, he commanded the troops that swept into Iraq west of Kuwait, outflanking entrenched Iraqi forces.

Default rate declines for national student loans

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More people are paying back their student loans, thereby lowering costs for the national program, Department of Education says.

The default rate for the National Student Loan Program dropped to 11.6 percent in fiscal 1993, the last year figures were available, education officials said Monday. That's the lowest rate since 1988, when officials began tracking the default rate.

The default rate has steadily declined since 1990, when it peaked at 22.4 percent. Increased collections, combined with the lower default rate, reduced the net cost of defaults from $1.7 billion in fiscal 1992 to $400 million in 1995.

"These numbers reflect real and substantial progress," Education Secretary Richard Riley said. "They are the product of several aggressive management decisions that were intended to get the default problem under control."

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AP contributed to this report.