Daily News from New York, New York • 23

DAILY NEWS rr 23 Sunday, July-2 V1 991 (i 7 i i if they could launch their missiles first and win a nuclear exchange. Just as important, the treaty allows unprecedented U.S. access to information about Soviet nuclear forces to make sure the Russians honor the treaty. The Russians will allow on-site inspection of their nucle By LARS-ERIK NELSON News Washington Bureau Chief Minutes after Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President Bush reached final agreement on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, Gorbachev told the world it could now breathe easier. The world yawned for two reasons: Gorbachev's political reforms inside the Soviet Union had already reduced the fears of nuclear war, and START turns out not to demand the kind of dramatic cuts in nuclear weapons that President Ronald Reagan promised when he began the negotiations nine years ago.

Ironically, while the negotiators have been talking over the past nine years, nuclear arsenals have grown so much that even with the cuts prescribed in the new treaty, the U.S. will still have 9,000 nuclear warheads and the Russians will have about 8,000 almost exactly the same size nuclear forces each side had when the talks started in 1982. This doesn't mean the treaty is a fraud. It makes deep cuts in' certain kinds of threatening weapons specifically Soviet heavy missiles. With a diminished heavy-missile force, the Soviets are far less likely to make a chess-game calculation that said this was a bad principle.

The two sides will have equal numbers of nuclear warheads carried by ballistic missiles 6,000. But because some bomber-carried warheads are not counted in the treaty, the U.S. winds up with a total warhead edge over the Russians 9,000 for us, vs. 7,000 to 8,000 for the Russians. Again, this is not an especially meaningful measure, but if there is going to be an imbalance, it might as well be in our favor.

The treaty does not stop the U.S. or the Soviet Union from modernizing their nuclear weapons. That means America can build more Trident submarines and B-2 bombers if the defense budget can afford it The treaty also does not specifically address the most critical problem confronting the United States whether a disintegrating Soviet Union can be counted upon to maintain strict centralized control over its nuclear weapons. Strengthening such control is a goal for future treaties. But for the moment.

Bush has no plans to negotiate a follow-up to START. It took nine years to develop this treaty, which Gorbachev says can let the world breathe easier. The odd thing is that, while the negotiators were talking, the Cold War ended and the world was breathing easier anyway. ar facilities and have agreed not to encrypt radio data from their missile tests. "The Russians" could still cheat," said Dunbar Lock-wood, a senior analyst at the Arms Control Association, a private think tank.

"But the Cold War is over. Gorbachev wants to join the Western world. If he gets caught cheating, he risks the ire of the West and the loss of all the economic benefits he has been hoping to get from us." START enshrines some long-held military goals of U.S. conservatives. It makes deep cuts in the Soviet nuclear "throw-weight" the pay-load that can be launched on attack.

Throw-weight is not an especially meaningful measure, but the Russians have traditionally had more of it than we have, and hawks I ml KCl 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 It i 3 faiwiflna I Rife! Parent company: TitanSports Inc. Net worth: $500 mil. (estimate) President: Vincent K. McMahon HEADQUARTERS: Titan Tower, a $9 mil. complex pta dgd jjp (Bonini5D By DON SINGLETON Daily News Staff Writer City officials scrambled yesterday to plan strategy for salvaging elections for an expanded City Council after the U.S.

Justice Department ruled that newly drawn districts violate the rights of Hispanic voters. At the same time, Hispanic leaders pressed for canceling the Sept 12 primary and the Nov. 5 election. Commissioner Herson Cabreras, who serves on the 15- member Districting Commission that drew up the plan, said city officials were pressuring Latino leaders to agree to "a quick fix." Under the federal Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department must approve any redistricting plan to expand the Council from 33 to 51 members. Assistant Attorney General John Dunne, head of the Civil Rights Division, on Friday objected to three of the districts: District 8 in East Harlem and the Bronx; in Stamford, Conn.

FOUNDED: 1963 by Vincent J. McMahon. MERCHANDISING: $200 million in annual sales of more than 400 licensed items. WRESTLERS: About 50 under contract. TELEVISION: Three shows broadcast weekly on more than 250 stations nationwide.

CABLE TV: Two shows broadcast weekly on USA Network. Several pay-per-view specials a year. LIVE SHOWS: About 800 yearly, drawing nearly 8 million fans. LARGEST CROWD: 93,173 at Wrestlemania III in Michigan's Pontiac Silverdome. ROBERT MOSAMMJO DAILY NEWS are on steroids.

But their opinions don't count it's" consumers and fans that McMahon is worried about "Everyone knows wrestling is fake. It's all entertainment," said David Brodsky, a 33-year-old music executive from the Bronx who attends five Madison Square Garden shows a year. "Maybe if everyone were smaller, there might be better, more realistic matches. The younger kids don't really care. They start screaming when the music starts." 3 I District 34 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; and District 37 in Bushwick-Cypress Hills, Brooklyn.

"The city wants the Latino community to agree to a solution that just moves the boundaries a little," Cabreras said. "But the major leaders are now calling for a total redo, back to square one, because you can't do one district without changing everyone else," Cabreras said. Under the existing timetable, candidates for the September primary are supposed' to file their petitions by tomorrow. "The commission will do everything it can to have an election," said spokeswoman Leah Johnson. Dunne said he thought the plan could be fixed in time to allow the elections to proceed on schedule.

Cabreras, who voted against the original plan, said "modest changes" will not satisfy the Latino community. "There's no way around the fact that there will have to be repositioning of the. district boundary lines," he said. senio Hall TV show Tuesday to disassociate himself from the steroid controversy. He said he has used steroids three times as part of a medical rehabilitation program.

That made me so damn angry," said Sammartino. "I thought he was going to come Hean, give an apology for tak- ne steroids when he was vounger and didn't know better." po Fans Care? Columnists Marvez and Meltzer say they believe the rnajority of WWF wrestlers Guns' ex-drummer sues band LOS ANGELES Steve Adler, ex-drummer for Guns N' Roses, says in a lawsuit that Axl Rose and other members of the group forced Adler to use heroin, then made him quit the band while he was trying to kick the habit The suit, filed Friday, asks a judge to annul an agreement Adler signed March 28 that resulted in his ouster. It also seeks unspecified damages and a breakup of the band so that its assets can be doled out to members. Band members persisted in pressuring Adler to use heroin, and the band's managers and counsel knew of the drug use, the suit said. Named as defendants are band leader Axl Rose and three other original members, several attorneys, and Guns managers Alan Nivens, Douglas Ostein and the Stravinski brothers.

None of the principals could be reached for comment AtaoeiaM.