Daily News from New York, New York • 38

'Pasfisa bar' exits 0 Hey, Buddy wanna ffoir ail smtbuay stops 4 uuy ct itzcti quaiiiy ueu real cheap? Have I got a When a panic bar is pushed and the door opens, an ear-popping alarm sounds but stops in seconds. The alarm sends an alert to the nearest full-time token booth clerk. In stations without the emergency exits, straphangers use the floor-to-ceiling turnstiles called HEETs, or ask token-booth clerks to unlock a gate. But in the stations without clerks, locked turnstiles can prove perilous in an emergency, or inconvenient for customers pushing strollers or carrying luggage. "They the emergency doors are a necessary means of getting out of the station in an emergency" said Neysa Pranger of the Straphangers Campaign.

The system's 468 stations are expected to be equipped with the emergency exit doors by the end of the year, Kelly said. tsclafaninydailynews.com BY TONY SCLAFANI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER THE MTA approved plans yesterday to install emergency exit gates in every subway station in the system allowing straphangers to escape chaos faster. Officials signed off on the $3.79 million cost for 1,450 stainless steel "panic bar" kits. About 200 were first installed as part of a pilot program after last year's transit bombings in London. The panic bars, similar to emergency-exit doors in movie theaters, are designed to speed up evacuations without the help of token booth clerks, whose ranks are being thinned.

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VA worker had official okay I WASHINGTON The Veterans Affairs worker faulted for losing veterans' personal information had permission to access millions of Social Security numbers on a laptop from home, agency documents obtained by The Associated Press show. The department's questions as to whether top officials condoned a practice that led to a theft with the potential to affect 26.5 million veterans and active-duty troops. Cuba sugar harvest not so sweet HAVANA Cuba's struggling sugar industry won't make its harvest goals this year, the government acknowledged this week, saying that inefficient mills and a late start proved to be obstacles difficult to overcome. Bolivia voting on constitution bid LA PAZ, Bolivia Bolivians go to the polls Sunday to elect a national assembly to rewrite the constitution, a project President Evo Morales says will give more power to the country's poor indigenous majority. Constitutional reform was a major election promise of leftist Morales, who took office in January as the South American country's first indigenous president and vowed to end 500 years of domination by a white elite.

Nem Senes Indians. 1st Coast Guard court-martial NEW LONDON, Conn. A military jury sentenced a U.S. Coast Guard cadet to prison and kicked him out of the service yesterday for extorting a classmate for sexual favors. Cadet Webster Smith, the first student court-martialed in the academy's 130-year history, received a six-month sentence in a military prison.

He was acquitted of rape this week but faced up to five years and seven months for extortion, sodomy, indecent assault and other charges. Gunless Filipino cops may be fired MANILA Six police officers may lose their jobs for pawning their guns in the southern Philippines, where underfunded and poorly paid security forces are fighting Muslim and Communist insurgencies. "How can police officers carry out their missions if they don't have guns?" said police chief German Doria. Barack touts 'power of faith' WASHINGTON Sen. Barack Obama chastised fellow Democrats yesterday for failing to "acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people," and said the party must compete for the support of churchgoing Americans.

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