RIO DE JANEIRO Brazil AP The government tested the quality of teaching at Brazil's universities and most of them got a flunking grade. The Education Ministry on Tuesday released findings of tests on 126800 college students in 10 fields of study. In nine the average grade was below 40 on a scale of 100. Dental students did the best with an average of 59 the ministry said. Math majors finished last with 21 while chemical engineering students got an average grade of 23. ``The overall performance of the system is still unsatisfactory'' Education Minister Paulo Renato Souza said in Brasilia the capital. Teaching generally is poor he said and students ``read little and study little.'' Public universities did better than private ones the study showed. The country's best schools are in Sao Paulo Brazil's richest and most populous state. QC; BOGOTA Colombia AP U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen met with Central American counterparts on Tuesday and pledged continued disaster relief from the nearly 3000 U.S. military personnel in the region. To date the U.S. military has deployed 2645 of its personnel to the region flown 692 missions and delivered four million pounds of supplies as part of a dlrs 250 million U.S. aid effort to the countries devastated by Hurricane Mitch Cohen said. As many as 10000 people were killed by the storm which ripped through the region at the end of October causing massive flooding. Central American delegates thanked Cohen in town for a meeting of defense ministers for U.S. assistance and urged the United States to remain supportive as the region moves from the emergency relief phase to longer-term reconstruction. ``We've regressed more than 20 years in terms of infrastructure and the loss of human potential'' said El Salvador's defense minister Gen. Jaime Guzman. Nicaragua's defense minister Pedro Joaquin Chamorro said his country's most pressing need was public health specialists to prevent epidemics. QUITO Ecuador AP A new leftist rebel group is active in Ecuador and claimed responsibility for a dynamite attack on a provincial government office police said Tuesday. Police have arrested three alleged members of the People's Combatants Group. The group said it bombed the governor's office in the province of Manabi 150 miles 240 kilometers southwest of Quito on Nov. 16 Police Chief Jorge Villarroel said in a radio interview. The bomb caused damage but no injuries. Villarroel said the group was against the government and its economic measures and called for an ``armed struggle.'' President Jamil Mahuad took office in August and announced a series of economic reforms which included ending subsidies on electricity cooking gas and diesel oil to rescue Ecuador's bankrupt economy. Since the announcement three other minor bombings have occurred in addition to the Manabi attack including a dynamite stick thrown into the U.S. Embassy compound in Quito. MEXICO CITY AP Mexican authorities withdrew an order for five U.S. clergymen to leave the country after straying near rebel territory in southern Mexico saying they accepted the group's explanation that it was an honest mistake. The clergymen part of a 29-member delegation of the Chicago-based Pastors for Peace group were briefly detained Saturday when they traveled to the village of El Bosque during their rounds delivering food to hungry Indians. El Bosque wasn't on the itinerary they filed in their visa applications. Since May Mexico has required that foreign observers or humanitarian workers list all places they intend to visit in order to be granted a visa. Andres Chao spokesman for Mexico's immigration institute said Pastors for Peace President Lucius Walker traveled to Mexico City to meet with immigration officials and to explain the group's position. Walker said the group of five had diverted their route because a dirt road was impassable. ``He accepted the error of having taken a route that wasn't established'' Chao said. Two of the five clergymen left Mexico voluntarily on Monday and the other three had been ordered to leave by Friday. Chao said the government had decided not to force them out because they accepted their mistake. Chao said the pastors had been detained for their own safety because the area is near the zone of influence of Zapatista rebels who staged a brief uprising in January 1994. There has been little fighting while peace talks with the government have stalled. APW19981201.0829.txt.body.html APW19981201.1393.txt.body.html