U.S. "pleasantly surprised" by Y2K bug_s scarcity.

The United States, which pushed the world to spend billions to meet the 2000 technology challenge, said Saturday it was pleasantly surprised by the scarcity of reported computer glitches but confident the threat had been real. "I think I would say I_m pleasantly surprised," President Bill Clinton_s Y2K trouble-shooter, John Koskinen, told reporters. He used the same two words to describe the reaction of Vice President Al Gore, whom he briefed on Friday. Despite an unprecedented government-industry fact-gathering operation, Koskinen said he was not aware of anything in the United States "broken" because of the so-called millennium bug as of 2 A.M. EST Saturday. Dire predictions for some developing countries were cast aside when nation after nation rolled into 2000 without long-feared, date-related disruptions in vitals sectors such as electricity, telecommunications and aviation.