The Week May 8-15

By Leslie Dickstein, Christopher John Farley, Lina Lofaro, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders, Anastasia Toufexis and Sidney Urquhart

NATION

It's Breyer for the Court

Ending weeks of intense speculation, President Clinton on Friday nominated Boston Federal Appeals Judge Stephen Breyer to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. Breyer, a former chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee, drew immediate praise from key Republicans and Democrats in the Senate for his brilliance, moderation and consensus-building skills. He was passed over last time in favor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Getting a Grip on Haiti?

Amid increasing tension and rumors of a possible armed intervention, the U.S. took steps to focus its policy toward Haiti. President Clinton appointed a new special envoy to the country: William Gray, a former Congressman from Pennsylvania. The White House also announced that Haitian boat people would now be permitted hearings at sea to determine whether they should be allowed political asylum. Meanwhile the Haitian military government named Supreme Court Justice Emile Jonassaint, 80, as President, a move the U.S. denounced as "cynical, unconstitutional and illegal."

Senate: The Party's Over

Seeking to dispel voters' perceptions that politicians are the slaves of special-interest groups, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly (95 to 4) -- and in many cases grudgingly -- to ban gifts, meals and recreational travel offered by lobbyists. The House passed a similar but slightly less restrictive measure in March.

Execution by the Numbers?

In an effort to influence the final shape of the crime bill, the Senate voted to oppose the Racial Justice Act, a House proposal that would permit death-row defendants to fight their sentences by invoking statistics showing racial disparities in sentencing. Proponents of the Senate's nonbinding resolution described the House measure as a "quota bill" that would be used by opponents of the death penalty.

Big Wins for Abortion Clinics

The Senate approved, 69 to 30, a bill that makes it a federal crime to attack or blockade abortion clinics. The vote came in the wake of a Houston jury award of more than $1 million in punitive damages to a Planned Parenthood clinic that claimed its business had been disrupted by Operation Rescue and Rescue America. The organizations are appealing the decision.

Dr. Death Recharged

In two seemingly contradictory rulings, Michigan's Court of Appeals reinstated murder charges against Dr. Jack Kevorkian for assisting in the suicides of two women in 1991, but declared the state's ban on assisted suicide unconstitutional on technical grounds.

One in a Series

Joel Rifkin, a landscape gardener from Long Island, New York, who has admitted killing 17 women, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Tiffany Bresciani -- the first of the slayings to come to trial. Rifkin's insanity plea was rejected.

The Skipper Had a Few

Testifying in an Anchorage courtroom as part of a civil lawsuit against the Exxon Corp., Joseph Hazelwood, captain of the Exxon Valdez, admitted he was less than candid with a Coast Guard investigator immediately after his ship ran aground in 1989 and spilled 11 million gal. of oil. Hazelwood testified that instead of just one beer, he had had three vodka drinks before leaving port, and that Exxon had known about his drinking problem.

WORLD

Palestinians Begin Transfer

Vanguards of an eventual 9,000-strong Palestinian police force arrived in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. They were boisterously welcomed by Palestinians as the first tangible sign of the transition to self-rule. The armed, uniformed force announced that its first priority will be to disarm thousands of civilians. Meanwhile, the P.L.O. began to set up the governmental structures that will control the two areas.

Mandela Inaugurated

In a joyous ceremony attended by representatives of more than 150 countries, ; Nelson Mandela became the first black President of South Africa. "Never, never and never again shall this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world," he said. On Friday, however, township violence broke out again, resulting in 12 deaths.

Rebels Shell Rwandan Capital

Tutsi rebels continued their advance on the Rwandan capital of Kigali, shelling positions held by the Hutu-dominated Rwandan army. The U.N. Security Council is set to vote on a plan that would impose an arms embargo on both sides and send an all-African force to intervene.

Maneuvering for Bosnian Peace

Foreign ministers from Europe, Russia and the U.S. agreed to urge the Serbs and Muslims to begin peace talks within two weeks. A proposed settlement would give the Serb aggressors 49% of Bosnian territory, with the remaining 51% going to the new federation of Bosnian Muslims and Croats. Meanwhile the U.S. Senate passed a measure requiring President Clinton to lift an embargo on arms sales to the Bosnians despite the objections of American allies.

Yemeni Civil War Rages On

Soldiers from Yemen's conservative North were reported to be bogged down along the former border between North and South Yemen 60 miles from the strategic southern port of Aden, as the formerly Marxist South claimed to have repulsed the latest attack in the civil war that broke out May 5. A Scud-missile attack launched by Southern forces killed two dozen people in the capital of San'a. Widely varying reports of the war's casualties range from a few hundred to 12,000 killed or wounded.

New Italian PM Sworn In

Millionaire businessman Silvio Berlusconi, 57, took the oath of office as Prime Minister of Italy's 53rd post-World War II government. He named a Cabinet that included, as expected, members of the neo-Fascist National Alliance.

China Human-Rights Moves

China gave permission for a legal scholar to travel to the U.S. and paroled another dissident held since 1990 on charges of attempting to overthrow the government. Both moves appeared to be part of an effort to persuade President Clinton to renew China's most-favored-nation trade status. At the same time, China's legislature announced 18 new grounds for detaining and arresting dissidents, and at least six people were detained in Shanghai.

BUSINESS

| Interest Rates: Up?

Although figures released for the month of April show that the U.S. economy is not growing at an inflationary pace, analysts still expect the Federal Reserve in the U.S. to raise interest rates for a fourth time this year in order to stabilize global markets.

Deal of the Century

In what was announced as the largest telecommunications contract for an American company abroad, the Saudi Arabian government awarded AT&T a $4 billion contract to modernize its phone system. Intense lobbying from the Clinton Administration, including visits from Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, contributed to the success of the deal.

SCIENCE

Screening Debate

In a controversial finding, the National Cancer Institute last year concluded that regular mammograms, while recommended for older women, don't reduce mortality rates for women in their 40s. But Swedish researchers issued a report last week that concluded the opposite. The study tracked 24,000 Swedish women for 10 years and found that those who had mammograms in their 40s had a 40% lower death rate from breast cancer than women who weren't screened.

Dioxin Danger

An alarming preliminary report issued by the Environmental Protection Agency warned that low levels of exposure to dioxin, an environmental contaminant already linked to various cancers, may also impair the immune system as well as fetal development. Dioxin is a product of burning chlorine-based chemicals.

THE ARTS & MEDIA

Art Depreciation

Impressionist and modern art auctions continued to disappoint. At Christie's and Sotheby's, artworks that were estimated to reap between $160 million and $215 million instead brought in $101 million -- a stunning setback for the already shaky art market. Although works by a few artists sold at higher-than- expected prices, the surprises were not enough to offset the embarrassments.