The Week June 19-25

By MELISSA AUGUST, LESLIE DICKSTEIN, CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY, EUGENE LINDEN, LINA LOFARO, MICHAEL QUINN, ALAIN L. SANDERS AND SARAH VAN BOVEN

NATION

Health-Care Maneuvers

With the Senate Finance Committee looming as perhaps the decisive hurdle for a health-care bill, a bipartisan group of committee centrists Friday offered a compromise plan for insurance reforms and for a special commission authorized to recommend further action if 95% of Americans are not covered by 2002. Notably omitted: President Clinton's requirement that employers pay most insurance costs. Earlier in the week, President Clinton vowed not to yield on his goal of universal health coverage.

Simpson Pleads Not Guilty

Looking grim and disoriented, O.J. Simpson pleaded not guilty to charges that he stabbed to death his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Controversy continued as authorities released dramatic audiotapes of an emergency 911 call made by Nicole Simpson to police in October, reporting her ex-husband's break-in at her home. In a twist at week's end, a judge aborted a grand jury investigation of the case for fear that swelling publicity might have influenced panel members, and channeled the proceedings to an open hearing instead.

Independent-Counsel Law

The House passed and sent to the President for his expected signature a renewal of the law authorizing an independent counsel to investigate accusations of wrongdoing by top federal officials. The law, which lapsed in 1992 because of Republican opposition, will probably be used to reappoint Whitewater special counsel Robert Fiske, first named by Attorney General Janet Reno. One feature of the measure offers good news for the President, who has been pondering setting up a legal-defense fund to meet his mounting bills: it authorizes reimbursement of some legal fees for those under investigation.

Supreme Court Decisions

Approaching the end of its term, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a flurry of decisions, among them a ruling requiring governments to better justify an actions that amounts to the taking of private property. The Justices also agreed to decide next term the politically potent question of whether states can impose term limits on their representatives in Congress.

Air-Base Tragedies

An airman discharged for psychiatric reasons came back to Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington State armed with an MAK-90 assault rifle. The gunman, identified as Dean Mellberg, killed four people and wounded 23 in the base hospital before being shot to death by a military policeman. Four days later another tragedy befell the base when a B-52 crashed, killing the four people on board.

Who Gets Raped

Releasing the shocking results of a study covering 11 states and the District of Columbia, the Justice Department disclosed that about half the victims of rapes reported to police in 1992 were girls younger than 18, and that about 1 in six was under 12. Most of the girls, the study found, were raped by relatives or friends.

Smoking Bombshell

The tobacco industry, under increasing government fire over allegations that it manipulated the nicotine content of its products to hook smokers, took another big hit. FDA Commissioner David Kessler told a House health subcommittee that the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. developed and grew a high-nicotine tobacco plant and used it in several of its brands. CEO Thomas Sandefur contended that cigarettes made using the plant did not contain more nicotine. Meanwhile, the Justice Department announced its own investigation of tobacco-industry practices -- including the question of whether tobacco executives misled Congress.

Give $$$ for Huddled Masses

The Governors of California, Florida and Arizona, whose states are suing the Federal Government over costs of immigration, went to Capitol Hill to press the Senate Appropriations Committee for reimbursement of expenses their states incur dealing with their large illegal-alien populations.

As Bennington Goes ... ?

Facing the same fiscal and enrollment problems that have been draining the budgets of other colleges around the nation, unconventional Bennington College in Vermont came up with a surprisingly Big Business-like solution: reducing its faculty a third. The school will also abolish its version of tenure and cut tuition 10% over the next five years.

WORLD

North Korea Agrees to Freeze

Stepping back from a confrontation with the U.S., North Korea agreed to freeze its atomic program -- if only temporarily -- after a week of diplomacy by former President Jimmy Carter. The U.S. responded with a pledge not to pursue its efforts to impose international sanctions. But U.S. officials, mindful of earlier broken promises, were wary. Said President Clinton: "This does not solve the problem, but it certainly gives us the basis for seeking a solution."

Japanese Premier Resigns

His hand forced by a looming no-confidence vote he was nearly certain to lose, Japanese Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata announced his resignation just two months after he took office. Reflecting recent political turmoil, Hata's successor will be Japan's seventh PM since 1989.

French Troops Enter Rwanda

After the U.N. narrowly approved a proposed mission to protect refugees from tribal slaughter, France began sending 2,500 Foreign Legionnaires and marines across the border into Rwanda from Zaire. Rwandan rebels at first opposed the intervention, but later said they would not engage the French if they did not interfere in the civil war. A U.N. contingent is expected to replace the French in a few months.

Russia Joins NATO Group

Forty-five years after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed to combat the Soviet threat, Russia joined NATO'S Partnership for Peace. Although NATO'S security umbrella does not cover the partnership's 21 members, mainly countries formerly in the East Bloc, it allows them to hold joint military exercises with NATO forces. Meanwhile, Russia and the U.S. also announced that President Boris Yeltsin and President Clinton will hold a summit in Washington in late September. And in a cementing of relations with other Western allies, Yeltsin signed a trade treaty with the European Union. The deal involves no direct subsidy but will enhance export prospects for Russia. European Commission President Jacques Delors termed the pact "the most global agreement that the E.U. has ever signed with another country."

Czechs' New "Powdered Keg"

From the land of Pilsner comes an odd new export: dehydrated beer. Brewer Jan Oliva, who co-owns a malthouse in the Czech Republic town of Bruntal, says that when you add water to his beer powder and wait 10 days, you get a cool refreshment that "looks like beer, tastes like beer and has a head too ... It is beer, and a good one at that."

BUSINESS

Turbulent Dollar

The Federal Reserve launched an international effort to halt the dollar's steady slide, but the rescue was largely seen as a failure since the greenback rallied only briefly and the Dow industrials and bond markets plummeted. Earlier in the week currency traders pushed the dollar below the 100-yen mark for the first time since World War II.

Tobacco Exec Exits

The Philip Morris chairman who tried unsuccessfully to separate the company's food and cigarette divisions announced his resignation. Michael Miles, a nonsmoker and the first company head from outside the tobacco industry, was also responsible for last year's controversial decision to slash the price of Marlboro cigarettes.

Kidder CEO Resigns

- Kidder, Peabody & Co. head Michael Carpenter was replaced by two GE executives as parent company General Electric tried to redeem the securities firm's stained image. The management shake-up followed a bond scandal in which a Kidder trader was accused of misreporting $350 million to bolster his bonus, as well as a projected second-quarter loss of up to $30 million.

SCIENCE

New Species Captured

Scientists have the first living specimen of a large mammal species that was only discovered two years ago. In Viet Nam, authorities have confiscated a young female Vu Quang ox that had been captured by a hunter. The species was identified in 1992 when a research team came upon skulls previously unknown to science in hunters' homes. The strange animal, which in different respects resembles cattle, goats and antelope, represents only the fourth new genus of large land mammal to be discovered this century.

A Tougher Breed of Corn

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Texcoco, Mexico, has developed new strains of corn that can increase crop yields up to 40% in regions plagued by droughts and acidic soils. One-half of the 150 million acres of corn planted in the developing world are subject to periodic drought; CIMMYT scientists estimate that the new strains could feed an additional 50 million people annually.

SPORTS

Another Drought Over

Center Hakeem Olajuwon led the Houston Rockets to a dramatic 90-84 win over the New York Knicks in the seventh game of the N.B.A. finals to bring home the city's very first pro-sports championship. The victory capped a career year for Olajuwon in which he became the only player ever to be named regular- season mvp, defensive player of the year and finals mvp. The victory dashed New York City's hopes of being the first city to win both the N.B.A. and the N.H.L. trophies in the same year.

A Soccer Miracle

In what was called the most important victory in American soccer history, the U.S. World Cup team stunned favored Colombia with a 2-1 upset that ensured the U.S. would advance into the second round of play. It was the first World Cup win for the U.S. since 1950 and, some said, was also the first time since 1950 that many Americans knew the U.S. had a soccer team.