The Week January 8-14

By Kathleen Adams, Melissa August, Lina Lofaro, Lawrence Mondi, Michael Quinn, Jeffery Rubin, Alain Sanders, Anneke Tryzelaar and Sidney Urquhart

NATION

California Dreaming -- Not

This time it wasn't an earthquake or wildfires that ravaged California, but simple rain -- a merciless deluge. The downpour unleashed treacherous floods and mud slides up and down the state, killing 11 people, displacing thousands from their homes and wreaking property damage in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Political Reality Bites

No one ever said governing would be easy. Two weeks into the new Congress, fissures began to appear in the once seemingly rock-solid Republican majority in the House as members started squabbling over just how limiting term limits should be. Fault lines also became apparent regarding the proposed balanced- budget amendment, with moderate Republicans (joined by some Democrats) objecting to a provision that would mandate a three-fifths majority of both houses to approve tax increases. Of course, Republicans' differences weren't so great that they couldn't deflect Democratic demands that a balanced-budget amendment include a detailed plan laying out proposed spending cuts. And in the Senate, G.O.P. leaders marshaled through a measure adopted by the House that would subject Congress to employment laws already applicable to the private sector.

Newt's History Lesson

Speaker Gingrich's choice for House historian, Kennesaw State professor Christina Jeffrey, quickly became a footnote to history when her controversial evaluation of a 1980s Holocaust education program surfaced, triggering a gleeful fusillade of criticism from Democrats. In 1986, Jeffrey had written that the junior high school program in question contained "no evidence of balance or objectivity. The Nazi point of view, however unpopular, is still a point of view and is not presented, nor is that of the Ku Klux Klan." Moving quickly to avoid a prolonged, Clintonian embarrassment, Gingrich fired the professor the same day the evaluation came to light, though an assistant of Jeffrey's claimed the Speaker had known about her views on the program before he hired her.

It's Dodd for the Democrats

Ending a fractious search for the next chairman of the Democratic Party, President Clinton settled for a two-man team. Telegenic Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, who will remain in his seat, will become general chairman of the party and its chief spokesman. Donald Fowler, a longtime Southern political operative, will become the party's national chairman and day-to-day manager.

Farrakhan Targeted?

Capping a seven-month FBI investigation, federal prosecutors in Minnesota indicted Qubilah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X's daughters, charging her with attempting to hire a hit man to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Although prosecutors would not publicly speculate on a motive, Shabazz's family is known to suspect Farrakhan of having been involved in Malcolm X's assassination 30 years ago when the two men were rivals. Shabazz's lawyer said his client had been lured and set up by the would-be hit man, whom he described as a childhood friend of Shabazz's and an informant working for the government.

The Simpson Case

With the O.J. Simpson jury sequestered, the double-murder case entered one of its more dramatic phases as the prosecution and defense battled over evidence that might show the ex-football star to have been a jealous and physically abusive husband. The defense challenged the material as irrelevant, unreliable, inflammatory and prejudicial.

Pierce: Cleared, Spanked

The independent counsel investigating the contract-steering scandal surrounding former Housing Secretary Samuel Pierce announced that he would not bring any charges against the Reagan Administration official owing to lack of evidence. But the prosecutor, whose probe has resulted in 16 convictions of subordinates and others, forced Pierce to release a statement admitting that "my own conduct contributed to an environment in which these events could occur."

Four Caught, One to Go

Florida police, acting on a tip, found two of the five murder convicts who had tunneled out of a state prison the week before in a squatters' camp near Miami. One escapee was killed during the capture, the other arrested. Two more were apprehended while walking through Miami's Little Havana.

WORLD

Chechen Prez Offers Talks

Declaring that "everything can be settled in an hour," the decidedly optimistic Chechen leader Jokhar Dudayev asked Russia to halt its assault on his capital. Even though Chechnya could not hope to win its secessionist war against Moscow, Dudayev warned that continued fighting might well draw neighboring republics into a wider regional conflict. "Every day leads to a deepening crisis," he warned, "not here, but in Russia." The Russian reply: a renewed attack on Grozny that left Chechen fighters desperately trying to hold their ground and the fall of the capital all but certain.

U.S. Offers Mexico Rescue

( Mexico's battered economy stabilized after President Clinton -- backed by congressional Republicans -- said the U.S. stood ready to help. The American offer: as much as $40 billion in loan guarantees. Mexican stocks, which had fallen early in the week, rose after the announcement. Still, Mexicans remained anxious about their country's fiscal health. Said a Mexico City electronics dealer: "This is a time bomb. People will take to the streets." Hundreds of upper-middle-class housewives did, marching on the presidential residence with their cellular phones in hand and their maids alongside waving banners demanding TRUTH AND DEMOCRACY.

U.S.-Japan Trade Cracks Open

President Clinton met with Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in Washington to discuss trade. On the eve of the summit, Tokyo agreed to open parts of Japan's financial-services sector to American firms, giving them the chance to help manage some of the nearly $1 trillion in Japanese pension funds. American apples, meanwhile, made their debut on Japanese grocery shelves, where they sold briskly at prices of 78 cents to 98 cents apiece -- a bargain compared with the $1.28 to $1.58 levied for the homegrown variety.

Croatia to End U.N. Mandate

Setting up what an observer called a game of "high-stakes poker," Croatian President Franjo Tudjman decided not to extend the United Nations peacekeeping mandate in Croatia, which expires March 31. Diplomats fear that removing the buffer of 15,000 Blue Helmets could allow animosities between Croats and the Croatian Serbs or between Croatia and Serbian-ruled Yugoslavia to flare into renewed fighting.

First Hostile Casualty in Haiti

An American Special Forces soldier was killed by a former Haitian army officer at a road checkpoint outside the Haitian coastal town of Gonaives, the first hostile casualty since 21,000 U.S. troops arrived in the country last September. Another U.S. soldier was wounded in the shootout before the gunman was shot and killed.

Girl Survives Colombian Crash

A Colombian jetliner crashed near Cartagena, killing all 53 of its passengers but one -- a nine-year-old girl who suffered only a broken shoulder after the crash landing in a swamp. It was "a miracle from God," according to Colombia's civil aviation director.

SCIENCE

New Thinking on AIDS

Two reports in the British journal Nature overturned some long-held notions of , how AIDS progresses, thereby sparking a flurry of enthusiasm from usually frustrated researchers. Instead of a slow-motion war of attrition, scientists now believe that HIV and the patient's immune system fight pitched battles from the start, with both sides sustaining enormous losses. The studies help explain why previous drug therapies have proved to be ineffective, but also suggest new strategies -- a multiple-drug attack against the virus early in the course of the disease, for instance -- that could hold the disease at bay and maybe even defeat it.

SPORT

Hockey: The Big Chill Ends

It was better than nothing. After weeks of intensive and often acrimonious negotiation, the National Hockey League's owners and players hammered out a six-year pact and brought the sport's 103-day lockout to an end. Fans will get a curtailed 48-game season (instead of the traditional 84). Although the owners failed to win a salary cap, they did get some restrictions on the eligibility of free agents.