The Week March 20-26

By Christopher John Farley, Eugene Linden, Lina Lofaro, Lawrence Mondi, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders and Sidney Urquhart

NATION

Clinton's Whitewater Offensive

In a bold attempt to contain the damage from the Whitewater affair, President Clinton went on the offensive at a nationally televised news conference to state that while he intended to cooperate "fully" with the special counsel and any congressional investigation, he also intended to stay "preoccupied with the business we were sent here to do for the American people." Responding to fresh allegations of wrongdoing -- leveled on the floor of the House by Republican Jim Leach -- the President categorically denied having tried to suppress a federal investigation of the S&L at the center of the Whitewater affair. To underline his contention that he had done nothing wrong in the real estate venture, the President publicly released his tax returns for 1977, 1978 and 1979.

Meanwhile ...

The Whitewater grand jury in Washington continued to hear testimony from Administration officials. And the special counsel obtained cooperation, as part of a plea bargain on non-Whitewater fraud charges, from an Arkansas businessman and former judge who says Clinton pressured him to make questionable loans. The President denies this accusation too.

And Then ...

The White House lawyer responsible for screening Administration job applicants fell victim to his own "Zoe Baird problem." William Kennedy III -- yet another of Hillary Rodham Clinton's beleaguered former law partners -- was reassigned following the revelation that he had only belatedly paid 1991 and 1992 Social Security taxes for his family's nanny.

Closing In on Smokers

The FDA and now the Labor Department are on the offensive. Testifying before Congress, FDA commissioner David Kessler said his agency was considering regulating tobacco as a drug. Labor Secretary Robert Reich moved to prohibit smoking in all workplaces, including factories, office buildings, restaurants and schools. Meanwhile Philip Morris, the nation's largest cigarette manufacturer, laid a whopping $10 billion libel suit on ABC television for reporting that cigarette makers deliberately manipulate nicotine levels in cigarettes in order to keep smokers hooked.

Health Reform: A Qualified Yes

By a 6-to-5 vote, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health passed a watered-down version of the President's health-care plan, one that would provide a more modest benefits package but still guarantee universal coverage and require employers to pay for most of their workers' insurance.

Appropriations Spurt?

Choosing an aggressive liberal activist, House Democrats voted Wisconsin's David Obey as the new head of the powerful Appropriations Committee.

Pollard Stays Behind Bars

On the recommendation of the CIA and the Defense and Justice departments, President Clinton denied clemency to convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, whose life sentence for passing top-secret documents to Israel had been targeted as excessive by some Jewish groups and members of Congress.

Rodney King, Part III

Rodney King's civil suit against Los Angeles got under way with the battered motorist seeking $9 million in damages from the city. King rejected the city's offer of a $1.25 million settlement.

Two Deadly Accidents

An Air Force F-16D fighter jet collided with a C-130 cargo plane as both were attempting to land at North Carolina's Pope Air Force Base, raining down flaming debris that killed 23 Army paratroopers and injured scores of others. In Edison, New Jersey, an underground natural-gas pipeline exploded in a fierce fireball, carving out a huge crater and destroying eight apartment buildings. Miraculously, only one person died -- indirectly, of a heart attack.

Breast-Implant Accord

In a record settlement that must still be approved by a federal judge, Dow Corning, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Baxter Healthcare -- makers of silicone breast implants -- agreed to pay some $4 billion over 30 years to the thousands of women who claim that they were made sick by the implants.

Antiabortionist Conviction

After deliberating for only about an hour, a Kansas jury convicted fervent antiabortion activist Rachelle Shannon of attempting to murder Dr. George Tiller last summer. Shannon admitted shooting the doctor and testified that she also considered bombing his Wichita abortion clinic.

Keeping the U.S. Door Open

On the West Coast, a federal immigration judge dropped deportation proceedings against a Nigerian woman illegally in the U.S. in order to spare her two small daughters from an African ritual of genital mutilation. The judge called the procedure "cruel, painful and dangerous." And immigration officials granted asylum to a gay man from Mexico based on his claim of persecution back home for his sexual orientation.

The Evidence Against Tonya

The Oregon grand jury investigating the January attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan announced its long-awaited findings: Yes, it alleged, rival Tonya Harding was in on the plot from the outset. However, Harding's previous plea bargain, on charges of conspiring to hinder prosecution of the attack, spared her from any further charges.

WORLD

Mexican Candidate Killed

Luis Donaldo Colosio, who was widely expected to win the Mexican presidency in August elections, was shot and killed while campaigning in Tijuana. Police arrested a suspect at the scene, who later confessed; the assassination was apparently not linked to the peasant uprising in Chiapas state that began in January. Ernesto Zedillo, Colosio's campaign manager, is now considered one of the leading contenders to replace Colosio as the candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (P.R.I.), as is the P.R.I. chief, Fernando Ortiz Arana.

Moving Closer to Talking

Negotiators from the P.L.O., Israel and the U.S. met to try to devise a way to resume the formal Palestinian-Israeli peace talks halted by the Hebron mosque massacre. One major sticking point was resolved when Israel agreed to allow armed international observers and Palestinian police in Hebron.

Still Fighting

Five Palestinians -- including a pregnant woman -- were killed during an Israeli army raid on a suspected Palestinian militant hideout in Hebron. Soldiers fired tens of thousands of rounds and dozens of antitank rockets in the 19-hour gun battle, heightening tensions in the already inflamed city. Israeli military censors blocked news reports of the fire fight for nearly a day, and ensuing rioting throughout the occupied territories left dozens wounded. The army later lifted a curfew on the city's Arab residents, which had been in effect since the Feb. 25 mosque massacre.

North Korean Warnings of War

The U.S. dispatched Patriot antimissile batteries to South Korea after North Korea denied access to a nuclear facility to international inspectors. Washington will also resume joint military exercises with South Korea, and is considering pushing for economic sanctions against North Korea, which called the situation "a very dangerous brink of war" and threatened to turn Seoul into a "sea of fire."

Sarajevo Siege Cracks a Little

A few hundred people trickled across once dangerous front lines in Sarajevo as new routes were opened -- under severe restrictions -- into and out of government-controlled parts of the Bosnian capital. The city has been under siege by Bosnian Serb forces for almost two years (since April 6, 1992). Meanwhile, Bosnian Serbs formally rejected a Muslim-Croat federation, saying they wanted to link their territory to a "Greater Serbia."

S. Africa Takes Over Homeland

The head of the apartheid "homeland" of Ciskei stepped down, allowing the South African transitional government to take over until all-race elections are held nationwide April 26-28. Tension remained high in the KwaZulu "homeland," stronghold of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, whose Inkatha party is boycotting the election.

U.S. Ends Somalia Mission

"Operation Restore Hope," the U.S. military mission to Somalia, ended 16 months after it began, with the evacuation of the last Marines. In Nairobi, meanwhile, Somalia's two most powerful warlords, Mohammed Farrah Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohammed, signed a peace pact to end three years of civil war and to set up a new government.

Salvadoran Rightist Party Wins

The rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance party won El Salvador's first elections following a 12-year civil war. A run-off election to be held April 24 will choose the country's President.

BUSINESS

Rate Hike

The Federal Reserve voted to raise short-term interest rates one-quarter of a percentage point, to 3 1/2%. The move, the second in two months, caused six major banks to bump up their prime lending rates to 6 1/4%. Analysts said the overall impact on the economy would be moderate.

Hoffa Rolls Over ... Somewhere

Reformist Teamsters president Ron Carey dispatched agents to the union's four U.S. regional headquarters to audit their books, branding the offices "fertile grounds for corruption and Mob influence." The extraordinary move aimed at the union's Old Guard is but the first step in closing down the offices altogether and improving the union's finances, said Carey.

SCIENCE

Tigers: More Heat on Taiwan

The governing board of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, met in Geneva to consider the plight of the tiger, which is fast becoming extinct in the wild as the animals are killed to supply Asian demand for tiger-based potions and medicines. The CITES committee condemned Taiwan for failing to take even minimal steps to control its illegal trade in tiger parts. But to the dismay of conservationists, the committee muted its criticism of China, another mainstay of the tiger trade. Now the Clinton Administration must decide whether it will for the first time in history impose trade sanctions on another country for actions that threaten an endangered species.