The Week September 11-17

By Kathleen Adams, Melissa August, Leslie Dickstein, Christine Gorman, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders and Sidney Urquhart

NATION

"Your Time Is Up. Leave Now."

With these blunt words President Clinton served warning on Haiti's military rulers to leave the country peacefully, or else a U.S.-led invasion would commence shortly. But the following day, perhaps to muffle strong congressional criticism, he eased up a bit and announced that former President Jimmy Carter would lead a high-level delegation to Haiti for one last try at getting the junta to step down. The 11th-hour mission, which also includes former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell and Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sam Nunn, left Saturday amid rumors that Haitian strongman Raoul Cedras and his two top aides were at last considering a peaceful departure.

Aristide's Promise

Meanwhile, at a White House gathering for representatives of the 24 countries that will contribute troops to the U.S.-led invasion force, deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide pledged reconciliation once he is reinstated. "We say no to vengeance. We say no to retaliation," Aristide promised his military adversaries. "You will not be isolated. You are the sons of the land. Do not be afraid."

Things That Go Bump

Just before dawn on Monday, Sept. 12, a small red-and-white Cessna crash- landed on the White House lawn, ripped through a venerable magnolia tree planted by President Andrew Jackson and smashed into the side of the White House, just under the Clintons' bedroom. Fortunately, the First Family was spending the night across Pennsylvania Avenue at Blair House. The crash raised questions about White House security and why air-traffic controllers at National Airport did not notice the tiny plane on their radar screens. Noting that the pilot had a history of depression and substance abuse, investigators suggested the bizarre episode was a successful suicide attempt rather than a bungled publicity stunt.

The Once and Future Mayor

It was a stunning victory for a man who, just four years ago, was sentenced to six months in prison for possession of cocaine. Former Washington mayor Marion Barry astonished even his most fervent supporters by trouncing city council member John Ray and incumbent mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly in the Democratic mayoral primary. Kelly, who won four years ago as a reformer in the wake of Barry's arrest, did not win a single precinct.

Crime Bill Becomes Law

Three weeks after a crime bill was passed by Congress, President Clinton signed the bitterly contested measure into law. Exhorting Americans to "take personal responsibility for themselves, their families and their communities," Clinton warned that the $30 billion legislation on its own would not end the escalating violence in this country.

First Birthday for "Rego"

On the first anniversary of the Administration's ambitious efforts to "reinvent government," President Clinton, with project leader Al Gore at his side, took a pair of scissors and snipped through a symbolic tangle of red tape to claim that the initiative had already saved $47 billion. How? By removing more than 70,000 workers from the federal payroll, mostly through buyouts and retirements, and cutting paperwork.

Kickoff for National Service

; In yet another White House photo op, nearly 15,000 youthful volunteers -- most via video hookup -- were sworn into Americorps, the country's new national- service program. The volunteers will perform community-service work in exchange for help with college tuition. The program could expand to as many as 100,000 participants during the next three years.

Health Care: Still Not Dead

Against all odds, health-care reform registered a faint but detectable pulse on Capitol Hill as various alliances of legislators continued to seek some form of compromise. While both positive and negative reports surfaced, there was no official action.

USAir Crash: Still a Mystery

Investigators sifting through the scattered wreckage of USAir Flight 427 are no closer to discovering why the Boeing 737 suddenly nose-dived to the ground, killing all 132 aboard. The FBI ruled out any suggestion that the aircraft was sabotaged in order to silence one of the passengers -- a drug informant who had been testifying to federal prosecutors in Chicago.

O.J. Blood Ties

There were widespread reports that a batch of final DNA tests point to O.J. Simpson as the source of at least two of the blood drops discovered leading away from the bodies of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Damages for an Oil Spill

A federal jury in Anchorage, Alaska, ordered the Exxon Corp. to pay a whopping $5 billion in punitive damages to commercial fishermen, property owners and Alaska natives harmed in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Exxon said it would appeal.

Damages for a Killing

A Louisiana judge awarded more than $650,000 to the parents of a Japanese teenager who was shot to death by a Baton Rouge homeowner as the youth was asking directions to a Halloween party. "I felt the intelligence and reasoning of America in the judgment," said the dead boy's mother after the decision. Last year a criminal court acquitted the homeowner, Rodney Peairs, of criminal charges of manslaughter.

WORLD

Liberian Coup Attempt Fails

Peacekeepers from eight West African nations used tanks and gunboats to defeat a faction of the former Liberian army that tried to overthrow an interim government; it was the latest outbreak of fighting in Liberia's five-year-old civil war. The attempted putsch came three days after the country's three main warring factions signed a United Nations-approved peace pact.

Cairo Conference Concurs

After nine days of wrangling over abortion and semantics, the U.N. population conference formally agreed that the key to limiting world population growth rests with the advancement of women. Delegates from nearly 180 countries -- as well as the Vatican, which joined the consensus in a "partial manner" -- endorsed a document that argues for meeting health and education needs as one of the most effective brakes to population growth.

Separatists Win in Quebec

Voters in Quebec elected a government committed to making the Canadian province an independent country. Jacques Parizeau, leader of the Parti Quebecois, which captured 44.7% of the vote, vowed to hold a referendum within 10 months on whether Quebec should secede, though polls during the campaign showed that most Quebeckers do not want independence.

Bosnian Serbs Defy U.S.

The U.S. announced it will work to end the U.N. arms embargo against the Bosnian Muslims unless the Bosnian Serbs accept a Western-sponsored peace plan by Oct. 15. However, the Serbs said they would defy the ultimatum, and U.S. allies, including Russia, Britain and France, oppose lifting the embargo.

I.R.A. Broadcast Ban Lifted

In a concession to the I.R.A. after its cease-fire announcement last month, British Prime Minister John Major lifted a ban on broadcasting the voices of Irish Republican Army leaders. Former PM Margaret Thatcher banned the I.R.A. voices from British broadcasts in 1988, but radio and TV stations simply used actors with Northern Irish accents to dub the comments of Republican activists.

W.W. II Bomb Explodes in Berlin

Three construction workers were killed and 14 people were injured when a World War II-era bomb exploded at a building site in what used to be East Berlin. The blast was triggered by drilling that was being carried out for an office complex.

BUSINESS

Elsie, Meet Mr. Kravis

Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. agreed to acquire financially troubled Borden Inc. K.K.R. will swap $2 billion of its holdings in R.J.R. Nabisco in exchange for all of Borden's outstanding stock. In a second part of the transaction, R.J.R. will issue additional new shares worth $500 million to Borden in exchange for a 20% stake in the company. The arrangement, which is still pending final agreement, would dilute K.K.R.'s holdings of R.J.R. Nabisco, the % company it bought for $25 billion in 1989 in the most expensive takeover in history, from 35% to 17.5%.

Stocks Hit Seven-Month Peak

Thanks partly to good news on inflation, traders sent the Dow Jones industrial average climbing 58.55 points on Thursday, to 3953.88, its highest level in seven months. The market gave back some of its gains the next day, closing down 20.53 points.

Germans Regain Bayer Aspirin

The German chemical firm Bayer paid $1 billion to regain the American rights to its name by buying the North American over-the-counter medicine business of Sterling Winthrop. A Bayer chemist, Felix Hoffman, developed the company's production process for its most famous product, aspirin, in 1893. Bayer lost its American patents and copyrights in 1918, when the U.S. government seized the firm's assets following World War I.

SCIENCE

Transistor Breakthrough

Researchers in France have developed an electronic transistor that contains no metallic parts. Instead they used paper-printing technology to assemble very thin layers of plastic that mimic the properties of silicon chips. Because plastic is so much more flexible than metal, the devices could theoretically be used to create such futuristic items as video screens that roll up like window shades or bendable computers the size of credit cards.

SPORT

It's Over

Baseball's acting commissioner Bud Selig made the anticlimactic announcement: because of the 34-day players' strike, the remainder of the 1994 season, including -- for the first time in 90 years -- the World Series, has been canceled. In its place: further acrimonious bargaining lasting no one knows for how long.