The Week February 27 - March 5

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

NATION

A New Whitewater Torrent

The Whitewater affair took its first high-profile Administration victim on Saturday when White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum tendered his resignation to Bill Clinton. Nussbaum was one of nine Clinton aides and Treasury Department officials upon whom the FBI served subpoenas at the behest of Whitewater special counsel Robert Fiske. Others included Harold Ickes, deputy chief of staff, and Margaret Williams, chief of staff for Hillary Rodham Clinton. The subpoenas followed damaging revelations of briefings between Treasury officials knowledgeable about a federal investigation of the Clintons' role in the Whitewater scandal and White House aides. The departure of Nussbaum, previously criticized for his involvement in the White House travel-office fiasco and the investigation into the death of deputy counsel Vincent Foster, is unlikely to appease Republicans, who have been pressing yet harder for congressional Whitewater hearings.

And a Rose Law Firm Thorn

The Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas -- where Mrs. Clinton used to ply her trade -- generated more potentially embarrassing news for the President. Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell acknowledged that the firm had questioned him about his billing practices while he was a lawyer there, but he denied any improprieties. There were also reports that documents had been taken and shredded from the files of Vincent Foster, the former Rose and White House lawyer whose suicide is under investigation. The firm denied that any Foster files were destroyed.

A Trade Center Guilty Verdict

After five months of trial, hundreds of witnesses and less than a week of deliberations, a jury convicted all four defendants on all counts in the World Trade Center bombing case. "Injustice!" shouted the lead defendant, Mohammed Salameh, who like the others could be sentenced to life in prison.

Terror on the Brooklyn Bridge

Raising fears of more Middle East-related violence in the U.S., a gunman in a trailing car opened fire on a van carrying young Hasidic Jews across New York City's Brooklyn Bridge, wounding four of the riders, two critically (one was left brain-dead). An intensive manhunt yielded a Lebanese suspect, two alleged accomplices and a cache of weapons.

The Evidence Against Ames

Federal prosecutors unveiled some of the evidence collected against accused CIA mole Aldrich Ames and his wife. Among the items: nine pages of instructions from the Soviets, including an entry indicating that Ames unmasked an East European security officer; and an accounting statement from Moscow noting that by 1989 some $2.7 million -- more than previously thought -- had already been appropriated to Ames for his work.

A Balanced-Budget No

Failing to muster the required two-thirds majority by a mere four votes, the Senate rejected the latest incarnation of a balanced-budget constitutional amendment, effectively killing the proposal for yet another year.

Mitchell Retires

In a surprise decision, Senate majority leader George Mitchell of Maine announced that he would not seek re-election this year, complicating the Democrats' chances of maintaining control of the Senate and the President's ability to push through his programs. Though Mitchell gave no reason for leaving, he has been mentioned as a contender for baseball commissioner.

Packwood Strikes Out

Senator Bob Packwood lost the battle to keep his diaries secret when Chief Justice William Rehnquist rejected his plea to delay transferring the records to the Senate ethics committee pending the outcome of his court appeal.

Bernardin Cleared

Steven Cook dropped his $10 million sexual-abuse lawsuit against Chicago's Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, admitting that his hypnotically retrieved memories of sexual misconduct by Bernardin in the mid-1970s were "unreliable."

Where Was Shawn Eckardt?

Skater Tonya Harding reported being assaulted and bruised by a man last Thursday night as she was heading through a park toward the Beaverton, Oregon, apartment where she has been staying with friends. Police are searching for the attacker.

WORLD

NATO 4, Serbs 0

U.S. F-16 fighters shot down four Serbian jets violating a NATO-enforced no- fly zone over Bosnia; two other jets escaped. The incident, the first offensive in NATO's 45-year history, also marked the first time the West has fired shots in Bosnia.

Two Moves Toward Peace

Separate diplomatic efforts by the U.S. and Russia may signal the beginning of the end of the 23-month-old war in Bosnia. Negotiators in Washington reached a preliminary agreement to join the Muslim- and Croat-controlled areas of Bosnia in a Switzerland-like federation carved out of the 33% of Bosnia not controlled by the Serbs. The Bosnian Serbs agreed to allow relief flights to land at the besieged Muslim-held airport in Tuzla in northeastern Bosnia after Russia said it would send peacekeeping troops to monitor the flights.

Massacre's Aftermath

In moves denounced by the P.L.O. as merely "cosmetic," Israel vowed to crack down on extremist Jewish settlers in the occupied territories (but arrested only a handful) and released nearly 1,000 Palestinian detainees. Meanwhile, during rioting in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the Hebron mosque massacre, Israeli soldiers killed at least eight Palestinians and wounded dozens of others.

Mexico Accedes to Rebels

The Mexican government reached a tentative accord with Indian peasant rebels on major reforms in southern Chiapas state. The government promised to redistribute illegal large landholdings to poor peasants, begin a huge public works program in Chiapas and further outlaw discrimination against Indians.

Buthelezi Agrees to Talk

After months of political wrangling and escalating violence, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said his party has provisionally registered for South Africa's April 26-28 elections. In return, African National Congress president Nelson Mandela agreed to submit to international arbitration the two parties' deep differences over the country's constitution.

E.U. Opens Way for New 3

The European Union reached agreements with Austria, Sweden and Finland on terms for membership beginning in 1995. Talks with Norway continue. Each of the four countries must now hold a national referendum on E.U. membership.

Singapore's Severe Sentence

A Singaporean judge sentenced an 18-year-old American student at a Singapore high school to be beaten with a rattan cane, spend four months in jail and pay a $2,230 fine -- all for spraypainting cars and other acts of vandalism.

BUSINESS

Great Leap Forward

The U.S. government announced that the country's gross domestic product surged ahead at a robust 7.5% annual rate in the final quarter of 1993. This marks the economy's strongest performance in nearly a decade. Commerce Department officials attributed the good news to a jump in U.S. exports, which rose by $2 billion in December. In other good news, the nation's unemployment rate dropped a surprising two-tenths of a percent in February, in spite of frigid weather in the Midwest and Northeast.

Early Trade Skirmish

President Clinton revived a tough provision of U.S. trade law in an attempt to get Japan to trim its $59 billion trade surplus. The measure, the so-called Super 301, creates a "hit list" of countries deemed to be unfair traders and threatens punitive tariffs of up to 100%. Said Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa: "We would like to deal with this matter calmly."

What's Good for Chrysler ...

As part of a $1.8 billion plan to boost production of its popular Jeep Cherokees, minivans and trucks, Chrysler Corp. will hire 6,000 new workers. The company's truck and car sales jumped 19.5% last year.

SCIENCE

Frog Mystery Solved?

For years scientists have puzzled over the rapid disappearance of frogs around the world. Last week a team of researchers from Oregon State University offered a possible explanation: the thinning of the ozone layer. The researchers argue that increased ultraviolet B radiation may be killing amphibian eggs before they hatch into tadpoles.