The Week May 1-7

By Melissa August, Christopher John Farley, Michael D. Lemonick, Lina Lofaro, Rod Paul, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders and Sidney Urquhart

NATION

Assault Weapons Wasted

By a 216-to-214 vote, the House passed legislation to ban the production and sale of 19 assault weapons after a furious lobbying effort by the bill's sponsors and President Clinton. Because the Senate passed a similar bill last November, the final wording of the legislation will be worked out by a House- Senate conference.

Haiti Policy: Still "in Flux"

On Friday, at U.S. urging, the U.N. passed a resolution toughening the so far ineffective embargo on Haiti. Earlier in the week, President Clinton said he had not ruled out U.S. military intervention. Meanwhile, about 500 Haitian refugees who recently arrived in Florida will be allowed to remain in the U.S. while their cases are processed by immigration officials. Said a senior U.S. official: "Clearly, policy toward Haiti is in flux "

Hunger Strike Continues

The Administration's tentative moves did not stop the three-week hunger strike by Randall Robinson, executive director of the lobbying group TransAfrica. Robinson was hospitalized for dehydration, but he vowed to continue until President Clinton agreed to give Haitian boat people hearings before forcibly repatriating them. By week's end Clinton was considering altering his repatriation policy.

Clinton's $700,000 Sex Suit

Paula Corbin Jones, 27, a former Arkansas state worker, sued President Clinton for $700,000 for allegedly violating her civil rights in 1991 by making unwelcome sexual advances toward her in a Little Rock hotel room. Said Clinton's attorney Robert Bennett: "It is tabloid trash with a legal caption on it." A number of witnesses have supported aspects of Corbin's story, but her case was undermined somewhat by her sister Charlotte Brown, who told an Arkansas television station that Jones told her she "smelled money" in her allegations.

Prosecutor Wants Rosty

U.S. Attorney Eric Holder, investigating alleged financial wrongdoing by Illinois Democratic Representative Dan Rostenkowski, wants the Justice Department to seek an indictment. Rostenkowski denies any wrongdoing.

"Dr. Death" Acquitted

A Michigan jury unanimously acquitted Dr. Jack Kevorkian of a criminal charge under a state law prohibiting anyone from assisting in suicides. The jury decided that Kevorkian, who helped a terminally ill man kill himself in 1993, acted only to ease the man's pain and discomfort and not necessarily to end his life, an exception that the law permits. A day later, a federal judge in Seattle struck down a 140-year-old Washington state law against assisted suicide.

Navy to Push Women's Role

The new top officer of the Navy, Admiral Jeremy Boorda, promised to speed up plans to assign women to all surface vessels and perhaps even allow them aboard submarines, the Navy's last all-male bastion. "The goal is all ships; the goal is everything," commented Boorda, who also said a repeat of the Tailhook sexual-assault scandal "would simply not be tolerated."

Vets Suffer Gulf War Syndrome

Two Persian Gulf War veterans testified before a Senate panel that a drug given to them to protect against nerve-gas attacks has left them with damaged nervous systems. The Defense Department denies that the drug made the veterans sick, but Senator John D. Rockefeller IV said, "The results of our investigations will shock all Americans."

WORLD

They Signed, but Only Just

In Cairo, Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat met to sign an accord beginning Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and in an enclave around the West Bank town of Jericho. But as the ceremony began, Arafat suddenly balked at putting his name to six maps accompanying the accord. At issue was the amount of land around Jericho to be ceded to the Palestinians. Finally, Arafat was assured - that the maps were not necessarily the final word on the Jericho boundaries, and the agreement went through.

Guess What? Mandela Won

South Africa's Independent Election Commission announced the final vote count: Nelson Mandela's African National Congress won 62.6%; F.W. de Klerk's National Party got 20.4%, and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party was third with 10.5%. Charges of fraud exchanged by Inkatha and the A.N.C. delayed the count in Buthelezi's stronghold, KwaZulu/Natal, and forced a three-day postponement of the seating of the all-race parliament that will elect Mandela as South Africa's first black President. De Klerk and A.N.C. foreign policy veteran Thabo Mbeki will be Deputy Presidents.

No Relief in Rwanda

Ethnic warfare continued in Rwanda as rebel and government forces continue to fight for control of the capital. A Canadian military cargo plane bringing food and medicine to 450 remaining U.N. peacekeepers and the thousands of refugees under their protection was fired on at the Kigali airport, and further aid flights were suspended.

Bosnian Cease-Fire Frays

Aid flights into Sarajevo were briefly suspended after two aircraft were hit by gunfire. The top U.N. representative in Bosnia, Yasushi Akashi, came under heavy criticism from Washington after permitting Serb tanks to pass through the heavy-weapons exclusion zone around the capital. The U.S. and Russia, meanwhile, called for a foreign ministers' meeting to consider new proposals for ending the two-year-old Bosnian civil war.

Emergency in Yemen

Civil war raged in Yemen as the country's northern leaders ousted their southern rivals from the government. Foreigners fled the capital of San'a, and in Cairo the Arab League called an emergency meeting to discuss sending in an Arab peacekeeping force.

Chunnel Mania

Queen Elizabeth II and President Francois Mitterrand officially opened the long-delayed and costly ($13.3 billion) Channel Tunnel between England and France. But regularly scheduled passenger service will not begin until the autumn.

The Scream Recovered

Oslo police found Edvard Munch's much revered canvas The Scream last week in a hotel outside the city. The 1893 painting was recovered undamaged three months after it was stolen from the National Art Museum. Three Norwegians were arrested.

Red Faces in Tokyo

Japanese Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata interrupted his European tour to issue a public scolding of his new Justice Minister for remarking in a newspaper interview that it was "wrong to say Japan's war against China was an aggressive war." In addition, Shigeto Nagano, 71, declared the Japanese army's infamous Rape of Nanjing to be a "fiction." Nagano backpedaled the next day, saying his comments had been "inappropriate". At week's end he resigned.

BUSINESS

To the Dollar's Rescue

The U S. joined forces with 16 other nations to boost the value of the declining dollar. Purchasing dollars against yen and marks, the U.S. hopes, will maintain sufficient foreign investment.

A Healthy Rise

The index of leading economic indicators shows that the economy rose a healthy 0.7% in March, to 101.2, the highest figure since the index originated in 1948. The climb was due to higher retail sales, factory orders, autos and home purchases. Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that unemployment declined slightly in April, from 6.5% to 6.4%, with the addition of 267,000 jobs.

SCIENCE

Deep-Frozen Fossils

Paleontologists have found the remains of dinosaurs -- including a previously unknown species -- in Antarctica, the first such discovery on that continent. The fossils date from the Jurassic era, when the world was warmer and Antarctica had not yet drifted to the frigid polar region from its original location in the South Atlantic.

SPORTS

Olympic Closure

The Tonya-and-Nancy drama has come to a legal close. Shawn Eckardt, Tonya Harding's bodyguard; Shane Stant, who clubbed Nancy Kerrigan's knee; and Derrick Smith, who drove the getaway car, have all agreed to plead guilty of conspiracy to commit second-degree assault. They will serve 18 months in prison.

Kentucky Derby

Go for Gin, Chris McCarron aboard, won the 120th Run for the Roses by two lengths. Derby favorite Holy Bull was 18 lengths behind. The winner paid $20.20, $8.40 and $5.80.