THE WEEK

By KATHLEEN ADAMS, MELISSA AUGUST, LINA LOFARO, MICHAEL QUINN, JEFFERY C. RUBIN, ALAIN L. SANDERS AND SIDNEY URQUHART

NATION

Funded Mandates

The House and Senate both gave overwhelming final approval to a bill that would require the Federal Government to pay the tab for many new rules and regulations it imposes upon state and local governments. The legislation will become the second provision of the G.O.P. "Contract with America" to become law if President Clinton signs it, as is expected (the first was a measure requiring Congress to abide by the labor and civil rights laws it has imposed on other employers).

Here Come the Cuts

Turning to more contentious fare, House Republicans struggled and ultimately succeeded in passing $17 billion worth of cuts from the current budget. The bill, which was vigorously attacked by Democrats as an assault on the nation's children and poor, would slash funding for a host of housing, drug, job and education programs-including President Clinton's pet project, AmeriCorps. The Administration indicated that the President would veto the measure if it survives the Senate.

G.O.P. Loses One

Senate Democrats flexed their muscles and forced Republican colleagues to abandon an effort to overturn President Clinton's striker-protection order. The directive bars federal agencies from doing business with companies that hire permanent replacement workers during a strike. Opponents fell two votes short of stopping a Democratic filibuster.

Cisneros Under Glass

Attorney General Janet Reno formally requested the appointment of yet another independent counsel--this time to investigate Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros' messy financial arrangements with a former mistress. Though Cisneros has previously admitted the affair and payments to the woman, Reno concluded that the Secretary misrepresented the size of the payments to fbi agents during a background check. Cisneros denied any wrongdoing and at the President's urging announced that he would not step down.

Pena off the Hook

By contrast, the Attorney General had good news for Transportation Secretary Federico Pena. Reno called off an inquiry that had been scrutinizing a contract won by Pena's former investment firm shortly after he became Secretary; the Justice Department had also been looking into whether the city of Denver, during Pena's mayoralty, had misused federal funds intended for the city's new airport. Reno said there was no credible evidence that Pena had violated any federal laws.

The Simpson Trial

The O.J. Simpson murder trial provided armchair lawyers with a week of high courtroom drama as Detective Mark Fuhrman coolly parried defense attorney F. Lee Bailey's taunting cross-examination. Fuhrman repeatedly denied having made racist statements; he also denied suggestions that he planted a bloody glove on Simpson's estate to frame the football hero. The high stakes prompted Bailey and prosecutor Marcia Clark to trade playground-ready insults, leading Judge Lance Ito to ask for an apology from each attorney and to order them not to "engage in gratuitous personal attacks upon each other." At week's end yet another juror was dismissed, the fifth so far. Reports said the man, of mixed racial background, was suspected of writing about the case; he was replaced with an alternate, a white woman.

The Sheik's Trial

At the terror-conspiracy trial of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 10 followers, federal prosecutors introduced transcripts of the taped conversations that are at the center of their case. In the transcripts the sheik is quoted as counseling against bombing the U.N. because it might be considered a "center of peace" and targeting instead "the American Army itself."

Abortion-Protest Ruling

In a break with other federal courts, a judge in Wisconsin struck down a portion of the 1994 federal abortion-clinic-access law. Judge Rudolph Randa said a section of the law that bans nonviolent physical obstruction of clinics is unconstitutional. The ruling is likely to be appealed.

Chicken Pox Shot Approved

The Food and Drug Administration okayed the first chicken pox vaccine. Although for most people the disease is a mild, if annoying, infection, it kills up to 100 in the U.S. each year. The vaccine will be available in six to eight weeks and will cost doctors $39 a shot.

Mississippi Abolishes Slavery

While lawmakers in Washington were debating the wisdom of adding new amendments to the Constitution, lawmakers in Mississippi finally got around to ratifying the nation's 13th--the one abolishing slavery--130 years after the fact. Mississippi remained the lone holdout until a black state senator raised the point.

WORLD

Americans Held in Iraq

Iraqi police arrested two Americans working in Kuwait after they crossed into Iraq without authorization. The men, who were trying to visit friends at a U.N. camp near the border, were arrested after they were accidentally sent through a border crossing by the U.N. observer mission.

Castro Woos Europe

Cuban leader Fidel Castro, in a new bid for international acceptance, made a round of political and social visits in Europe. Occasionally swapping his trademark fatigues for a dark blue suit and spotted tie, he criticized "blind and savage market laws" at the world-poverty summit in Copenhagen, told UNESCO in Paris that the U.S. blockade of Cuba was "criminal" and basked in the lavish praise of outgoing Socialist French President Francois Mitterrand and his wife Danielle. Castro also played tourist. "My strongest impression?" he told reporters. "Chablis wine."

Croatia Allows U.N. to Stay

Reversing his decision to boot 12,000 U.N. troops from his country on March 31, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman agreed to allow a much smaller force of some 5,000 troops under a new mandate that will include patrolling Croatia's borders with Serbia and Bosnia.

I.R.A. Bags First Bucks in U.S.

Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, presided over the party's first aboveground political fund raiser in the U.S., taking in more than $20,000 at a reception in New York City. Adams was also invited to the White House by President Clinton for a St. Patrick's Day reception honoring Irish Prime Minister John Bruton. British Prime Minister John Major sent Clinton a letter of protest and asked him to pressure Adams to dismantle the I.R.A. arsenal.

Middle East Talks Still Kicking

In what two leading Israeli analysts cynically described as "a big step for [Warren] Christopher ... and a small step for the peace process," the U.S. Secretary of State persuaded Syrian President Hafez Assad to resume peace talks with Israel. The two countries' ambassadors to the U.S. will soon meet with American officials in Washington.

BUSINESS

Clinton Blocks Iran Oil Deals

Scuttling Conoco's billion-dollar pact to develop two of Iran's offshore oil fields, President Clinton barred U.S. companies from making oil-production deals with Tehran, citing its support of terrorism and pursuit of nuclear weapons as "unacceptable behavior in the world." Analysts said the move was strictly symbolic: European firms stand ready to develop the fields, and American companies are among the largest purchasers of Iranian crude, through foreign subsidiaries.

A Baby Bell Victory

A federal judge ruled that Bell Atlantic Corp. could compete with cable operators and broadcasters by offering TV service through its network. The other Bells are expected to follow.

SCIENCE

An American on Mir

Physician Norman Thagard became the first U.S. astronaut to blast into orbit aboard a Russian rocket, flying with two cosmonauts to the Russian space station Mir, where they were welcomed with traditional gifts of bread and salt. Bowing to cosmonaut tradition, Thagard stopped to urinate on a truck tire before climbing aboard the Soyuz rocket, a custom reportedly begun by the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.

SPORT

Downhill Racer

Olympic silver medalist Picabo Street is the first American to win the World Cup women's downhill championship. But just after clinching the title, she fell in a Super-G competition in Bormio, Italy, injuring her right shoulder.

--By Kathleen Adams, Melissa August, Lina Lofaro, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders and Sidney Urquhart