NOTEBOOK

By ELIZABETH BLAND, DANIEL EISENBERG, ANITA HAMILTON, JANICE M. HOROWITZ, NADYA LABI, JAMIE MALANOWKSI AND JOEL STEIN

WINNERS & LOSERS

THIS OLD WORLD KEEPS SPINNING 'ROUND

[WINNERS]

YEVGENI PRIMAKOV Pretty in pinstripes. Russian minister soothes Saddam. Ruskies become the new diplomacrats

JIANG ZEMIN Exports No. 1 dissident. See what happens when you give a dictator a 21-gun salute?

JANET RENO Can 10,000 Japanese men be wrong? Poll says A.G.'s a babe

[& LOSERS]

JAMES P. HOFFA Be careful what you wish for. Focus will now shift to him. He can take the heat; can he stand the light?

JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN Chairman of race commission gags Ward Connerly. What happened to diversity?

MIKAYLA MCCAUGHEY Gee, how much attention will you get with seven new siblings?

HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

TOUPEES AWAY Hair-impaired guys, take heart. The FDA has okayed an extra-strength Rogaine, the hair-growth drug. If it works--and it doesn't always--it takes two months instead of four and grows 45% more mane.

IS THAT A FAT? In women, it's not the total amount of fat consumed that matters, it's the kind. Soybean and olive oil can actually reduce the risk of heart attack. Stick margarine, though, dramatically increases it--even more than fat from meat.

INFECTION PROTECTION There's help for hospital workers exposed to HIV from, say, a needle prick. Taking anti-AIDS drugs soon afterward can cut the odds of becoming infected by 80%.

Sources: Pharmacia & Upjohn; New England Journal of Medicine (2,3)

THE BAD NEWS

STAY HOME! Workers with respiratory illnesses probably ought to stay away from work and keep their contagious germs to themselves. Yet a survey shows that nearly 85% go into the office anyway. One reason cited: they feel guilty about calling in sick.

THE REAL KILLER Most middle-aged women fear cancer, especially breast cancer, more than any other disease. But the No. 1 killer of women is heart attack. Don't ignore it.

NO REST FOR THE WEARY Older women who survive a hip fracture face yet another worry. For unknown reasons, their chance of dying from other ailments, like stroke, is raised for at least five years.

Sources: Wellness Councils of America; National Council on Aging; American Journal of Public Health

NUMBERS

4,604: Number of bills introduced in the first session of the 105th Congress

1.7: Percentage of those bills that have been passed into law

38: Number of children killed by air bags in car crashes since 1985

1,750: Estimated number of lives saved by air bags in the same period

514 million: Number of barrels of Iraqi oil imported to the U.S. in 1990

0: Barrels of Iraqi oil imported to the U.S. in 1991

1.2 million: Barrels of Iraqi oil imported to the U.S. in 1996

25%: Drop in number of organized Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups, from 186 to 140, in 1995 and 1996

23%: Increase in the number of organized skinhead groups, from 30 to 37, in the same period

49: Number of U.S. murders attributed to skinheads since 1988

Sources: U.S. Congress, NHTSA, U.S. DOE, Southern Poverty Law Center