THE WEEK: FERUARY 12-18

NATION

The House on Crime

Brushing aside threats of a presidential veto, House Republicans passed the most controversial portion of their rewrite of last year’s Crime Bill (not including, that is, a possible repeal of the assault-weapons ban). By a vote of 238 to 192, the House scrapped a $13 billion outlay for new police officers and crime-prevention programs in favor of doling out $10 billion worth of block grants that communities could spend as they saw fit. Some Senate Republicans-worried that voting down money earmarked for police might not play too well to the public-indicated the measure might be reworked when it arrives in the upper chamber.

The House on Defense

Brushing aside still more White House warnings, House Republicans also passed a defense and foreign policy bill that would cut back U.S. financing of U.N. peacekeeping operations, restrict American troops from serving under U.N. command, and create a $1.5 million bipartisan commission to study national-security strategy. The usually solid Republican majority cracked, however, when two dozen party members helped defeat a provision that would have required prompt deployment of a national missile-defense system.

The Senate on the Budget

After two weeks of debate, Senators finally agreed to vote on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution at the end of this month. Unofficial tallies showed the amendment’s Republican sponsors still just short of the two-thirds majority needed.

Rx for a Surgeon General

The President’s embattled nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Henry Foster, began making friendly house calls on key Senators. But his prospects for confirmation still remained uncertain, a condition the Administration hopes to remedy by taking at least another week to pressure pro-abortion rights lawmakers into backing Foster.

A Clinton Whitewater Quiz

Reports surfaced that Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr will ask the Clintons to give sworn interviews about the land deal at the heart of the scandal. The Clintons let it be known that they would cooperate.

A Ron Brown Probe

Attorney General Janet Reno announced the opening of a preliminary criminal investigation into the complex finances of Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown, a step that could lead to the appointment of an independent counsel if the evidence warrants. Republicans have been pressing the Justice Department to look into allegations that Brown may have violated disclosure requirements and evaded taxes as a result of some complicated transactions with a former business partner. Brown’s attorney predicted that the probe would find no violations of law.

Fatal Training

An Army Ranger training exercise killed four soldiers at Florida’s Eglin Air Force Base. The trainees died after spending several hours in chilly chest-high swamp waters. The men had previously completed training in rugged forest, desert and mountain terrains. Four separate investigations of the deaths are under way.

The Simpson Trial

The prosecution continued to present testimony from police describing what they discovered at the murder scene and at O.J. Simpson’s mansion. The defense launched an aggressive cross-examination, seeking to portray the investigation as inept and careless. The week ended dramatically with the prosecution’s introduction of the glove and cap found at the murder scene.

Commuter Murder Verdict

A Long Island jury convicted Colin Ferguson of murdering six Long Island Rail Road commuters and attempting to murder 19 others in a cold-blooded 1993 shooting spree. Ferguson, who acted as his own attorney after his lawyers recommended he mount an insanity defense, had maintained his innocence with a series of bizarre assertions and alibis.

WORLD

Wooing the Zapatistas

Only a week after ordering the Mexican army to flush out the Chiapas rebels from their mountain hideouts, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo abruptly changed course and called off the troops. He even offered the guerrillas and their most public leader, Subcomandante Marcos, an amnesty if they gave up their arms. Zedillo held out the olive branch two days after his party suffered its worst defeat at the polls. The p.r.i.was trounced in the state of Jalisco by the center-right p.a.n., which won 55% of the vote in elections for governor.

A Tenuous Cease-Fire

Setting aside questions of his own culpability for the war in Chechnya, Russian President Boris Yeltsin blamed his military leaders for “failures, setbacks and mistakes” and acknowledged that human-rights violations had occurred in the would-be independent republic. Peace talks between military commanders have begun, but the announcement of a cease-fire has done little to stop the shelling by both sides.

Carrot, Stick in Bosnia

A five-nation group, including the U.S., agreed on a plan that would suspend sanctions against Serbia in exchange for its recognition of Bosnia and Croatia. The move occurred one day after a United Nations tribunal charged the Serbian commander of a Bosnian concentration camp with “genocide”-which marks the first time an international body has used the term genocide in an indictment.

Banking Scandal

A top official of Japan’s largest opposition party, the New Frontier Party, has resigned over allegations that his family received improper loans from two failed credit unions. The Japanese government had announced an unprecedented bailout for both institutions, but the rescue plan has been criticized because the chairman of one of the credit unions allegedly used his position to fund speculative activities.

Crude Trade

In an attempt to subvert U.N. sanctions, Iraq has been covertly exporting its crude oil through Turkey and Iran. The oil is reportedly sold for prices as low as $8 a barrel, or about $6 lower than what it would fetch in the open market.

BUSINESS

Getting Tougher on Microsoft

In a surprising and embarrassing rebuke to the Justice Department, a federal judge rejected the government’s antitrust settlement with Microsoft, the world’s largest computer-software company. In a biting 45-page decision, Judge Stanley Sporkin tore into the settlement, calling it “too little, too late” to foster fair competition in the computer industry. At issue: Microsoft’s licensing policies for computer operating systems, and its pre-announcement of new products long before they are ready-a market-cornering technique known as “vaporware.” The Justice Department and Microsoft will appeal the decision.

Wall Street Nudges 4000

On Wednesday the Dow Jones industrial average came within 2 points of reaching 4000 for the first time. At the close of trading on Friday, however, it fell back to 3953.

Plaintiffs R Us

A lawsuit against the nation’s tobacco companies filed by three smokers and a woman whose husband died of lung cancer was certified as a class action by a U.S. district judge in New Orleans. The suit, which can now be joined by smokers and ex-smokers, could involve tens of millions of plaintiffs from all over the country.

The Peacock and the Fox

NBC has dropped its challenge to the legality of Fox Broadcasting’s ownership of stations in the U.S. The network claimed it had accomplished what it set out to do-prompt the fcc to review foreign ownership rules. NBC announced that it will be resuming a “normal business relationship” with Fox, including a lucrative deal to put two NBC cable channels into millions of homes in the rapidly expanding Asian market.

SCIENCE

Sex, Brains and Word Games

Underscoring once again how remarkably adaptable the brain is, researchers reported evidence that men and women use their heads differently when processing words. Brain scans of 38 men and women, taken while they were solving word games, showed that the men tended to use only the left half of the brain during the task while the women drew on both hemispheres. The results of the study could help explain why men do not recover as well as women do from some kinds of strokes.

THE ARTS & MEDIA

Gump 13, Hoop Dreams 1

To hardly anyone’s surprise, Paramount’s schmaltzy fable Forrest Gump bagged 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Tom Hanks) and Best Director (Robert Zemeckis). Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show and The Shawshank Redemption each got seven nominations, including Best Picture; the fifth nominee in the category was Four Weddings and a Funeral. The widely praised Hoop Dreams, a documentary about two black teenagers from Chicago who dream of fame and fortune on the basketball court, got only one nod-for editing.

Battling the Bottom Line

A nationally known newspaper’s pursuit of profit has driven away two of its most talented editors. Geneva Overholser, one of the country’s pre-eminent female journalists, resigned as editor of the Des Moines Register, saying she was just “worn out” by the grueling hours and the pressure of publishing a daily in the face of growing financial constraints. Managing editor David Westphal also resigned after turning down Overholser’s post, saying he had lost the “passion and zest” for the job.

SPORT

Hoop Dreams at UConn

The University of Connecticut’s men’s and women’s basketball teams were both voted No. 1 in their respective polls-marking the first time the same school has dominated both sports.

A Champion Put to Stud

Holy Bull, Thoroughbred racing’s 1994 Horse of the Year, ended his brilliant career (13 victories in 16 races; $2.5 million in purse money) with torn tendons and ligaments in his left foreleg. The charismatic gray colt will now live it up as a stallion in Lexington, Kentucky.

–By Kathleen Adams, Melissa August, Christiane Birkner, Christine Gorman, Lina Lofaro, Michael Quinn, Alain Sanders and Sribala Subramanian