THE WEEK: SEPTEMBER 24-30

NATION

SIMPSON: THE GRAND FINALE

The national docudrama that is the O.J. Simpson murder trial moved toward its climactic conclusion as both sides delivered highly charged closing arguments. Prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden told jurors to follow the trail of blood, hat, gloves, socks and other physical evidence in the case. That methodical approach, they said, would lead straight from the crime scene to Simpson’s bedroom and to only one conclusion: Guilty. Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran delivered a fire-and-brimstone assault on the Los Angeles police. He accused the department of plotting a frame-up of his client, who he said was innocent and had been targeted by a deceitful and ruthlessly racist detective, Mark Fuhrman. Defense attorney Barry Scheck said blood-DNA tests had been so tampered with they were worthless.

DEADLINES, DEADLINES

With presidential veto threats hovering over many of the 13 spending bills that are needed to keep the government functioning into the new fiscal year, which begins this week, the President and the Republican congressional leadership reached a temporary truce. A compromise stopgap spending measure will fund government agencies at reduced levels until Nov. 13. It remains to be seen whether the extension will prove long enough for the President and Congress to hammer out their differences. Meanwhile, an unexpectedly fierce House g.o.p. rebellion defeated final versions of defense and environmental spending bills.

MEDICARE MANEUVERS

Though Democrats continued their attacks with a blitz of legislative delaying tactics and more high-publicity counterhearings on the lawn of the Capitol, the Senate Finance Committee approved the basic G.O.P. blueprint for overhauling Medicare and Medicaid. House Democrats unveiled a much less sweeping $90 billion cut in Medicare (the G.O.P. proposes $270 billion) that would essentially keep the system intact but reduce payments to hospitals and doctors. Meanwhile, a Congressional Budget Office analysis showed that the privatization option in the G.O.P.’s plans may not save as much as anticipated.

THE RUBY RIDGE PROBE

Kevin Harris, white separatist Randy Weaver’s friend, testified before the Senate panel investigating the fatal 1992 siege. Contradicting the previous testimony of federal marshals, Harris said it was the marshals who fired first and started the gunfight that left Weaver’s wife, son and a marshal dead.

CUTTING ITS LOSSES

CIA Director John Deutch told the Senate Intelligence Committee that 10 agency officials would be dismissed, demoted or reprimanded for having mishandled information regarding killings and human rights abuses in Guatemala in the early 1990s.

SUPREME DOCKET

On the eve of the official start of its new term, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to add two politically sensitive appeals to a docket that already includes cases on gay rights and racial gerrymandering. The Justices said they would review a Bush Administration decision not to re-adjust the 1990 Census to compensate for an apparent undercount of minorities in large cities; the Justices also announced they would review the sentences imposed upon Los Angeles police officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell in the Rodney King case. The court’s most intriguing question: When will Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 71, who underwent back surgery on Wednesday, return to the bench?

KEEPING ALL DOORS SHUT

Reacting to reports and fears of rear-passenger ejections from popular minivans, the government ordered all rear doors in passenger vehicles to meet the same lock and retention standards as those for side doors, starting with 1998 models.

PEROT, AGAIN

The preseason winds of the 1996 presidential contest shifted again. Ross Perot announced the formation of a new, independent third party, whose mission will be to field an “outstanding” public figure for the Oval Office unaligned with either major party. Ross Perot, perhaps? Or Colin Powell? Neither man would say anything definite. Few Republicans or Democrats would say much for the record either. But pundits, on and off campaign payrolls, speculated that if the considerable financial and registration obstacles facing a third party can be overcome, another Perot run could hurt the G.O.P.’s presidential ticket more than Clinton’s.

CALIFORNIA SUNSET

Facing mounting campaign debts, low poll ratings and negative reaction to his campaign in his home state, California Governor Pete Wilson withdrew from the race for the G.O.P. presidential nomination, becoming the first casualty of the contest.

OUT OF STEP WITH FARRAKHAN

Who will be joining the Million Man March on Washington being organized by Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan for Oct. 16? Count out two of the nation’s largest black religious denominations, the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Not ecumenical enough, they said, assailing Jesse Jackson’s assertion–which Jackson later retracted–that the two denominations had endorsed the march.

A PROSECUTOR KILLED

One of Boston’s top street-gang prosecutors, assistant Massachusetts attorney general Paul McLaughlin, was shot dead as he was about to get into his car in a commuter parking lot. At week’s end police began discounting the possibility that the murder may have been ordered by a gang.

RACE CASE IN CHICAGO

Citing new evidence, and following marches and protests against his handling of the case, Cook County state’s attorney Jack O’Malley obtained an involuntary-manslaughter indictment against a white police officer who, while off duty, allegedly shot to death a homeless black man last July. Gregory Becker is accused of having killed Joseph Gould after Gould approached him and a female companion for money.

WORLD

PALESTINIANS EXPAND SELF-RULE

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat, meeting at the White House, agreed to extend Palestinian rule to almost a third of the West Bank, providing for Palestinian elections and laying the foundation for what could become a Palestinian state. The two leaders signed an intricately worded 400-page document that outlines the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from territory seized in the 1967 Six-Day War and transfers governing authority to Palestinians for most of their population in the West Bank. A last-minute dispute over the timing of Israeli troops’ withdrawal from Hebron was resolved when Rabin and Arafat stepped in to President Clinton’s private dining room to work things out; their changes were added to the agreement document in pen and ink.

CEASE-FIRE ELUDES BOSNIA

Bosnia, Croatia and the Serb-dominated Yugoslavia endorsed a preliminary plan for a new government of Bosnia, but even as the foreign ministers of the warring parties met at the U.N., their soldiers went on fighting. The leaders agreed on a 12-paragraph “statement of principles” providing for a group national presidency, a parliament, a constitutional court and “free, democratic elections.” But the critical issue for any Bosnian peace, the disposition of territory, was not addressed. Even as the diplomats talked, the Bosnian army continued its offensive to retake sections of northwestern Bosnia captured by the Serbs.

SAVING FACE ON NUKE SALES?

After a meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen and Secretary of State Warren Christopher, American officials announced that Beijing’s plans to sell two nuclear reactors to Iran had been terminated. Not so, said Qian. The sale had been suspended only because of problems with the original site. Western diplomats, looking for signs of a thaw in Sino-American relations, think Qian’s denial may be merely an attempt to save face back home.

NATO OFFERS NUCLEAR UMBRELLA

Provoking strong Russian displeasure, NATO announced that any new members from the former Soviet bloc would be given the same offer of mutual defense–including the use of nuclear weapons in case of attack–promised to all members. Said a Clinton Administration official: “There will be no second-class nato members.”

NICHOLAS TO REST IN ST. PETERSBURG

Russia’s last Czar, Nicholas II, and his family will be reburied next February in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg. The family was slain by the Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg in 1918, and their remains (minus those of son Alexei and daughter Anastasia) were exhumed in 1992; DNA tests later confirmed the imperial identities.

BUSINESS

FIRST BARINGS, NOW DAIWA

An executive vice president at the New York office of Japan’s Daiwa Bank was charged with criminal fraud by a U.S. attorney in New York City. In an effort to cover up a $200,000 loss he incurred in 1984, Toshihide Iguchi forged and concealed more than 30,000 unauthorized trades that culminated in a deficit of $1.1 billion. Iguchi, who had been living quietly in Kinnelon, New Jersey, revealed his transgressions to Daiwa executives in July, but the bank notified U.S. and Japanese authorities only two weeks ago. Unlike Britain’s Barings Bank, which collapsed earlier this year under losses of $1.33 billion incurred by rogue trader Nick Leeson, Daiwa has adequate capital to absorb the shortfall. Embarrassed (and contrite) executives and directors of Daiwa announced they would take 10% to 30% salary cuts over the next six months.

NEW IMAGE FOR THE C-NOTE

Early in 1996, a bigger and brighter engraving of Ben Franklin will grace the $100 bill. The redesign, intended to frustrate counterfeiters, also incorporates ink that changes color from green to black and a translucent thread that glows red under ultraviolet light. Eventually, most other denominations will also get face-lifts. One possible exception: the lowly dollar bill, which may be replaced by a new coin.

–By Kathleen Adams, Janice Horowitz, Lina Lofaro, Lawrence Mondi, Michael Quinn, Jeffery Rubin, Alain Sanders, Sidney Urquhart and Steve Wulf