The Week March 13-19

By Margaret Emery, Christopher John Farley, Lina Lofaro, Michael Quinn, Jeffery Rubin, Alain Sanders, Anastasia Toufexis, Sidney Urquhart

NATION

Rollin' on a River

After weeks of partisan bickering, the Senate reached consensus by voting unanimously to hold hearings on the Whitewater affair -- at some unspecified point in the future. In the meantime, the Whitewater grand jury reached ever higher into the White House, issuing a subpoena to George Stephanopoulos, one of the President's closest advisers, on the same day the jury heard testimony from departing White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum and deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes.

Hubbell Burst

Webster Hubbell resigned as Associate Attorney General to focus on resolving allegations of client overbilling and expense abuse -- charges that were leveled by his erstwhile partners at Little Rock's Rose Law Firm (former workplace of Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Administration figures). The exit was another painful development for the Clintons, particularly the First Lady, many of whose imports into the Administration have run into trouble.

Tonya Pleads Guilty

The Tonya Harding saga finally reached an end, of a sort: in an Oregon courtroom, Harding pleaded guilty to conspiring to hinder the prosecution of the assault on Nancy Kerrigan. Harding, who denies any role in the attack itself, was sentenced to three years' probation and a $100,000 fine. As part of the plea, she will also have to resign from the U.S. Figure Skating Association, ending her amateur career.

Rosty Slugs Out a Primary Win

Though battered by a federal probe into his financial dealings with the scandal-ridden House post office, House Ways and Means chairman Dan Rostenkowski, one of the President's chief allies in the health-care battle, won his toughest Democratic primary yet. The victory was due in no small part to all-out help from Chicago's famed political machine and heavy campaigning by top national Democrats, from Clinton on down.

A First

The Illinois Democratic primary also yielded a female sweep: four of the six top spots on the ticket were clinched by women, with gubernatorial candidate Dawn Clark Netsch at the head.

Work Begins on Health Reform

Launching what is bound to be months of congressional voting and revoting on a health-care reform package, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health voted 6 to 5 to require employers to pay most of their workers' insurance, a key element in the President's plan.

Reagan: Ollie Lies

Former President Ronald Reagan thundered into Virginia's Republican Senate nomination contest with an uncharacteristic political attack against a fellow Republican. Complaining that he was "getting pretty steamed" over what he claimed were false Iran-contra statements made by candidate Oliver North, Reagan fumed, "I never instructed him or anyone in my Administration to mislead Congress on Iran-contra matters and the private meetings he said he had with me just didn't happen."

The CIA Mops Up After Ames

Declaring himself "absolutely determined to get to the bottom" of the Ames spy affair, CIA Director R. James Woolsey announced that a review of "systematic" security problems at the agency, including overreliance on lie detector tests, is under way.

Equal Education Opportunity

In a revolutionary school-financing move aimed at equalizing funding for rich and poor districts, Michigan voters approved a plan relying primarily on increased sales taxes -- not property taxes -- to help pay for public education.

Farrakhan vs. the N.Y. Post

The Nation of Islam slammed the New York Post with a $4.4 billion libel suit over an article describing possible links between its leader, Louis Farrakhan, and the murder of Malcolm X. The Post called the lawsuit "totally without merit."

L.A. Castration Acquittal

A woman who cut off her husband's testicles with a pair of scissors was acquitted of charges of mayhem and assault by a Los Angeles jury. Aurelia Macias admitted to the castration but claimed that she was afraid she was going to be raped and that she had been beaten throughout her marriage. Macias and her husband Jaime have reconciled, but prosecutors took the case to trial anyway. The jury deadlocked on a lesser charge of battery.

WORLD

Talk to You Soon?

After the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to condemn the massacre of Palestinians at a Hebron mosque, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria agreed to resume negotiations with Israel next month. The Palestine Liberation Organization also planned to meet with Israelis early this week to try to restart talks derailed by the Feb. 25 massacre.

NoKo's Nuclear Intransigence

The U.S. canceled talks scheduled for this week with North Korea after Pyongyang refused to allow international inspectors full access to its Yongbyon nuclear facility. Washington also reportedly decided Saturday to reschedule joint military exercises with South Korea, which had been suspended. By week's end talks between archenemies North and South Korea collapsed.

South African Bombshell

A secret branch of the South African police trained hit squads, instigated massacres and smuggled arms to Zulu extremists in their campaign of violence against African National Congress supporters, a judicial commission claimed. The report, delivered just weeks before South Africa's national elections, alleged that a "horrible network of criminal activity" occurred from 1989 until "the recent past."

More Nuclear Accords

The U.S. and Russia agreed to allow mutual inspections of each other's plutonium-storage facilities, enabling both countries to better verify compliance with nuclear dismantling accords. Russia also agreed to stop producing weapons-grade plutonium soon, and President Clinton announced an extension of the U.S. moratorium on nuclear-weapons testing through September 1995.

Try and Untangle This

Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim government of Bosnia signed an agreement to open the besieged capital of Sarajevo to the outside world beginning Wednesday. The U.N.-brokered accord does not permit military or commercial traffic. In Washington, Bosnian Croats and Muslims signed the constitution of a new federated state, confederating it with Croatia. Meanwhile, Croatian Serbs and the government of Croatia said that they will meet in Zagreb this week to hold peace talks aimed at ending their three-year-old war.

Algerians Kill Fundamentalists

Government forces in Algeria killed nearly 60 suspected militant Muslims, including several they believed responsible for the murders of a policeman and two journalists in the capital, Algiers. An earlier raid by 200 armed men freed about 1,000 fundamentalists from a provincial prison, including 300 on death row.

Mexican Banker Kidnapped

The president of Mexico's largest banking group, Banamex, was held for an undisclosed ransom after being abducted by at least six gunmen in Mexico City. Billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu is just one of 2,000 Mexican businessmen who have been kidnapped for profit in the past five years.

$2 Billion for Environment

The U.S., Japan and other wealthy countries agreed to provide $2 billion over the next three years to help poor countries develop in an environmentally sound manner (as opposed to the way the wealthy countries did it). The aid will be used to rejuvenate the U. N.-sponsored Global Environment Facility.

French War-Crimes Trial Opens

Paul Touvier, the first Frenchman to be tried for crimes against humanity, went on trial in Versailles. Touvier, who served as intelligence chief for a pro-Nazi militia during World War II, stands accused of ordering the execution of seven Jews in a Lyons suburb in 1944.

BUSINESS

Jobs Conference

Finance and labor ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations met in Detroit to discuss the issue troubling nearly all their economies: unemployment. President Clinton, opening the conference on Monday, urged participants to take more responsibility for promoting global job growth. The summit concluded with a statement agreeing that improved education will be the key to creating more good jobs in an era of rapid technological advances.

Honda Scandal

The American Honda Co. was rocked by the indictment of five of its top executives for fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy following a yearlong federal investigation of charges that Honda dealerships were awarded on the basis of bribes.

GM Strike

A three-day strike that shut down General Motors assembly plants in three states ended Thursday when union and company negotiators reached a contract agreement. Three thousand workers had walked out of two Ohio brake-making plants on Monday.

Preventing Price Fixing

Six major airlines will be held to new rules designed to prevent the price ; fixing that cost air travelers as much as $1.9 billion between 1988 and 1992. Justice Department lawyers found more than 50 price-fixing arrangements, which airlines planned with one another by sending signals through their jointly owned computerized information system.

GE-Kemper Showdown

Setting the stage for what could turn into a rancorous takeover battle, Kemper Corp.'s board of directors on Thursday rejected a $2.2 billion bid from GE Capital Corp., angering some shareholders who had been eyeing GE's $55-per- share offer. GE would not say whether it would make a higher bid.

THE ARTS & MEDIA

Oprah Gets Even Richer

Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions and King World distributors announced a deal on Friday that would pay the already megarich TV talk-show host more than $500 million. The agreement increases her share of syndication profits and could extend the run of her popular TV show through the year 2000. Winfrey is also allowed to drop her show without any contract penalties.