The Week April 24-30

By Margaret Emery, Christopher John Farley, Christine Gorman, Lina Lofaro, Jeffery C. Rubin, Sidney Urquhart

NATION

Nixon Farewell

Former President Richard Nixon was buried Wednesday after a ceremony at his boyhood home in Yorba Linda, California. Among the 3,000 mourners were delegates from more than 80 countries and five U.S. Presidents, including Bill Clinton, who delivered one of four eulogies. The service, led by the Rev. Billy Graham, focused on Nixon's foreign policy achievements, touching only obliquely upon the Watergate scandal. "He achieved greatly, and he suffered deeply," said former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. "But he never gave up." Earlier, an estimated 42,000 visitors had stood for hours in chilly, damp weather to pay their respects to the former President.

Ames Cuts a Deal

Two months after his arrest for spying for Moscow, CIA agent Aldrich Ames was sentenced to life in prison without parole after agreeing to a plea bargain that will guarantee a five- to six-year prison term for his wife Rosario. The shortened sentence will allow her to return more quickly to caring for the couple's five-year-old son Paul. In exchange, Ames will cooperate with authorities in ascertaining the extent of the damage caused by his nine years of spying.

Civil Rights Act Limited

Ending several years of conflict and speculation, the Supreme Court voted 8 to 1 Tuesday against applying the Civil Rights Act of 1991 retroactively to cases , that were pending when the law was enacted. The court ruled that the law, passed by Congress to restore rights narrowed by previous Supreme Court rulings and to allow victims of employment bias to collect compensatory and punitive damages, was not intended to apply to cases already in the legal pipeline at the time of Congress's vote.

Smoking Gun?

Antismoking activists gained new ammunition when two former scientists for Philip Morris testified before a House panel that the cigarette company had suppressed research on the effect of nicotine on rats. According to the scientists, Philip Morris refused to allow them to publish studies on the addictive potential of nicotine, barred them from discussing the research, and ultimately closed down their lab, also halting research on a possible nicotine substitute.

Haiti Envoy Ousted

After months of turmoil over U.S. policy in Haiti, Lawrence Pezzullo, the U.S. special envoy to Haiti, was forced to resign.The Administration has come under increasing fire for its unsuccessful policy, enduring public protests by members of Congress and harsh criticism from the deposed Haitian President, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Kevorkian Case to Jury

A jury began deliberation Thursday in the case of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who is on trial for assisting in the suicide last year of a 30-year-old man suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease. Kevorkian testified that "when your conscience says ((a)) law is immoral, you don't follow the law. That's what Gandhi said and Gandhi got what I'm getting."

Killer Twisters

Tornadoes raged through several states, killing four people in Texas and two in Indiana. Overall, more than 80 people were injured while scores of homes and businesses were destroyed.

TECs Begone

In a preliminary victory for gun-control advocates, the House Judiciary Committee approved a ban on 19 types of assault-style weapons, setting the stage for a full House vote as early as this week. Fifteen to 20 more votes are still needed to pass the bill.

Gathering of the Tribes

In a historic meeting, President Clinton spoke with representatives from 200 of the nation's 545 federally recognized Native American tribes, promising new respect and assistance -- and an end to token political gestures.

WORLD

One Man, One Vote -- At Last

After more than three centuries of white domination, South Africans of every race cast ballots for the first time to select a postapartheid government. Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress party were expected to win handily. The vote was not without hitches. In Soweto, the huge black township outside Johannesburg, the line of eager voters grew to more than 4,000 people, while in some remote areas, government helicopters had to fly in thousands of extra ballots. But the chaos and violence that threatened to overwhelm the process early in the week had largely subsided by Thursday, as government police announced the arrest of more than 30 white supremacists charged with 21 bombing deaths. Voting was extended to a fourth day in six rural areas, including the Zulu stronghold in Natal province. "It's like the birth of a baby," exulted Linda Khaba, a local magistrate. "Problems, anxiety and joy."

Yeltsin Signs a Truce

With great fanfare, Russian President Boris Yeltsin completed a peace agreement signed by leaders of the main parliamentary factions, trade unions and religious groups. The accord, which pledges that all sides will refrain from violence, is intended to last two years -- giving the government time to act on economic reforms.

New Flashpoint in Bosnia?

Serb forces acceded to the NATO-U.N. ultimatum and pulled virtually all their troops and heavy weapons away from Gorazde. But observers fear they may be moving them northward to Brcko (pronounced Birch-ko), a town on the Croatian- Bosnian border partly held by the Serbs that the U.N. is now considering naming a seventh "safe area." At U.N. headquarters in New York City, the Security Council approved 6,550 additional peacekeepers for Bosnia, after the U.S. withdrew its earlier objections to the cost.

More Horror in Rwanda

As the warfare between government troops and rebels entered its fourth week, a shaky cease-fire collapsed, and savage fighting erupted again in the capital, Kigali. In what U.N. workers described as the biggest and fastest exodus they had ever seen, more than 250,000 people poured into neighboring Tanzania. By late Friday, lines at the border stretched for five miles. In New York City U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali urged the Security Council to reconsider its decision to withdraw most of its forces and asked that peacekeepers be permitted to use force to prevent further massacres similar to those he said had claimed 200,000 victims in the past three weeks.

Air-Crash Mystery

A China Airlines jetliner crashed and burned in Nagoya, Japan, after the pilot radioed the control tower that he was making a second landing attempt. At week's end the death toll was 263.

Tragedy in Kenya

A government ferry carrying more than three times its licensed passenger load of 150 capsized while taking workers across Mombasa harbor. Rescuers reported 200 dead and 200 missing.

A Prime Minister for Italy

Billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, who led a right-wing coalition to victory in national elections in March, has been asked to form the first conservative government in Italy's post-World War II history.

And a Government for Japan

New Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata named a Cabinet but acknowledged as he did so that solving such vexing problems as tax reform and trade hassles with Washington would not be easy for a government built on a minority coalition. As one Democratic Socialist legislator put it, "It can't get any worse than this."

BUSINESS

Propping Up the Dollar

The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy grew at a moderate 2.6% pace in the first quarter of 1994. The slower growth rate was due in part to drops in exports. Meanwhile, investor confidence in the dollar faltered, prompting the Federal Reserve to intervene in the currency markets, buying dollars and selling yen and deutsche marks.

Flat-Panel Technology

The Pentagon announced that it will spend $500 million over five years to encourage U.S. companies to compete with Japan in the production of flat-panel computer display screens. The screens can be used in cockpits and armored vehicles, and as displays in soldiers' helmets, and on battlefield maps.

Union Victory

The Teamsters reached a tentative agreement to end their three-week-old strike. The union successfully blocked a move to hire more part-time workers and achieved increases in pension contributions and health-care coverage.

SCIENCE

It's the Top

After a 17-year search, scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago report that they may have confirmed the existence of the sixth -- and last -- of the quarks, ghostly particles that are the smallest units of matter. Dubbed a top quark, the elusive particle weighs as much as a gold atom; it enjoyed a brief reign about a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. If the finding is confirmed, scientists will have validated three decades' worth of work that gave rise to the so-called Standard Model of particle physics.

Of Mice and Men

Researchers have genetically altered laboratory mice so that their immune systems are fooled into making human antibodies, powerful proteins that attack viruses, bacteria and other biological threats. The technical breakthrough could eventually lead to the mass production of synthetic antibodies to help fight infections, organ rejection and possibly even cancer.

The Internet Factor

In a computational tour de force that could affect the security of the information superhighway, a team of computer scientists has solved a long- standing mathematical problem: finding the prime factors of a 129-digit composite number. When the puzzle was originally posed in 1977 by cryptographers trying to demonstrate the power of a new encryption system, scientists estimated it would take 40 quadrillion years to solve. But by using the Internet to divide the number-crunching task among 1,600 computers, a team of volunteers managed to crack the code in just eight months. Corporations and government offices that rely on such codes may now have to shore up their systems for transmitting sensitive information.