THE WEEK

By KATHLEEN ADAMS, CHRISTINE GORMAN, JOHN GREENWALD, LINA LOFARO, MICHAEL QUINN, JEFFERY C. RUBIN AND ALAIN L. SANDERS

NATION

BUDGET: ONE DOWN

By a vote of 238 to 193, G.O.P. leaders pushed their bold, seven-year balanced-budget plan through the House of Representatives. Democrats bitterly complained that the package of $1.4 trillion in spending cuts and $350 billion in tax cuts would sacrifice the needs of the middle and lower classes to benefit the wealthy; Republicans countered that the Democrats had no viable alternative.

CLINTON'S FIRST VETO?

President Clinton launched his own budget salvo when his Administration announced he would veto the first major set of G.O.P. spending cuts that both houses of Congress are expected to send to his desk: $16.4 billion worth of recisions from the current budget. Proposing a set of alternative cuts, the President said the G.O.P. package was unacceptable because it would slash education, environmental and crime-prevention programs at the same time that it spares road- and courthouse-construction projects.

CLOSING DOWN THE AVENUE

Clinton agreed, for the first time in history, to ban vehicular traffic from a two block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. The building is vulnerable to a truck bomb, like that used in Oklahoma, which could injure scores of people and seriously damage the structure. An estimated 26,000 cars and buses will have to be rerouted each day.

SAVED BY THE DEADLINE

Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel looking into allegations of wrongdoing in the Whitewater affair, has decided not to indict Presidential aide Bruce Lindsey on federal banking charges related to Clinton's 1990 gubernatorial re-election campaign. The statute of limitations on the charges runs out this week.

WATERED-DOWN WATER ACT

Backed by a powerful coalition of industrial, agricultural and state interests, the House adopted a broad dilution of the Clean Water Act, the legislation widely credited with cleaning up the nation's waterways. Proponents said the changes -- handing over more controls to states, reducing wetlands protection and requiring that greater weight be given to costs -- were needed to counter an overzealous EPA and other "environmental extremists." The Senate is expected to be less receptive to the bill, and Clinton has promised a veto.

NOW, A SOCIAL CONTRACT

With the blessings of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other leading Republican conservatives, the Christian Coalition unveiled its "Contract with the American Family," a 10-point social and political program that the group wants Congress to enact. Among its controversial provisions: a constitutional amendment allowing prayer in schools and other public places, new limits on abortions, restrictions on computer and cable-TV access to sexually explicit materials and the abolition of federal aid for the arts.

RON BROWN'S TURN

Attorney General Janet Reno requested the appointment of yet another independent counsel -- her fourth -- to probe top Administration officials, this time Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. The counsel will look into, among other things, a business deal that apparently netted nearly $500,000 when Brown sold his interest in a firm in which he invested no money. Backed by the President, Brown denied wrongdoing and vowed to remain in the Cabinet.

PACKWOOD'S PACK OF TROUBLES

The Senate Ethics Committee presented Finance Committee chairman Bob Packwood with results of its inquiry into allegations against him. It found evidence that the Oregon Republican grabbed or kissed women on 18 occasions, improperly solicited a job for his wife and altered evidentiary diary entries. Packwood said he welcomed the opportunity to defend himself before the committee.

THE SIMPSON TRIAL

Prosecutors continued to tighten the web of inculpatory DNA evidence that they have been trying to weave around O.J. Simpson. State forensic expert Gary Sims testified about a second set of DNA tests conducted on blood found at the crime scene, in Simpson's Bronco and on the glove and socks discovered at Simpson's estate. Some samples, Sims said, matched Simpson's blood, others the blood of the victims, and still others that of all three. The defense again insinuated its scenario of tainted samples.

THE BOMBING CASE

The New York Times reported that Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh admitted to two people who talked to him in jail that he was responsible for the blast, but McVeigh's lawyer disputed the report. The newspaper also reported that Michael Fortier, a friend of McVeigh's, told federal prosecutors that the two men inspected the Oklahoma City building several days before the blast.

RUNAWAY TANK!

Shawn Nelson, an unemployed plumber and Army veteran, stole a National Guard tank and steamrolled down San Diego streets, plowing over cars and utility poles. Police shot and killed him after he refused to surrender and instead tried to roll the tank off a concrete freeway divider.

WORLD

JAPANESE CULT GURU ARRESTED

Nearly 400 police officers descended on Aum Shinrikyo's headquarters near Mount Fuji, capturing the cult's bearded leader, Shoko Asahara, after finding him hidden in a coffinlike secret chamber four hours after the raid began. He was arrested and held without bail on murder charges connected with the March 20 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment or death by hanging. Asahara denies ordering the attack, but key senior cult members have confessed to having produced sarin-and to having used it in the subway gassing.

EBOLA DEATH TOLL RISES

Zairian health officials said 97 people have died from the Ebola virus so far. One of the country's leading virologists, Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfun, who helped identify the virus in 1976, criticized the government's quarantines and roadblocks as ineffective. On Saturday the quarantine on the Kikwit region was officially lifted.

MENEM WINS SECOND TERM

Argentine President Carlos Saul Menem was re-elected with 49.9% of the vote, defeating his main rival, Senator Josa Octavio Bordon, who won 29.2%. Menem became the first Argentine to win back-to-back presidencies since Juan Peron in 1952.

NEW BATTLE FOR SARAJEVO

The Muslim-led Bosnian government traded thousands of artillery shells with Bosnian Serbs in a two-day battle. The fighting was the worst in 15 months. Meanwhile, in its latest desperate effort to brake the slide toward all-out war in Bosnia, the U.S. presented Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic with an offer of relief from international sanctions if Serbia recognizes Bosnia's borders. Milosevic offered no response.

CHINA VS. TIBETAN REINCARNATION

The Dalai Lama declared a six-year-old boy living in a remote corner of Chinese-controlled Tibet the reincarnation of the second most important monk in Tibetan Buddhism. Tibet's exiled leader said Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was the reborn Panchen Lama, who died in January 1989, four months before the boy was born. China denounced the proclamation, saying it was "negating the supreme authority of the central government."

BUSINESS

LEFT AT THE ALTAR

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates called off the proposed marriage of his company and Intuit, maker of the popular personal-finance program Quicken. Last month the U.S. Justice Department sued to block the merger, arguing its "effect would likely be higher prices and lessened innovation." Announcing his decision at a Saturday press conference, Gates said, "Progress toward realizing our goals could not wait until the government's lawsuit was resolved." Microsoft will pay Intuit $46.25 million for backing out on the deal.

TOUGHING IT OUT WITH TOKYO

Unless negotiators reach an accord by June 28 to open up the Japanese market to American cars and parts, the U.S. said it would impose tariffs doubling the price of 13 Japanese luxury models, effectively killing off $5.9 billion in yearly Japanese auto trade. Tokyo promptly filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization, and Washington filed counterclaims.

DOW CORNING IN BANKRUPTCY

Once the U.S.'s largest maker of silicone breast implants, Dow Corning Corp. filed for federal bankruptcy protection, disrupting the billions of dollars of injury claims held against it by hundreds of thousands of women. --By Kathleen Adams, Christine Gorman, John Greenwald, Lina Lofaro, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin and Alain L. Sanders