THE WEEK

By KATHLEEN ADAMS, MELISSA AUGUST, EDWARD BARNES, MICHAEL D. LEMONICK, LINA LOFARO, MICHAEL QUINN, ALAIN L. SANDERS AND AMY YAMNER

NATION

ANOTHER BALANCED-BUDGET YEA

The Senate adopted its version of a balanced-budget resolution, but not before exposing a deep and potentially embarrassing rift in Republican ranks over the issue of tax cuts. Nearly half the G.O.P. Senators joined all their Democratic colleagues to defeat a $300 billion set of tax breaks proposed by presidential aspirant Phil Gramm and patterned after a recently approved House version. Opting for a vague promise of future tax cuts if a balanced budget yields extra savings, the Senate approved by a vote of 57 to 42 a somewhat less draconian program of spending cuts than did the House: $1 trillion worth of savings over seven years vs. the House's $1.4 trillion. Still to come: protracted wrangling over what programs will actually be cut.

VETO POLITICS

A week after his first concrete veto threat (against certain spending cuts in the current budget), President Clinton took aim at two more congressional proposals. G.O.P. leaders in the House postponed a vote on their foreign-aid bill after the President blasted its cuts and its "isolationist" policy directives as a "frontal assault" on presidential authority. Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman warned that a presidential veto would await any attempt to revamp the federal food-stamp program into a block-grant package to the states.

TERM LIMITS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

In a landmark decision that invalidates measures in 23 states, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that states do not have the power to impose term limits on members of Congress, and neither does the Congress itself. Term limits, said the court, must be imposed by constitutional amendment. Proponents vowed to press for passage of such an amendment despite a decisive rejection by the House in March.

CONTROVERSIAL NO COMMENT

The court also produced a noteworthy nondecision on affirmative action. The Justices declined to review, and thus let stand without comment, a lower federal court ruling that invalidated a University of Maryland scholarship program intended solely for blacks.

FOSTER: ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO

The Senate committee charged with reviewing Dr. Henry Foster's controversial nomination for Surgeon General voted 9 to 7 to recommend his confirmation. Foster's name now goes to the full Senate, where his prospects remain uncertain.

WHITE HOUSE SHOOTOUT

For the fifth time since September, security at or near the White House was breached when a man, armed with an unloaded revolver, jumped over the mansion's fence late Tuesday night. The suspect, Leland Modjeski, was tackled by a Secret Service agent; both men were wounded by the gunfire of a second agent. Modjeski, an unemployed onetime psychology student, was charged with felony assault and firearms violations. Officials said the President was never in any danger and may not have even been a target. Modjeski, they indicated, appeared to be psychologically troubled. Three days later, another man, Andrew Jopling, jumped the fence near the mansion's tourist entrance and was immediately arrested.

THE OKLAHOMA BOMBING CASE

Federal prosecutors ran into an unexpected obstacle in their case against James Nichols (the brother of Terry Nichols, who has been charged in the Oklahoma City bombing). Authorities believe James Nichols may know a lot about the April 19 blast, and they had been holding him in jail on unrelated explosive charges in Michigan. But a federal judge expressed skepticism about the soundness of those charges and, finding that he posed little threat or risk of flight, released him into the custody of neighbors, pending trial. Meanwhile, in Oklahoma City, officials demolished the remains of the bombed-out federal building.

MIDWEST UNDER WATER AGAIN

The nation's midsection continued to battle the rising waters and flooding of major rivers, swollen this year by unusually heavy spring rainfall. So far, communities appeared to be coping better than during the deluge of 1993, in part because of new control programs designed to manage rather than fight the inevitable flooding.

THE SIMPSON TRIAL

The O.J. Simpson jury heard testimony about yet another set of DNA tests implicating the football hero in the murders. But testimony was overshadowed by other issues: first, a noisy dispute between the prosecution and defense over whether Simpson's lawyers could introduce an alibi statement Simpson gave to police (Judge Ito ruled they could not); and second, the dismissal of another juror, the eighth one (leaving only four alternates).

WORLD

U.N. HOSTAGES AS SHIELDS

Bosnian Serbs detained more than 200 U.N. peacekeepers and chained a number of them to probable nato targets as human shields to protect against further attack by NATO warplanes. Two days of air strikes by Western allies had damaged Serbian munitions dumps, located little more than a mile outside the Bosnian Serb mountaintop headquarters at Pale. The Bosnian Serbs also bombarded five out of six U.N.- declared "safe haven" cities in Bosnia, killing 71 people in the northern town of Tuzla alone. The air strikes, the first since November, were ordered after Bosnian Serbs ignored an ultimatum to return heavy weapons seized from U.N. collection points. Said Defense Secretary William Perry of the tougher NATO military action: "In time it will achieve the expected result, but I don't expect it to occur immediately."

STEPS TOWARD PEACE

Syria and Israel, whose rancorous negotiations have gone virtually nowhere for more than three years, inched toward common ground, agreeing last week to a shared set of principles to guide their talks. According to Israeli officials, the two sides for the first time have reached an implicit understanding that Israel will withdraw completely from the occupied Golan Heights. "To remain on the Golan Heights," declared Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, "is to give up on peace." Military experts from both sides will meet in Washington in late June to talk further.

ISRAEL REVERSES LAND SEIZURE

In a startling about-face at an emergency meeting, the Cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin suspended the government's seizure of 131 acres in Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem for the purpose of building mostly Jewish housing. The plan had stirred widespread international protest and threatened Rabin's government with a no-confidence vote.

A SPAT OVER TAIWAN

Bowing to intense congressional pressure, the Clinton Administration reversed a 16-year-old exclusion policy and announced it will allow the President of Taiwan to enter the U.S. to attend a Cornell University reunion. Beijing, which considers Taiwan a renegade province, warned that the policy reversal would cause "severe damage" to the already strained relations with Washington.

NO JAIL FOR GERMAN SPYMASTERS

Germany's highest court ruled that spymasters for the former East Germany, including legendary 33-year spy chief Markus Wolf, could not be tried in a united Germany. The 5-to-3 decision amounts to a virtual amnesty for some 6,000 East German spies; the court also urged leniency for East Germans who spied on West German territory. On the other hand, West German citizens who spied for East Germany remain liable for prosecution.

FREE TO LOVE IN MOSCOW

The U.S. embassy in Moscow ended a cold war-era prohibition on "intimate or romantic relationships" with Russians. "Everybody thought that it was a silly policy and that it was about time it got changed," said embassy spokesman Mike McClellan. But any employee who falls for a Russian must report it at once, and spies and military personnel must still keep their hearts and hands away from the locals.

BUSINESS

SEAT-BELT RECALL

In one of the largest actions of its kind, the Transportation Department announced a voluntary recall of more than 8 million vehicles manufactured from 1986 to '91 by seven Japanese and three American automakers in order to replace or fix possibly faulty seat-belt buckles.

CIGARETTES TOO

In an apparent tobacco- industry first, Philip Morris issued its own recall, on 8 billion cigarettes. Contaminants in filters produce a pesticide that could cause smokers to experience eye, nose and throat irritation, coughing, dizziness and wheezing. Smokers of any of the company's dozen affected brands may return them for a refund.

LLOYD'S OFFERS SURVIVAL PLAN

Hoping to save the world- famous 308-year-old firm that has insured such "properties" as Betty Grable's legs and Bruce Springsteen's voice, Lloyd's of London proposed a settlement with investors that would enable it to avoid bankruptcy after losses totaling nearly $13 billion because of five years' worth of natural-disaster and pollution claims. If the plan fails, "we haven't got a future," said Lloyd's chairman David Rowland. "There's no U.S. Cavalry coming over the hill bearing great dollops of money."

SCIENCE

DNA DECODED

Molecular biologist Craig Venter has managed to analyze the complete genetic sequence of a living organism, a bacterium called Hemophilus influenzae -- the first time such a feat has been accomplished. Having been turned down for government support because his method was thought to be unreliable, Venter used private money to beat federally funded scientists in achieving what his rivals acknowledged as "a significant milestone."

ADAM'S GENES

Scientists have dealt a blow to the idea that modern humans arose simultaneously in different parts of the world. Analyzing a gene on the Y chromosome of 38 men from all over the globe, they found no variation -- and thus concluded that humanity's ancestors formed a small, concentrated population as recently as 270,000 years ago. Earlier studies reached the same conclusion by looking at a different sort of genetic material in women.

--By Kathleen Adams, Melissa August, Edward Barnes, Michael D. Lemonick, Lina Lofaro, Michael Quinn, Alain L. Sanders and Amy Yamner