THE WEEK

By MICHAEL DUFFY, JANICE M. HOROWITZ, LINA LOFARO, MICHAEL QUINN, JEFFREY RESSNER, JEFFERY C. RUBIN AND ALAIN L. SANDERS

NATION

SABOTAGE

Amtrak's Sunset Limited was en route from Miami to Los Angeles with 268 people aboard when it derailed in the middle of the night on a remote stretch of track in Arizona. The casualties: one crew member dead, a hundred people injured. Evidence quickly led investigators to pronounce the crash no accident: two rails were found to have been deliberately uncoupled; and a message was found at the crash site from the so-called Sons of the Gestapo--a previously unknown group--that assailed the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, as well as the agencies' roles in the controversial Waco and Ruby Ridge standoffs. FBI investigators launched a broad investigation and refused to speculate on who might be responsible for the crime, or the motive.

MEDICARE MANEUVERS

With contentious party-line votes, both the Ways and Means and the Commerce committees of the House approved the G.O.P.'s plan to overhaul Medicare and save $270 billion. Republicans hailed their plan as one that would rescue Medicare from bankruptcy and have the added benefit of giving seniors more health-care options. To no one's surprise, Democrats continued to attack the plan as an unnecessary hatchet job designed to finance a $245 billion G.O.P. tax cut for the wealthy. The acrimony between the two parties grew more bitter still when the American Medical Association announced it was endorsing the G.O.P. plan. The apparent quid pro quo: Republicans agreed to spare doctors from fee reductions, exempt them from certain antitrust restrictions and cap large malpractice awards.

THE G.O.P. TAX AX

Coming to terms despite internal disagreements and the pressures of presidential politics, Senate Republican tax writers agreed on a $245 billion package of tax cuts, including a $500-per-child credit for most families and reductions in capital-gains taxes. The proposal faces heavy opposition from Democrats, with a presidential veto considered likely.

NUNN MAKES IT EIGHT MEN OUT

Democrats lost their most powerful voice on national defense matters, as well as a respected member of their once formidable but now rapidly shrinking Southern delegation. Saying he lacks the "zest and enthusiasm" for a fifth term, Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia announced he would step down at the end of next year--the eighth Senate Democrat to call it quits and bow out of next year's elections.

SUPREMES TACKLE GAY RIGHTS

With "swing" Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy lobbing skeptical questions at Colorado's solicitor general, who was defending the state's anti-gay-rights measure, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could yield the most important discrimination decision of the new term. At issue is whether Colorado voters violated U.S. Equal Protection guarantees when they approved a ban on laws or policies forbidding discrimination against homosexuals.

NAVY IN HOT WATER AGAIN

Hardly recovered from the Tailhook scandal, the Navy set sail once again on the treacherous seas of a sexual-harassment case. In Washington, court-martial proceedings opened against Captain Everett Greene to examine charges that he wrote suggestive notes and made harassing calls to two female subordinates. He insists his messages were misconstrued. On Friday the judge dismissed one woman's allegations. At the time of the alleged incidents, Greene ran the Navy's equal-opportunity unit--which handled sex- harassment complaints.

MAYDAY!

In New York State two top executives of Tec-Air Services pleaded guilty to charges of having failed to properly test and maintain emergency equipment aboard various commercial and government aircraft--including Air Force One and Air Force Two, used to ferry the President, Vice President and other top officials about.

O.J. TO NBC: NEVER MIND

Just hours before he was scheduled to be questioned by NBC's Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric, O.J. Simpson pulled out of a one-hour, no-holds-barred TV interview, the buildup for which had attracted nationwide curiosity as well as furor. The reason for Simpson's balk: his lawyers told him his answers might complicate his defense in the civil suits brought by the Brown and Goldman families. Simpson followed his NBC no-show with a phone call to the New York Times to declare, "I am an innocent man." Simpson also told the paper that he had been wrong to "get physical" with his wife in a 1989 abuse incident, that he remained "on the same page" with the Brown family over the welfare of his children and that his legal bills had not impoverished him--"I still have my Ferrari," the former defendant said.

NOT NEXT ON COURT TV

Two high-publicity murder trials opened, and without the glare of courtroom television coverage. In Los Angeles prosecutors began their retrial of Lyle and Erik Menendez on charges of having murdered their parents; the prior prosecution of the brothers, who claim they were driven to kill by years of sexual abuse, ended in hung juries. In Houston, Yolanda Saldivar went on trial for the murder of Tejano singing star Selena. The former president of Selena's fan club, Saldivar claims the shooting was an accident.

WORLD

TWO DAYS LATE, A TRUCE

The warring parties in Bosnia silenced their guns--with some major exceptions--two days after a cease-fire was due to take effect (the truce was held up until gas and electricity connections could be restored to the besieged capital of Sarajevo). Shortly before the scheduled start of the cease-fire, the Serbs bombarded a U.N.-declared "safe area," killing a Norwegian peacekeeper and prompting a NATO air strike against them; while the Bosnian army used the following truce delay to make several advances of its own. The Serbs also renewed their infamous "ethnic cleansing," this time forcing thousands of women and children from towns in northwestern Bosnia and taking captive thousands of men who now face an uncertain fate. But after nearly three dozen failed cease-fires, the latest truce appeared to be holding at week's end. There was, however, a cruel new twist: makeshift natural-gas lines, flowing with the volatile fuel for the first time in months, caused at least two serious explosions in Sarajevo, where Kosevo Hospital set up a special burn unit to handle an expected rise in burn victims.

ISRAELIS BEGIN PULLOUT

As joyful Palestinians ululated and fired pistols into the air, Israeli forces began their withdrawal from parts of the West Bank. Despite pledges of peace and brotherhood signed last month in Washington, the transfer of power in several towns was terse and businesslike at best. A banner in Arabic that stretched across one town's city hall read TODAY SALFIT, TOMORROW JERUSALEM. Scoffed an Israeli soldier: "Wishful thinking."

CHECHNYA TALKS SUSPENDED

Russian and Chechen negotiators halted their talks on peace in the secessionist Russian region where tens of thousands of Russian troops remain and fighting continues. Chechen rebel leaders also formally suspended their participation in the widely violated cease-fire, saying they would refuse to negotiate until United Nations troops were brought in, a move Russia rejects as interference in its internal affairs. The breakdown in talks came after a bomb attack gravely injured the commander of Russian forces in Chechnya and killed three others.

QUAKE HITS MEXICAN COAST

A large earthquake rocked the resort-studded Pacific coast of Mexico, killing at least 51 people, flattening one big hotel and damaging hundreds of homes. The temblor, which measured 7.5 on the Richter scale, was felt as far as 330 miles away in Mexico City, where the 63-story headquarters of the state oil monopoly swayed sickeningly.

RUSSIAN HARVEST FALLOUT

Russian officials announced that drought and poor farm management had combined to produce the country's worst grain harvest in 30 years. The estimated yield this year will be just 66 million tons, down from last year's already paltry 80 million tons. Russians will not starve, however, because up to half the vegetables and a third of the meat eaten in the country are produced privately, often in backyard plots. Politicians, however, could lose big: they face parliamentary elections in mid-December, just when food prices are expected to rise.

BUSINESS

GATES' PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

Software mogul Bill Gates' privately held Corbis Corp. purchased the Bettmann Archive and its 16 million photographs and illustrations for an undisclosed sum in the millions of dollars. Corbis has already bought nonexclusive electronic rights to thousands of images from several world-famous museums for digital conversion.

JAPANESE DELAY ANGERS U.S.

The Japanese government admitted that it knew of the $1.1 billion loss incurred by Daiwa Bank for six weeks before disclosing it to American authorities, an admission that angered U.S. officials and cast doubts on Japan's willingness to cooperate in maintaining global financial security. "If Japan's or any country's regulatory authorities become aware of significant financial issues of concern to the U.S.," said a U.S. Treasury spokesman icily, "we would expect to be fully informed in a timely manner." Daiwa's president resigned his post.

SPORT

CHESS KING KEEPS TITLE

Russian Garry Kasparov successfully defended--for the fifth time--his world champion title in chess, forcing India's Viswanathan Anand to a draw in their 18th game and picking up $900,000 in prize money.

THE NOBEL

PUGWASH WINS PEACE PRIZE

British nuclear physicist Joseph Rotblat and the anti-nuclear group he helped found jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize. Rotblat, who resigned from the Manhattan Project before it developed the first atom bomb, started the Pugwash Conference to work toward the eventual elimination of all nuclear weapons. Pugwash takes its name from the Nova Scotia fishing village where it was founded in 1957.

--By Michael Duffy, Janice M. Horowitz, Lina Lofaro, Michael Quinn, Jeffrey Ressner, Jeffery C. Rubin and Alain L. Sanders