March 13, 1989

LEAD: This nation is still technically at war with its northern half - but even more at odds with itself.

LEAD: Years ago, when Mayor John V. Lindsay was running for President, a reporter who had just begun following his fledgling campaign was asked whether Mr. Lindsay had any realistic chance of winning.

LEAD: After seven weeks in office, President Bush is still seeking a sense of definition for his Administration, or at least a widespread acceptance that he has defined its priorities in domestic and foreign policy.

LEAD: Thomas Hine staked his claim here for God and king 350 years ago, scratching out a farm on an isolated hilltop in the middle of a wilderness. Twelve generations later, Mr. Hine's descendants once again find themselves in isolation.

LEAD: IN this quaint town where simplicity reigns, where traffic is seldom a nuisance and patrons dine at diners and chat for an hour afterward without a hint of rush, the locals gather and puff their chests while boasting about Indiana basketball.

LEAD: Rising interest rates, the bane of the savings and loan industry, are again starting to cut into profits at healthy savings institutions and are expected to accelerate the pace of failures among marginally solvent institutions.

LEAD: Mounting pressures that threaten to undermine the economic program of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari are likely to make Mexico the test case for the new debt plan announced Friday by Washington's Secretary of the Treasury, Nicholas F. Brady, Mexican and foreign officials and bankers here said over the weekend.

LEAD: The Whirlpool Corporation has entered into a $2 billion joint venture to push its way into the European appliance market. The International Paper Company has made a $350 million bid for a French paper maker. And Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. has recently expanded its investment banking offices in Milan, Italy, and in Madrid.

LEAD: Having fended off regulation in the past, Chicago's commodity futures exchanges are staging a desperate attempt to retain their autonomy.

LEAD: Theron and Claire Cook decided two years ago to sell their house in Jamaica, Queens, and rent an apartment.

LEAD: Since he took the oath of office on Jan. 20, Vice President Dan Quayle has been campaigning hard, both here and on the road, for the things that eluded him in the 1988 Presidential campaign: respect, affection and a political base he can call his own.

LEAD: More than a decade after a Federal study found serious overuse and misuse of powerful drugs in nursing homes, many patients are still being drugged into a stupor just to make them easier to care for.