May 9, 1989

LEAD: The notion that every nationalized company is stodgy, bloated and unimaginative runs into a wall in France.

LEAD: The National Research Council, in a report commissioned by Congress, today recommended against requiring seat belts in school buses. It said the potential safety benefits, saving one life a year, were not worth the cost, estimated at $40 million annually.

LEAD: EVEN while the huge project is still being debated and organized, researchers are making major technical advances that will speed the mapping and analysis of the entire human genetic apparatus.

LEAD: Calling for an ''all-out, all fronts fight'' against crime in New York City, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo yesterday proposed a major expansion of the state and city criminal justice systems, including additional police, probation officers and prison cells.

LEAD: In East Harlem, in an area of broad streets and red-brick high-rises just north and east of the green canopy of Central Park, street violence is as much a part of growing up as listening to rap music, teen-agers say: it has its own rhythms, and it is everywhere.