BUSINESS DIGEST

LEAD: As a small boy in knee breeches, he tossed confetti made from keypunch cards, was dragged along to sales conventions, and played on the Oriental rugs in the Fifth Avenue office where his father ran the tabulating machine business that in 1924 became the International Business Machines Corporation.

Memoirs From the I.B.M. Dynasty

LEAD: Faced with a receding Soviet threat, the Air Force is focusing on potential new trouble spots in the third world and planning a force that can fight two moderate-sized wars at once.

Army and Air Force Fix Sights On the Changing Face of War

LEAD: The T-shirts causing an uproar around the Teaneck Police Department bear the badge number of the white officer who shot a black youth to death last month and insist, ''Never A Doubt.''

Residents and Police Share Lingering Doubts in Teaneck

LEAD: The $1.5 billion merger of the Lotus Development Corporation and Novell Inc. collapsed late Friday night after the two software companies could not agree on the composition of the combined company's board.

Software Merger Collapses

LEAD: Nearly a decade after Ronald Reagan promised to return powers to the states with his ''New Federalism,'' state and local officials say their authority has instead been whittled away with a new generation of regulations giving them expensive responsibilities when there is less Federal money to help pay for them.

States Take Up New Burdens To Pay for 'New Federalism'

LEAD: The National Salvation Front, the group dominated by former Communists that has run Romania since the violent revolution last December, appeared to be headed toward a convincing victory today in the country's first free national elections in more than 50 years.

  FRONT IN ROMANIA SEEMS VICTORIOUS IN FREE ELECTIONS

LEAD: The future of ''Twin Peaks,'' the most-talked-about new television show this year, will be decided today when ABC announces its schedule for the fall television season.

  At ABC, Several Motives For Keeping 'Twin Peaks'

LEAD: After a decade marked by the rapid growth of book chains selling mainly best sellers, a quiet revolution has begun. Emerging out of it are an increasing number of comfortable, expertly staffed bookstores with an immense range of titles.

A Novel Way to Sell Books: More Titles, Learned Clerks

LEAD: Almost a year ago, Charles E. Williams traded a two-star Army general's hat for a gray hard hat, and now he spends much of his days at school construction sites, surrounded not only by dust and rubble but also by an air of hope.

Ex-General's Spit-and-Polish Way to Build New Schools

LEAD: IF it's possible to look runnerish while sitting still, Rickey Henderson can and did one day last week as he talked about one of his favorite subjects: baserunning mayhem.

Henderson Sets the Pace as American League Speeds Up

LEAD: An Israeli described as emotionally disturbed shot and killed seven Arab day laborers today, provoking widespread Palestinian riots in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in which seven more Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded or injured.

Lone Israeli Slays 7 Palestinians; 7 More Arabs Die as Riots Erupt

LEAD: United States officials just back from talks in Moscow say that while President Mikhail S. Gorbachev appeared firmly in charge, he also seemed to be giving his armed forces somewhat greater influence.

Soviet Military's Clout Has Grown, U.S. Says

LEAD: Monica Seles ended Steffi Graf's 66-match winning streak today, beating the world's top-ranked player, 6-4, 6-3, at the German Open to capture her fifth straight title.

Seles Ends Graf Streak

LEAD: It is still uncertain precisely what happened at James J. Walker Park just after 7 P.M. on Saturday, May 12.

Metro Matters;   Little Leaguers Face Opponents And Gunshots

LEAD: Three people were killed and three others were wounded early yesterday morning when gunmen fired automatic weapons in a bar in Harlem, the police said.

Gunfire Kills 3 And Injures 3 In Harlem Bar

LEAD: The Coca-Cola Company's new plant in Dunkirk, France, which opened Saturday, is its largest and most efficient canning operation in Europe.

It's Only Soft Drinks at Coca-Cola

LEAD: News photographers in Brooklyn have recently been trading advice on an equipment problem: where to find a store that still has lightweight bulletproof vests in stock. There was a run on them after the Bensonhurst murder trials began.

Racial Unrest Fuels Physical Attacks on Journalists

LEAD: A report on the Latin American debt crisis by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America recommends that a greater share of the burden for resolving it be borne by commercial creditor banks.

  Bigger Bank Role Is Urged On Latin Debt

LEAD: President Mikhail S. Gorbachev today opened a new campaign to turn marketplace economics against intractable consumer problems, directing the Government to let private individuals build, buy and sell their own houses and own the lots on which they stand.

  SOVIETS TO PUSH HOME OWNERSHIP

LEAD:    Graf's Streak Ends       After 66 matches, Steffi Graf's tennis winning streak was broken by Monica Seles. SportsMonday, page C1.       First From Space Telescope       Space agency scientists said the first images from the orbiting Hubble space telescope were better than expected in focus and clarity.

INSIDE

LEAD: Two or three times a day almost every day, one disheveled person or another lurches in front of Faith Ryder and demands a dime or a quarter.

Children Striving to Cope With the Homeless

LEAD: The partners in the Helmsley Palace Hotel have been allowed by the New York State Supreme Court to continue arbitration proceedings against Helmsley Enterprises Inc.

Court Backs Arbitration In Helmsley Palace Case

LEAD: WHEN it was learned that the Chicago White Sox planned to use Minnie Minoso as a pinch-hitter later this season, giving him a major league appearance in a record sixth decade, a lot of people figured that his previous publicity stunt, in 1980, must have set the previous record.

  Offbeat Records

LEAD: The Chicago Bulls needed to score 100 points today to have a chance to win. That pre-game prediction came from no less an authority than Michael Jordan, the Bulls' star, and it was repeated by Phil Jackson, the team's coach.

Jordan Is Injured As Pistons Win Big

Kierre Kamille Beckles is a Barbadian athlete specializing in the 100 metres hurdles. She competed at the 2011 and 2013 World Championships failing to advance to the semi-finals on both occasions.

Kierre Beckles, Barbadian athlete

Kierre_Beckles

Rene Krhin is a Slovenian retired footballer who played as a central midfielder. He earned a total of 48 caps for the Slovenia national team.

May 21, 1990

Headlines from May 21, 1990

BUSINESS DIGEST

Memoirs From the I.B.M. Dynasty

Army and Air Force Fix Sights On the Changing Face of War

Residents and Police Share Lingering Doubts in Teaneck

Software Merger Collapses

Billboard 200

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em

Brigade

Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814

Soul Provider

Notable Births

Historical Context for May 21, 1990