March 6, 1991

A Philadelphia securities analyst who refused to retract negative comments about a casino owned by Donald J. Trump and was subsequently dismissed won a $750,000 award from his former firm yesterday. The award to the analyst, Marvin B. Roffman, which was ordered by a three-member arbitration panel of the New York Stock Exchange, was announced by his former brokerage firm, Janney Montgomery Scott Inc.

In the early 1980's, the Prime Minister of Malaysia set a goal that most developing nations would never attempt: to build a national car that would put Malaysians on the move and spur the industrialization of a country known mostly for its rubber plantations and tin mines. No one in Malaysia had ever built a car before, and the project nearly died. Then, three years ago, the Malaysian managers were dismissed and the country called in a team of Japanese led by a no-nonsense production engineer from Mitsubishi.

With California in the grip of a five-year drought, cities and utility companies in this state are building the nation's first large-scale plants to desalt seawater. In turning to desalting, cities like Santa Barbara and companies like Southern California Edison are using a technology already extensive in the Middle East and other parts of the world to produce fresh water. Until now the high construction costs and operating costs of such plants made little economic sense in the United States.

The British publisher Robert Maxwell agreed yesterday to buy The Daily News provided he can reach a settlement with the paper's nine striking unions, the publisher of The News said. James Hoge, The News's publisher, said Mr. Maxwell had signed a letter of intent to buy the paper from the Tribune Company of Chicago. But Mr. Maxwell immediately told the unions that they would have to reach an agreement with him by Monday -- a settlement that has eluded labor and management for 13 months. 'Difficult, Tortuous Road' "In general," Mr. Hoge said in a telephone interview, "the two parties have agreed to terms of a sale, contingent on several things, including his reaching agreements with the unions."

Almost 16 months ago, an off-duty New York City firefighter, Alfred Ronaldson, rushed to an Orange County school that had been battered by a tornado and rescued at least two children from the rubble. He survived that dangerous situation, as he had many others in a 13-year career in which he won six citations for bravery. Early yesterday, Mr. Ronaldson responded to a three-alarm fire in the Bronx that had not seemed especially life-threatening. A member of Rescue Company 3, which specializes in making rescues from collapsed buildings, he died when a section of floor caved in under him after the fire had been mostly extinguished.