April 17, 1991

After two weeks of tabloid headlines, "Geraldo" shows and dark gossip, all stemming from an allegation of rape at the Kennedy compound in Palm Beach, Fla., Senator Edward M. Kennedy went to American University today to recall the glory days of the Kennedy family. Most of his speech was a smoothly delivered, impassioned appeal for a comprehensive new effort to aid children. But because the event was organized by the university to recall a major address delivered there 28 years ago by President John F. Kennedy, the Senator looked back as well. When he did, he struggled several times for composure.

President Bush said today that American, French and British troops would set up secure camps in northern Iraq that could care for more than half a million Kurdish refugees until they could be coaxed back to their homes. Outlining what he described as "a greatly expanded and more ambitious relief effort," Mr. Bush said five or six encampments would be built as "temporary" relief stations to encourage Iraqi Kurds to move to areas where they could be provided with food, clothing and medicine.

From Westchester to Nassau, from Bergen to Fairfield, the racial and ethnic diversity once unique to New York City spread through the metropolitan region's inner ring of counties in the 1980's as they gained Hispanic, Asian and black residents while losing hundreds of thousands of whites, the 1990 census shows. Across counties that embrace both wealthy suburbs and struggling cities, minorities gained population everywhere, but there were sharp differences in mobility. Asians, more than doubling in number, spread throughout these inner counties, establishing a presence in many exclusive communities. But the Hispanic and black population remained concentrated in cities, while many suburbs remained overwhelmingly white.

Unions Call Rail Strike After Talks Break Off The first nationwide rail strike in nearly a decade was set after freight lines and unions representing 235,000 workers ended talks. Page A14.

The exodus of feature films from New York City resumed with surprising speed yesterday, a day after a film-crafts union defeated a tentative settlement in a 19-week dispute that had put a number of productions on hold. The departures, by producers who had been planning to shoot movies about New York in New York, are creating potential windfalls for cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh and Toronto -- places with urban streetscapes that could fool the camera and perhaps some moviegoers.