January 16, 1992

After a decade of scandals and record losses, the Lloyd's of London insurance market is on the verge of adopting some of the most fundamental changes in its 304-year history. Until now, Lloyd's has gathered its capital from wealthy individuals, known as "names," who have pledged their entire fortunes to pay off claims. Catastrophic losses have wiped out some of these investors and severely hurt many others. Now, Lloyd's governing council has committed itself to limiting their potential losses.

After saying in November and December that they would introduce a new subway and bus token when the fare went up this month, New York City transit officials said yesterday that they had changed their minds. The current token will remain in use for the foreseeable future. During the public debate over the last two months on how much the fare would increase, officials of the Transit Authority, which operates the city's subway and buses, often said they would put a new token into use when the new fare went into effect on Jan. 1. They said they had spent $9 million for 60 million new tokens, which they said were needed in part to help curb the use of counterfeit slugs.

NEW YORK CITY QUESTIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY A mayoral report that offers the first authoritative assessment of the deadly crush at a City College gymnasium last month paints a picture of a cascading failure of responsibility and blames virtually all parties that arranged and oversaw the celebrity basketball game -- reproaching student organizers, college officials, a rap promoter, the police and the spectators themselves. A1 and B8. REAL-ESTATE DECLINE SLOWING New York City's real-estate market is still losing value, but the pace of that decline is slowing considerably, according to the Department of Finance, which released its tentative tax roll for the new fiscal year. Nonetheless, property taxes will go up, by 2.7 percent, because those bills are based on a five-year average that still reflects the boom years of the 1980's. B3. Police seek suspect in Brooklyn rape classified as bias. B2. Young bias-attack victim in the Bronx copes with the pain. B2. Records seized in investigation of newspaper unions. B3. Photos could provide first clues to slain girl's identity. B3. REGION OPENING JOUSTS IN TEANECK TRIAL Opposing lawyers drew starkly different portraits of the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Phillip Pannell during opening arguments in the manslaughter trial of Gary Spath, the Teaneck, N.J., police officer who fired the shot. B4. BATTERED AND BITTER Still feeling battered by two recent Atlantic storms, residents and borough officials in Sea Bright, N.J., say they are increasingly bitter about the Federal Government's decision to deny them disaster relief, though damage from the October storm has been estimated at nearly $2 million. B4. INTRODUCING THE SPEAKER Garabed (Chuck) Haytaian, the new Speaker of the New Jersey Assembly and the undisputed leader of an ironclad Republican majority, is a man for whom taking politics to heart is a family tradition. B6. DEATH SENTENCE OVERTURNED The New Jersey Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of a Camden County man who was convicted of fatally stabbing his drug supplier. The case is the 32d in which the court has thrown out a death sentence since capital punishment was reinstated in 1982. B4. SAYING GOODBYE TO A REFUGE It wasn't B. Altman or the Horn & Hardart Automat, both major landmarks recently vanished from the New York retail firmament. But for thousands of commuters who passed the Commuter Book Centre in Grand Central Terminal day after day, its sudden disappearance has left perhaps as great a void. Metro-North Journal, B6. Warmus's lawyer says she may have cancer. B6. Neediest Cases B5

The recognition of Slovenia and Croatia by the European Community is a victory for Germany, which has lobbied hard for the breakup of Yugoslavia. The German Foreign Minister said he was "very happy," and other countries rushed to grant recognition. Yugoslav leaders were indignant. Article, page A10.

MANY of the later portraits of Winston Churchill made him look more than a little like a bulldog. When Thierry Poncelet paints a bulldog , the animal looks alarmingly like Winston Churchill -- perhaps because it is posing in a high collar, necktie and waistcoat. Some call it "anthropomorphic art," but another way to describe Mr. Poncelet's curious painting is Alice in Ralphlaurenland. Mr. Poncelet painstakingly restores gilt-framed 18th- and 19th-century ancestral portraits, the kind of dour oil paintings usually found lining the staircases of England's statelier homes, inside men's private clubs and, in America, in shops that cater to aspiring Windsors.