March 23, 1992

Like millions of other hard-pressed Americans, most television programmers have come to the conclusion that they can't afford to take a summer vacation anymore. And this summer, more new programs will be on television than ever before -- a radical change from the days when summer television was an unbroken line of reruns.

A Food and Drug Administration official has told makers of medical equipment that the agency will follow up its recent hearings on silicone-gel-filled breast implants by beginning similar investigations this year of five other devices. The devices that will next be scrutinized are artificial testicles, penis implants, breast implants filled with saline solutions, centrifugal pumps used in heart-bypass operations and electrical stimulators used to treat alcoholism, depression and anxiety, said James S. Benson, director of the agency's Office of Devices and Radiological Health.

Federal Reserve officials say recent data indicate that the economy is picking up steam, but they remain worried that the incipient recovery could peter out. In interviews last week, two Federal Reserve governors who agreed to speak on the record said that recent reports showing upturns in retail sales and housing starts were the most convincing evidence so far that the stubbornly persistent downturn was ending. But they also said that the manufacturing sector remained subdued and that employment growth was likely to lag.

Confirming France's current mood of disgruntlement, voters dealt a major political setback to the governing Socialist Party in regional elections today, with nearly complete results giving it 18 percent of votes, its worst performance at the polls in 23 years. A coalition of the two main conservative parties came out on top with 33 percent of the votes, but fared worse than it has in recent elections. And as voters turned away from traditional parties, the main beneficiaries were the far-rightist National Front and two environmentalist parties.

For years now, Japan's tradition-bound sports world has neatly sidestepped the question of how to handle the country's most famous American import, a 576-pound behemoth more fearsome than a pack of angry trade negotiators, considerably more competitive than General Motors and more popular among young Japanese than jazz bars and delivery pizza. The American invader is Salevaa Atisnoe of Hawaii, but to millions of Japanese sumo wrestling fans, some more adoring than others, he is known simply as Konishiki.