April 24, 1992

Three defendants were convicted yesterday in the murder of Brian Watkins, the 22-year-old Utah tourist stabbed to death while trying to protect his family from a gang that attacked and robbed them in a midtown subway station in September 1990. The verdict, which was reached after less than two days of deliberation, caused the families of two of the defendants to sob quietly in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. But it stirred little reaction from the defendants themselves, Yul Gary Morales, Anthony Anderson and Ricardo Lopez, all 20 years old.

A car driven by a 74-year-old woman careered out of control yesterday afternoon and plowed into crowds of people enjoying the first clear spring day in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Four people were killed, including one who died last night after surgery. As many as 27 others were injured, some critically. The idyllic scene was suddenly and violently transformed, witnesses said. The park, packed with sunbathers, street musicians and mothers pushing strollers in the warm afternoon, gave way to a chaos of people screaming as the speeding car jumped a curb, knocked down a fence and plowed into the crowd, stopping only after banging into another fence 200 feet into the park. 'Bodies All Lying There' Two victims were trapped beneath the car when it finally came to a stop, and a group of onlookers lifted the vehicle to free them.

The revival of United States manufacturing, one of the brightest spots in the 1980's economic landscape, may have been less spectacular than Government data have been showing. New estimates from the Commerce and Labor Departments show that on three fronts manufacturing performance from 1977 to 1989 was more modest than previously thought. The output of American factories grew only two-thirds as fast; manufacturing's share of the economy is smaller, and the glorious gains in factory productivity previously reported now look less glorious.

International Bush announced that the U.S. had loosened some controls on militarily sensitive exports and that he believed a free-trade pact could be concluded with Mexico before the elections. [ D1. ] High, punitive duties on imports of Canadian beer are close, Administration officials said. [ D2. ]

De Klerk Refines Proposal For Black Role in Govenment South Africa's President offered to bring black leaders into a transitional government and proposed that his presidency be replaced by a popularly elected executive council. Page A3. Shift on High-Tech Exports President Bush announced looser export controls on high-technology products with applications in military aircraft and submarines. Page D1. 3 Guilty of Slaying Tourist Three defendants were convicted in the 1990 subway murder of Brian Watkins, a Utah tourist. Page B1.