May 21, 1992

In a blow to its hopes of developing the official transmission standard for broadcasting high-definition television, a consortium that includes NBC and North American Philips announced today that it had slipped behind schedule. The group, one of the principal competitors in the race, said it would not show up on time for testing at a federally supervised laboratory scheduled to begin on June 3.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation placed new limits today on the rates that the nation's weaker banks and savings and loans can offer customers. The move, a step toward reregulating interest rates, will make it easier for strong banks to grow and harder for some weak banks to survive. The new rules, which stem from a banking law passed by Congress in 1991, separate the nation's 14,370 banks and savings and loans into three classes, based on their ability to absorb losses. Only the financially healthiest institutions will be allowed to pay whatever interest rates they choose, which will mean less competition for deposits and far fewer -- if any -- opportunities for savers to find exceptionally high rates paid by some banks and savings and loans.

"SMILE! Can't you see I'm a furniture designer" seemed to be the theme of this year's International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. Nothing was more out of fashion than looking strict, dour and serious. Rather, such designs as Michael Shane's Puzzle Pieces, a giant steel room divider, were, well, funny.

One by one, the emigre scientists -- specialists in ichthyology, pisciculture, biomineralization and more -- rose to present themselves. "I am Bril," the first man began. "I come here two months ago from Minsk."

President Bush and the leaders of the other six major industrial democracies are expected to endorse a multibillion-dollar plan for improving the safety of nuclear reactors in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at their economic summit meeting in Munich in early July. The plan, which is being prepared with advice from officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency here, would provide for refitting of some reactors with more modern safety features, the closing down of those considered too unsafe to be worth saving and the provision of alternative sources of electricity, including supplies from Western Europe, according to diplomats and agency officials here. Billions to Prevent Catastrophe Estimates of the cost of such a program, which is designed to prevent another nuclear catastrophe like the one in Chernobyl, vary from $10 billion to $20 billion. The idea is to find this money over several years from a number of sources, including direct government grants, guaranteed government loans and loans from such development institutions as the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Community's European Investment Bank.