June 27, 1992

The Los Angeles Police Chief, Daryl F. Gates, cleaned out his desk and left office, concluding a stormy 14-year tenure that drew to a close with a videotaped police beating and a devastating riot. Even before Mr. Gates departed, his successor, Willie L. Williams, was quietly sworn in at a private ceremony at home.

The Security Council today gave Serbian forces 48 hours to stop fighting in Sarajevo and put their heavy weapons under United Nations control. Diplomats said failure to comply could lead to some kind of military action. In a statement issued in the name of Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Serbs were told that if they did not comply, the Security Council would meet on Monday "to determine what other means would be required to bring relief to the suffering people of Sarajevo."

The Supreme Court today upheld the Port Authority's ban on begging in the terminals of the three New York-area airports, but said the First Amendment gives people the right to hand out pamphlets and other literature there. The split ruling, the result of shifting voting blocs and rationales within the Court, affirmed in both its aspects a decision last year by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Manhattan.

The American co-chairman of the commission searching for missing Americans in Russia said today that President Boris N. Yeltsin "misspoke" when he said American prisoners of war might still be there. "It's clear to me that he misspoke, because we have found nobody here that will tell us that Mr. Yeltsin's information was correct based on solid information," Malcolm Toon, a former United States Ambassador to Moscow, told reporters here. "I think he was acting genuinely, but I think he misspoke."

Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett 3d resigned today amid questions about his involvement in a scandal stemming from the assault of 26 women, including 14 female officers, at a convention of naval aviators last year in Las Vegas, Nev. The Navy Secretary, who attended the Tailhook Association convention but said he saw no misconduct, had come under growing criticism from Congress in recent days for the Navy's handling of the inquiry, which Mr. Garrett last week turned over to the Defense Department inspector general.