August 8, 1992

In a Manhattan law office, Angelot Cyriac rifled through an accordion folder, the only possession he carried aboard a leaky sailboat for his journey last April from Haiti to the United States. From its folds, he brought forth laminated identification cards, membership certificates, diplomas and photographs -- a paper trail of the political ties that landed him in a Coney Island apartment, on the lam from the Haitian military. By the standards of refugees seeking political asylum, this folder was gold. Many Haitian refugees tell United States immigration authorities of relatives slain by soldiers, of their own torture in prison, of their ardent support for the deposed President, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide. And the authorities say: Where is the body? Where is the scar? Where is the proof of persecution?

President Bush's effort to seek United Nations authorization for the use of force to deliver food and medicine to Bosnia and Herzegovina ran into resistance today from Britain and France. They called it a hasty and ill-prepared reaction to political concerns in the United States. But diplomats said Britain and France agree with the United States on the need for a show of force to demonstrate that they were not bluffing in warnings to the Balkan factions to cooperate with United Nations relief efforts and honor innumerable cease-fire agreements.

Tightening at the Post Office Marvin T. Runyon, the postmaster general, outlined plans to cut 40,000 employees, most of them managers, through early retirement. Page 9. Short-Term Police Chiefs The departure of New York City's top police official is part of an emerging national pattern of chiefs lasting only a short time on the job. Page 23.

Thirty-five years after they left New York and helped open the West Coast to big-time baseball, the San Francisco Giants put themselves in position yesterday to move back east and help open Florida to the major leagues. A group of investors from the Tampa Bay area of Florida announced that they had signed a memorandum of agreement to buy the Giants and move them from San Francisco to St. Petersburg in time for the 1993 season.

The nation's jobless rate improved marginally last month, edging down to 7.7 percent from 7.8 percent in June, the Government reported yesterday, thanks in part to a Federal summer jobs program for teen-agers. But the improvement was not enough to signal a stronger economic recovery or to help President Bush as he heads into the Republican National Convention. Indeed, in some areas the employment situation was deteriorating. Unemployment in New Jersey jumped to 9.8 percent in July from 9.2 percent in June, and in New York State the jobless rate grew to 9.4 percent, from 9.2 percent in June.