August 15, 1992

It is a trial that no city in Florida wants to hold, a political football that has already bounced from Miami to Orlando to Tallahassee, back to Orlando, and that's not the end of it. For government officials and community leaders across the state, the retrial of William Lozano contains too many disturbing echoes of the Rodney G. King case and offers the same potential for racial violence.

John Joseph Sirica, the Federal judge whose relentless search for the facts of the Watergate break-in made him an American folk hero and ultimately brought down the Presidency of Richard M. Nixon, died today at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. He was 88 years old and lived in Washington. Although the cause of death was not immediately known, Judge Sirica had been suffering from pneumonia, said Coimbra Sirica, the wife of his son Jack. Judge Sirica had been hospitalized earlier in the week after falling and breaking his collarbone, Mrs. Sirica said.

Japan is struggling with a deepening economic downturn that may prove to be the harshest in two decades, but what most troubles some economists is that the Japanese Government vowed this type of decline would not happen. Six years ago, the Government committed itself to transforming its export-driven economy into one led by consumer demand. The Prime Minister at the time, Yasuhiro Nakasone, promised President Ronald Reagan a "historic change" as his Government sought to reduce the yawning trade surplus, head off protectionist pressure from the United States and let the long-suffering Japanese consumer enjoy more of Japan's growing prosperity.

The Pentagon will begin a special airlift of food to Somalia as soon as possible, the White House announced tonight. An Administration official said the step was intended to speed the shipment of food to outlying areas of the country that have received little food in the last several months because of warfare and drought.

For the American consumer, the biggest effect of the new North American Free Trade Agreement will take place in the neighborhood supermarket, where fresh fruits and vegetables will become more plentiful, more readily available in winter and will almost certainly become cheaper. The free trade pact that the United States, Canada and Mexico reached this week will, if ratified, eliminate the taxes now imposed on tomatoes, cantaloupes, cucumbers and many other foods imported from Mexico. The taxes, or tariffs, are intended to protect American farmers from imports, and they add significantly to the price of these foods. The accord will also reduce transportation costs by opening long-haul cross-border truck routes to low-wage Mexican carriers. Cheaper Roses The agreement may even lower the cost of romance -- cutting out the 8 percent tax on cut roses from Mexico. "You will find a greater availability of fruits and vegetables in your store, and the prices will be lower," said Colin A. Carter, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of California at Davis. "There is a saving for consumers -- there's no question -- because many of these products have been protected right now from import competition."