September 11, 1992

NEW YORK CITY WASHINGTON HEIGHTS: BEHIND THE DECISION The claims of two sisters who said they saw a police officer beat and fatally shoot a Dominican immigrant crumbled under the weight of physical evidence and their own contradictions, leading a grand jury to clear the officer, the Manhattan District Attorney said. He gave the explanation as he issued a detailed 45-page review of an investigation in the July death, which touched off several days of violence in Washington Heights. A1. A summary of the report. B2.

Talks Likely in South Africa With both sides jarred toward conciliation after a massacre, the African National Congress agreed to a meeting with President de Klerk. Page A3. Union Corruption Charged Officials of a New York construction union and two reputed mob figures were charged with looting nearly $20 million from a pension fund. Page B1. Clifford May Not Face a Trial

The Economy President Bush outlined "a single program, a unified strategy" for reviving the economy. In a speech to business leaders in Detroit, he presented his philosophy as a broad mix of tax and spending cuts, expanded social programs and new free-trade pacts to lead the nation into the global economy. [ Page A1. ] Up to 150,000 American jobs could be lost from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, according to Labor Secretary Lynn Martin. [ D1. ]

ANY miniature golf course is a blend of three things: sport, art and nature. The more of each, the better, and an excess of all three is ideal. This isn't just a matter of big golf writ small. At its most successful, miniature golf should be bigger than life. A reminder of how far miniature golf is capable of stretching the bounds of esthetics and play can be found in the "Putt-Modernism" miniature golf course and exhibition, which opened recently at Artists Space in TriBeCa. It beats well-established local mini-courses at their own game.

Three top officials of a construction union and two reputed members of the Genovese crime family were charged yesterday with turning the union "into a racketeering enterprise" through kickbacks and a fraudulent real-estate deal that looted nearly $20 million from the union's pension fund. One of the officials, Frank Lupo, the 45-year-old president of the Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York, was charged with arranging real-estate loans for a reputed mob member, who in turn sold property to the union at inflated prices, said Otto G. Obermaier, the United States Attorney for the Southern District.