November 21, 1992

By settling a bitter farm trade dispute with the United States today, the European Community has chosen to ignore strong French objections to the deal, but it is still unclear whether France will invoke its right to veto the agreement. In its first response tonight, France, which is Europe's largest exporter of farm products, criticized the accord, which was worked out by the community's negotiators.

New Twist to Passport Case The White House has told aides that they may destroy telephone logs, documents that Congressional investigators say they need. Page 7. Auto Anxiety in Hong Kong More than 1,300 expensive cars were stolen in the colony in the first nine months of this year, many of them taken to China by speedboats. Page 4. Mad About 'Lucia' The Metropolitan Opera audience waxed indignant at a new staging of "Lucia di Lammermoor." Edward Rothstein's review is on page 11.

In a nationwide push for power at the state and local levels, conservative Christian candidates won hundreds of races on Election Day, establishing themselves as a grass-roots political force and giving them a base from which to push for control of the Republican Party. Tallying the results of the sometimes obscure races for seats on school boards, city councils, state legislatures and the like, both they and their opponents agree that what is known as the religious right scored significant gains. Difficult to Identify The liberal lobbying group People for the American Way, which has led the fight against the religious right around the country, said fundamentalist Christian candidates had won about 40 percent of the 500 races it monitored nationwide. The fiercest battleground was California, but the movement also scored successes in states like Iowa, Kansas, Florida, Texas and Oregon. And People for the American Way estimated there were thousands more races in which it had not been able to identify the affiliations of the candidates.

As giddy as debutantes, the princes and the satraps of the Democratic Party gathered Thursday night at Pamela Harriman's house to tell Bill Clinton and each other how happy, how overjoyed, how positively transported they were to see power on the horizon at last. Robert S. Strauss, late of Moscow, and Katharine Graham, ever of The Washington Post, were there, and of course Warren M. Christopher and Vernon E. Jordan, the panjandrums of the transition. Representatives were there, and senators enough to stock a ball club, pinch-hitters and relief pitchers included -- Sasser and Bentsen and Lieberman and Mikulski and Harkin and Graham and Biden and Kerrey and Bumpers and Ford and Byrd and Mitchell and more.

The President-elect plans to hold at least one televised question-and-answer session with the American people before his inauguration. Page 8.

As Joe S. strained through a lifting fog of anesthesia, his first thought was the realization that he had survived 10 hours of heart surgery. His second thought was to summon a relative to his bedside to ask him about a promised $10,000 he needed to settle a gambling debt. "I got a tube down my throat and can't talk," said Mr. S., a 45-year-old convicted embezzler who spoke on the condition that his full name not be published. "I asked for his hand and with my finger I traced a question mark in his palm and then I made a dollar sign."

After six tortuous years of confrontation, the United States and the European Community found a compromise today on how to reduce farm subsidies, clearing the way for broader world trade talks to proceed. In France, which has been uncompromising in its opposition to American demands, Agriculture Minister Jean-Pierre Soisson quickly said he could not accept the deal. But he stopped short of saying his country would invoke its right under community rules to veto the agreement.

After six tortuous years of confrontation, the United States and the European Community found a compromise today on how to reduce farm subsidies, clearing the way for broader world trade talks to proceed. In France, which has been uncompromising in its opposition to American demands, Agriculture Minister Jean-Pierre Soisson quickly said he could not accept the deal. But he stopped short of saying his country would invoke its right under community rules to veto the agreement.

President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, seeking to calm President-elect Bill Clinton's concerns about the free-trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, says he is eager to negotiate a solution to problems created by the accord soon after Mr. Clinton takes office in January. In an interview Thursday evening, Mr. Salinas said he shared Mr. Clinton's belief that steps must be taken to protect the environment from damage that might be caused by the accord known as the North American Free Trade Agreement.

A state judge fined New York City yesterday for what she called the Dinkins administration's repeated failure to shelter homeless families adequately. She also ordered four city officials to spend a night in the same offices where hundreds of homeless families have had to sleep. Justice Helen E. Freedman of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, who has been presiding over the case against the city for its treatment of the homeless for seven years, repeatedly expressed frustration at the city's failure to follow her orders to provide decent shelter for such families.

A leading pro-Israel group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has selected a new president with close ties to the Democratic Party. On Thursday, the organization chose Steve Grossman, a Massachusetts businessman and chairman of his state's Democratic Party, to replace David Steiner, who resigned on Nov. 4.

A list of companies yesterday, with an article about pension funds and their underfinanced liabilities to retirees, misstated the extent of underfinancing for each corporate plan. The Associated Press, which supplied the list, transmitted a corrected version in time for use, but it was overlooked by The Times. A corrected list appears today on page 40.