December 8, 1992

India's towns and cities were swept by rioting between Muslims and Hindus on Monday, leaving more than 200 people dead and hundreds more injured a day after militant Hindus destroyed a 16th-century mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya. In Bombay alone, which experienced some of the worst violence, 59 people were killed, many when police opened fire on rampaging mobs.

The first independent study of the health records of 35,000 workers at a Government bomb plant in Washington State presents a new, more sinister picture of the risks of small doses of radiation. This finding, by a pioneer in radiation epidemiology, Dr. Alice Stewart, follows her 14-year struggle to regain access to the health data. For decades, the Federal Government had limited access to scientists of its choosing, who generally concluded that the radiation exposure had done little harm.

NEW YORK CITY CONSOLIDATION PLAN FOR CUNY The Chancellor of the City University of New York is pressing for an overhaul of the 19-campus system that would eliminate or consolidate some academic programs so the university could improve and expand others. The consolidation is intended to transform CUNY from a collection of autonomous campuses into an integrated university system with a shared faculty and one strong leader, the chancellor said. A1. DISENCHANTMENT OVER FERNANDEZ'S BOOK New York City Schools Chancellor Fernandez has backed away from the most scornful statements in his new autobiography as members of the Board of Education who will vote on renewing his contract began voicing deepening disenchantment. A1.

Moving to defuse anxiety over the influx of immigrants and the rash of rightist attacks on foreigners in Germany, leaders of the country's main political parties have agreed on a new law to make it harder for asylum-seekers and refugees to enter Germany. The agreement on the new law was reached late Sunday, and Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters predicted today that when approved by Parliament, it would lead to "a substantial easing of the asylum problem." The law is not expected to lead to any immediate expulsions, however.

THE shark, that mythic terror of the deep, has been top predator of the seas for nearly 400 million years. But sharks themselves are now being wiped out en masse by the human appetite for shark flesh, and their disappearance could disrupt the ecology of the world's oceans. The threat comes just as scientists are reaching beyond the "Jaws" image of the shark as a primitive, mindlessly malevolent eating machine that has long shrouded the beast's true nature. Behind the legend, researchers are finding a wondrously sophisticated animal whose biology, once understood, could also yield important medical benefits.