December 19, 1992

President Boris N. Yeltsin cut short his visit to China and returned to Moscow, saying he needed to "restore order" and protect the reformist core of his Government. The Russian leader said he had been informed that an effort had developed to replace Westernized economics.

Clara M. Hale, who nurtured hundreds of abandoned and orphaned babies, the most fragile victims of New York City's epidemics of drug abuse and AIDS, died yesterday at Mount Sinai Hospital. She was 87 and lived in Manhattan. She died of complications of a stroke, her family said.

After several years of recession-prompted Scrooge-ism, businesses are giving holiday office parties again this year. Caterers, florists and rent-a-Santa services across the nation report a resurgence of the traditional fete. They also say there has been a widespread transformation of the custom. In an attempt to banish the litigious potential of holiday office parties past, where liquor and libidos ran freely, corporate hosts are holding "interactive parties," events where everything from bumper cars to competitive snowflake-cutting keeps guests busy -- and away from the dark corners and the bar.

A 17-year-old Brooklyn youth, known to neighbors as a high school dropout who sold drugs and defended his turf with guns, was arrested yesterday and charged with killing Patrick Daly, the grade school principal slain in a crossfire on Thursday. The suspect, Shamel Burroughs, who was wanted in another shooting, was seized before dawn in a friend's apartment at the Red Hook Houses after an all-night investigation by city and housing police detectives. They received a tip on his whereabouts from a citizens outraged by the slaying of a man who had served its children for 26 years and represented decency and hope in one of the city's toughest neighborhoods. Hundreds Gather to Mourn No gun was recovered, the police said, and Mr. Burroughs was taken into custody without a struggle at 6:15 A.M. at 453 Columbia Street, a block from the shooting. The police said 13 shell casings found at the scene showed that at least three people had engaged in a running gun battle in which Mr. Daly, who was apparently not a target, was shot once.

National Health Laboratories Inc., one of the nation's largest providers of clinical diagnostic testing, pleaded guilty today in Federal court to two criminal charges of submitting false claims to Government health insurance programs. The company agreed to pay $111 million to settle the case, Government officials said. The settlement, the largest ever reached between the Government and a health-care provider, is a result of a two-year Federal investigation into the company's marketing and billing practices.