December 29, 1992

Thousands of commuters collected new horror stories yesterday as freezing rain left a treacherous layer of ice on roads throughout the New York metropolitan region just in time for the morning rush hour. Traffic officials said there were few serious accidents -- just hundreds of fender benders that left trucks and cars strewn along roads like jackstraws, tying up those traveling behind them. The New Jersey Turnpike became a 30-mile parking lot extending from New Brunswick to exits for the Hudson River tunnels and the George Washington Bridge. Accidents on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive on Manhattan's East Side set off a chain reaction of problems: stranding cars for hours on the Triborough Bridge, tying up the Harlem River Drive and backing up traffic in New Jersey that was headed for the George Washington Bridge.

CHRONIC pain, in the absence of any discernible physical cause, is the most common reason for lost workdays in this country, yet doctors remain unsure about what causes the complaint, how to treat it, or even if exists. What do you do when the scans, blood tests and exams indicate nothing wrong, but the patient is incapacitated?

The recession is officially over, but the American economy will have to grow more than 3 percent a year -- perhaps much more -- to stop the kind of mass layoffs that have taken place in recent months and to create enough new jobs to employ most of the people who want to work. That is the almost unanimous view of more than a dozen economists, labor experts and business executives interviewed recently. Most are doubtful that the economy can expand so robustly on its own -- achieving a growth rate that almost doubles the average performance since 1988 -- without some significant Government spending.

WITH surprising speed, insect pests are becoming resistant to natural toxins that scientists hoped would usher in a new era of biological controls and ring down the curtain on synthetic insecticides. The natural toxins, produced by a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, or B.t., are widely used in sprays to kill agricultural pests and forest scourges like the gypsy moth and spruce budworm. B.t. toxin has been hailed as a perfect pesticide because it targets only certain caterpillars without harming either the insects' predators or leaving a poisonous residue on crops or trees.

Gov. Guy Hunt of Alabama, whose financial dealings have been under investigation for more than a year, was indicted today on 13 felony counts, including charges that he took $200,000 from his inaugural fund for his own use. Mr. Hunt, a Primitive Baptist preacher and former Amway salesman who rose from relative obscurity in 1986 to become Alabama's first Republican Governor since Reconstruction, was indicted on charges including theft of property, conspiracy and violations of Alabama's ethics law.

Companies Northeast Bancorp is to be acquired by First Fidelity Bancorp of New Jersey, ending a long search by Connecticut's third-largest banking company for an out-of-state partner. [ Page D1. ] Milford Fabricating's apprentice program may be a model with valuable lessons for experts planning a national job training policy. [ D1. ]

Almost a year after it took power in a coup, the military-backed Government of Algeria is facing a declining economy, deepening public resentment and mounting armed attacks by Islamic militants, and many Western diplomats here expect it to fall within a year in favor of an Islamic government. The Algerian crisis is now the most pressing concern of Western diplomats in the region, especially those from France, which has a large Algerian population and might have to absorb waves of immigrants fleeing an Islamic state. But the diplomats' longer-term concern is for an Algerian fundamentalist government's influence in nearby countries of North Africa, including the West's biggest Arab ally, Egypt. 'A Catalytic Effect' Is Feared "When Iran became an Islamic state it shook the Arab world, even though Iran is Persian and its rulers are Shiite rather than mainstream Sunni Muslims," a senior Western diplomat said. "If Algeria is handed over to the fundamentalists it could have a catalytic effect in the region, much as we saw with the collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe."

Clearly convinced that his forays into McDonald's are not enough, and mindful that Washington is perceived as short on ordinary Americans, President-elect Bill Clinton plans to go all out to show that his will be an Administration of and for the common people. He is shipping them to Washington for lunch. Inaugural officials said today that they would fly more than 50 people here for what is billed as an "intimate" lunch. Actually, the expense-paid trip for people whom Mr. Clinton or Vice President-elect Al Gore or their spouses met during the campaign will last a week and include admission to all the major inaugural events. The trip will cost more that $500,000 and is being paid by the inauguration committee.

One of the longest, most emotional debates in the New York City Council this year had nothing to do with the city budget, incinerators or any of the other mundane business of running the city. It involved Puerto Rican revolutionary heroes, United States foreign policy and the sometimes subtle distinction between freedom fighters and terrorists. After two wrenching hours of debate -- with one Councilman waving a Puerto Rican flag, and Hispanic citizens cheering from the balcony -- the Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging the United Nations to ask the United States to free all Puerto Rican "political prisoners," including people convicted of bank robbery and murder.

The Federal Government has notified states that it is cutting money for AIDS prevention programs, and as a result many states are reducing services even as they face a rising demand. State officials have protested to the Bush Administration. Federal health officials said that they were considering the protests but that there was little they could do because Congress had limited the amounts available.

Ken Israel does not exactly revel in disasters. But fires, bombs, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, power failures and severed telephone lines are sure good for his business. His 3 1/2-year-old company, Exchange Resources Inc., sells disaster recovery plans, specializing in mock-ups of securities firms' trading rooms that sit idle until misfortune strikes. Then, the silent offices become real trading rooms, with the same computer system, video screens and communications links to exchanges around the world as the traders' regular stations.

China has laid off 100,000 coal workers and will lay off hundreds of thousands more in the coming years, as part of a broad effort to modernize its energy industry, an official report said today. The layoffs suggest that the Communist Party is finally grappling directly with the enormously complex and painful problems of industrial revamping.