December 30, 1992

TOMORROW evening, the champagne toasts at the Quilted Giraffe will welcome 1993 on a poignant note. In the first dawn of the new year, the granite tables in this sleek, trend-setting luxury restaurant in Manhattan, one of America's best, will be cleared for good. Now, the connoisseurs who for years delighted in the lush beluga caviar beggar's purses, the surprisingly delicious wasabi pizza, the gossamer chocolate souffle tempered with a scoop of ice cream and the buttery pecan squares will have to rely on Proustian taste memories.

Communists and nationalists combined forces in the federal Parliament today to oust Prime Minister Milan Panic. The move apparently ended the short but highly unusual political career of Mr. Panic, an American citizen who many in the West had hoped would somehow take power and end the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The overwhelming no-confidence vote in the Parliament followed the election of Dec. 20, when Mr. Panic, a Serbian-American millionaire from California, failed in his effort to unseat Yugoslavia's most powerful political leader, President Slobodan Milosevic of the Serbian republic. He was in fact routed by Mr. Milosevic in the elections.

Business Technology In a year of industry reshaping, rather than big breakthroughs, Corporate America's biggest research-and-development spenders pared down and scaled back. [ Page D1. ] Whether in computers or telephones, biotechnology or Japan Inc., 1992 was a time to regroup. [ D5. ] Japan is not buying the number of U.S. chips expected in last year's semiconductor agreement, the United States trade representative said. Access to Japan's computer chip market will be one of the first trade issues to confront Bill Clinton after his inauguration as President. [ D1. ]

THERE'S just no accounting for destiny. Andrew Morton, the author of "Diana: Her True Story," the best seller that's been called the longest divorce petition in British history, had plans to discuss his new-found fame at the Princess of Wales's favorite London restaurant, San Lorenzo, in chic Beauchamp Place. But Mr. Morton's mother has suddenly taken ill, and he finds himself abruptly back here, giving interviews in the working-class town where he grew up the son of a picture framer. The trusted astrologer who told him that his destiny was inextricably linked with Diana's didn't foresee this particular setting as a showcase.

MOST people still eat what they want, especially at this time of year, though they do so with trepidation and guilt. Having a chocolate chip cookie? Having 10? Then almost certainly, you're silently berating yourself and promising that when the New Year comes, such terrible lapses will be banished. The pleasure hasn't disappeared from food, but it has become intricately intertwined with negative emotions since people have become conscious of the problems of cholesterol and fat, pesticides and food poisoning, sugar and salt.