February 26, 1993

A Congressional study of the costs of pharmaceutical development in the United States said today that even using the industry's own numbers and allowing for a substantial profit, drug companies still make "excess profits" totaling more than $2 billion a year. The profits were excessive, the study said, in the sense that compared with other high-technology, high-risk industries that are also dependent on scientific research, like electronics, the returns in the drug business are higher by two to three percentage points a year. The study's data indicate that drug companies' average profits are in the range of 13 to 14 percent.

NEW YORK CITY BRONX KILLINGS LINKED TO LOVE RIVALRY The shootings of six people in a Mott Haven apartment and a young mother at the Bronx County Building were twin acts of revenge rooted in a simmering rivalry between two young women over a man, the police said. A1. Starting with two nicknames, the police built a case against suspects in the Mott Haven slayings. B2. Friends and neighbors described the woman killed on Wednesday as beautiful and quiet. B2. STUDENT DEATH SHAKES SPECIAL-ED SYSTEM The slaying of a special-education student left those who worked with the victim and the youth suspected of stabbing him groping to understand how the special-education system, set up to identify and help potentially violent students, could have failed so badly. B3. NEW STATUS FOR AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to create the African Burial Ground and the Commons Historic District, from the southern tip of City Hall Park to the north side of Duane Street, including part of Foley Square. B3. AIDS PANEL URGES END TO SOME SEX CLUBS A panel that advises New York State on AIDS policy recommended that New York City close commercial sex establishments if they refuse to comply with health regulations intended to reduce transmission of the AIDS virus. B3. Schools are cleaner and in better condition, a report said, but where physical-plant conditions are bad, they are very bad. B3. A 27-year-old mother and her 2-year-old son were found shot and bludgeoned to death in their apartment in New Brighton, Staten Island. B3. REGION ASSEMBLY VOTES AGAINST GUN BAN The New Jersey Assembly voted to get rid of a ban on semiautomatic weapons, in defiance of Governor Florio who wants New Jersey to have the toughest gun law in the nation. In a statement, Mr. Florio called the vote a "sneak attack against sanity." A1. SHOREHAM FUEL TO GO TO PENNSYLVANIA The $5 billion Shoreham nuclear power plant lurched a step closer to it final demise as the Long Island Power Authority announced that it had found a home for the plant's partially spent nuclear fuel. Instead of shipping the 100 tons of fuel to France, as originally proposed, the authority will pay the Philadelphia Electric Company $45 million to take it. A1. BUFFALO SUBURB AT WAR OVER RELIGION As some tell it, religion wasn't a big issue in the comfortable, ethnically diverse Buffalo suburb of Williamsville until last fall. Then the school board unveiled a new policy to help children get along better. That's when parents began shouting at one another and wondering which side their neighbors were on. B5. AID FOR BATTERED BEACHES SOUGHT Warning that Long Island's fragile ecology and tourist-dependent economy are at risk, political and business leaders called for a joint Federal and state effort to help repair the coastal damage from this winter's stormy weather. B5. Chronicle B4 Our Towns by George Judson B5

To help improve police credibility on the witness stand, the New York Police Department will revise its officers training program to put a special emphasis on courtroom demeanor and appearance. The city department is responding to a recommendation from Brooklyn prosecutors, who like other law enforcement officials have been troubled by what they say is a growing reluctance of jurors in the city to believe the testimony of officers.

In a ruling that could affect hundreds of organized-crime and narcotics investigations across New York State, the state's highest court ruled today that judges have been too lenient in allowing the police to use devices that can identify telephone numbers and even listen in on calls. The ruling has already caused three district attorneys in New York City to stop using the devices. And prosecutors said the ruling could prompt appeals arguing for suppression of evidence gathered from the devices, called pen registers.

The corporate bond market was flooded with a record amount of new issues yesterday as borrowers continued to scramble to take advantage of low interest rates. About $5.8 billion of new corporate issues was priced during a day that was made hectic by a roller-coaster ride in the Treasury market, where prices rose in the morning and fell in the afternoon. At the end of the day the 30-year bond yield was unchanged at 6.88 percent, still well below the 7 percent level it dropped through earlier this week.