May 11, 1993

OF the United States' 20,000 native plants, about 4,200 are threatened with extinction, perhaps 750 of them within a decade. In the hope rescuing as many as possible, conservationists -- the Johnny Appleseeds of the 1990's -- are sowing the American landscape with rare and endangered flowers and shrubs. But these introductions are proving surprisingly controversial. Many fail. That can mean disaster if, as sometimes happens, the transplantation is done to compensate for a developer's destruction of the plant's existing habitat. The price of success could be almost as high in some cases: ecologists fear that other native plants could be crowded out if an endangered species is introduced outside its natural range or if an ecosystem is manipulated to favor it over other species.

NEW YORK CITY 7 INDICTED IN KILLING OF A JOURNALIST Angered by articles about the multibillion-dollar drug trade, leaders of a Colombian cocaine cartel ordered the murder of a crusading Spanish-language journalist, Manuel de Dios Unanue, who was slain in a Queens restaurant 14 months ago, Federal authorities said. The authorities announced that two suspects had been indicted in the murder, and law-enforcement officials said that five others had been arrested in the conspiracy but that the indictments against them had been sealed. A1. The Cali cocaine cartel is a strong and brutal presence in Jackson Heights. B2. 17 MONTHS LATER, ANOTHER SON IS KILLED A Marine Corps recruiting sergeant home on leave for Mother's Day was shot and killed as he sat on a Bronx park bench a few feet from the spot where his only brother was shot and killed 17 months ago. B3. CHOICE BETWEEN RIVALS TROUBLES DINKINS An effort to forge a black-Hispanic coalition to bolster Mayor Dinkins's re-election campaign has led to a standoff between a black and a Hispanic candidate for the city's No. 2 office and put the Mayor in a delicate bind between political calculation and old loyalties. B3. A majority of the New York City Board of Education lined up to elect Carol A. Gresser, a longtime parent association leader in Queens, as the next board president, but Mayor Dinkins made a last-minute plea to delay the vote. B3. REGION RAIL NETWORK IS EXPLORED With faith that three-hour train trips from New York to Boston will be commonplace in a few years, about 100 rail experts gathered in Warwick, R.I., to sketch out the next step: an advanced rail network that would extend over much of eastern North America. B4. DUN & BRADSTREET TO MOVE STAFF In what Connecticut officials hailed as a victory for their economic-development campaign, Dun & Bradstreet, the financial information company, said that it had accepted a $7.2 million grant from Hartford and would move its headquarters staff of 300 people from midtown Manhattan to Wilton, Conn. B5. SCHOOL OFFICIALS OPPOSE STATE TAKEOVER Undaunted by a scathingly critical state report on Newark's schools, the school district's officials acknowledged problems but said they remained unalterably opposed to a state takeover of the system. B5. FEWER SHAD IN THE HUDSON Swimming upstream with the tides, shad are returning from the Atlantic Ocean to the Hudson River later than usual and in smaller numbers. Commercial fishermen in the river attributed the late season to a cold March. B5. BUNGEE JUMPING FROM CRANES IS BANNED New Jersey banned bungee jumping from cranes, but said the sport could continue where permanent platforms are built. B4. A woman who authorities say is suffering from depression was arraigned in Nassau County on charges of trying to kill her daughter. B4. Chronicle B4 Our Towns by George Judson B5

Bitter Croat-Muslim battles in Mostar, sandwiched between cease-fire agreements, will only complicate the already tangled attempts to patch together a peace in the Balkans, Western diplomats in Croatia say. The new fighting also underlines the fact that the Serbs are not the only aggressors in Bosnia, the diplomats said. This bolsters those opposed to Western military involvement on the ground that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a quagmire of feuding groups from which a foreign power would never extricate itself.

International Under intense pressure from the White House, some leading Congressional critics of the North American Free Trade Agreement are toning down their oratory. A few are even saying they might support the pact after all. [ Page D1. ] China has become the largest buyer of gold, ending the United States' 25-year reign and giving gold's price a new buoyancy. Much of last year's purchase was in the form of gold jewelry. [ D1. ]

As 17-year-old Daniela Furci sat crying in the chambers of a judge last June, he took her green identification card, ripped it up and ordered her to get a new one with her real name, Mariana Zaffaroni. He warned her never to use the name Furci again. Two days earlier, a blood test proved that she was not the child of the Argentine couple who had raised her but the daughter of slain Uruguayan leftists. The man she had assumed was her father, a former secret police agent named Miguel Angel Furci, had played a part in kidnapping her mother and father when she was 18 months old.