June 9, 1993

France today accepted part of an agricultural agreement between Europe and the United States that it had vowed to veto, opening the way for progress in broader, and long-stalled, world trade talks. At a meeting of European Community foreign ministers in Luxembourg, the recently installed center-right Government of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur said it would drop its objection to a major point in the deal reached in Washington in November.

As many as 30 Wall Street firms have received requests for documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a broad investigation into the links between political contributions and the awarding of municipal bond underwriting business, Wall Street executives and Government officials said yesterday. Even as the inquiry unfolds, S.E.C. commissioners indicated that they anticipated significant changes soon in the municipal bond business, including new rules that would require underwriters to disclose in public bond offering documents any political contributions to officials involved in the offering.

In a move that could spur competition and reduce prices in the cable television industry, seven of the nation's biggest cable companies have settled a long-running antitrust investigation and agreed to make programming more available to aspiring rivals. The agreement with the attorneys general of 40 states will be announced Wednesday by Attorney General Robert Abrams of New York. It settles a five-year investigation by state prosecutors into charges that cable companies had smothered competition by blocking access to popular channels like Home Box Office or round-the-clock sports networks.

The Economy The S.E.C. asked 30 Wall Street firms for documents in an investigation into links between political contributions and the awarding of municipal bond underwriting business. [ Page D1. ] The Treasury is planning to study whether money market funds and nonbank lenders should be required to follow the Community Reinvestment Act and make loans to poor areas. [ D1. ]

Los Angeles Mayor Chosen Richard Riordan, a conservative businessman, defeated City Councilman Michael Woo, despite a Clinton endorsement. Page A14. Diplomatic Logjam Broken Officials say Walter F. Mondale will be Ambassador to Japan, while Richard C. Holbrooke, a Carter Administration aide, will go to Germany and Stephen J. Solarz to India. Page A12. Alabama's School Challenge Alabama is grappling with a judge's ruling that its public schools violate state law by failing to provide an adequate education. Page B7. More Access to Cable Shows After an antitrust inquiry, seven cable TV companies are to make shows more available to rivals. Page D1.

Connecticut, long a center of gun manufacturing, tonight became the third state, after New Jersey and California, to ban the sale of semiautomatic military-style assault rifles, including the Colt Sporter, a gun made here in Hartford. The State Senate passed the landmark measure as an 18-to-18 tie was broken by Lieut. Gov. Eunice S. Groark at 8:30 P.M. Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. signed it into law an hour and a half later at a brief ceremony with the bill's bipartisan supporters. The law forbids the sale of a category of arms that the police say is turning up in greater numbers in the hands of urban drug gangs.

Eileen O'Flaherty has seen her share of strangers' sombreros. As director of the lost and found department at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, it is her job to see that hats, silk pajamas, X-rays, parakeet cages and unpaired shoes are returned to their owners.

HERE is the burning culinary question of 1993: Can low-fat versions of traditional desserts ever taste as good as the buttery, sweet, creamy rich versions so many people love and long for? Dozens of professional cooks have been wrestling with the question for several years now. In the last few months, four noted sweet tooths have written low-fat-dessert cookbooks, confident that they have found the magic combination to make substitute ingredients taste just as good as butter, cream and chocolate.

Christine Todd Whitman, who nearly went to the United States Senate three years ago on a tide of anger against New Jersey's Governor, Jim Florio, tonight won the right to try to unseat Mr. Florio herself. Mrs. Whitman, 46, soundly defeated two vastly more experienced rivals to win the Republican primary. In doing so, she became the first woman in New Jersey to win a major party's gubernatorial nomination.

A Chinese gang that recently emerged as a major force in the smuggling of illegal immigrants helped organize the voyage of the tramp steamer that ran aground off Queens on Sunday with nearly 300 Chinese immigrants aboard, law-enforcement officials believe. Federal officials said they had evidence that one organizer of the smuggling enterprise was Guo Liang Chi, also known as Ah Kay, the 28-year-old leader of the Fuk Ching gang. Both Federal and New York officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, believe that members of the gang were to have unloaded the illegal immigrants and to have collected $30,000 from each of them for the 17,000-mile journey from the Far East.

NEW YORK CITY GANG SUSPECTED IN IMMIGRANT SMUGGLING Law-enforcement officials say they believe a Chinese gang, which has recently emerged as a major force in the growing world of illegal-immigrant smuggling, helped organize the ill-starred voyage of the tramp steamer that ran aground off Queens on Sunday with nearly 300 Chinese men and women aboard. A1. CONNECTICUT GUN BAN IS APPROVED A bill banning assault-type weapons has been passed by the Connecticut General Assembly after a series of close votes in Hartford and has been signed by the Governor. A1.

THEY were a team. Jetting about in the high-altitude 80's, they invaded America's kitchens with boundless ebullience and a simple notion: homemade food could be both elegant and accessible. Medical students, law clerks and Wall Street Turks born with baked-bean-and-beer palates and a thousand thumbs were suddenly levitating over visions of raspberry vinegar and linen-draped tables set for four. It was salvation at the stove. Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso, the co-creators of the Silver Palate, the wildly successful upscale food shop in Manhattan, helped to revolutionize a generation's eating habits. But their high-profile pairing, which resulted in cookbooks that have sold 4.5 million copies, has come to a bitter end. The two women haven't spoken in a year. And Ms. Rosso, who has just published her first solo cookbook, is now the target of intense criticism from some fellow food professionals who say the 574-page low-fat tome is well-meaning, but a mess.