July 12, 1993

In the wake of Richard J. Markham's unexpected resignation as president and chief operating officer of Merck & Company on Friday, the board has decided not to seek an immediate replacement and may wait until November 1994, a spokesman for the pharmaceuticals company said yesterday. A decision to replace Mr. Markham, 42, could come when Merck decides on a successor for P. Roy Vagelos, chairman and chief executive, who is to retire in November 1994, said John Doorley, the Merck spokesman.

International Nearly half of Americans say they have not heard anything about the North American Free Trade Agreement, a New York Times/CBS News poll finds, four months before Congress is expected to vote on the package of economic changes. [ Page A1. ] Mexican corn farmers would be hard pressed to survive the fierce new competition that would come with the pact. [ A3. ] Japanese political turmoil was supposed to have made it difficult for the U.S. and Japan to reach a new basic trade agreement. Instead, it appears to have made it easier. News Analysis. [ D1. ] The so-called framework on trade only sets the stage for further negotiations. [ D1. ] The Economy Administration officials are nervous that the President's deficit-reduction plan could slow the economy further. But they no longer see a need for an emergency stimulus package. [ D1. ]

Discouraged by recent weak economic reports, Administration officials are nervous that President Clinton's deficit-reduction plan could slow the economy further. But they see no need for an emergency stimulus package because they are confident that growth will pick up in the second half of this year. Reluctant to start a new battle over economic stimulus after losing one in April -- and not convinced that stimulus is needed now -- the Administration appears resigned to tinkering around the edges of the budget package to insure that any near-damage it causes to the economy will be minimal.

Frances Davis and Tracey Wood are tied together by motherhood, the streets of Brooklyn and the scars of violence. Mrs. Davis lives with the haunting memory that over the last six years her three sons were cut down by gunfire in a violent patch of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Ms. Wood, a mother of eight, was herself a victim, a hapless target of gunfire that pierced the air outside the Brownsville Houses early Thursday.

They arrive in the mail looking innocuous enough, neatly wrapped in brown parcels or in elaborately polished wooden boxes, in a book, a manuscript or a package that feels like it contains a video cassette. Or they are left lying on laboratory desks, concealed as a notebook or a piece of scientific equipment. Twice, they have been disguised as road hazards -- wooden boards left in parking lots with nails sticking out of them.