August 14, 1993

The main engines of the space shuttle appear to be more prone to catastrophic failure than generally believed and need rapid improvement to "greatly enhance engine reliability and safety," a NASA safety panel said.

In a decision that brings the accountability of Federal agencies into the computer age, a United States appeals court ruled today that the Government must preserve millions of electronic messages and memorandums under the same standards used for paper communications. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected arguments by the Clinton Administration that computer messages between officials -- E-mail -- did not have to be saved. The Administration contended that officials should be allowed to choose whatever computer files they thought should be preserved and to print them on paper.

Formally ending a longstanding refusal to involve the P.L.O. in the Mideast peace talks, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said today that Israel would continue to negotiate with three key Palestinian delegates despite their new status as officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization. "It makes no difference to us," Mr. Peres said. "They're the same delegation members, the same names, the same people, the same procedure. We're also aware of the fact that prior to this they also consulted whomever they consulted."

An encounter on a country road between the Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman, and a camera crew for the Democrat, Gov. Jim Florio, has blown up into a major confrontation in the race. Since the start of the campaign, Governor Florio has sought to portray Mrs. Whitman as wealthy and out of touch with the common people. But it was not until Mrs. Whitman and an aide jumped in a car on Wednesday to chase the Florio camera crew, which had been videotaping her 208-acre farm in Bedminster and Tewksbury, that her wealth, and the issue, came to life. 'He Can Really Hurt Her' Within a day, the issue that Mrs. Whitman had tried to prevent from becoming a focus of the race overwhelmed everything else, as Mr. Florio began to attack her for using that farm, and a smaller one in Far Hills, as tax shelters that saved her as much as $30,000 in income taxes last year.

High-school sweethearts who married when they were both 20, Rick and Lisa Hihath are the quintessential Marine couple: he the trim noncommissioned officer whose duty has shuffled him around the world, she the dutiful wife rearing two daughters and following him when she can, struggling to keep the marriage intact. "It's stressful," said Sergeant Hihath, now 29, a logistics expert with the First Marine Division at Camp Pendleton here who recently returned from Somalia. "Given the amount of time marines spend away from home, the family has to adjust to dad's being away. And then they have to adjust when he comes home again." Marital Casualty Toll Similar stories can be told throughout the corps, and it was precisely to avoid that sort of disruption in the lives of recruits that the Marine Commandant recently issued a new corps policy that would have barred enlistment of married recruits, a startling departure made without the knowledge of civilian superiors. Once the superiors found out, they quickly scuttled the idea on Wednesday, but the episode underscored the toll that military life takes on families, particularly in the Marines, a kind of international 911 service. And it reopened an age-old question about whether military and family life can co-exist.