August 17, 1993

AFTER seven years of construction, a radio telescope spread across 5,000 miles -- the largest astronomical instrument ever built -- is finished.

NEW RESTRAINTS IMPOSED ON LAWYERS Looking to protect women who are taken advantage of by their divorce lawyers, New York State's top judge issues new rules to give clients more rights. A1. KIDNAPPED EXECUTIVE FOUND BURIED ALIVE The 68-year-old chairman of the nation's largest tuxedo manufacturer is found buried alive in a barrel-shaped bunker in Manhattan after being kidnaped 12 days ago, the police said. A1. ASBESTOS MORE EXTENSIVE THAN EXPECTED The emergency inspection of New York City's public schools has found exposed asbestos in every school checked so far, indicating the scandal over the school testing program is more severe and costly than initially expected. A1. NEW YORK CITY U.S. FINDS SUDANESE LINK TO BOMB PLOT The United States has evidence that the Sudan played a role in a plot to bomb the United Nations and other targets in New York, and has decided to put the country on its list of terrorist nations, a State Department official says. B3. A LIMIT ON WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT Approving the first zoning rules designed specifically for the waterfront, the New York City Planning Commission says it is signaling its desire for more public access and less high-rise development along the shoreline. B3. DISMISSALS LEAD TO ACCUSATIONS The State Comptroller, H. Carl McCall, has dismissed four senior members of the office responsible for auditing New York City's finances, leading Republicans to charge that he is trying to protect Mayor David N. Dinkins. B3. JUDGE REFUSES TO FREE SHEIK A Federal judge denies Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman's request to be released from Federal custody, saying it was reasonable to regard the Egyptian cleric as a "danger to the security of the United States." B3. A COUNTERATTACK IN THE MAYORAL RACE In a political counterpunch, Mayor David N. Dinkins sharply criticizes his opponent, Rudolph W. Giuliani, for saying that the Dinkins campaign had "demonized" Mr. Giuliani in the eyes of many black New Yorkers. B3. A candidate for New York City comptroller says the incumbent has neglected her duties. B3. Torrential rainfall floods New York City and knocks out subway lines at rush hour. B4. REGION GUARDS HURT IN NEW INCIDENT One day after four corrections officers were briefly taken hostage by inmates at the Westchester County Jail in White Plains, two other officers were injured in an assault by several prisoners, the president of the officers' union said. B5. MOTHER ARRESTED FOR LEAVING CHILDREN A 25-year-old single mother tells the authorities that she left her 7-month-old daughter and 2-year-old son alone overnight to work as a prostitute in New York City because she needed the money after being cut off from welfare. B5. RIFKIN'S LAWYER SEEKS OUTSIDE JURY Arguing that Joel Rifkin cannot get a fair trial in Nassau County, his lawyer has proposed bringing in a jury from upstate New York to hear the murder case against him. B5. Chronicle B4 Our Towns by Evelyn Nieves B5

In a move that could profoundly alter telecommunications in the United States, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company announced today that it would acquire the nation's biggest cellular telephone company for $12.6 billion. The takeover of McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. of Kirkland, Wash., would give A.T.& T. control of a vast wireless network, rapidly blurring the traditional line between local and long-distance service. The deal, which is subject to Federal approval, would be the fifth-largest takeover in the nation's history. And for A.T.& T., which has been busily investing in or acquiring a wide range of communications and computing companies, today's announcement represents an aggressive step beyond its previously stated plan to buy only one-third of McCaw for $3.8 billion. Getting Away From Wires The outright acquisition is A.T.& T.'s response to the explosive growth in wireless communications -- a field embracing cellular telephones, two-way paging devices, hand-held computers and mobile fax machines, all of which use radio waves to send and receive information.

Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield has notified patient groups that it is prepared to seek increases of as much as 35 percent for 125,000 customers with the broadest health insurance coverage -- or may cancel their policies altogether -- in an effort to push them into health-care networks that limit their choices of doctors and tightly control medical costs. The action, which could take effect early next year, is the first step in an ambitious plan by Empire, the state's largest health insurer, to cut costs by moving as many as half of its 7.6 million customers into "managed care" plans.

On a knoll overlooking the weathered tombstones of her ancestors, Deanna Tikkanen stopped to gaze at a 50-ton boulder marking a grave that has made this cemetery in the Hamptons almost as sought after as the beach houses nearby. Underneath the stone is buried Jackson Pollock, who created his large abstract drip paintings here in the 1940's and 50's. In the decades since he died in a car accident in 1956, his reputation has achieved legendary status.