September 16, 1993

Twenty-three years after going underground as an anti-war radical wanted for bank robbery and the murder of a Boston police officer, Katherine Ann Power surrendered to the police here today. One of the last of a generation of fugitive student revolutionaries opposed to the Vietnam War, Ms. Power, 44, pleaded guilty in Superior Court today to charges of manslaughter and armed robbery dating back to 1970, when she was a senior at Brandeis University.

Ford and Union in Labor Pact Ford and the U.A.W. agreed on a new three-year labor contract, settling health care issues and averting a threatened strike. Page D1. Abortion Bill Falters Legislation to ban most state restrictions on abortion appears to be dead, with Congress squabbling about the breadth of the bill. Page A18. New Vision for 42d Street Manhattan's West 42d Street would be renovated to capitalize on its honky-tonk character under plans announced by state officials. Page B1. Many Schools to Open New York City's Board of Education voted to open schools Monday, even though some buildings and many classrooms will be closed. Page B1. Ultrasound Use Questioned A large new study questions the value of the routine use of prenatal ultrasound screening in low-risk pregnancies. Page A17.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a writer, came back to Manhattan from the historic handshake in Washington with a feeling of euphoria, ushering in the Jewish New Year last night with chicken soup (her mother's recipe), brisket and a palpable -- though guarded -- sense of hope. "I who love language have been reduced to the most ordinary cliches," said Ms. Pogrebin, chairwoman of Americans for Peace Now, a Zionist advocacy group. "So here goes: I never thought I'd live to see the day. I couldn't believe my eyes. It's a dream come true."

IT is not immediately easy to fathom what Brenda Laurel is trying to do on a mountain above this resort town. Her goal is to create a "virtual environment for two." She wants to take audio and video recordings of this landscape and put them into a computer at the Banff Center for the Arts, so that two people can jointly experience the Canadian Rockies without the inconvenience of going outdoors. All they have to do is put on some gloves, magnetic coils and helmets tethered to the computer. It will monitor their movements as they swivel their heads and walk around the room, adjusting the sights and sounds inside the helmets to simulate a real walk in the mountains -- just the sort of experience that virtual-reality devotees have been promising for years.

Companies The U.A.W. and Ford agreed on a new three-year labor contract covering 96,000 U.S. workers. The union fought off demands that workers pay more for health care. [ Page D1. ] Organized labor has emerged as a force behind both the drive to stop Nafta and the campaign to overhaul health care. [ A21. ] Wang Laboratories is about to emerge from bankruptcy protection as a smaller computer maker that could surprise a few in the industry who had written it off for dead. [ D1. ]