November 16, 1993

American industry posted its biggest gain in output in nearly a year during October, setting yet another record and further solidifying the view that the economy had picked up markedly in the last two months. The rise in industrial production, of eight-tenths of a percent, was the fifth in a row. It was also accompanied by upward revisions for September and July, according to the Federal Reserve's monthly report issued today.

A NASTY fight is shaping up over the future of the Endangered Species Act, and it pits two cherished American values, private property rights and the preservation of nature, against each other. Flashes of lightning from the approaching political storm have been abundant of late, even though action to reauthorize the expiring law is unlikely to come before well into next year at the earliest. The property-rights advocates, who see efforts to conserve endangered species as a restriction on free use of land and a brake on economic development, have found allies in Congress. Late last month, they served clear notice of the campaign they are preparing to wage.

The discovery that five additional patients may have died in tests of a new drug for hepatitis B has prompted the Food and Drug Administration to propose a major change in the rules for reporting side effects from drug trials. The announcement today came as the agency issued the first of two reports on the latest test of the drug, which was conducted at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

HUGE rock chimneys that spew hot water into the ocean abyss and nourish a riot of bizarre creatures are also fostering a wide range of economic spinoffs, leading some experts to call them the next great prize in the global race for natural resources. These oases of heat and life in the frigid depths of the ocean were first discovered 15 years ago and have since been found along many of the volcanic gashes that gird the earth. Up to 15 stories high, the chimneys form as cold waters trickle through sea-floor fractures, soak up heat, leach out minerals, percolate upward and shed the minerals in solid deposits as the now superheated fluid mixes back into icy sea water.

HOMELESS UNDERCOUNTED, STUDY SHOWS The number of New Yorkers who have been homeless in recent years is far greater than experts and advocates previously estimated, according to a new study that for the first time used city records to identify and count individuals in the city's shelter system. A1. FORMER DEPUTY MAYOR DIES Robert F. Wagner Jr., a deputy mayor under Edward I. Koch and former president of the Board of Education, died at age 49 in San Antonio. A1.