December 11, 1993

President Clinton met with the labor leader Lane Kirkland at the White House today in an effort to repair a relationship frayed by the North American Free Trade Agreement and to enlist his support for the Administration's health care plan. In the end, the President seemed to have been only partly successful.

Eye-for-an-eye killing continued unabated in the Israeli-occupied territories today as three Arab laborers were shot to death on a West Bank road in what seemed to be a revenge attack by Jewish settlers. According to Israel Television, the militantly anti-Arab Kach movement, founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, took responsibility. A caller to Israel Radio said settlers had carried out the attack to avenge the killing of a settler and his son by Palestinian gunmen earlier in the week.

Airport Security Is Still Lax, Federal Investigators Find Federal investigators said airports have failed to keep unauthorized people out of restricted areas, including tarmacs where unoccupied planes could be targets of terrorists. Page 8. U.S. Assails Mississippi Jails Citing maggot-infested cells and segregated drunk tanks, the Justice Department has called for the closing of four jails in Mississippi. Page 8. A Step to the Right The abyss between democracy in concept and in action is becoming more apparent as Russia's parliamentary elections approach. Page 5. Big Shift for Savings Bank Green Point Savings depositors voted to convert the mutual savings bank to public ownership through a $700 million stock offering. Page 39. Restaurant Stalking Grounds Two well-dressed men have been following women out of Upper East Side restaurants and robbing them of jewelry, the police say. Page 25. Telescope Back in Orbit After getting new sets of corrective lenses, the Hubble Space Telescope was sent back into orbit. Page 9.

The lawyer for the man accused of killing five people aboard a Long Island Rail Road train called today for an assessment of his client's sanity. But legal and psychiatric experts said an insanity defense in the crime, which the police say was carefully planned, would be difficult. This morning, the defendant, Colin Ferguson, wearing a bulletproof vest and protected by 20 guards, appeared emotionless and silent in Nassau County District Court, where Anthony J. Falanga was appointed his lawyer. While Mr. Falanga declined to discuss his plans for a defense, he called for his client to "be examined psychiatrically" and added, "I think it's obvious an evaluation is in order."

A Westchester nanny admitted in court today that she had fatally injured the 10-month-old boy in her care by hurling him violently to his bedroom floor after he tugged at her hair. After insisting for months that she had played no role in Kieran Dunne's death on March 3, Ann Franklin told a starkly different story this morning about how the baby had fractured his skull a week earlier.