January 17, 1994

The calls were not nice, and as the white phone messages piled up like paper snow, State Assemblyman Martin A. Luster began to taste the tricky politics of getting tough on crime. He supports strong restrictions on assault weapons. And as lawmakers around the nation react to a public primal scream against violence, he plans to vote on Monday against the weapons in a special legislative session on gun crimes called by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. Still, he is not crazy about phone messages that read, "Fed up with your position." Or worse in this election year, "I will do everything I can to keep him from getting re-elected."

The Vice President strode into his office, took a seat at a Compaq personal computer and briskly pecked out a confident greeting. "Welcome to the White House," Al Gore typed. "Let's get started."

A day after President Clinton left Moscow, carrying assurances of continued Russian market reforms, their architect, Yegor T. Gaidar, announced today that he was quitting the Government because he did not think that it would pursue a sensible economic policy. "I cannot serve in the Government and at the same time be in opposition to it," Mr. Gaidar said, citing recent decisions made without Cabinet approval that he said contradicted his efforts to stabilize the economy and bring the budget deficit under control.

As prosecutors in Oregon and Michigan continued their investigation today, Tonya Harding's lawyer said he was convinced that "not one shred of evidence" exists to prove the figure skater participated in a conspiracy to injure her chief rival, Nancy Kerrigan. That statement, by Robert C. Weaver Jr., came on a day the Harding camp began responding publicly to questions surrounding the attack on Kerrigan 10 days ago in Detroit. But with United States Olympic officials suggesting on Saturday that Harding could be dropped from the Olympic team, even if she were not charged by the authorities, the response appeared an orchestrated effort in damage control to rehabilitate Harding's eroding public image and break whatever momentum may be building for her removal.

Japan has prepared a plan for opening its public-sector construction market for bidding by foreign companies, making it less likely that Washington will impose trade sanctions on Thursday, a United States official said today. "I can't tell you it's done," said the official, who has been briefed on the Japanese plan. "But I'm feeling better about it. I'm hopeful that this will be O.K."

Harding's Camp Speaks Out Tonya Harding's lawyer said there is no evidence the skater was part of a conspiracy to injure Nancy Kerrigan. SportsMonday, page C1. King's Legacy in Classroom Though Dr. Martin Luther King has become a standard figure in the school curriculum, classroom opinion about him remains mixed. Page B1. Chiefs and Cowboys Win Kansas City rallied behind Joe Montana to top the Houston Oilers, 28-20, and Dallas beat the Green Bay Packers, 27-17. SportsMonday, page C1. A2 Arts

Whether yesterday's low temperature of 3 degrees will stand as the coldest of 1994 remains to be seen. Although it was far below the normal low of 25 degrees, it was still shy of the record for the date of 1 degree set in 1893, and downright balmy compared to Feb. 9, 1934, the coldest day on record, when the mercury hit 15 degrees below zero. The ice on the Hudson River was reported as 14 inches thick at Tarrytown and Bay Shore motorists drove across the Great South Bay to Fire Island.

The rapid development of electronic information technologies has placed the American newspaper industry at a crossroads. New methods of delivering information to desktops and living rooms are threatening the economic foundation of the $45 billion newspaper industry, historically one of the most lucrative and influential of American businesses. Newspaper companies are racing toward electronic media of all kinds in an attempt to pre-empt the competition.

Tears froze and glittered like diamonds, and all most people could think about, as the coldest weekend in years burned across their faces, was a place to be warm. Some New Yorkers treated the last two days of potentially lethal cold the way they treat everything else, with disdain, but the cold did to the city what few things ever could. It thinned it out, slowed it down and gave even people in safer neighborhoods a reason to be afraid of the streets.

You are Joe Montana and the Kansas City Chiefs' offense. You have played one half. You have been smacked sideways by the Houston Oilers' rowdy, Buddy Ryan-inspired defense. You trail by 10-0. You look bruised.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani offered an impassioned plea to black New Yorkers yesterday, seeking to assure them that "there is nothing to fear" in his mayoralty. But he stuck by his refusal to meet with certain figures he views as divisive. "I read in the papers that there were some in the African-American community who fear me," a somber Mr. Giuliani said at a ceremony at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine commemorating the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "I can't tell you how much that hurts me. Except for the most external factor, we're all the same."

International The architect of Russia's free-market changes said he was quitting the Government because he did not think it would pursue a sensible economic policy. Yegor T. Gaidar's announcement came a day after President Clinton left Moscow, carrying assurances that economic changes would continue. [ Page A1. ]