February 21, 1994

When Lieut. Sally Fountain telephoned a repair office aboard this aircraft carrier the other day, a male sailor answered and called to his boss, "Hey, there's a lieutenant chick on the phone for you." Minutes later, the sailor's angry supervisor hauled the young man before Lieutenant Fountain, a 31-year-old electronic warfare officer on EA-6B radar-jamming planes, to apologize formally for his remark. "It showed me that men on board are trying to nip that stuff in the bud," Lieutenant Fountain said.

About 400 Russian soldiers arrived today under a United Nations flag in this Serbian stronghold and were greeted with liquor and song as the Serbs' brothers and protectors. Heralded by the Bosnian Serb nationalists as their safeguard against a threatened NATO air attack, the Russians abandoned all pretense of United Nations impartiality before an explosion of local joy as they were greeted by a crowd of at least 300 people with their three-fingered Serbian salute. The Russians allowed children to board their trucks and armored personnel carriers while accepting gifts of the local plum brandy and a red rose.

Downward Spiral in Zaire The collapse of Zaire's mining industry, resulting from poor economic policies and unrest, has not only created economic hardship for the country but has also increased the danger of political instability. Page A3. Echoes of Rodney King The videotaped arrest of a black man who scuffled with two white police officers and was shot in the backside as he fled has created outrage and dismay in Athens, Tex. Page A10. Back Doors for Terminal Eighty years after Grand Central Terminal opened its front doors, it will be getting something the designers never thought necessary: back entrances. Page B1.

Business executives are praising President Clinton's decision to take a tougher stance with Japan over trade but are divided about how much the Administration can improve the situation. "It's time the Japanese understood that this chronic deficit is intolerable," said George Fisher, chairman and chief executive of the Eastman Kodak Company.

To Leo Concannon, it was the only way to shop. Parked in a comfy chair, the sound of show tunes from a baby grand falling lightly on his ears, Mr. Concannon flipped the pages of a newspaper, oblivious to the cacophony at the cosmetics counters and the clicking of the register in women's shoes. From the serene look of him, he might have been relaxing in the lobby of a Ritz-Carlton, or biding his time in a first-class departure lounge before a flight to Paris. But no. It was merely an armchair by a bank of escalators on the ground floor of Nordstrom in the Menlo Park Mall, where his wife, Mary, had left him before heading off to browse on her own.