March 10, 1994

The organization that stands behind many of the nation's mortgages is taking broad steps to make home ownership easier for lower-income Americans, particularly recent immigrants and minorities, people involved in the effort said today. Under the new rules, banks would have more flexibility in lending to people who already owe a considerable amount of money or who cannot afford a down payment equal to 20 percent of the price of a home, the people said. Tuesday Announcement The change is to be announced on Tuesday by the Federal National Mortgage Association, popularly known as Fannie Mae. Officials at Fannie Mae would not comment on the plan.

A teen-ager from Colombia was convicted yesterday of killing Manuel de Dios Unanue, a journalist who crusaded against drugs. Prosecutors said his death was tied to a plot by a powerful Colombian drug cartel that was angered by Mr. de Dios's writings. A Federal jury in Brooklyn found that Wilson Alejandro Mejia Velez killed Mr. de Dios two years ago. But the authorities said the leader of the murder conspiracy is believed to be at large in Colombia Article, page B1.

FOR Elisabeth Ross Wingate, curtains are simply paralyzing. "I'm blocked," said Ms. Wingate, a Manhattan film maker.

ANGER, disgust, fear, joy -- a kaleidoscope of feelings washes over the faces of a class of fifth graders at the Troup Middle School in New Haven. Locked in concentration, they are mimicking the expressions on faces pictured on a handout about the specific facial-muscle recipes for each emotion. It's an exercise in empathy: they practice the expressions and talk about the feelings that go with the face.

A draft of the Administration's welfare plan offers the first cost estimates of President Clinton's pledge to "end welfare as we know it," outlining significant new expenditures on child care, training and work programs. The projections are preliminary and could undergo major changes as Mr. Clinton and his aides resolve several policy issues. But the cost of the programs, which the Administration projects at $6 billion in 1999, and the means of financing it, are likely to be central points in the debate when Congress takes up the issue this year.

When Richard Branson sold Virgin Records to Thorn EMI two years ago for $960 million, he walked away with a huge profit on a company that he had founded in 1973 and built into one of the music industry's largest independent labels. But the shaggy-haired entrepreneur left behind questions about whether EMI had overpaid and whether Virgin's freewheeling culture, which had helped attract to its roster rock and pop performers like Phil Collins, Steve Winwood, Boy George and Paula Abdul, would work within the button-downed atmosphere of its new corporate parent.

David R. Gergen was hired to salvage President Clinton's reputation. Now he is trying to salvage his own. Mr. Gergen, a former Republican aide who basked in accolades, perhaps overblown at times, for turning the Democratic President's fortunes around last summer, has become the man most mistrusted by the most fervent Clinton loyalists in the White House. As he went underground during the heat of the Whitewater affair, apparently forsaking his role as chief White House spin doctor, the President's counselor also became the target of a whispering campaign unusual for a Presidential team that is fairly collegial by Washington standards.

Andrew Flenoy has ironed his white shirt until there are sharp creases down the sleeves. His hands are folded in his lap, his back is ramrod straight, and his feet jiggle nervously as he begins his fifth job interview in as many weeks -- this one at Sprint, the long-distance telephone company that is Kansas City's largest private employer. Mr. Flenoy, 21, comes across as nervous and sweetly sincere as he tells the interviewer how much he wants the $17,274-a-year job selling long-distance service.

A teen-ager from Colombia was convicted yesterday of killing Manuel de Dios Unanue, a journalist who crusaded against drugs, in a plot that prosecutors said was tied to a powerful Colombian drug cartel that was angered by Mr. de Dios's writings. A Federal District Court jury in Brooklyn found that the teen-ager, Wilson Alejandro Mejia Velez, 19, was the gunman who fired two bullets into Mr. Dios's head as he chatted at the bar in an Elmhurst, Queens, restaurant two years ago.

Despite promises of Pentagon reforms after the Tailhook sexual harassment scandal, four women serving in the military told a House committee today that the armed forces often punished women who complain of harassment rather than the offenders. Since the 1991 Tailhook Association convention, at which naval aviators assaulted scores of women in a hotel in Las Vegas, Nev., all branches of the military have issued stronger rules against harassment, ordered sensitivity training and expanded job opportunities for women. Commanders have hailed a new era in relations between men and women in the military.

NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL DEMOCRAT BACKS RENT INCREASE The deputy majority leader of the City Council has called for a rent increase of up to 25 percent in rent-stabilized apartments once they become vacant, rather than supporting a straight extension of the rent-control and rent-stabilization laws that expire this month. B2. MAYOR ACCUSED OF SABOTAGING BOARD In a heated hearing about the civilian board that reviews complaints of police misconduct, several City Council members complained that the Giuliani administration was trying to cripple the board by leaving positions unfilled. B2.

It was the January board meeting of a private shipping company. The directors were holding it by phone, and when the topic of whether the company should pursue a merger came up, the chief executive quickly dismissed the idea. The company had too many financial problems, period. But one director dug in his heels.