March 22, 1994

The United States started to build support today at the United Nations for tougher measures against North Korea, including economic sanctions. It also moved toward strengthening its military position on the Korean peninsula by ordering the dispatch of Patriot anti-missile interceptors. The Administration's actions are the latest moves in the growing confrontation between the United States and North Korea over the Koreans' refusal to allow full inspection of its nuclear program.

The chairman of the State Municipal Assistance Corporation yesterday called on Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to include police officers, firefighters and teachers in his budget cuts as a way of proving to other municipal unions that the sacrifices he expects of them will be shared by all. In an interview, Eugene J. Keilin, who recently took over from Felix G. Rohatyn as head of the agency set up to help the city recover from its fiscal crisis of the 1970's, said the Mayor was wrong to declare "sanctuaries" in his effort to improve productivity and eliminate 15,000 city jobs over the next year and a half.

EVEN when he was just 3 years old, the boy spent hours preening himself in front of a mirror, dressed up in his mother's clothes, makeup and jewelry. He shied away from rough-and-tumble games with other boys, preferring to play dolls with girls. His favorite stories featured women: Snow White, Rapunzel and Alice in Wonderland. He hated being a boy, he said; he'd rather be a girl. He once told his therapist, "if you wear girls' clothes you could really become a girl."

Security in a gambling casino, where millions of dollars change hands every day, is an around-the-clock exercise in making sure the wrong hands don't pocket some of them along the way. At the slot machines, at the green felt gambling tables and elsewhere out of sight, hundreds of eyes and hidden television cameras watch the players, the dealers and milling onlookers for the moment when temptation and opportunity lead a patron or employee to cheat, filch or, as happened last month on a crowded casino floor, rob.

Failing to reach an agreement on a single plan to get R. H. Macy & Company out of bankruptcy, the company's board yesterday submitted two proposals to Cyrus R. Vance, the court-appointed mediator in the case. The board, which has split over how to value Macy, is scheduled to meet again today, people close to the company said yesterday. Macy is to present its plan of reorganization to creditors Wednesday.

In a two-part deal intended to give it a vast extension of its reach in software, Novell Inc. agreed today to acquire the Wordperfect Corporation in a stock swap valued at $1.4 billion. Novell will also purchase Borland International's Quattro Pro spreadsheet business for $145 million. The acquisitions would give Novell, already the leading provider of network operating system software, an instant stake in the market for application programs, notably Wordperfect's word processor and Borland's spreadsheet.

The economy is growing and American companies are prospering, but announcements of job cuts this year are more numerous than ever. While there are no good measures of how much "fat" still remains in corporate America, the pressures are such that cuts seem likely to continue for months, or even years. This is an unusual moment. Although many American companies have become as efficient and modern as those in Japan and Germany, several forces have arisen that continue to push them to shed workers. Advances in technology are allowing companies to produce much more with fewer employees. With price increases hard to get, companies increasingly maintain profits by slicing labor costs. And job shedding has become fashionable -- the mark of a good manager. A whole industry of consultants has arisen to preach it. No End in Sight "It is going to be a permanent condition, that companies are constantly reorganizing and reshaping themselves," said Audrey Freedman, a labor economist and consultant, referring to the job cutbacks that have become a regular event among prosperous as well as hard-pressed companies.

Even as Craig O. McCaw and William H. Gates planned their newly disclosed $9 billion satellite communications venture, Mr. McCaw was attempting to play matchmaker between Mr. Gates's Microsoft Corporation and top officials of A.T.& T. in an effort to draw the two companies into a strategic alliance. For three months, the world's largest software and telecommunications companies have been secretly exploring a series of potential joint ventures including interactive television, on-line computer services and software.

The growing derivatives business requires brains, to concoct complex financial transactions, and brawn, to have the financial strength to stand by what are generally private contracts between two parties that can extend as long as 10 years. So when Lazard Freres, the brainy 98-pound weakling of investment banks, decided to start trading derivatives, it needed a muscular financial partner. And today it plans to announce a joint derivatives venture with one of the world's burliest banks, Credit Agricole of France, the 11th largest in the world.

AT first glance, the Everglades gives no obvious hint that even though it remains one of the world's superlative ecosystems it is sorely in need of restoration. But such an effort is now getting under way, and none anywhere is more ambitious. Along Shark River Slough, a main channel in the heart of the great marsh, cloud shadows race across a carpet of eye-high, wheat-colored sawgrass that flashes shades of lemon, lime and pink as it runs to the horizon. Emerald tree islands break the flat expanse here and there. Closer in, surrounded by clumps of algae that float among the sawgrass stems and form the base of the marsh's food pyramid, alligators lie in water less than a foot deep. One carries her baby on her back. Bullfrogs croak. Turtles mate. A deer delicately browses. Wading birds like egrets, ibises, herons and wood storks hunt, preen and squawk.

Westchester County replaced the leadership of its medical center today to gear itself up for the more fevered competition of the health-care marketplace of the future. The action comes after several years in which the Westchester County Medical Center in Valhalla has seen New York City hospitals like Beth Israel, Mount Sinai and New York Hospital-Cornell pick off potential patients by affiliating with smaller hospitals and chains of doctors' offices. Meanwhile, rival hospitals in the area have been gaining new referrals by aggressively seeking contracts with health-maintenance organizations.

Salvadoran Right Holds On In the first national election since El Salvador's civil war ended two years ago, the rightist governing party has won a sizable victory. Page A3. Accord Reached in Somalia Somali faction leaders agreed to form an interim government and to distribute power later, in talks brokered by the United Nations. Page A8. Secret Talks on Data Deals Microsoft and A.T.& T. have been secretly exploring potential ventures, including interactive television and on-line computer services. Page D1. Unusual Raid on Teamsters Hoping to halt the hemorrhage from its treasury, the Teamsters union sent agents to its four regional offices to take control of finances. Page A12. New President for Barnard A champion of women's colleges was named to head Barnard College, and affirmed the value of an independent, single-sex Barnard. Page B1. Restoring the Everglades An ambitious project is under way to preserve one of the world's most spectacular and endangered ecosystems. Science Times, page C1.