  In the largest settlement ever negotiated in a class-action lawsuit, officials of three companies gave final approval yesterday to an agreement to pay $3.7 billion over 30 years to women claiming they were injured by silicone breast implants.   In the highly complex settlement, the companies, the Dow Corning Corporation, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and the Baxter Healthcare Corporation, will pay women specific amounts for injuries.

3 Companies in Landmark Accord On Lawsuits Over Breast Implants

  Sixteen Army paratroopers were killed and 82 were injured after a fighter jet collided with a cargo plane over Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina. Burning debris ignited a transport plane on the ground where the paratroopers were gathering.    Article, page A16.

16 Paratroopers Die In Crash's Aftermath

  The candidate had been touching the bases -- the soccer set in Milan, the disco set in Rome, the homemakers, the aristocrats, the Chief Rabbi. Then, last weekend, he traveled to Palermo to take on the mob, his message relayed by television hookup to piazzas across Italy.   But before he threw down his gauntlet to the Mafia, Silvio Berlusconi, the most packaged and most talked about of the candidates for Italy's watershed election this weekend -- and some would say its most likely winner -- wanted to tell his audience what they wanted to hear after years as Italy's economic orphans.

Italy's Knight in Teflon: Tycoon Repulses Charges

  A dispute at a softball game in the Bronx ended in a fusillade of bullets yesterday when a young gunman fired at a group of high school students, killing a 20-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy and wounding another student, the police said. B3.

Gunfire Kills 2 Students

  For an endorsement of his 37-year rise from baggage handler to chairman of the USAir Group, Seth E. Schofield could not have done much better than Warren E. Buffett's annual letter to shareholders last year.   Mr. Buffett, who invested $358 million in USAir in 1989, wrote that amid the turmoil of the airline industry, Mr. Schofield "has done a truly extraordinary job in repositioning the airline."

Cool Hand Runs Airline Under Fire

  The Economy    The Federal Reserve's attempt to fend off inflation by raising interest rates hit home as big banks increased their prime rates, used to set the interest rates for home mortgages, credit cards and business loans, to 6.25 percent from 6 percent.  [ Page A1. ]  Administration officials held off from criticizing the Fed's move.  [ D16. ]   Orders for durable goods fell last month for the first time since July, but economists said the Government report gave little more than a hint of slackening economic momentum.  [ D1. ]

BUSINESS DIGEST

  Shares in Novell Inc. continued their decline today as wary investors expressed discomfort with the networking giant's planned acquisition of both the Wordperfect Corporation and the Quattro Pro spreadsheet business of Borland International Inc. Some analysts suggested the merger could fall through if Novell's share price fell too low.   Novell shares closed today at $19, down $1, on extremely heavy volume of 21.8 million shares in Nasdaq trading. Novell shares fell $3.75 on Tuesday on still heavier volume, after Monday's announcement that the company would swap 59 million shares, then worth about $1.4 billion, for privately held Wordperfect, and pay $145 million in cash for Quattro Pro.

Novell Acquisitions Hinge On Stock Price Fluctuation

  PROFESSIONALLY, they were the most renowned couple engaged in the study of human sexuality. To the world at large they were, quite simply, the sex experts. All of which made the news of their separation in 1992, after 21 years of marriage, and their divorce last year, a major surprise.    Dr. William H. Masters, 78, and Virginia E. Johnson, 69, have always been full of surprises. They have been lambasted and lauded, lightning rods for controversy and criticism, for almost three decades. When these voluble and strong-willed partners published a physiology textbook in 1966, they suddenly became public creatures. The book, "Human Sexual Response," dealing with the science of human sexuality, became a huge popular success, and their names were inextricably linked. Their marriage, in 1971, officially sealed the pairing.

AN AFTERNOON WITH: Masters and Johnson; Divorced, Yes, But Not Split

  Federal prosecutors investigating the flawed 1989 asbestos inspections of New York City schools have concluded that an overzealous desire to comply with deadlines for Federal paper work, not bribery or profiteering, led to the falsification of inspection reports, according to law-enforcement officials.   The city could have simply sought an extension. Across the nation, thousands of other school districts had not filed their asbestos-inspection paper work as late as two years after the deadline.

Schools' Woes With Asbestos Linked to Zeal

  Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, the candidate who was considered likely to extend the governing party's 65-year control of Mexico's presidency, was assassinated early this evening as he walked through a crowd of supporters in a poor neighborhood in the border city of Tijuana.    Mr. Colosio, 44, was reportedly shot twice with a .38 caliber pistol, a presumably fatal wound in the head and another in the chest or stomach. Eyewitnesses said Mr. Colosio, his forehead covered with blood, was carried by campaign workers across a footbridge and taken in a campaign car to Tijuana General Hospital, about two miles away over rough ground.

Top Presidential Candidate Is Assassinated in Mexico

  Remember Lou Gerstner's "vision" thing?   He created quite a stir last July when, as the new payroll-slashing chairman of I.B.M., Louis V. Gerstner Jr. said, "The last thing I.B.M. needs right now is a vision."

At Last, a Sneak Preview of Big Blue's Strategy

  Root of Asbestos Problems   Prosecutors have concluded that an overzealous desire to meet deadlines led to the flawed asbestos inspections at New York schools. Page B1. 2 Students Killed in Bronx    A dispute over a softball game in the Bronx ended in a fusillade of bullets that left two high school students dead, the police said. Page B3. A Brief Respite for Sarajevo    Bosnian Serb forces further eased their siege, allowing 83 people to travel into and out of Sarajevo. Page A12. Plea Possible in Spy Case    Federal prosecutors have begun negotiations that could result in a guilty plea by the C.I.A. officer charged with spying for Moscow. Page B11.  Character Amid Chaos    "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992," Anna Deavere Smith's accounting of a city in anguish, opened. David Richards's review appears on page C13. Wage Cuts Anger French    French students have been demonstrating for two weeks now over a cut in the minimum wage. Page A3.

INSIDE

  Orders for long-lasting factory goods fell last month for the first time since last July, Government figures showed today, but economists found the report provided little more than a hint of slackening economic momentum.   The 2.5 percent decline in orders for durable goods followed an exceptionally strong January advance, which the Commerce Department revised today to 4.4 percent from an initial estimate of 3.7 percent. Sharply lower orders for aircraft were the biggest drag on the February statistics.

2.5% Decline For Orders Of Durables

  Through this village runs the road to riches, a state highway that speeds cars across the Thames River toward the Mashantucket Pequot casino in nearby Ledyard, where gamblers spend almost $2 million a day.   But this side of the river is also Indian territory. The Mohegans, descendants of the great sachem Uncas, have lived here on Mohegan Hill for centuries. Now that the Federal Government in a ruling this month finally, officially determined that yes, this group "does exist as an Indian tribe," the road to riches may soon lead to a Mohegan casino, too.

Not the Last of This Tribe; Mohegans, Granted U.S. Recognition, Want a Casino

  American Presidents have had many talents, but an eye for art is not foremost among them. Imperfect taste, it seems, is a bipartisan affliction. Theodore Roosevelt's idea of sculpture was stuffed moose heads, and he displayed an array in the State Dining Room. Harry S. Truman was unimpressed by his contemporary Jackson Pollock, likening the artist's drip paintings to "scrambled eggs."   The question of what art should hang in the White House has never been too prominent on the national agenda. In a country that prides itself on its down-to-earth pragmatism and views high art as elitist, it's not even clear that having taste is a political asset. America likes its Presidents to be virile, better at splitting wood than at discerning the fine points of a Monet haystack.

Abstract Art's White House Debut

  After days of closed-door negotiations of the board, R. H. Macy & Company took the wraps off its proposed plan of reorganization yesterday, revealing a complex compromise that seeks to appease all creditors but that is contingent in some part on what happens to the retailer in the future.   But hours after the company disclosed its proposal, Fidelity Investments, the giant mutual fund company that is one of Macy's most powerful senior creditors, made it clear that it would fight Macy's plan.

Macy Plan Draws Fire From a Large Creditor

  Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical and a host of other banks increased their prime rates yesterday to 6 1/4 percent from 6 percent after the Federal Reserve's decision on Tuesday to raise short-term interest rates to fend off inflation.    The prime-rate increase will mean higher interest for millions of consumers and businesses as the rates on many mortgages, credit cards and small-business loans are linked to the prime.

Big Banks Are Raising Prime Rate For Lending by 1/4 Point, to 6 1/4%

  Irene Diamond has $60 million and less than three years to get rid of it.   Of course, everyone should have her problem. Such charming circumstances make her limitlessly popular. Scarcely a day goes by that supplicants don't write or call beseeching her for money.

One Foundation's Aim: Spend Till the End

  A senior White House lawyer, William H. Kennedy 3d, was stripped tonight of his job overseeing background checks of Administration appointees after lapses that suggested that he himself had sought to conceal embarrassing information.   The announcement, in a terse White House statement, followed an intensive review by top Clinton aides of Mr. Kennedy's conduct, including his failure until three weeks ago to pay 1991 Social Security taxes for a nanny employed by him and his wife.

White House Aide Who Failed to Pay A Tax Is Punished

  When he said Government had no business trying to outlaw abortion, some people told him to retire from politics.   When he spoke out in favor of a new Phoenix ordinance protecting homosexuals from discrimination, and said they should be able to serve in the military, that got him in more trouble.

Goldwater Defending Clinton; Conservatives Feeling Faint

  The two well-dressed men rang the front-door bell, mumbling something about a wedding dress for a daughter. Once inside the Vera Wang Bridal House in the Carlyle Hotel on Madison Avenue at 77th Street -- a chic salon run by the designer whose costumes Nancy Kerrigan wore to the Olympics and Holly Hunter, Marisa Tomei and Patti Scialfa wore to the Academy Awards -- the pair kept up the small talk with the receptionist behind an elegant, tasteful desk.   Soon they were following the receptionist to the curving staircase that leads to the main showroom on the second floor. But the police say that on the way up, one of the two men reached in a pocket, pulled out a small-caliber revolver and shoved it into the receptionist's back.

Gunman Wounds Two in Robbery at an East Side Bridal Shop

  WHAT if Streisand had made the trade -- a small nose for a big one? Or Lauren Hutton had closed the gap? What if the Duke of Windsor had listened? Or Columbus? Things would be different.   Advice can be cheap, but some people won't buy it, at any price. They don't play by the rules. Somewhere, sometime, someone wore pearls with jeans, drank champagne with fried chicken -- and taught the world something new.

When What's Wrong Is What's Right

  NEW YORK CITY  FOUNDATION'S AIM: SPEND TILL THE END Unlike most foundations, which seek to exist in perpetuity, the Aaron Diamond Foundation chose to have a constricted but lively life. It was to give away all the money from the estate of Mr. Diamond, the millionaire builder, within 10 years and then go out of business. Irene Diamond has $60 million left and less than three years to get rid of it. A1. GIULIANI ORDERS LAYOFF LISTS PREPARED The Giuliani administration ordered commissioners of the city's agencies to select 10,000 workers who could be laid off quickly if the Mayor's budget proposals fall apart. B2.

METRO DIGEST

  The Clinton Administration, in an effort to resolve the crisis in relations with China, has been quietly signaling Beijing that if it met Washington's minimum human rights demands, the United States would consider ending the annual threat of trade sanctions to change Chinese behavior.   Administration officials said today that there was already a consensus within President Clinton's economic team, which is now spreading to the White House and even parts of the State Department, that the annual rite of threatening China with a withdrawal of its beneficial trade status if it does not meet certain human rights conditions is outmoded and should be replaced.

U.S. May Ease Rights Goals With Beijing

  Belgium said this week that it would sell up to 49 percent of Belgacom, the telecommunications monopoly, to help reduce the budget deficit.   The Government said it would look for a strategic partner to take a stake in the company. It will also study the possibility of selling some shares on the Belgian stock market.

March 24, 1994

Headlines from March 24, 1994

3 Companies in Landmark Accord On Lawsuits Over Breast Implants

16 Paratroopers Die In Crash's Aftermath

Italy's Knight in Teflon: Tycoon Repulses Charges

Gunfire Kills 2 Students

Cool Hand Runs Airline Under Fire

Billboard 200

Superunknown

The Downward Spiral

The Sign

12 Play

Toni Braxton

Historical Context for March 24, 1994