April 13, 1994

The Procter & Gamble Company said yesterday that it would take a $102 million after-tax charge against its third-quarter earnings as a result of having been "badly burned" in two derivatives contracts. The contracts, which soured as interest rates rose, were entered in hopes of "managing" its interest rate exposures, said Erik G. Nelson, senior vice president and chief financial officer at P.& G.

For decades, when population planners talked about the world's poorest women, they concentrated on how to keep them from having more babies. Vast programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America were geared to sterilizing women, implanting them with IUD's, handing out contraceptives and imposing quotas on family size. Despite the success achieved by family planning programs in India, Thailand, Kenya and other countries in curbing population growth, women's groups argue that these traditional methods are demeaning and coercive, and that a dramatic shift is needed.

CHEMICAL LINK IN BREAST CANCER DATA Women who once lived near large chemical plants on Long Island ran a greater risk of developing breast cancer after menopause, the New York State Health Department said. The risk is about equal to that of having a family history of breast cancer, the department said. Scientists called the report the first credible study outside a laboratory to suggest a link between breast cancer and industrial pollution. A1. Fearful of chemicals, Karen Pearsall has been drinking bottled water for decades. B6. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR AND CORTINES SHARE SCHOOL FORUM After a highly publicized feud, Mayor Giuliani and Schools Chancellor Ramon C. Cortines visited a Brooklyn middle school yesterday to demonstrate their reconciliation to students, as well as to 40 or so reporters who trailed along. For about an hour, the Mayor and the Chancellor perched uncomfortably on high stools and fielded questions from an eighth-grade history class on topics ranging from Mr. Giuliani's handling of AIDS protests on Monday to New York City's murder rate. B3. STUDENTS SEE A BATTLE OVER TURF Having watched the Mayor and the Chancellor slug it out and then shake hands, the students at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn had no trouble relating to what was going on. "It was like watching two guys fight who both knew they were wrong but didn't know how to get out of it," said John Mattera, a 15-year-old sophomore. About New York. B3. BABY IS BORN ON A SUBWAY PLATFORM About 80 women go into labor in New York City's subway stations or trains every year -- a figure the Transit Authority says rivals the delivery rate at some small hospitals. In a handful of cases, babies are born right on the platforms. That is what happened during the morning rush hour at Eighth Avenue and 42d Street. B3. POLICE STUDY HOLLOW-POINT BULLETS In the latest effort to increase officers' firepower, the New York City Police Department is considering switching to hollow-point bullets that expand on contact with human flesh to inflict more damage than traditional ammunition. Police officials said they like the bullet because it almost always stops a criminal before he can fire his own weapon. B4. REGION GIULIANI IS ASKED TO PRESS G.O.P. With the state budget still undecided, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has asked Mayor Giuliani to help break the impasse by pressuring Republican lawmakers into supporting Democratic proposals that would increase the city's share of state aid to schools and begin a process of reducing county governments' Medicaid costs. B5. FORMER BROOKHAVEN OFFICIALS INDICTED Four former officials of the Town of Brookhaven have been charged in a Federal indictment with accepting bribes of as much as $250,000 to support a prominent developer's real-estate projects. B5. RENTAL FIRMS WARNED ON DISCRIMINATION Resuming a 10-year, on-again, off-again battle about the meaning of a New York State law governing rental car companies, G. Oliver Koppell, the Attorney General, said that he has warned nine national companies that they must rent to drivers as young as 18. B6.

If investment bankers and junk bond dealers were the popular Wall Street villains of the 1980's -- living lavishly on hundreds of millions of dollars of earnings -- managers of hedge funds are being cast as the suspicious characters of the 1990's. There is almost no way that hedge funds would not arouse suspicion. They are, by law, secretive investment partnerships of rich people seeking to make a lot of money selling stocks short, using complex financial techniques and borrowing huge amounts of money for their investments -- things not usually available to ordinary investors. They tend to be managed by strong-willed, often-reclusive trading impresarios.

Michel Richard, the chef and owner of Citrus in Los Angeles, is ensconced in Georgetown. Patrick Clark, who made his mark at Metro in New York, is cooking at the Hay-Adams Hotel, across from the White House. Dean & Deluca and Les Halles, both offshoots of New York operations, are drawing crowds.