April 14, 1994

IN just 90 dizzying minutes one morning, JoJo O'Rourke of West 70th Street took in the skyline of Manhattan, explored a pristine beach strewn with treasures, navigated a boat through crowded waters, commandeered a treehouse, escaped through a tunnel and got into a brawl -- and he's only 2 years old. Just after 10 A.M. on March 31, Rosalinde O'Rourke had walked into a long corridor off Broadway with JoJo, who was eating a banana. After walking to the rear and leaving their shoes, they climbed a flight of stairs. At the top, JoJo's eyes lit up and his jaw dropped as he caught sight of hundreds of enticing toys and things to do in Playspace, a vast new indoor playground for children 6 and under.

Clinton's Frustration Shows The President bristled when an editor likened shifting accounts of the Whitewater affair to a child's excuses for not doing homework. Page A24. Data Show Slowing Economy Small gains in retail sales and consumer prices for March showed economic growth slowing and inflation remaining steady. Page D1. A Lesson on Hedge Funds Concerned about hedge funds' influence on markets, Congress held a hearing on the funds that featured a tutorial from George Soros. Page D1. Politics Fuels Tokyo Market Tokyo's stock market soared amid expectations that Tsutomu Hata, a moderate conservative, will be Japan's new Prime Minister. Page A7. 5 Youths Held in Rape Five teen-agers who the police said talked openly about the crime with friends were arrested in the rape of a woman in Coney Island. Page B1. Maneuvering at the Coliseum City Hall withdrew an offer to give the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $50 million to revise the Coliseum real-estate deal. Page B1.

After seven years of negotiations, a new global trade agreement will finally be signed Friday in Morocco. The treaty weighs 385 pounds and runs to more than 22,000 pages. It eliminates or freezes so many tariffs around the world that it is expected to stimulate some $5 trillion in new trade by the year 2005. There's a problem with it, though: It may not be ratified by the United States Congress anytime soon. Why? No one can figure out how to pay for it.

A large and careful study to see if vitamins can protect against cancer and heart disease has found no evidence of any such benefit and even hints at actual harm. The finding is surprising because many earlier studies had suggested a benefit from these supplements, vitamin E and beta-carotene. Experts involved in the study say it is possible a benefit may emerge as the study continues. They also say that the advice to eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables still stands, since the benefit seen in earlier studies may have come from something other than the vitamins. But the experts acknowledge that the case for vitamin supplements should be considered unproved for now.

Food had run out, drinking water was scarce and the streets of this capital city, empty of residents, was a terrifying obstacle course today of drunken soldiers and marauding gangs of looters dressed in a patchwork of uniforms, armed with machetes, spears, bows and arrows and automatic weapons. Children carried hand grenades, and open-back trucks, loaded with angry men waving weapons at passing cars, sped through the city. As night fell, screams could be heard coming from a church compound where more than 2,000 Rwandans had taken refuge. A short time later, after the sound of machine-gun fire, the screaming stopped.