May 24, 1994

THE extreme weather of the last two years in North America is part of a worldwide pattern, scientists say, and they are searching hard for an explanation. The United States has suffered through the extra-cold summer that chilled the Northeast in 1992; Hurricane Andrew in August 1992, the most destructive American hurricane ever; the East Coast "storm of the century" in March 1993; the devastating flooding in the upper Midwest last summer; and the seemingly unending snows of early 1994 in the Northeast, accompanied by record warmth in the West.

For the second consecutive trading day rising commodity prices were behind the sharp selloff in bonds, as investors focused on inflation and its potential to erode the value of their investments in the future. Also contributing to yesterday's tumbling bond prices was the selling that often precedes a Treasury auction as dealers get rid of old bond notes to make room for the new ones and, possibly, bring down the price they have to pay for them.

A police officer implicated in the 30th Precinct's corruption scandal has agreed to provide evidence against his fellow officers and pleaded guilty yesterday to Federal drug charges and civil rights violations, law-enforcement officials said. The officer, Michael Walsh, was one of the worst of the rogue officers that prowled the precinct in northwest Harlem, robbing and beating up drug dealers and lying under oath about arrests they made, prosecutors said. His cooperation will help prosecutors prepare cases against other officers, a senior law-enforcement official said, but it was not clear yesterday how much help Officer Walsh's testimony might be.

In a sweeping realignment of the television industry, Fox Inc. announced yesterday that it would form a new alliance with a broadcast station group that would result in the defection of eight important CBS stations to Fox. CBS, which had already seen Fox steal away the rights to broadcast National Football League games that CBS had held for four decades, now faces the further humbling exercise of having to seek new -- and probably weaker -- affiliates in many of the nation's biggest cities, including Dallas, Detroit, Cleveland and Atlanta.

After four years of political turmoil, Government authority here is simply dissolving away, leaving the cities and the countryside to pillaging soldiers and roaming gangs of thugs and bandits. Zaire is coming to represent a new specter in Africa -- the stateless country.