June 20, 1994

To avoid an invasion of Haiti, the United States is trying to induce the three top military leaders of the Caribbean nation to leave for a comfortable life in exile, perhaps by arranging for them to be paid off, senior Administration officials say. As part of that strategy, much of the country's 7,000-member armed forces and military police would also stand to avoid punishment after the return of the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the popularly elected President who was ousted in a military coup in 1991.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to develop a simple yardstick that would help investors assess the risks of mutual funds. Fund advertisements currently trumpet their past returns in bold type, while tiny footnotes caution, "Past performance cannot guarantee future results."

For more than a decade the economies of Africa have been caught in a relentless downward spiral. As a result, countries that are proud of their independence and prickly about sovereignty are finding themselves more than ever under the thumb of outside powers. Only now the powers are not the old colonial masters -- Britain, France and the other would-be exploiters who carved up Africa in European drawing rooms and conference halls in the 1880's.

Former President Jimmy Carter, back from meetings with the leaders of North and South Korea, went to the White House today and proclaimed that the crisis regarding North Korea's suspected effort to build nuclear weapons was over. But the Clinton Administration immediately sought to distance itself from Mr. Carter's upbeat assessment, saying that important details of the North Korean negotiating positions still needed to be clarified.

John Buscarello of Brooklyn learned about bricks and stones and mortar from his father, Jack, following him into the family masonry business. As a matter of course, he learned how to install the massive slabs of bluestone, many the size of dining room tables, that a century ago were the city's dominant sidewalk material. But the bluestone trade faded to almost nothing over his father's generation, and for years the only sidewalks Mr. Buscarello installed were concrete. The giant slabs of gray rock, which over time subtly show colors like red and green and azure, appeared to be going the way of gaslights, bowler hats and the 3-cent cigar.