June 27, 1994

For the moment, the French paratroops seemed like saviors to the 3,000 Tutsi men, women and children sitting wearily in the tall grass here today. In their combat fatigues, red berets and sunglasses, and with their assault rifles at the ready, the paratroops alertly scanned the hills for signs of danger as the crowd listened intently to a priest's sermon at Sunday mass.

The man accused of masterminding a terrorist plot to assassinate political leaders and bomb the United Nations and other New York landmarks is expected to become the main prosecution witness against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and a dozen other defendants at a trial next fall, legal experts said yesterday. Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali, a 33-year-old Sudanese who was reported by his lawyers over the weekend to have dismissed them and agreed to cooperate with the Government, would be able to give the jury a sweeping overview and dazzling details of the conspiracy charges, experts familiar with the case said.

Santa Fe Construction, owned by a black man, got two contracts, each worth $6.5 million, to renovate police station houses. The K-Pam Trucking Corporation, owned by a woman, won a $4.6 million subcontract for work on the construction of New York City's third water tunnel. Those were among hundreds of examples that enabled Mayor David N. Dinkins, in the middle of his re-election campaign last October, to announce proudly the results of a new effort to award more city contracts to companies owned by women or minorities.

A wave of mergers and alliances is transforming the nation's trillion-dollar health care system. Without waiting for the outcome of the Congressional health debate, providers of medical care -- including hospitals, physician groups and nursing homes -- are joining to form bigger and bigger networks. Some of the combinations are being put together by hospitals, like the $1.08 billion deal in which the country's largest for-profit hospital chain, Columbia/HCA Healthcare, agreed to buy the largest chain of surgery centers, Medical Care America, last month. Another such combination is New York Hospital's regional alliance with seven other nonprofit hospitals, two nursing homes and four walk-in clinics, all of which send their most complicated cases to the big Upper East Side hospital.

A Government commission investigating the massacre of 29 Muslim worshipers in February at a mosque in Hebron concluded today that an Israeli settler, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, had acted alone and was the only person to blame for the killings. Though it did not assign blame to any other individual, the five-member panel criticized Israeli Army and border police procedures, saying they needed to be tightened in Hebron, on the West Bank, especially at the shrine where Dr. Goldstein went on his deadly rampage. He was beaten to death by worshipers after they overcame their initial terror.

As Congress strives to produce health care proposals by week's end, President Clinton and his Administration are deliberately avoiding detailed negotiations. Page A12.

The Economy A wave of mergers and alliances is transforming the nation's trillion-dollar health care system. Without waiting for the outcome of the Congressional health debate, providers of medical care -- including hospitals, physician groups and nursing homes -- are joining to form bigger and bigger networks. The goal is to become large enough to offer the comprehensive services and the reasonable prices needed to assure a steady flow of patients from the increasingly demanding groups that buy medical care. [ Page A1. ]

This is the story of a Bosnian Muslim soldier, a refugee, a heroic fighter against the Serbs and now, to many of his people, a traitor. It is also a story of the Bosnian war, its cruelty, its ambiguities and, ultimately, the critical quandary it poses to the Muslims: whether to fight on to avenge the terrible wrongs committed against them by the Serbs, or compromise in the name of peace.

The dollar plunged to a record low against the yen in Tokyo, after the failure of 17 central banks to halt its slide and the resignation of Japan's Prime Minister. The dollar was quoted as low as 99.50 yen, the lowest since the modern currency trading system began after World War II.

The Washington Times, the conservative daily that is linked to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, has begun a national weekly edition that it hopes will sell 250,000 to 500,000 copies a week. To supporters, the new national ambitions are evidence of a coming of age for The Washington Times, a 90,000-circulation daily that has annoyed liberals and served as a rallying point for conservatives.

The dollar plunged to a record low against the yen in Tokyo trading this morning following the failure of 17 central banks to halt the dollar's slide on Friday, and the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata the next day. Shortly before noon, the dollar was quoted as low as 99.50 yen, below the 99.90 level that had been reached in New York last Tuesday. This was the lowest level since the modern currency trading system began after World War II. Later in the day the dollar had recovered a bit, to 99.95 yen.

Mussolini, in His Words Excerpts of diaries believed to be Mussolini's were published in London. A scholar said he probably wrote them well after the events described, to justify earlier actions. Page A6. Bill Bradley Off the Bench For a while, the Senator from New Jersey seemed to be sitting out the health-care debate. Then, suddenly and in a surprising way, he stepped into the discussion. Page B1. Currency Turmoil and the Fed Federal Reserve officials, who must decide whether to raise interest rates to stop the dollar's slide, see a far more complex picture. Page D1. The Emperor's Silent Signals Behind the serenity of Emperor Akihito's American tour lie subtle messages about the imperial household and U.S.-Japan relations. Page A10. Romania Defeats U.S. Romania defeated the United States, 1-0, in the World Cup yesterday in Pasadena, Calif. It was the Americans' first loss and complicated their chances of advancing. SportsMonday, page C1.