July 14, 1994

A motorist arriving at a service station here is usually greeted by a phalanx of uniformed attendants shouting welcomes. They guide the car into position, wipe the windows, empty the ashtray, and check the tire pressure. If necessary, they halt traffic to usher the car back onto the road. This is the type of pampering for which Japan, land of the bowing elevator ladies, is known. But it comes at a price: it helps push gasoline costs to nearly $4.50 a gallon, four times as much as in the United States. But now, a radical notion is creeping into Japan. Why not let consumers pump their own gasoline? Called Fire Hazards Self-service stations are prohibited on the ground that they are a fire hazard, a particular danger in congested Japan. But with the Government vowing to deregulate the economy drastically, the prohibition on consumers pumping their own gas has become a symbol of what critics say are thousands of needless restrictions that raise consumers' costs.

Move Over, Ben Franklin The Treasury Department announced that starting with the $100 bill, it would make the first major changes in the currency since 1929, to fight counterfeiting. Page A14. Mexico Assassination Report A report by the special prosecutor investigating the slaying of a leading presidential candidate in Mexico states that the man who confessed to the shooting acted alone. Page A11. Giuliani and Police Deal A tentative contract with the police and transit police unions includes raises roughly equal to those won by other New York City unions. Page B3. Gang Blamed in Prison Melee Officials said that an aggressive Hartford-based street gang was at the center of a savage melee among inmates at a Connecticut prison that left two men dead. Page B1.

Escalating a long-simmering struggle, more than a fourth of the Democrats in the House served notice on their leadership today of their "strong commitment" to covering abortion services in any national health plan. Their signal came in a letter to Representative Thomas S. Foley of Washington, the Speaker of the House. It was signed by about 70 Democrats -- the number was still inching up at the end of the day -- and it strongly suggested that their support for a health care bill would depend on whether it covers abortion.

4 CHARGED WITH FIXING BREAD PRICES After complaints that a group of unscrupulous bakers were trying to corner the Italian-bread market in parts of New York City, undercover investigators opened a bogus bakery in Greenwich Village. Their investigation resulted in the indictment of four officials from a bakery association on price-fixing changes. Two were also charged with coercion. A1. 4 AIRLINES BUILD NEW KENNEDY TERMINAL Four foreign airlines will build the first entirely new terminal at Kennedy International Airport in more than two decades, under an agreement that is intended to bolster Kennedy's position as the nation's leading international airport. A1.

Baxter International Inc., the world's largest hospital supply company, has signed a novel contract with the Duke University Medical Center that could become a national model for cutting health care spending. The five-year supply agreement, which is expected to be announced Thursday, will generate at least $200 million in revenue for Baxter, which is based in Deerfield, Ill.

CYBILL SHEPHERD is here to star in Merv Griffin's Sixth Annual Fourth of July Coconut Ballroom Revue. And proud of it. In fact, she can do an entire stand-up routine about her voice, her singing career, recording career, anything having to do with music, starting with her biggest flop film, Peter Bogdanovich's "At Long Last Love," to her album "Cybill Does Cole Porter," which raised the inevitable question, What did Cole Porter ever do to her?

Seeking to discourage inflated or misleading claims by mutual funds and other investment companies, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved guidelines yesterday on how rankings are used in advertising and sales literature. The new rules, which were proposed by the National Association of Securities Dealers, will require "prominent disclosure" in advertisements and sales literature of an investment company's ranking, the number of companies in the category, the name of the category and the period on which the ranking is based.

For years, law-enforcement officials heard complaints about a small group of unscrupulous bakers trying to corner the Italian-bread market in parts of New York City. Using threats of violence, investigators were told, the cartel controlled the distribution of fresh Italian bread to small grocery stores in Brooklyn and Staten Island, inflating prices and eliminating competition. But investigators found that bakers and store owners were reluctant to cooperate. The only way to get to the heart of the Italian-bread racket, they decided, was to open a bakery themselves.

The collapse of the proposed merger between CBS and QVC has left the broadcast giant in a deeply uncertain position, vulnerable to a possible takeover, television executives and analysts said yesterday. They added that CBS was also ill prepared now to deal with pressing problems like restive affiliated stations and repairing its program lineup. CBS announced yesterday that the decision by the Comcast Corporation to bid for control of QVC had ended its pursuit of the merger. Instead, CBS said it would commence a cash tender offer to buy back up to 3.5 million of its more than 15 million shares of stock for $325 a share. That would be followed by a stock split giving shareholders five new shares in exchange for each share they already hold.

FOR SALE: Two nuclear power plants. Never been used; need some work. Asking $3.4 billion, or best offer. The utility responsible for the biggest municipal-bond default in history now has another problem -- two incomplete nuclear reactors that it finds too expensive to finish, too expensive to keep in mothballs and possibly too expensive to tear down.

From his 13 years on a Federal appeals court, it is apparent that Stephen G. Breyer is a judge of moderate leanings, a self-described pragmatist interested more in solutions than in theories. Judge Breyer has said nothing to dislodge that image during two days of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. To that extent, his Supreme Court confirmation hearing has produced little news. What the hearing has accomplished, through the nominee's responses to the friendly, open-ended questions of admiring senators, is to construct a portrait of what it means to be a judicial pragmatist.

Top executives of R. H. Macy & Company and Federated Department Stores Inc., which owns Bloomingdale's, Abraham & Straus and several other department stores, have agreed on a merger that would create one of the nation's largest department store chains. Negotiators said the agreement was still subject to working out several final details and stressed that the deal could still fall apart. But both sides are optimistic that after seven months of courtship by Federated the two companies may reach a successful conclusion perhaps by the end of the week. Macy has scheduled a special board meeting today to discuss the agreement.