July 19, 1994

The rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front announced a cease-fire today and declared victory in its four-year battle against the Government. But representatives of relief agencies said they still faced another huge surge of refugees. "We have captured all of Rwanda up to the French protection zone and a cease-fire is effectively in place," the rebel leader, Paul Kagame, said today in Kigali, the capital. French troops have carved out an area in southwestern Rwanda to offer a haven for civilian refugees.

In an air-conditioned tent straddling their countries' desert border, peace negotiators for Israel and Jordan met publicly today for the first time in their own region and spoke with new optimism about ending the technical state of war that has existed between them for 46 years. Both sides said their talks had gone well, but added that they would need time to produce a peace treaty, which has eluded the two countries even though they have long cooperated to keep their frontier quiet. Disagreements remain over a range of issues, including border lines, water rights and the fate of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.

To cope with a steadily increasing caseload over the last quarter century, the state has been appointing acting justices to State Supreme Court branches in the five boroughs of New York City. Some of these justices, like Harold J. Rothwax of Manhattan, are considered among the best on the bench, skillfully handling major trials like the Joel B. Steinberg murder case.

Louis Finger listens patiently to each anguished caller, usually has an answer that makes the person feel better and never describes any question as stupid, whatever his thoughts. When he talks about a caller's frustrations he calls them "our problem," never "your problem," even with total strangers -- who are just about the only people he talks to. Mr. Finger's manner is like a psychiatrist's; in fact, he has hours of training in "anger diffusion." But the disorders he treats are all electronic; he is a personal computer expert at I.B.M. customer support.

The Yankees offered an unequivocal apology, the team official involved issued a categorical denial and Bronx politicians and residents expressed outrage yesterday over a magazine article in which the official reportedly used the terms "monkeys" and "colored boy" in referring to youths in the South Bronx neighborhood around Yankee Stadium. Bronx officials said the remarks, which New York magazine attributed to Richard Kraft, the team's longtime vice president for community relations, suggested that racism was the real reason for the club's undisguised interest in moving to Manhattan or New Jersey.