August 14, 1994

DR. NAGARAJ RAO'S face broadened into a smile as he read the mathematical equations his students had developed after two days of work. Left unexplained, the formulas on the blackboard might as well have been Greek, but to Dr. Rao, an associate professor of mathematics at Mercy College here, they meant something much more. His students could apply mathematical skills to solve a real-life problem -- in this case, how to predict the population growth of a small country.

At the ball park Friday night there weren't any signs saying, "Down with the Strike." At the ball park Friday night, under the ample lights, under a starry summer sky just made for baseball, fans had come to enjoy, of all things, a baseball game, including, when the seventh inning rolled around, the time-honored seventh-inning stretch. The small crowd in shirt sleeves dutifully rose, and on the scratchy public address system a taped rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" began. This game took place between the Yankees, in their traditional navy blue caps and pinstripes, and the Astros, in their snappy, familiar orange and gold uniforms. The Oneonta Yankees and the Auburn Astros, Class A versions of their parent clubs. Parents, it happens, who are on strike, who decided they will not try to go home again for a while.

Nearly 25 years after the end of the ethnically divided country's civil war, fears are rising that it may be fractured again, along with the promise of democratic government. Article, page 16.

In its war to overhaul health care, the White House has put all its generals in the trenches, a move that some Democrats fear is sowing disorder and imperiling victory. Page 24.

Bureaucracy is one of those realms in which "express service" is measured in weeks, not minutes. But thinking that weeks would at least be an improvement over months, the Buildings Department has devised a pilot "express" review program. It is to begin tomorrow in the agency's Queens office, 126-06 Queens Boulevard, cater-corner from Borough Hall.