September 8, 1994

Re-examining an Embargo If Serbia accepts monitors to insure an end to its aid for Bosnian Serbs, the U.S. and other nations will urge an easing of sanctions. Page A12. A Political Handicap, Too A Chinese man who lost his legs under a tank in Tiananmen has been barred from international games for the handicapped in Beijing. Page A3. Grief in a Fishing Town In a Massachusetts town where the sea binds men and women in an anxious pact, hope faded for four fishermen missing off Cape Cod. Page A16. Suicides on the Force One by one, 10 New York police officers have died sudden deaths this year -- not in the fight against crime, but by their own hands. Page B1.

Patrick R. Dougan's office at the Mackie International factory sits astride the peace line, the wall -- imaginary in some spots, quite real in others -- that divides the Protestant and Roman Catholic neighborhoods of West Belfast. "If you look over there to the left, you can see houses flying tricolors," Mr. Dougan said as he pointed out the window, referring to the Irish flag, a symbol of the Catholic minority's demands for a British withdrawal from the province. "Over there to the right, you can see Union Jacks."

I.B.M., hoping to revive its desktop software business and exploit a delayed product introduction by the Microsoft Corporation, is about to introduce a more powerful, consumer-friendlier version of the OS/2 software operating system for personal computers. Although I.B.M.'s OS/2 software has been highly regarded by a core of technically proficient computer users since its introduction in 1987, it has been overwhelmed by the popularity of Microsoft's Windows operating system software. But now, in light of recent announcements by Microsoft that the next version of Windows would be delayed until next spring at the earliest, some analysts see a chance for I.B.M. to gain ground. Tough Fight Ahead The critically acclaimed improvements to OS/2, some of which were disclosed by I.B.M. today, include built-in, easy access to the Internet, the global web of computer networks. Even so, any market-share gains by OS/2 will be hard won, analysts caution.

In the last day and a half, mothers and their mothers skipped work, took their young by the hand and pulled them past the coffin of a stranger, 11-year-old Robert Sandifer. His small body looked as though it belonged to a 7-year-old playing dead in his big brother's tan suit.

A RUBBER dummy with a bad hairpiece is strapped, bolt upright, into a sleeping bag, with two curtains for privacy. Here at the Johnson Space Center, the dummy is a sketchy stand-in for a weightless astronaut, and it illustrates the big problem with living in outer space: there is so very little of it. As the first architect to design for life in orbit, Rod Jones of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration faces that paradox daily. Mr. Jones is a member of the space-station team in Houston, working on the habitation and laboratory modules, the "hab" and "lab" that astronauts will one day call home. Trying to establish cozy quarters (the NASA term is "earth-normal"), he is constantly squeezed by the demands of cost-cutters and engineers.

When Richard H. Jenrette was named chairman of the Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1990, the company resembled one of the rundown mansions he is fond of restoring. The company had a glorious past, but had been neglected and mismanaged to the point of ruin. But in the last four years, Equitable has been renovated. And with a rebuilt foundation -- the capital base needed to grow and assure policyholders that their claims would be paid -- Equitable's insurance business is standing on its own and expanding rapidly.

Bending, if not quite breaking the silence on political issues that she kept in 30 years of public life, Barbara Bush says in a new autobiography that she disagrees with her husband's stances on abortion and gun control, thinks Patrick J. Buchanan's "America-first" speech at the 1992 Republican convention sent a racist message and believed that Bill Clinton "did not have a chance" to defeat George Bush in the last Presidential election. In an otherwise rosy depiction of life as the helpmate of a rising politician, Mrs. Bush also states, almost as an aside, that she was so deeply depressed in the mid-1970's that she sometimes stopped her car on highway shoulders for fear that she might deliberately crash the vehicle into a tree or an oncoming auto.

If there is one thing that Larry Giglio has learned in 56 years cutting hair, it is that a barber who can survive the day before school can survive anything. "Give me a wedge," said 11-year-old Steve Fiedeldey. "Cut it a little higher and less hair than usual. I'm playing football. The helmet has to fit on."

International Japan and the United States are making progress on trade. The two nations' negotiators said that they were moving toward agreements to open Japan's markets in insurance and government purchasing, but that talks on getting Japan to buy more American cars and auto parts were still deadlocked. [ Page A1. ] The huge task of desegregating Northern Ireland's economy and making opportunity more equitable can be seen at the Mackie factory in Belfast. The plant, once a bastion of Protestant employment, has sought to hire Roman Catholics. But as business leaders look to breathe new life into the economy, employment discrimination remains a deep-rooted problem. [ D1. ]

They were mainly young, in their 20's and 30's, police officers just settling into a dangerous and, many of them would often say, rewarding job. But one by one this year they died sudden deaths -- not, as they might have assumed, in combat with those who have made fear an enduring part of city life, but by their own hands. This week the number of police officers who committed suicide in 1994 reached 10, matching the record set in 1987. For four of the last five years in New York City, suicide has been the leading cause of death among officers. Before two officers killed themselves on Tuesday, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton had already stepped up counseling efforts. Now those efforts are being intensified as officials struggle to better understand the deaths.

The Dart Group Corporation decided late today that an executive committee of its outside directors would run the company, in a move to avert an immediate showdown in the bitter family fight between Herbert H. Haft, its chairman, and his son, Ronald S. Haft, its president. The two feuding executives supported the action "as a means of maintaining stability while efforts are under way to resolve disputes," the company said.

LAST week, Nancy Romanchek had a bad dream: she was in the seventh grade, and on the first day of school, she forgot her locker combination and lost her class schedule. But she's not among those going back to school; Mrs. Romanchek, 45, of Langhorne, Pa., is jittery about the new school year for her two sons, James, 11, and Todd, 7.