March 11, 1995

New Trend in Thievery In what the police call a prevalent new scheme, shoplifters from Long Island to Delaware are using foil-lined shopping bags to circumvent store alarms. Page 25. A Home for Nuclear Waste A month after the Mescalero Apaches of New Mexico quashed a plan to allow utilities to store nuclear waste on their reservation, they abruptly reversed themselves. Page 6. Dinkins Attacks Giuliani David N. Dinkins demanded an apology from his successor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, for what he called a calculated attempt to slander the former Youth Commissioner. Page 27.

The violence that is tearing Pakistan's largest city apart claimed 11 more lives today when a bomb exploded outside a mosque after Friday Prayers and masked gunmen stormed into the smoke-filled courtyard, loosing volleys of automatic rifle fire at the panicked survivors. The attack, which wounded at least 22 people, came two days after the execution-style slaying of two Americans driving to work at the United States Consulate. The bombing intensified a feeling among Karachi's population of more than 10 million that the long history of ethnic, religious and criminal violence here, responsible for thousands of deaths in recent years, has taken a sharp turn for the worse.

The front-page headlines in the daily newspapers today portrayed the mood in this town, which was toddlin' more than ever: "Jordan Works Out and Whole City Sweats" (Tribune); "Say It's So, Mike" (Sun-Times); and the headline that topped The Tribune's column by Mike Royko, to many the voice of Chicago, said: "City Has Hope That 2nd Coming Is Near." All this for what had been unconfirmed reports that Michael Jordan was considering returning to the city and to the team where he perfected, if not invented, the extraordinary feat of flying to the hoop.

An unexpectedly large number of Americans found new jobs in February, and the unemployment rate matched a four-year low by dropping three-tenths of a point, to 5.4 percent, the Labor Department reported today. After a tumultuous week in the financial markets, as the dollar hit record lows against both the German mark and the Japanese yen before recovering somewhat, investors found something to cheer in the latest figures. Under the weight of a yearlong series of interest-rate increases engineered by the Federal Reserve, economic growth is finally showing signs of slowing to a pace that could help extend the expansion that began in 1991.

Michael P. C. Carns, the retired Air Force general whom President Clinton selected to be Director of Central Intelligence, said today that he was withdrawing from consideration after the Federal Bureau of the Investigation uncovered a tangled set of personal circumstances that appear to have included violations of labor and immigration law. Mr. Clinton, who has been without a chief intelligence officer for more than 10 weeks, immediately chose John M. Deutch, the Deputy Defense Secretary, to replace General Carns as his new nominee for the intelligence post, a senior White House official said.

The marchers swarmed around the old man in the wheelchair, some to tell him he was forgiven, some to whisper that he could never be forgiven, not today, not a million years from now. Yet to all of the people who retraced the steps of the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march 30 years ago, George C. Wallace offered an apology for a doomed ideal. The former Alabama Governor, whose name became shorthand for much of the worst of white Southern opposition to the civil rights movement, held hands with men and women he had once held down with the power of his office. To one aging civil rights war horse, he mumbled, "I love you."

Michael P. C. Carns said today that he knew he might have a problem over a young Filipino man he had helped bring into the country even before he was nominated to be the next head of the Central Intelligence Agency. But it was not until agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation appeared at the door of his mother's house in California last week, bearing papers and a long list of painful questions, that he knew just how big a problem it might be.

With little suspense and overwhelming support from the new Republican majority, the House today easily passed a measure that for the first time would set standards in all of the nation's courts for civil lawsuits. The measure was approved by a 265 to 161 vote, giving the House Republicans a clean sweep this week on all three bills that made up a legislative package intended to sharply reduce the number of lawsuits nationwide.

An article on March 8 about affiliations between Roman Catholic and non-Catholic health care providers referred incorrectly to an affiliation proposed in Eugene, Ore. Doctors who wished to perform abortions would lease one part of a clinic there, while the Sacred Heart Health System would lease another part. Sacred Heart would not own the whole clinic.

An article yesterday about a plan by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to install foam on airport runways to stop runaway planes referred incompletely to the installation at La Guardia Airport. The plan there includes foam on Runway 13-31 at the point where a Continental jet rolled off in March 1994 in an aborted takeoff.

"May your message be heard. May your lessons never be forgotten. May our history be always remembered." -- GEORGE C. WALLACE, addressing marchers in Montgomery, Ala. [ 9:1. ] "Seeing him say that he's sorry ain't gonna do me no good at all." -- RUFUS VANABLE, a participant in the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march who took part in its reenactment yesterday. [ 9:1. ]

A listing on the Consumer's World page of The Home Section on Feb. 23 with an article about repairing problems in a credit report misstated the telephone number for a national credit reporting bureau, the Trans Union Corporation. Its number is (610) 690-4909.