May 2, 1995

More than two months after Nicholas W. Leeson put Barings P.L.C. into bankruptcy by losing $1.3 billion trading on the direction of Japanese stocks and bonds, the new owner of the British investment firm today laid responsibility for the debacle on 21 top executives and said they would leave the firm. The Internationale Nederlanden Groep N.V., which acquired Barings after its collapse in February, said the 21 executives had "functional responsibility" for the Singapore office's trading in derivatives, which was run by Mr. Leeson.

CRACKDOWN IN BRONX ON POLICE ABUSE On the streets of the Bronx, top police officials say, the police have evolved a separate culture, a more aggressive style of policing that apparently makes it easier for them to cross the line into brutality and illegal activity. In the last year, particularly, many officers seem to have interpreted -- misinterpreted, officials say -- orders to crack down on drugs and minor street crimes as a kind of license to abuse. A1. NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN FEELS FALLOUT FROM SWITCH Life on the City Council rarely affords any of its 51 members a chance to break from the pack and establish a political reputation that extends beyond the legislator's own district. Last week, Guillermo Linares did just that when he cast the deciding vote in favor of a huge Pathmark supermarket in East Harlem. And he's been paying for it ever since. B3. HOUSING PLAN DEPENDENT ON ECONOMY Will Mayor Giuliani complete the ambitious housing program that has already produced more than 50,000 new apartments and houses in the last nine years? The answer has less to do with Mr. Giuliani's ideological inclinations than with the unpredictability of New York's economy. News Analysis, B3. MAN AGREES TO TESTIFY IN TERROR TRIAL Prosecutors have agreed to drop terrorism conspiracy charges against a New Jersey man under a plea deal in which he is expected to testify for the Government against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, according to court papers. B5. There was frustration but not mass chaos as midday subway service over the Manhattan Bridge was eliminated. B3. A woman has sued the Metropolitan Opera Company, saying she was dismissed from her job because she is a heterosexual. B3. REGION ISSUES CONNECT UNDER WHITMAN Taken separately, the new rule governing recall elections and the one to stiffen auto-exhaust testing seemed to have little in common. What united them, as the New Jersey Assembly took up its business, was the way Gov. Christine Todd Whitman used her power to force the Legislature to accept decisions its members would have preferred to avoid. B6. IT WAS LOVE FOR HIM, GREED FOR HER In late 1992, on her way back from a date, Michelle Fintzy told a limousine driver she wanted an older man with money, someone who could take care of her, the authorities said. Three days later, Brooke D. Lennon happened to step into the same driver's limo. He mentioned that he was lonely. The limo driver later gave Mr. Lennon's phone number to Ms. Fintzy. The woman who became Mr. Lennon's wife pleaded guilty to killing him. Prosecutors said it was the money she really wanted. B6. INDIAN PLAN TO ANNEX LAND IS APPROVED Federal authorities said that the Mashantucket Pequot Indian tribe in Ledyard, owner of the Foxwoods Casino, can legally annex 247 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the casino. B4. Nassau County Democrats asked for the removal of the county's Republican elections commissioner. B6. The president of the trustees at the nursing home for poor firefighters where Governor Pataki's father lives has been appointed director of a state agency. B5. Chronicle B2 Our Towns by Evelyn Nieves B6

WHIPLASH, a common neck injury that affects 120,000 Americans a year, usually after automobile accidents, is little understood and often ineffectively treated, a new study has found. An international team of experts who reviewed more than 10,000 scientific articles published in the last 15 years found little scientifically rigorous evidence to justify most existing therapies, and also found that most are prescribed by doctors who are poorly trained in caring for whiplash patients.

In a murder-for-hire case that reawakened many of the passions and pains of the 1960's, the second oldest daughter of Malcolm X avoided a trial and a possible prison sentence today by agreeing to "accept responsibility" for her involvement in a sketchy plot to kill Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam. The surprise agreement, quickly approved by Judge James Rosenbaum of Federal District Court this morning, was reached by Government prosecutors and defense lawyers late Sunday night. The deal came just hours before the defendant, Qubilah Bahiyah Shabazz, was scheduled to stand trial in an attempt to hire a former high school classmate to kill Mr. Farrakhan, her father's one-time protege turned bitter foe.

The Federal authorities have issued a nationwide alert for two men wanted as material witnesses in the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City after investigators uncovered evidence linking them to Timothy J. McVeigh, the man charged in the bombing. The alert was issued in the last two days for men who used the names Gary Allen Land and Robert Jacks to rent a room at an inexpensive motel in Arizona near the one occupied by Mr. McVeigh two weeks before the April 19 bombing. And law-enforcement officials said they had found other information that the men crossed paths with Mr. McVeigh elsewhere in the days before the bombing.