July 5, 1995

Squatters Try to Seize East Village Building Squatters briefly took over a city-owned tenement in the East Village, six weeks after they were evicted, but police officers regained control of the building early today. A dozen people were arrested. Page B1. Clue in the Mubarak Attack Muslim militants battling Egypt took responsibility for an attempted assassination of President Hosni Mubarak last week. Page A3. Markets Poised for Rate Cut As the Federal Reserve considers interest rates, the key may lie in how well the markets would withstand a move not to cut rates. Page D1.

Fuji Complaint by Kodak Shrugged Off in Japan To officials at Eastman Kodak, perhaps, their complaint charging Fuji Photo Film and the Japanese Government with conspiring to block Kodak's entry into the Japanese photographic market might be as clear as a well-focused snapshot. But in Japan, the case seems more blurry than that.

For the first time in more than a decade, the budget being prepared by Congress locks in military spending at much higher levels than even the Pentagon requested and comes close to ending the post-cold-war decline in arms spending. The Clinton Administration and some outside experts say the Republican spending plans are larded with throwbacks to the era of the Soviet threat, like more B-2 bombers and a potpourri of pork-barrel projects from amphibious assault ships to day-care centers.

All financial and commodity markets in the United States were closed yesterday in observance of the Fourth of July holiday. Most markets in other countries were open.

Individual income taxes, Irwin A. Schiff tells everyone who will listen, are voluntary, but almost everyone pays because politicians have enacted complicated laws to trick people into thinking they must pay. The view might sound absurd, and Mr. Schiff used to be cursed at when he voiced it. But some Americans are taking it seriously.

John Major was easily re-elected as leader of the ruling Conservative Party today, insuring his survival as Prime Minister but not gaining the decisive triumph that would have stamped his authority on a fractious party. Mr. Major received 218 votes from the 329 Tory Members of Parliament eligible to vote. His challenger, John Redwood, a 44-year-old former Cabinet member, received only 89.

ENCOUNTERING spices in their native habitat is like biting into a vine-ripened tomato after years of sampling only the supermarket variety -- the culinary potential of the ingredient suddenly becomes clear. In the tropical forests of Penang, Malaysia, for example, a certain flowery fragrance announces to the traveler the nearness of tall trees bearing tender, yielding buds that will be dried to become cloves. Beside them are stands of nutmeg trees, bearing pods that can be broken open to reveal not only the inner nut but also the bright red, spidery membrane that is dried to make mace and the spongy outer shell that Malaysians boil with sugar to make a highly sweet, aromatic candy.

This is about a New York City mansion with five fireplaces, a swimming pool in the basement and two gardens -- a lower one for post-swim strolls and an upper one reachable by a bridge from the house. The mansion is not a century old and (surprise) does not have a name like Carnegie, Morgan, Mellon or Rockefeller in front of it. In fact (bigger surprise), it has not even been built yet.

The Mossberg shotguns, the Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifles with fiberglass folding stocks, the stubby Mac-10's, and the Beretta and Glock 9-millimeter pistols were laid out in neat rows in the hall of the Holiday Inn here this weekend. There were piles of holsters, camouflage clothes, shells for reloading and, as at gun shows around the country, a booth with the latest issue of The Spotlight, the newspaper of the extremist anti-Semitic group Liberty Lobby -- its banner headline warning "Clinton Plans for Mideast War" -- and stacks of defiant bumper stickers, including one depicting a red, horned President and the words, "Clinton is the Anti-Christ."

Gloria Wroten was using an automated teller machine at her bank early Monday when she was approached by a man who pointed a handgun at her, then fled on foot when she screamed. Her husband, Charles Hightower, gave chase in his car and saw two men on a mountain bike. One fired a shot at him, the police said. Mr. Hightower ducked, and when he looked up the men were gone.

A Jordanian-American accused of killing his American wife in Parsippany-Troy Hills last summer asked a Jordanian court on Monday to reduce his charge of premeditated killing to second-degree murder, The Associated Press reported. The court said it would hand down a decision next Monday. Mohammed I. Abequa, 47, has confessed to killing his estranged wife, Nihal, 40. He fled to Jordan afterward and was arrested by the Jordanian police.

Toll collectors on both the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway were returning to work yesterday, to the great relief of motorists and others who had worried about a nightmarish, traffic-clogged end to the Fourth of July. [ Page A1. ]