July 17, 1995

Conventional wisdom has it that the second quarter brings a slump to the producers of computers, software, semiconductors and disk drives. Not so this year. With a few exceptions, the companies that have reported second-quarter results have met or exceeded Wall Street analysts' estimates, sending already lofty prices of technology stock to new highs on an almost daily basis.

Barely two months after taking office, President Jacques Chirac today publicly recognized France's responsibility for deporting thousands of Jews to Nazi death camps during the German occupation in World War II. His statement put an end to decades of equivocations by successive French Governments about France's wartime role.

Metro-North workers could strike at any time, leaders of the railroad's labor unions warned yesterday after contract talks broke off despite significant movement by management on wages and work rules. Preparing for a walkout, the railroad will have 400 buses ready this morning to ferry riders, if need be, from counties north of New York City and Connecticut to take them to subway and bus stops in the Bronx, Donna Evans, a spokeswoman for the railroad, said.

The heat wave that scorched much of the Northeast with record-setting 100-degree temperatures killed at least 11 people in New York City, who died of causes like hyperthermia and heat stroke, city officials said yesterday. Officials were only beginning to assess the impact of Saturday's withering heat spell, which caused several power failures outside the city, damaged roads that buckled under the fierce sun and led thousands to seek emergency medical help.

House Republicans have begun drafting proposals to make immense changes in Medicare, by imposing annual limits on spending in the program and by giving elderly people a choice of private health insurance plans as alternatives to the standard Federal program. Confidential documents prepared by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee describe numerous options that would increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries who stay in the standard program, under which the Government pays separately for each doctor's visit and each hospital admission. More than 90 percent of the 37 million Medicare beneficiaries receive care through such fee-for-service arrangements.