August 19, 1995

The continued stewardship of Judge Lance A. Ito over the O. J. Simpson trial was all but assured yesterday when a fellow judge on the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that prosecutors could not call Judge Ito's wife, a police captain, as a witness. In a one-paragraph ruling, the judge said it was unlikely that Judge Ito's wife could contribute anything relevant to the case. Article, page 7.

Priscilla Purvis was outraged when she saw a small boy buy a single cigarette at a convenience store in her inner-city neighborhood not long ago. "He said, 'Can I get a 'loosie'?' " recalled Priscilla, 16, who has never smoked a cigarette and vows she never will. "He paid 15 cents for it and left. He was about 9 years old. I just went totally off on the store owner. I said, 'He's a little boy -- that's illegal.' "

Early on a hot July night President Bill Clinton was bent over the practice green in the backyard of the White House, missing putts and once again venting his frustration over Bosnia. The Administration was already in the middle of a high-level review of its policy, and Mr. Clinton was impatient for some results. Looking ahead to September, and the likely withdrawal of United Nations peacekeeping forces, Mr. Clinton told a small group of aides: "The status quo is not acceptable. We've got to really dig in and think about this."

Shannon R. Faulkner, the 20-year-old South Carolina woman who waged a ferocious legal battle to march as a cadet in an all-male military academy here, abruptly withdrew from the college today, fighting back tears and explaining that two and a half years of stress had "all crashed in" on her in her first few days here. Standing in a driving rain in front of the infirmary where she had stayed under close watch since late Monday, Ms. Faulkner said she hoped other women would follow through what she began at The Citadel and become graduates of the harsh program that the college has used for 153 years to train some of the top military, political and business leaders in the South.

With its second military exercise near Taiwan this summer under way, China is preparing an escalating series of naval, air and missile force maneuvers intended to bring Taiwan's political leadership to heel, American military officials and foreign diplomats say. Plans for the new exercises over the coming weeks and months have broad support among Chinese military and civilian officials and represent a distinct turn away from a resumption of dialogue with Taiwan, which China believes is forsaking its adherence to the principle of "one China" and pursuing world recognition as an independent nation.