September 9, 1995

Talks on Turner Deal Stall Negotiations over a Time Warner buyout of Turner Broadcasting have been stalled by the changing demands of a big Turner shareholder, people close to the talks say. Page 33. Mideast Talks Stymied Israeli and P.L.O. negotiators acknowledged that full agreement on Arab self-rule in the West Bank was still stymied over Jewish settlers in the city of Hebron. Page 3. Seles and Graf Win at Open Monica Seles and Steffi Graf reached today's final, where a blind New Jersey woman who uses sound to envision points will be among the spectators. Articles, page 27.

The battered Bob Packwood who announced his resignation from the Senate on Thursday bore little resemblance to the strong, independent-minded politician who once took on Presidents from his own party and muscled through legislation. Article, page 8.

Responding to a Federal grand jury's charge that the city's largest and best-known street fair is controlled by the Mafia, the Giuliani administration said last night that the Feast of San Gennaro will be canceled this year unless organizers allow an outside monitor to oversee the festival's finances. At stake is an annual city ritual that brings millions of people to Little Italy's narrow Mulberry Street, where the smoky air smacks of grilled sausage, vendors lure passers-by with games of chance, and the faithful demonstrate their devotion by pinning dollars to a silver-and-bronze bust of the festival's namesake.

Senator Bob Dole tried today to win a three-month reprieve for Senator Bob Packwood, who resigned in disgrace on Thursday, but Mr. Dole was rebuffed and had to settle for three weeks instead. After negotiations with Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, and under pressure from his fellow Republicans, Mr. Dole agreed that Mr. Packwood, Republican from Oregon, would leave by the end of the month. Meanwhile, he will be allowed to vote but not to speak officially or manage bills.

In an extraordinary rebuke, a state appeals court today rejected the instructions about Mark Fuhrman that Judge Lance A. Ito proposed to read to jurors in the O. J. Simpson case. The ruling forced Judge Ito to hastily abandon plans to tell the panel about Mr. Fuhrman's unavailability as a witness and what its members could infer from that. Though the judge's instructions did not mention Mr. Fuhrman's decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment's protection, the appeals court apparently concluded that acknowledging his absence, then encouraging jurors to look harshly on him for it, penalized Mr. Fuhrman for asserting his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

The rivals who have warred for nearly four years over the remains of Yugoslavia took a first step toward peace negotiations today, agreeing that a Serbian republic will be created within embattled Bosnia. The Bosnian Government, for the first time since the war began in 1992, agreed to recognize an autonomous Serbian entity, although the question of its degree of independence was carefully avoided.

The idea of an energy pipeline across one-fifth the circumference of the globe might be dismissed as somewhat extravagant, even eccentric. But the Exxon Corporation, the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan and China's state oil company have announced a partnership to study just that: a $12 billion, 4,900-mile natural gas pipeline from the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, on the Caspian Sea, to the Pacific -- bypassing Russia and Moscow's political and economic leverage.

At the end of each workday, as Jyreain Privette crosses the threshold of her apartment building in Harlem, she wonders if the lobby will be filled with drug dealers who come and go at will because the front door has neither a lock nor an intercom. She considers riding an elevator to her third-floor apartment, but the elevator often leaves her stranded between floors. If she chooses the stairway, it will probably smell of urine, and the lights will probably be out. Her building is one that no one wants. The landlord is in bankruptcy and for all intents has abandoned it. And New York City, which over the last two decades has rescued thousands of buildings in similar distress, no longer considers the process worth the expense.

The political equivalent of apple-polishing was so intense at the opening of the Christian Coalition's annual convention here today that Senator Bob Dole did not even try to hide his motives. "I read in this morning's papers about how all these candidates were coming down here to court all of you," Mr. Dole, the leading Republican Presidential contender, told a boisterous audience of more than 4,000. "Well, maybe we are. What's wrong with that?"

The elegant white building just across the square from the National Palace has long been a center of power here, and that is just fine with the women who have displaced the fearsome soldiers who once swaggered through its halls. In an act laden with symbolism, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has turned over the two-story French colonial-style house to the 50 or so women who now serve as the Ministry of Women's Affairs.

A headline in some editions on Thursday about a court hearing for Joey Buttafuoco misstated his legal situation. A judge ruled that in pleading no contest to a charge of soliciting sex from a prostitute in Los Angeles, Mr. Buttafuoco had violated probation, not parole.

Because of an editing error, a brief article yesterday about a Spanish investigation of death-squad activity against suspected Basque terrorists misattributed the finding that there was not enough evidence to investigate Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez in connection with the campaign. It was made by Government prosecutors, not the Supreme Court.