September 13, 1995

The Campus Club, a dining club for Princeton University students, became the last defendant yesterday to settle a lawsuit brought by a former student who lost parts of one arm and both legs after he climbed on top of a shuttle train and touched a metal bar carrying 11,000 volts of electricity, his lawyer said. The university and a fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, had reached separate settlements with the former student, Bruce L. Miller, on Monday, a university spokesman said yesterday.

Whether to extend a building moratorium for the watershed areas that feed New Jersey's aquifers will be discussed today at a joint meeting of the Senate Environment Committee and the Senate Natural Resources Trade and Economic Development Committee in Kinnelon. An 18-month moratorium that was imposed in 1988 to protect environmentally sensitive areas from development is still in place, depriving local governments with large watershed areas of tax revenue, said Senator Henry F. McNamara, Republican of Wyckoff and the environment committee chairman.

The tobacco industry has begun an aggressive campaign-donation drive, pouring more than $1.5 million into national Republican Party treasuries in the first half of 1995, five times as much as in the same period last year. The surge in donations comes when the industry is facing the most serious threats from Washington in its history.

WITH coffee bars proliferating from Seattle to Boston, and the specialty coffees they feature promising to turn around a decades-long decline in American coffee consumption, the news about coffee's effects on health is surprisingly good. A substantial amount of research, including several large studies done in the last few years, has turned up very little solid scientific evidence to indict a moderate intake of coffee or caffeine as a serious or even minor health threat.

DROUGHT CONDITIONS INTENSIFY IN REGION With reservoir levels dropping fast throughout the region, government officials are stepping up the pressure to save water. Governor Pataki is expected to declare a drought warning for New York City and much of the lower third of the state. In New Jersey, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman will go further: imposing a drought emergency. [ Page A1. ] 2 WITHDRAW IN SEARCH FOR CHANCELLOR A day after Mayor Giuliani said he would support only those candidates for schools chancellor who agreed that he should control the finances and security of New York City's schools, two more candidates withdrew abruptly from consideration. [ A1. ]

Three beach communities have been authorized by a Federal court to enforce local licensing ordinances intended to impose tougher standards for boardinghouses. The New Jersey Coalition of Rooming and Boarding Houses had filed a civil rights suit against Keansburg, Asbury Park and Neptune to block a 1993 state law giving local governments licensing control over rooms generally inhabited by poor or mentally ill people.

After nine months of midnight strategy sessions, emergency meetings with allies and psychological warfare against hotshot currency traders, the Clinton Administration today put to rest, at least for now, one of its lurking foreign policy crises: the dollar was back above 100 Japanese yen for the first time since January. Even before the markets closed in New York today, Administration officials were celebrating. They gave much of the credit for the dollar's recovery to Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, who in recent months has frequently used skills honed on Wall Street to catch speculators off balance -- often during their summer vacations -- making them increasingly wary of placing billion-dollar wagers that the dollar would resume its decline.

N.B.A. Players Back Union By an overwhelming margin, N.B.A. players voted against union decertification, increasing the chances the season will start on time. Page B9. Graduate Programs Rated A study of doctoral programs placed Harvard, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley at the forefront of quality. Page B7. New York's Sweatshops In an unusual meeting, sweatshop workers told the Labor Secretary of their plight -- long hours, meager wages, cramped quarters. Page B1.

A 23-year-old man has been charged with fatally beating a 15-month-old baby whose cries were annoying him while he was trying to play a video game, authorities said yesterday.

After a dissertation on stitching, hemming, antique sewing machines and the properties of "naked" leather, a prosecution expert testified today that the distinctive brown leather gloves O. J. Simpson wore as a football commentator were the same model as those at the heart of the case against him. Richard Rubin, a former executive at Aris Isotoner, said he was "100 percent certain" that the gloves that appeared to fit so snugly over Mr. Simpson's hands in a photograph taken at the Cincinnati Bengals-Houston Oilers football game in January 1991 were identical to the crumpled, bloody gloves found on Mr. Simpson's property and alongside the people he is charged with killing: extra large, brown Aris Lights, serial number 70263.

Months of Strategy Pay Off As Dollar Tops 100 Yen The dollar rose to more than 100 Japanese yen for the first time since early January, settling at 101.16 yen and sparking celebrations in Washington. After a fall of roughly 20 percent earlier this year, to a record low of 79.75 yen in April, the dollar has regained nearly all its lost ground. The Administration gave much of the credit to Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, who often used skills honed on Wall Street to catch speculators off-balance, making them wary of wagering that the dollar would resume its decline. [ Page A1. ] Tobacco Companies Increase Donations to Republicans The tobacco industry has poured more than $1.5 million into Republican Party treasuries in the first half of 1995, five times more than in the similar 1994 period. The bulk of the money came from three companies, Philip Morris, which gave $729,749, R. J. Reynolds and its parent RJR Nabisco, which gave $286,450, and Brown & Williamson, $260,000. [ A1. ] Dow Surges to Record A rally in the bond market helped lift blue-chip stocks, pushing the Dow industrials up 42.27 points to a high of 4,747.21. [ D12. ] The bond rally lowered the yield on the 30-year Treasury issue to 6.50 percent, its lowest point since early July. [ D19. ] Gore Attacks Communications Bill Vice President Al Gore attacked the legislation to rewrite communications law as it appeared to bog down in Congress. Mr. Gore said the legislation catered to big communications companies at the expense of consumers. [ D2. ] Comcast Hires Ex-Disney Executive Comcast has hired Richard H. Frank, a former executive at Walt Disney, to expand the company's programming and communications businesses. [ D11. ] Push for More Healthful Food Conagra joined with Nabisco to create a new roster of low-fat cookies, crackers and snacks under Conagra's Healthy Choice logo, and Oscar Mayer introduced what it described as the first mass-market fat-free sliced ham products. [ D2. ] Panel Urges Foreign Worker Fee The United States Commission on Immigration Reform recommended that companies pay "substantial fees" -- as much as $10,000 -- when they recruit and hire some skilled foreign workers. [ A20. ] Alliance on Software Development Digital Equipment, Sun Soft and Xerox formed an alliance to develop software that would facilitate communications between various makes of computers and printers. [ D2. ] CBS Obtains HBO Rights CBS has signed a two-year deal with Home Box Office, giving it the first rights to all programming developed for broadcast networks by HBO Independent Productions. CBS will also buy HBO films. [ D11. ] Swiss Find Wartime Accounts After denying for years that their coffers held money of Nazi Holocaust victims, the Swiss banking community has discovered at least $34 million in dormant accounts. [ A7. ] Utility Competition in California California's drive to open utilities to greater competition got a lift when Southern California Edison and a coalition of independent power producers and major customers reached a consensus on troublesome issues. [ D12. ] Growth Business: Kidnap Insurance Many small and medium-sized companies are buying kidnap and ransom insurance to cover their employees working overseas. Edwin McDowell: Business Travel. [ D8. ]

As NATO warplanes took advantage of clearing skies to pound Serbian targets near Sarajevo, the forces of the Bosnian Government were reported to be exploiting the weakened position of the Bosnian Serbs to retake small parcels of territory. In attacks over the last several days, the Bosnians retook an important route to their industrial center of Tuzla and launched small operations, some in conjunction with their Bosnian Croat allies, on several fronts in central and western Bosnia.