INSIDE

Bowing to Congressional demands, the White House today turned over cryptic notes describing how top lawyers for the President struggled two years ago to gather the facts and gain an understanding of two sensitive investigations involving Mr. Clinton, his wife and their business partners in Arkansas over the last decade.         The notes, written by William H. Kennedy 3d, a former associate White House counsel, reflect a free-wheeling two-hour discussion in November 1993 about Whitewater and other issues just as some of the details of the investigations were becoming public.   

NOTES RELEASED ON WHITEWATER

The lights went down and several hundred groggy infantrymen in a movie theater here fixed their eyes on bloody images of the country they will travel to in a few short days. They saw bombed-out buildings, men dragged dead through the streets, children with limbs blown off from mortar rounds.         "Can you see our purpose in Bosnia?" Col. John R. S. Batiste, commander of the Second Brigade of the First Armored Division, asked the soldiers when the five-minute video ended, sometime around dawn on Thursday. "Can you see the suffering and repression that has been going on for 41 months?   

Some Skeptical and Scared, Company C Is Set for Bosnia

Christmas is a time when many people are inclined to recite a passage or two  of Scripture from memory, and an obvious choice is the story of Jesus' birth from the Gospel of Luke.         Mary, according to the Bible's King James Version, wrapped Jesus "in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger."   

In Other Words: The Bible's New Language

James M. Cole, who worked on corruption cases at the Justice Department, was  chosen yesterday to examine accusations involving Speaker Newt Gingrich. Page 9. (Associated Press)   

Special Counsel Named

Two hours of budget talks between President Clinton and Republican Congressional leaders ended today without the kind of rancor that has so far characterized these negotiations, but it remained clear that the standoff that has closed much of the Government for a week is nowhere near ending.         Indeed, the principals said after the White House meeting that they would not even meet again until next Friday, making it almost certain that many Federal parks and many Government offices will remain closed, at least until the New Year.   

HIGH-LEVEL TALKS AGAIN FAIL TO END BUDGET STANDOFF

For the first time, Congress overrode a veto by President Clinton yesterday.  The Senate -- as the House had on Wednesday -- mustered the necessary two-thirds majority to enact a bill to limit the rights of stockholders to file suits charging fraud against underwriter-brokers, company officials and accountants.         Business Day, page 39.   

Congress Overrides Veto on Fraud Bill

Five years after the end of Lebanon's civil war, the lights are burning brightly again in this ravaged capital.         Its famous hotels -- the Phoenicia, the St. George's, the Holiday Inn -- remain scarred monuments to battle. Its city center, much of it, has been bulldozed, wrecked beyond repair by the savagery along the Green Line, the dividing line between the Muslim and Christian-held sectors.   

Wrecked by Years of Civil War, Beirut Is Rising From the Ashes

The Senate today gave final Congressional approval to a wide-ranging Republican plan to overhaul the nation's welfare system, clearing the bill for President Clinton, who has promised to veto it.         The 52-to-47 vote, which came a day after the legislation had won approval in the House, was almost entirely on party lines. Only two Republicans voted against the bill, and only one Democrat for it.   

Welfare Bill Cleared by Congress And Now Awaits Clinton's Veto

In the summer of 1993, 26 Newark police officers were accused of raping, robbing and beating prostitutes. Although the victims identified the officers through photo line-ups, city records show that the department never followed through on the allegations and has done nothing to discipline the officers.         Last March, four officers were arrested by Internal Affairs agents for stealing cars from city residents and selling them to friends. Nine months later, the accused officers, who have pleaded not guilty, are still on active duty, and the Internal Affairs commanders who uncovered the case have been transferred out of the unit.   

TAINTED FORCE: A special report.;Newark Police Troubles: Out of Control at the Top

NEWS SUMMARY

An article in The Living Section on Wednesday about holiday gifts that pair books with tools or foods on the same subject misspelled the surname of the author of "Olives" (10 Speed Press, $15.95). He is Ford Rogers, not Rodgers.   

Corrections

All I know is they're killing each other, really. You see kids and women getting shot, you know -- makes you feel you've got a reason when you go down there." -- PVT. RYAN SIMMONS, 19, on his way to Bosnia. [4:4.]   

No Headline

Charts in Business Day on Oct. 14 with an article about Rockport shoes included incomplete data supplied by Footwear Market Insight, an industry research firm, on the competitive standing of various shoe manufacturers. The figures omitted sales at discount and moderate-priced retail outlets.         Following are comprehensive market share data for three leading sales categories, according to the firm:   

An obituary headline yesterday about Dame Ruth Nita Barrow misstated her position. She was the current Governor General of Barbados, not a former one.   

An article yesterday about Federal budget negotiations misstated the number of Cabinet agencies closed in the current Government shutdown. Nine agencies, not six, are shut for all but essential services: the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, Justice, State, Interior, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development.   

More than 70 years after the remains of Homo erectus pekinensis were first discovered at a place the locals here called Dragon Bone Hill, Peking Man is having a difficult time finding a permanent resting place.         "These old bones are like my own children," said Prof. Jia Lanpo, who at 87 is among the last living members of the excavation team that unearthed Peking Man at this site 30 miles southwest of Beijing.   

Zhoukoudian Journal;Peking Man's Bones, and Affairs, Remain Unsettled

In the largest movement of NATO forces yet to enter territory formerly controlled by the Serbs, the British Army reached the blustery peak of Kula Mountain today to confront men in the Bosnian Serb army.         Despite the army's reputation, the British soldiers found the Serbian soldiers meek.   

British Soldiers Get an Unexpected Welcome From Bosnian Serb Troops

Switzerland has decided to permit NATO to fly troops and equipment through Swiss air space to peace-enforcement operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.         The flights, to take place only when NATO is unable to fly more direct routes from Germany over Austria, are expected to start immediately, Transportation Ministry officials said today.   

Swiss Grants NATO Transit Permits

A United States magistrate in New Jersey rejected today a fourth and final effort to extradite a former Mexican official accused of graft and a cover-up in the assassination of his own brother, a powerful politician in Mexico's governing party.         However, the former Deputy Attorney General of Mexico, Mario Ruiz Massieu, did not leave the Newark courthouse a free man. At the request of Secretary of State Warren Christopher, he was detained by United States immigration officials who will seek to deport him on grounds that his presence in the United States would have "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences."   

U.S. Magistrate Rejects Extradition of Mexico Ex-Official

Prime Minister Shimon Peres said today that Israel would be prepared to close its nuclear program if there was a regional peace in the Middle East, though he  stopped short of confirming that Israel possesses nuclear weapons.         Mr. Peres made his comments at a lunch with Israeli journalists in Tel Aviv,  after one of them asked whether his new priorities include a change in nuclear policy.   

Peres Says Israel, With Regional Pact, Would End Atom Effort

Jorge Medina, a concrete worker and proud new American citizen, was returning to his native land of Colombia to pack up his parents and bring them back to Parsippany, N.J., to share his new life.         Luz Angelica Sosa, a 5-year-old girl from Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, was going to Colombia with her family to visit her grandmother, but mostly she was trying not to be too scared on her very first flight.   

Families of the Victims Are United in Mourning

The main opposition alliance has won a landslide victory in a general election, final results showed today.         The National Electoral Commission said the alliance, led by Navin Ramgoolam and Paul Berenger, took 65.2 percent of the 556,297 votes cast on Wednesday to take all 60 parliament seats on Mauritius.   

WORLD NEWS BRIEFS;Government Ousted In Mauritius Election

Jinnys Castillo and her two sisters woke at dawn today, hoping to God their 23-year-old niece was alive. The young woman had been on her way to Colombia for Christmas. 

     Six hours later, Miss Castillo still had no answer as she sat on the pavement in front of the temporary morgue for the bodies of the passengers from American  Airlines Flight 965 from Miami. As of late tonight, only 83 bodies had been recovered among the 160 presumed dead.

At Morgue in Colombia, Relatives Cling to Slim Hopes

In the latest attack blamed on Basque separatists, a Spanish Army major was killed and his daughter was wounded today when a bomb exploded under his car.   

WORLD NEWS BRIEFS;Basque Bomb Suspected In Spanish Major's Death

Patric Knowles was an English film actor. Born in Horsforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, he later changed his name to reflect his Irish heritage. He made his film debut in 1932, and played either first or second film leads throughout his career. He appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1970s.

December 23, 1995

Headlines from December 23, 1995

INSIDE

NOTES RELEASED ON WHITEWATER

Some Skeptical and Scared, Company C Is Set for Bosnia

In Other Words: The Bible's New Language

Special Counsel Named

Billboard 200

Anthology 1

Daydream

Fresh Horses

Christmas In The Aire

Waiting To Exhale

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for December 23, 1995