January 20, 1996

Turkish authorities, ignoring Russian demands that they act more forcefully, ended a 72-hour hostage crisis on the Black Sea without bloodshed tonight, persuading pro-Chechen hijackers to surrender and release the more than 200 hostages they had been holding aboard a captured ferry. The stand-off was resolved as thousands of supporters of the Chechen cause lined the Turkish coast chanting anti-Russian slogans.

Easing fears that the economy is headed toward recession, the Labor Department reported yesterday that employers had added a moderate 151,000 jobs to payrolls in December. The jobless rate remained steady at 5.6 percent. The Clinton Administration hailed the report. Page 36.

Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Government forces today completed the pullback of most of their troops and heavy weapons from confrontation lines in compliance with one of the most significant deadlines set by the Dayton peace agreement. But they failed to honor another commitment signed at Dayton to release all prisoners of war.

Like the manatees of Florida and the whooping cranes of Texas, Representative Gene Taylor of Mississippi belongs to an endangered species. As a Southern white Democrat, he is one of a dwindling political breed in Congress. Since 1990, the forces of redistricting and Republicanization have vastly reduced the group's numbers. This year's elections, according to campaign strategists and political scientists, could bring the near extinction of a political type that has long been at the center of national power.

The Federal Aviation Administration said today that 7 of the 10 major power failures that struck air traffic control centers across the country in recent months -- some resulting in hundreds of flight delays -- were largely caused by technicians who did not fully understand the new power supply equipment they were putting into use. The power failures occurred at regional air traffic control centers, which generally handle big passenger planes flying at high altitudes. They blanked out controllers' radar screens, which show the locations and identities of aircraft, and sometimes severed radio communications. Some planes were left circling without guidance from the ground about other aircraft in the area. Hundreds of aircraft were sometimes held on the ground, causing thousands of travelers to be delayed.