February 24, 1996

New Jersey lost a significant number of jobs last month as the state's unemployment rate remained above the national average, suggesting continued sluggishness in the economy, according to new data. Using a new method to estimate unemployment, New Jersey's joblessness rate was 6.5 percent in January. Officials revised the December rate downward, easing concern that a spike in unemployment had signaled a sudden downturn.

Two months after an accident at its prototype reactor, Japan's program to use plutonium to provide a virtually inexhaustible supply of energy is at a crossroads, and could be in danger of collapse. Even the most optimistic officials think it will take three years to restart the fast-breeder reactor, where the leak of dangerous sodium coolant occurred in December. Some other analysts think that the reactor, which is in the city of Tsuruga on the coast of the Sea of Japan, will never be activated again.

Down the Paseo del Prado they marched, wave after wave of dancers and drummers decked out in extravagant, blindingly flashy outfits. "I've never seen anything like this before," Oscar Raul Marrero, 11 years old, exulted as he whirled on the sidewalk and watched -- wide-eyed, loose-limbed and nimble-footed -- the spectacle flowing past him. After an absence of a quarter of a century, pre-Lenten Carnival has returned to Cuba -- albeit one slightly unhinged from the Christian calendar, by which all festivities were to have been completed before Lent began. By Government decree, Cuba's Carnival will run an extra five days, through Sunday.

The economy grew at a meager annual pace of nine-tenths of 1 percent in the final three months of 1995 as consumers kept a tight grip on their wallets, Government spending fell and investment by business slackened, the Commerce Department reported today. For all of 1995, the output of goods and services advanced 2.1 percent over the previous year, the smallest gain since 1991, when the gross domestic product fell 1 percent.

Patrick J. Buchanan compared pro-abortion forces to the "evil empire" of Communism today, pledging to devote his Presidency to ending abortions in the country and to be remembered as the "most pro-life President in history." Mr. Buchanan's remarks, to a breakfast sponsored by Arizona Right-to-Life in Phoenix, signaled that the conservative Presidential candidate would not ease his emphasis on the contentious issue, even as his candidacy gains daily visibility and as he comes under political pressure to expand his appeal beyond the party's right wing.