March 5, 1996

Gerstner Declares I.B.M. Is Poised for Leadership Louis V. Gerstner Jr., the chairman of I.B.M., told Wall Street analysts and investors that the company's traditional strength as a global maker of sophisticated systems would make it a major power in the era of network computing, which is being fueled by the rapid growth of the Internet. The message was that I.B.M. would more than make up for its disastrous missteps adjusting to the era of the personal computer. [Page D4.]

Lieut. Yuri A. Gagarin, the Soviet astronaut who, on April 12, 1961, was the first human in space, did not have the seamless triumph that Moscow publicized for so many decades. In fact, man's first voyage beyond the planet was nearly a disaster. Memorabilia from the Soviet space program to be auctioned this month at Sotheby's include documents that show that lieutenant Gagarin had a close brush with death aboard Vostok 1.

If Senator Bob Dole's opponents needed a lesson on what it means to confront the New York State Republican Party in Thursday's primary, there were two places they could look: The first was last night in Franklin Square, L.I., where Mr. Dole was flanked by Gov. George E. Pataki and Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, in front of nearly 1,000 people packed into a restaurant. The second place was not as obvious but potentially far more significant: the Republican Presidential primary ballot itself.

SIFTING through the chromosomes of people with an inherited nerve disease, researchers have made a strange discovery: woven neatly into the human genome lie stretches of DNA once thought to belong exclusively to insects. The finding does not mean that humans harbor an untapped potential to sprout wings or proboscises, or that people are any closer than previously thought to flies and mosquitoes. Nor are bugs waging gene warfare on humans.

Seeking to give New York's teachers greater control over their schools, Gov. George E. Pataki today proposed legislation that would permit teachers for the first time to suspend disruptive children from their classrooms for up to 10 days. The leaders of both the State Senate and the Assembly said today that they intend to pass similar bills in the coming days, indicating that some version of the Governor's proposal will most likely become law.