March 16, 1996

Three Bronx men, all with long records for armed robbery and other crimes and all under the supervision of parole officers, have been arrested in the killing of the New York City police officer who died in a wild shooting spree along the Grand Concourse on Thursday night. The victim, Kevin Gillespie, 33, was the first police officer to die by gunfire in the line of duty this year. His death set off an effort to pressure the Bronx District Attorney, Robert T. Johnson, a longstanding opponent of capital punishment, into seeking the death penalty.

Taking a decisive step in its ambitious plans to upgrade train service in the Northeast and give the airlines a run for their money, Amtrak today chose the contractors to build a $611 million fleet of "American Flyers" that would cut the time of train service between Washington and Boston by two hours. The top speed of the new trains, 150 miles an hour, is 25 miles an hour faster than trains now travel between New York and Washington, and 50 miles faster than between New York and Boston.

Rushing down a Beijing alleyway where a north wind was kicking up dust among the vegetable stands and cigarette vendors, Huang Jinhui, 25, paused to explain to a stranger why he smokes. "Man must smoke," said Mr. Huang, a young barber from Sichuan Province in central China.

For AT&T, Fewer Jobs to Cut

After threatening repeatedly in recent weeks to slash state programs if Washington failed to provide the aid he wanted, Gov. George E. Pataki made the surprise announcement today that he had found $1.4 billion in additional money that he said would enable him to balance his 1997 budget without making painful new spending cuts. The announcement, at a hastily called news conference this afternoon, came one day after the White House rebuffed Mr. Pataki's request for changes in welfare and Medicaid laws that could save New York State $2 billion in the coming fiscal year, which begins in just two weeks.