March 27, 1996

Revising Soviet history as he goes, the Communist leader Gennadi A. Zyuganov made his first presidential campaign swing today, trying out his election pledge to preserve pluralism and private property on mostly Communist crowds in the distant provinces. Mr. Zyuganov has been accused of talking like a social democrat to non-Communist audiences and like a hard-line Communist to the party rank and file. Out here on the stump in southern Siberia, he is crafting a message that justifies modest economic liberalism by rooting it in the Soviet past, mixing in familiar slogans and references to Lenin and Stalin meant to reassure the old guard.

SHE doesn't smoke or drink alcohol or coffee. She fast-walks and jogs, lifts weights at the gym and eats vegetarian. Oh, once or twice a week she'll strip and dance for her dirty-minded stepfather and order up a severed head on a plate. That's life off stage and on for the soprano Catherine Malfitano, who sings an acclaimed Salome in the current Metropolitan Opera production.

In a case that raised troubling questions about police procedures and race, a white New York City police officer who mistakenly shot a black undercover transit officer in a Manhattan subway station was convicted yesterday of second-degree assault. The jury in State Supreme Court in Manhattan deliberated for only five hours before acquitting Officer Peter Del-Debbio, 33, of the more serious charge of first-degree assault, which would have meant a minimum term of 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years in prison. The second-degree conviction gives Justice Bernard J. Fried the option of sentencing Officer Del-Debbio to probation in the shooting of Officer Desmond Robinson, 32.

It poured the whole ride home from Canton to Syracuse Monday night, more than two hours of angry, windswept rain that rattled cars and turned the sky an eerie silver. Krista Absalon said she imagined that "God had opened up the heavens, and the angels were just circling around, crying." At least the rain made sense. For Ms. Absalon, nothing else does. She was expecting "guilty." She had waited five years, and yielded her privacy. Not even the notorious false start in her case -- the initial misdemeanor fines given to the five men who admitted having sex with her after she passed out from drinking -- prepared her for seeing the first man tried on rape charges go free.

LISA KARNOPP of Bend, Ore., is training for the Olympic 5,000-meter run. A few weeks ago, she increased her weekly mileage and developed bursitis in her hip. Her reaction was to keep on training, pain and all. But her coach encouraged her to see a physical therapist and to rest for five days. "She was sneaking mileage in to get stronger and the opposite happened," said her coach, Bob Williams, who teaches athletes to use rest and recovery to get better results in competition. "She's a smarter athlete now because she's a believer in rest and recovery."