August 17, 1996

Bob Dole and Jack Kemp, with one last display of fireworks and confetti, bound out of nominating convention in San Diego, launching campaign to change voters' views of Republican Party and to turn Presidential election into referendum on tax cuts; Dole urges voters to remember his call for 15% tax cut; photo (M)

Pres Boris N Yeltsin's national security adviser, Aleksandr I Lebed, launches his boldest challenge to Yeltsin administration by demanding dismissal of Interior Minister, Anatoly S Kulikov, who was reappointed to Cabinet only day earlier; returning from his second round of talks with rebel leaders in Chechnya, Lebed calls Kulikov, one of two top Russian generals leading war in secessionist republic, an inept 'Napoleon' bent on more death and destruction; photo (M)

10-year-old autistic boy survives four days lost and alone in snake- and alligator-infested swamp on Eglin Air Force Base in Florida; is able to say little about his experience except for telling his mother he saw 'lots of fish'; Taylor Touchstone swam, floated, crawled and limped about 14 miles, ordeal that ends when fisherman finds him floating naked in East Bay River, bloody and hungry, but alive; people in resort town of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, say they believe boy's survival is a miracle; photos; map (M)

Aides to Mayor Giuliani say that, in significant expansion of New York City's workfare program, homeless adults living with their children in city shelters will now be required to work for city in exchange for their welfare benefits; those with children over three will be told to report for work; if they refuse, they can lose substantial part of their welfare benefits, though they will not be removed from shelters (M)

Senior NATO officers and international monitors warn that opposition party members in Bosnia are being terrorized and beaten by agents of Muslim-dominated Govt in campaign of intimidation that further erodes any pretense of fairness in coming local and parliamentary elections; opposition leaders in some towns, reeling under offensive of detentions, interrogations, public assaults on party supporters and attacks on political rallies, say it has become nearly impossible to organize or conduct a campaign for Sept 14 elections; map (M)