November 16, 1996

Hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees stream homeward from eastern Zaire, breaking military and political deadlock that threatened to cause human catastrophe on grand scale; sudden exodus of refugees begins after Zairian rebels rout ethnic Hutu militias that had prevented refugees from returning home for two years; more than million refugees had been cut off from food and water by the fighting, and US, Canada and other nations had been preparing to send troops to help them; mass exodus of ragged people with bundles on their heads leaves future of proposed military intervention up in the air; rebels deny having timed their attack to force refugees home before international troops arrived; photos; map (L)

Alger Hiss dies at age of 92; diplomat and Harvard-trained government lawyer was convicted of perjury in espionage case that became one of great riddles of Cold War; case catapulted Richard M Nixon to national attention and helped lay groundwork for McCarthyism in America; Hiss was accused in 1948 of having been Communist spy while working in State Dept in 1930's; he denied accusations but was convicted in 1950 and served 44 months in prison; he spent rest of his life trying to clear his name; photos (L)

Texaco Inc agrees to pay more than $140 million to resolve Federal lawsuit brought by minority employees; this is largest settlement ever in racial discrimination case; company also agrees to change way it does business, including plan to turn over authority for revamping its personnel operations to new committee largely appointed by outsiders; settlement of two-year-old suit comes weeks after disclosure that senior company executives had been caught on tape planning destruction of documents demanded in suit and making disparaging remarks about minority groups; Rev Jesse Jackson, who had called for boycott of Texaco, says settlement is important step, but he does not cancel boycott; photo (M)

Pres Clinton says United States is prepared to keep thousands of troops in Bosnia for additional 18 months, dropping his commitment to end deployment this year; says rebuilding Bosnia's economic and political life is taking longer than anticipated, and follow-on force is needed to protect fragile peace there; Congress is out of session, so reaction on Capitol Hill is muted; but critics of original Bosnia deployment had said Administration had no clear exit strategy and would be bogged down in Bosnia for longer than the year Pres Clinton had promised; photos (M)

Richard Nuccio, State Dept official, may be barred from Government service for disclosing name of Guatemalan colonel who spied for Central Intelligence Agency; Nuccio claims he was honor-bound to stop CIA from covering up fact that Col Julio Roberto Alpirez, a paid informer for CIA, had been involved in killing of American innkeeper in Guatemela in 1990 and, in 1992, the slaying of captured guerrilla married to an American lawyer; independent panel appointed by Director of Central Intelligence is now deciding whether Nuccio should be deprived of his security clearance, thereby effectively barring him from Government service; photo (M)

With hundreds of thousands of Rwandans heading home from refugee camps in Zaire, the United States has begun to reassess the need for a multinational military force to rescue the refugees and open the way for the delivery of relief aid, senior Pentagon officials said yesterday.

Pres Clinton acknowledges in interview that he twice discussed policy about Indonesia and China with James T Riady, Indonesian financier, Democratic contributor and longtime friend of Clinton, but he denies that Riady had ever influenced policy decisions; White House had earlier described Riady's visits as purely social; Clinton says it was mistake for Democratic National Committe to send John Huang to Taiwan to raise money for 1996 campaigns just months after Clinton sent aircraft carriers to protect Taiwan; Huang is Riady's former employee and, later, a midlevel Commerce Dept official; White house releases flood of details about White House visits of Riady, Huang and others involved in inquiries under way at Justice Dept and on Capitol Hill (M)

Oklahoma City Trial Set A Federal prosecutor announced that jury selection in the Oklahoma City bombing trial would begin on March 31 in Denver. Page 9. Stocks Ride Roller Coaster Stocks swung wildly, with the Dow ending the day up 35.03 points. Some analysts wonder if a post-election rally has run out of steam. Page 37. A Rabbit in Times Square One Times Square, anchor of that fabled neon expanse, is getting a new tenant: Warner Brothers. Page 25.

Car with baby sleeping in back seat is stolen outside strip mall restaurant in Burlington Township, NJ; mother had gone into restaurant to pick up food and left engine of her car running; 16-hour search ensues, with Federal agents and police officers in cars and helicopters conducting 3-state search; baby, Jasmine Winfield, is found safe in stolen car, on street in Brooklyn, NY, by passing pedestrian; police theorize that car thieves may not have realized there was baby on board when they took the car; photos; map (M)

An obituary on Monday about J. Kevin McNiff, a former New York State corrections official, misstated the given name of one of his sons. He is John McNiff, not Joseph.

A report in the Inside Art column in Weekend yesterday about the sale of prints at the Whitney Museum of American Art misstated the price of three Cy Twombly prints. They cost $30,000 each, not $30,000 for the three.

''I just want to say to all the mothers who can learn from my mistakes -- don't ever do this.'' TIFFANY WINFIELD, after leaving her baby in an unlocked, idling car. $(28:1$)