November 30, 1996

Justice Dept rejects request by senior Republican lawmakers to appoint independent prosecutor to investigate whether Democratic fund-raisers illegally raised millions of dollars for their party's treasury this year; dept lawyers say they had found no basis to suggest now that high-level officials in Clinton Administration had engaged in illegal conduct related to this year's campaign fund-raising; dept's decision comes in response to detailed letter on Oct 28 from Sen John McCain of Arizona and other top Republicans in both houses (M)

International tribunal on war crimes in former Yugoslavia hands down its first verdict, The Hague, sentencing a Croat who served in Bosnian Serb army to 10 years in prison for his role in massacre of Muslim civilians in 1995 near Srebrenica; Drazen Erdemovic, 25, who confessed to taking part in an execution squad and killed scores of unarmed civilians, was charged with 'crimes against humanity'; conviction is first by a war crimes tribunal since trials in Nuremberg and Tokyo after World War II (M)

Consumers in much of country are paying record prices for milk, cheese and many other dairy products, but that has not kept milk prices paid to nation's 150,000 dairy farmers from heading into 25% free fall in recent weeks, even as retailers fatten their profit margins; such are the quirks in patchwork of Govt formulas and free market prices that these days drive milk prices; life for farmers and consumers alike has become unpredictable (M)

Traditional start of holiday shopping season finds stores jammed; informal survey of stores and shoppers seems to show that sales are moving more briskly than last year, when retailers suffered through one of poorest selling seasons in recent memory; photo (M)

New York City, hoping to close its Fresh Kills landfill by 2001, plans to begin sending other cities and states nearly 15% of residential garbage next year; together with efforts to reduce waste and significantly expand city's recycling program, export plan would be first of several steps needed to halt enormous flow of trash--about 13,000 tons a day--to landfill on Staten Island; it would also be first move to send trash outside city's borders since 1930's; chart (M)