December 30, 1996

Jeffrey Bewkes, chairman and president of Home Box Office, hopes to keep leading cable television channel on top in increasingly competitive field; his predecessor, Michael Fuchs, is credited with building HBO into most popular premium movie service by making savvy deals for films from major studios and choosing successful original programming; Bewkes is continuing that strategy, but he faces stiffer competition as many more premium channels and advertiser-supported basic cable channels compete for viewers; photo; chart (L)

Urban hospitals are pressuring Gov Christine Todd Whitman and State Legislature to come up with permanent source of money to care for indigent, uninsured patients before the end of 1997 (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Clinton Administration, having orchestrated ouster of United Nations Sec Gen Boutros Boutros-Ghali, faces increasing diplomatic pressure to pay United States's outstanding UN dues; Congressional Republicans say they will not authorize funds until his successor, Kofi Annan, shows that he will streamline UN budget and bureaucracy (M)

Officials in Barnegat Township (NJ) have turned rusty, abandoned camper into soon-to-be-gleaming pickup truck with help from rarely invoked state law that gives governments right to confiscate vehicles of illegal dumpers (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Schedule of events marking Princeton University's 250th anniversary noted (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)