Pres Clinton and Sen Trent Lott, majority leader, are expected to work together to reach agreement on knotty issues such as balanced budget, Medicare and cuts in capital gains tax; those who know both men say they are both realists and pragmatists first, and ideologues second; say Lott was humbled by public backlash against Republicans over two Government shutdowns, and determined that more gridlock would do his party no good, and Clinton is now striving for respected place in history books; Clinton and Lott are said to talk directly on regular basis; photo (M)

Though Poles Apart, Clinton And Lott 'Hear Each Other'

Chubb Corp is reportedly in final stages of negotiating sale of its life insurance business and biggest portion of its commercial and residential real estate business in order to concentrate on its central property and casualty insurance business; Jefferson-Pilot Corp would be the purchaser of life insurance unit, and Patriot American Corp and Beacon Properties would acquire 80 percent of Chubb's real estate business, Bellemead Development Corp (M)

Chubb Expected To Sell Life Unit And Real Estate

Article in series Room 3-323 concerning teacher Ted Kesler's third grade class in Public School 75 on Upper West Side of Manhattan; Kesler discusses his asking special education team at school to evaluate student Lawrence Marcel; they were to decide whether student should be assigned tutor during class, be taught one period a day in more intimate setting resource room or be put into special education class on full time basis; photo (M)

Teacher Worries About Evaluation And Pupil's Future

New York City Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani says that police detective who fatally shot cook Jose Antonio Sanchez during raid at social club in Queens had acted properly while lawyers for man's family accused police of having overreacted; Giuliani makes statement to calm residents in Corona neighborhood where more than 100 people protested in front of 115th Precinct station house; photo (M)

Police Actions In Club Killing Ignite Protests

Philadelphia Flyers defeat New York Rangers, 2-1; photo (M)

Rangers Come Up Dry, And Drought Continues

 Netanyahu Under Pressure  With the Israeli police investigating an appointment by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he has hired a lawyer, and the opposition is preparing for new elections. Page A3.    Fire in India Kills 1700  More than 170 people were killed in a fire that swept through a cluster of thatched-roof buildings in eastern India where worshipers had gathered for a Hindu ceremony. Page A2.

INSIDE

Dr Ian Wilmut's announcement that he has closed an adult sheep raises thorny ethical questions; experts say public must come to grips with possibility of making carbon copies of humans; another issue is genetic diversity of livestock if breeders start to clone animals; Dr Stanley Hauerwas, divinity professor, says those who want to clone will sell it with wonderful benefits for medicine and animal husbandry; Dr Kevin FitzGerald, Jesuit priest and geneticist, says clone of human being would have different environment than person whose DNA it carried, and so would be different person; other researchers have produced genetically identical animals by dividing embryos, but Wilmot is believed to be first to create clone using DNA from adult animal; Wilmot says he used udder, or mammary, cells from 6-year-old adult sheep; he is publishing his results in British journal Nature; photo; drawing (M)

With Cloning of a Sheep, the Ethical Ground Shifts

Atlantic City, NJ, after winning national contest for best-tasting drinking water in three of last six years, did not finish in top five at this year's competition (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Not the Way It Used to Be

Route 24 extension between Short Hills and Route 287 was finished years ago but sexual harassment suit stemming from union picket at highway construction site in 1991 is beginning new chapter (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Harassment Suit Opens

'Telemedicine' is being tested as alternative to time-consuming process of having nurse or health aide visit homes of patients needing home health care; a miniature television camera and microphone allows nurse to see and hear patient, and other equipment measures vital signs, reminds patients to take their medicine and even takes electrocardiograms; results are transmitted to medical center over phone or cable television line; amount spent on home health care has soared in recent years, as insurers and managed care providers push to limit hospital stays, and Government has decided to pay lump sum for each Medicare patient's home care instead of paying for each nurse's visit; advocates of telemedicine claim reliable home-monitoring equipment is now inexpensive enough to justify approach; critics say it erodes quality of care; photo (M)

In H.M.O. Era, The House Call Is by Telephone

Possible merger of two of East Coast's three largest rail freight carriers, Conrail, CSX and Norfolk Southern, has sent tremors through shipping industry, nowhere more so than in New Jersey, home to some of busiest freight ports in country (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Hearing on a Freight Merger

Decline in racing receipts blamed on casino gambling has compelled union that represents workers at state-owned horse-racing tracks to accept 12 percent pay cut (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Union Accepts a Pay Cut

Rush of Hollywood studios into animation puts Pixar Animation Studios in a good position to demand bigger share of new films it makes with Walt Disney Co; are drawn by the year-after-year profits that animated films generate at box office and in videos, computer games and merchandising; Pixar illustrates challenges facing any new entrant in the animation field; photos; drawings illustrate differences between digital animation employed by Pixar in Toy Story and its next film for Disney, code-named Bugs, and the hand-drawn animation in Disney's forthcoming Hercules (M)

Could Pixar Make It Without Disney?

New York City Housing Authority may turn over some of its high-rise buildings to private managers and increase number of tenants with jobs, who can pay more rent; authority says it has concluded that it must abandon many of its long-held ideals if it is to survive in new era of austerity as provider of housing for those who cannot afford to buy or rent their own homes; Republican majority in Congress is cutting housing subsidies and spurring local housing officials to adopt more market-driven policies by loosening rules that restrict how they spend Federal money; New York City authority has already trimmed its work force, but more must be done to compensate for loss of hundreds of milions of dollars in Federal subsidies; map; graph (M)

HOUSING PROJECTS IN NEW YORK CITY FACE BIG CHANGES

Man wielding semiautomatic handgun kills tourist, wounds six others, then fatally shoots himself in head on crowded 86th floor observation deck of Empire State Building; wild shooting spree touches off panic among 90 to 100 terrified sightseers and their children, some of whom are trampled in stampede to escape; Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani says gunman was tentatively identified as Ali Abu Kamal, 69, Palestinian from Ramallah in West Bank; says Kamal arrived in New York and then traveled to Florida, where he bought gun, then returned to New York; says his motive is unknown; law enforcement official says Kamal's conversations with others suggest he might have been unbalanced; photos; diagram (M)

Shots Send Empire State Crowd Fleeing

Harvey Araton Sports of the Times column discusses career of journeyman center Joe Kleine following his acquisition by New Jersey Nets (M)

In This Game, Losing Is the Route to Success

John D Johnson is out as executive editor of Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss, state's biggest and only statewide newspaper, reportedly because paper's aggressive coverage of Gov Kirk Fordice's mysterious automobile crash displeased Duane K McAllister, publisher, who had directed Johnson to pay more attention to 'the positive aspects of the Republican revolution'; newspaper is owned by Gannett Co; Hodding Carter 3d, whose family owns the crusading, liberal Democrat-Times of Greenville, sees a shift back to traditional conservatism in newspapers across the South; photo (M)

Press, Politics and Consensus in New Old South

 E-MAIL LEADS TO ATTACK -- A woman visiting a man she met on the Internet was raped, beaten and held against his will in his Greenwich Village apartment, the police said. The man, Paul Krauth, 46, was being held on charges of rape, sodomy and sex abuse. B3.    FACING A TRANSITION -- The American Federation of Teachers now faces the challenge of filling the void left by the death of its longtime leader, Albert Shanker. B3.

INSIDE METRO

Environmental officials say that since 1972 real estate development has gobbled up 40 percent of wildlife habitat in lower third of Cape May peninsula, main stopover and feeding point for largest shorebird migration east of Alaska (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Protecting Bird Habitats

American and Chinese officials are on verge of resolving their longstanding dispute over human rights; at issue is fate of thousands of Chinese political and religious dissidents held in prisons, labor camps or at home under heavy guard or surveillance; under terms of proposed deal, China will agree to sign two important United Nations covenants on human rights, release representative group of up to eight political prisoners and restart talks with International Committee of Red Cross aimed at establishing program of prison visits to determine status of thousands of prisoners of conscience in China; in return, China could expect to bring an end to annual confrontation over its human rights record at United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva; Secretary of State Madeleine K Albright will try to seal deal when she arrives in Beijing on Feb 24; China's new generation of leaders will have to stand up to hard-line forces in Communist Party that see any act of political tolerance or human rights concessions to Washington as appeasing those who seek to topple Communist rule; photo (M)

U.S. AND CHINESE SEEN NEAR A DEAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Metro Matters column discusses workings of Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform, which was formed two years ago by New York Gov George Pataki as part of his hostile campaign against state regulation (M)

Regulators Dan Quayle Could Love

New York Knickerbockers defeat Los Angeles Lakers, 127-121, in double overtime; photo (M)

Ewing Leads Knicks' Escape From L.A.

Safety advocates in New Jersey, citing statistics that show teen-agers in United States are responsible for disproportionate share of traffic accidents, are pushing for legislation that would place new restrictions on youngest drivers stiffening what is already one of strictest licensing system in nation; proposal would require drivers younger than 18 to pass through three stages of licensing over 18 months, maintaining spotless driving record throughout; photo (M)

Stiffer Rules Pushed for Beginning Drivers in New Jersey

 U.S. Power Company Seen In Deal for British Utility   American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio, is expected to announce as early as today that it plans to acquire another utility, Yorkshire Electricity of Britain.    American Electric scheduled a news conference to make ''a major announcement.'' It did not disclose the details, but people in the industry said that it would announce that it had reached a deal with Yorkshire. $(Page D2.$)     Key Morgan Stanley Executive Ill   Robert G. Scott, the Morgan Stanley executive who is supervising his company's merger with Dean Witter, Discover, suffered a heart attack while on vacation. Mr. Scott's sudden illness could slow the completion of the merger just weeks after it was announced. $(D4.$)    Animals as Drug Factories   The first products to emerge from the cloning of a sheep by British researchers will probably be animals that can serve as drug factories. PPL Therapeutics, a small biotechnology company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, has the rights to technology for the production of genetically altered mammals that could produce therapeutic proteins in their milk. $(B8.$)     Technology Spreading, Study Finds   Disputing earlier conclusions that the Information Revolution is bypassing much of rural America, a new study argues that communications technology is becoming more equally distributed across the country. $(D6.$)    Raytheon May Sell Appliance Unit   Raytheon said that it might sell its appliance business, which makes Amana stoves and ovens and Speed Queen washers. $(D10.$)    House Calls by Telephone and TV   In a new approach to home health care, nurses at medical centers watch via television as equipment measures a patient's vital signs and conducts other tests. The results are transmitted to the medical center over a telephone or cable TV line. While the technique reduces the number of costly home visits, critics say it erodes the quality of care. $(A1.$)    Hard Feelings Over Beer Ads   The most contentious issue involving ads for Miller Lite used to be whether the beer is ''less filling'' or ''tastes great.'' But now Advertising Age's criticism of a new, off-center campaign, created by the Fallon McElligott agency, has led to a rift between the publication and the agency. Stuart Elliott: Advertising. $(D8.$)    Web Advertising Grows From Inside   While advertising on the World Wide Web surged in 1996, much of that spending came from technology companies advertising on the sites of other technology companies. That makes it difficult to determine the potential of the Web as an advertising vehicle. $(D5.$)    A small but growing group of Internet access companies is going beyond offering set fees for unlimited access by eliminating monthly fees entirely and aiming to make money almost exclusively from advertising. $(D7.$)     Labels on Genetic Engineering   Novartis, the biotechnology giant, is preparing to advocate that all genetically engineered crops and food products made from them be clearly labeled, a practice long demanded by opponents of genetic engineering but strongly opposed by farm and industry groups. $(B8.$)     Performing May Be Better Than Winning   The biggest winners when the music industry hands out the Grammy awards may not be the artists who win but those who perform at the ceremonies. $(D9.$)    Labor's Struggle in the South   While the leadership of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. has focused new attention on the South, where labor has had relatively little support, unions there continue to face serious obstacles. $(A10.$)  

BUSINESS DIGEST

New cases of tuberculosis reported in Newark, NJ, dropped 37 percent since Federally financed program was started to check spread of disease in 1994 (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Tuberculosis Rate Drops

Anjali Paragsingh is a Surinamese female badminton player.

Anjali Paragsingh, Surinamese badminton player

Anjali_Paragsingh

Đurđina Jauković is a Montenegrin handball player for CSM București and the Montenegrin national team.

February 24, 1997

Headlines from February 24, 1997

Though Poles Apart, Clinton And Lott 'Hear Each Other'

Chubb Expected To Sell Life Unit And Real Estate

Teacher Worries About Evaluation And Pupil's Future

Police Actions In Club Killing Ignite Protests

Rangers Come Up Dry, And Drought Continues

Billboard 200

Tragic Kingdom

Gridlock'd

Secrets

Evita

Falling Into You

Notable Births

Historical Context for February 24, 1997