April 9, 1997

Clinton Administration offers to make additional cuts of $18 billion in projected Medicare spending over next five years to help reach agreement on eliminating Federal deficit; Administration, in saying that it is willing to compromise further on Medicare, is seeking to appear flexible as two sides begin their first serious negotiations since their impasse in late 1995 led to Government shutdown; Administration had previously proposed plan that it said would cut growth of Government health care spending for elderly by $100 billion over five years, while most recent Republican offer was $158 billion over six years; Republicans say they welcome Administration's proposal but want to study it further (M)

Sales of men's clothing grew 21.3 percent between 1989 and 1996 to record $41.2 billion, while sales of women's apparel fell 10 percent from record $84 billion in 1989; women still spend nearly twice as much on clothing as men do, but many retailers say that their men's business, particularly in brand-label sportswear, is now growing faster than or at least as fast as their women's; men's clothing has traditionally been last purchase out of family budget, but that has been changing for several reasons; one is increasingly casual workplace; graph; photos (M)

Remains of Lenin, father of Russian Revolution, still lie in state in mausoleum that dominates Red Square; remains of Czar Nicholas II, whose execution Lenin ordered in 1918, lie in Government pathology lab in city of Yekaterinburg; there is growing movement among liberal politicians and members of intelligentsia to bury Communism once and for all by interring Lenin in less conspicuous place; Pres Boris N Yeltsin recently suggested that referendum be held on issue; Russian Orthodox Church and other traditionalists want to bury Nicholas II and his family in Romanov family crypt in St Petersburg; formal plans to bury remains of royal family have been postponed at least twice; map; photo (M)

Group of black clergy members, in latest salvo in their feud with Senator Robert G Torricelli, demands that he appoint African-American to one of his three top staff positions (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Apple Computer and IBM, in showdown that could portend final blow to shaky personal computing alliance between two companies, plan to try renegotiating license fees for Apple's Macintosh operating system software; Apple has shown signs lately of regretting decision two years ago to let various other companies clone its Macintosh computers; has proposed raising Macintosh license fees as much as tenfold, in an attempt to slow clones' erosion of Apple's own sales (L)