Market Place column on 'best execution,' benign concept that means that brokers must try to do their best to make sure that when customers buy a stock they pay lowest price available and when they sell a stock they get highest price; says no one seems to agree on exactly what 'best execution' entails, or exactly how to achieve it; holds that is not surprising, considering that there are millions of dollars at stake for investors, brokerage firms and stock exchanges; holds Congressional lawmakers, who commissioned report by Securities and Exchange on arcane ways of stock trading, were put up to it by New York Stock Exchange, which contends that practices by rival exchanges--Cincinnati and Boston--favor brokerage firms over their customers; SEC says it is not necessarily so (L)

Stock Trades: A Better Deal For Investors Isn't Simple

Palisades Park Auxiliary Police Officer Matthew Testino is charged with trying to bribe regular police officer into dismissing drunken driving charge against local businessman Sok M Kang (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Bribery Charges Brought

New York City, town long wedded to bagel, is having wild fling with doughnut; Krispy Kreme, legendary doughnut maker that has dominated South for decades, opened store in Chelsea in June and another in Harlem in Jan, bringing flood of accolades; hoopla has also brought out devotees of Georgie's, Harlem bakery; no one in this skirmish is dismissing Dunkin' Donuts, which has 115 franchise outlets in five boroughs; photo (M)

The Fans Face Off In New York's Great Doughnut Debate

Major lava action at California ski resort.

Very Mean Streets: They're Full of Lava

Senate approves Chemical Weapons Convention by 74-26 vote after Republican leader Trent Lott throws support behind treaty; 29 Republicans join all Democrats in two-thirds majority required under Constitution; Pres Clinton welcomes approval of treaty prohibiting production, storage and use of poison gas; vote is major victory for Clinton and also for Lott as majority leader; photos; Lott, not greatly enthusiastic, says deciding factor for him was Clinton's letter promising to withdraw US if treaty's implementation compromises US military capability or leads to proliferation of poison gas; Sen Jesse Helms reiterates opposition (M)

SENATE APPROVES PACT ON CHEMICAL WEAPONS AFTER LOTT OPENS WAY

Justice Department will not try to block $22-billion merger of Bell Atlantic and Nynex; decision after nine-month investigation removes last major hurdle to deal that would create communications colossus, offering local telephone service from Maine to Virginia; antitrust division overrides objections of consumer groups and state officials including New York Atty Gen Dennis Vacco; FCC approval is expected to follow; combined company, called Bell Atlantic, will serve 39 million customers in 13 states and District of Columbia; Bell Atlantic chairman Raymond W Smith says competition from other companies will continue, and predicts bills will go down (M)

MERGER OF NYNEX AND BELL ATLANTIC CLEARS U.S. HURDLE

Holland Cotter reviews three shows of art from India: Gods, Kings and Tigers: The Art of Kotah, at Asia Society, Rajasthani Miniatures: The Welch Collection at the Arthur M Sackler Museum, Harvard University, at Drawing Center, and Indian Court Painting: 16th-19th Century, at Metropolitan Museum of Art; photos (L)

Sensuous Contradictions On a Passage to India

Ben Brantley reviews play Steel Pier, directed by Scott Ellis with book by David Thompson and songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb; photo of Karen Ziemba and Daniel McDonald (M)

Party's Over, Chum, Just Keep Dancing

New York City Transit Authority says there has been rash of incidents over last 16 months in which conductors opened train doors on wrong side, or when train was partly in tunnel, posing potential risk to passengers; says there have been 62 such incidents since beginning of 1996; officials say they are not aware of any injuries; Transit Workers Union officials, while acknowledging that conductors are often at fault, blame problem on staff cutbacks and mandatory overtime over last two years--which they say have led to overworked, fatigued conductors (M)

Mistakes Cited In Opening Subway Doors

Gov Christine Todd Whitman announces that New Jersey will spend $8.5 million to expand child care programs and improve quality of early childhood education (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

More Money for Child Care

John Sosinavage, white Camden police officer who fatally shot black teen-ager, Kevin Spencer, while on drug stakeout, is cleared of any criminal wrongdoing (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Officer Cleared in Shooting

Pres Clinton won approval of Chemical Weapons Convention by mobilizing Republican elders who had negotiated treaty and considered it part of their legacy, while giving enough concessions to conservatives; other key element is close cooperation between national security adviser Samuel R Berger and Senate leader Trent Lott, whose eleventh-hour conversion brought in other undecided Republicans; other key factors are Sec Madeleine Albright's courting of Sen Jesse Helms, powerful and fierce opponent, and Clinton's personal call to Bob Dole (M)

How the Votes Were Won: Clinton's New G.O.P. Tactics

Hudson County, which has been operating on temporary budget in 1997, would increase property taxes by 10 percent under budget proposal announced by County Exec Robert C Janiszewski (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Tax Increase Is Proposed

Auto executives around the world have concluded that Brazil and Argentina, which taken together make up 80 percent of South America's auto sales, represent even more lucrative market than Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe; American, European and Japanese car makers are pouring total of $18 billion into new South American factories, convinced that recent double-digit sales growth will continue; main reason for auto boom has been resurgence of economic growth in Brazil and Argentina; production plans for major automakers, including Ford Motor and Chrysler Corp, discussed; table; graph; photos (L)

Hot Markets Are Producing Cars For Domestic Buyers and Export

Clyde Haberman, in NYC column, notes that Jie Zhang was killed by van operator who was driving with suspended license in Oct 1994; contends that pedestrians in city are endangered by reckless motorists, bicyclists and in-line skaters; says New York pedestrian is more likely to be killed by stranger driving car than by gun-toting stranger on street (M)

Why Streets Aren't Safe: The Drivers

Port Authority approves spending $48.9 million to dig 65-foot deep pit in Newark Bay to allow for some dredging of silt-clogged shipping channels (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Dredging Plans Move Ahead

Investors allow worries over rising interest rates to overpower strong rally in technology stocks, sending Dow Jones industrial average down following morning rally; Dow ends the day at 6,792.25, down 20.47 points; Standard & Poor's 500-stock index declines 2.46 points, to 771.18; Nasdaq composite index rises 0.96 point, to 1,228.10; table (L)

Technology Rally Fails To Lift Market

One of Newark International Airport's two main runways will close on April 26 and remain closed for 15 days for repaving, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announces (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Airport Runway Closing

International team of paleontologists announces discovery of fabulous trove of dinosaur fossils in Liaoning province in northeast China; hundreds of major finds at site include first fossilized internal organs and first fossil of dinosaur containing mammal it had just eaten; four American paleontologists and one German surmise that sudden catastrophe, perhaps volano eruption, buried everything; local farmer found fossil resembling bird with feathery crest, split it and sold halves to institutions in Beijing and Nanjing; announcement is made to Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, although photos were shown last October to Society for Vertebrate Paleontology; mission was led by Dr John H Ostrom, retired Yale professor who discovered dinosaurs depicted in film Jurassic Park; photos; specimens of sinosauropteryx and protoarcheopteryx, chicken-sized creature so named by Chinese scientists, described (M)

In China, a Spectacular Trove Of Dinosaur Fossils Is Found

Timothy McVeigh goes on trial in Denver for 1995 bombing of Federal building in Oklahoma City, in which 168 people were killed; Federal prosecutor Joseph H Hartzler evokes devastation of worst terrorist attack in American history, quoting Helena Garrett's last memories of her 16-month-old son; defense attorney Stephen Jones says McVeigh was victim of false identifications by witnesses who were coerced by Government or strongly prejudiced by publicity; also claims mishandling of evidence by FBI crime laboratory; photo; McVeigh faces death penalty on charges of conspiring to bomb building and eight counts of murder in deaths of Federal agents; accused co-conspirator Terry L Nichols will be tried separately; McVeigh sits stonefaced as Hartzler outlines case, charging defendant wanted to see 'blood flow in the streets of America' (M)

Trial Begins in the Oklahoma City Bombing Case

 U.S. Clears Merger Of Nynex and Bell Atlantic  The Justice Department said that it would not try to stop the $22 billion merger of Bell Atlantic and Nynex. The decision, which came after a nine-month investigation, removes the last major hurdle to a deal that would create a communications goliath, offering local telephone service from Maine to Virginia.  

BUSINESS DIGEST

 Warning on Medicare Fund  Medicare trustees warned that no progress had been made in alleviating the financial problems of the fund that pays hospital bills for the elderly. Page A16.    Suing Over Filtration Plant  The Federal Government sued New York City for failing to build a $600 million plant to filter drinking water from polluted reservoirs. Page B4.    No Proof of Abuse at Shelter  No evidence has been found to back charges of serious misconduct by the staff of a Bronx women's shelter, an official said. Page B1.  

INSIDE

Accusations mount that some Tupac Amaru guerrillas may have been killed trying to surrender as Peruvian commandos stormed Japanese embassy residence to free 72 hostages; Government refuses to allow relatives to hold funerals for 14 slain guerrillas and says most will be buried in unmarked graves; refusal would preclude identification and autopsies; grisly television footage shows Pres Alberto Fujimori inspecting residence and stepping over bodies riddled with bullets and dismembered; some former hostages and intelligence officers reportedly say they saw or overheard executions; emotional funerals are held for judge and two soldiers who were killed; photos (M)

Peru Hears Report Some Rebels Were Slain Trying to Surrender

Professor Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of AIDS virus and one of Europe's most eminent scientists, will move his research from Pasteur Institute in Paris to Queens College, where he has accepted college's first endowed chair; he will move to New York to begin building AIDS research institute that college plans to construct with mix of corporate money, private donations and government matching funds; improbable deal is brainchild of Dr Bernard Salick, Queens alumnus who has donated $4.5 million; 64-year-old Montagnier will continue to run lab at Pasteur and lead World Foundation for AIDS Research; photo; Gov George Pataki and CUNY officials await formal proposal; college president Allen Sessoms and several HIV researchers welcome plan; college is to raise at least $15 million for new building and hire five full-time researchers (M)

Top French AIDS Specialist Will Move to Queens College

Human Resources Administration Comr Lilliam Barrios-Paoli says two months after staff of New Day Safe Haven city-run shelter for battered women was removed amid allegations of sexual misconduct, child abuse and other wrongdoing, investigators have found no evidence to support most serious charges; says city officials rushed to act at shelter before thoroughly investigating allegations, in part out of fear that Bronx Borough Pres Fernando Ferrer, Democratic mayoral candidate, would make case political issue (M)

April 25, 1997

Headlines from April 25, 1997

Stock Trades: A Better Deal For Investors Isn't Simple

Bribery Charges Brought

The Fans Face Off In New York's Great Doughnut Debate

Very Mean Streets: They're Full of Lava

SENATE APPROVES PACT ON CHEMICAL WEAPONS AFTER LOTT OPENS WAY

Billboard 200

Life After Death

Spice

Space Jam

Falling Into You

Bringing Down The Horse

Historical Context for April 25, 1997