June 29, 1997

House and Senate, beginning work on compromises with each other and Pres Clinton on budget and tax bills to balance budget in 2002, face bigger challenge of keeping budget balanced decade later; experts are concerned that Congress lacks courage to face long-term problem of planned tax cuts mushrooming at same time that baby boomers retire; Sen Pete V Domenici and Rep Bill Archer, budget committee heads, express optimism; photos (M)

Drive against pedophiles and rapists has intensified, with some states enacting laws enabling officials to involuntarily commit to mental hospitals violent sex offenders who have completed prison terms; movement to confine those thought most likely to strike again is expected to spread across nation in wake of Supreme Court ruling upholding Kansas law; commitment laws are being used particularly aggressively in New Jersey; New York has hurriedly passed own version of law (M)

Russia's Aeroflot has long held worldwide reputation for rude service, disgusting food and scary landings; now Russian airline, officially known as Aeroflot Russian International Airlines, is making fun of itself; in its first big multimedia advertising campaign, airline has chosen new image for itself: a flying elephant; Aeroflot is preparing to sell about 10 percent of its shares on US market in September, part of ambitious drive to raise several billion dollars to start replacing its aging fleet; but airline is lobbying the Government to keep protectionist restrictions on Russian air space, locking Russia into regulatory dispute with US Government that could sabotage its alliance with Continental Airlines; photos (L)

Creation of Green Branches program by Horticultural Society of New York, under which it is designing and finding financing for gardens at city's 220 public branch libraries, discussed; photo (S)

Fifteen American couples set to adopt infants in Georgia are stuck in deeply politicized bureaucratic struggle that pits them against wife of Pres Eduard Shevardnadze, who leads drive to end foreign adoptions; she charges foreign adoption agencies use bribery and deceit, including exaggerated diagnoses of medical needs, to take healthy babies Georgians would be happy to adopt; painful controversy has been echoed throughout former Soviet Union, where foreign adoptions soared after Communism collapsed; photos (L)