July 28, 1997

Counties and municipalities throughout New Jersey will negotiate new waste disposal contracts in October; Federal appeals court ruled recently that state law that requires haulers to dump at sites designated by county governments is unconstitutional (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Russian military pride suffers heavy blow in Pres Boris Yeltsin's plan to reduce manpower from 1.8 million to 1.2 million members within three years and eliminate entire branches of service; hundreds of factories and scores of towns that have existed for nearly a century only to serve military will be shut down; Yeltsin envisions smaller, more mobile and technologically adept force emerging from military reorganization, the most fundamental in Russia's modern history; reform adds to pain caused by widespread poverty among Russian soldiers and their humbling defeat at hands of Chechin separatists in 1996 (M)

Christine Todd Whitman, as nation's only governor seeking re-election this year, is expected to have prominent role at National Governors' Association meeting in Las Vegas (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

'Euroskeptic' groups, which oppose European Union and common currency, have emerged as one of most pugnacious political movements on Internet; groups have wildly different goals and styles, but their World Wide Web sites are now tightly linked; have created textbook example of how political groups ignored by media can use Web as political tool; table (M)

New $23 million Cathedral of Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church opens in Jamaica, Queens, on July 27; Rev Floyd H Flake, who has been church's pastor for 21 years and area's US Representative since 1986, says he might retire from politics to focus on growing church; several members say they are torn by their desire to have Flake exercise more direct authority over their church and their knowledge that area has greatly benefited from his success in channeling dollars from Washington; photos (M)