August 25, 1997

A Booming Market In Smuggled Cigarettes The largest tobacco companies are selling billions of dollars of cigarettes each year to traders and dealers who funnel them into black markets in many countries, according to law enforcement officials and participants in the trade. In the last decade, the volume of cigarette smuggling around the world has tripled, according to a leading tobacco research organization, reflecting a general surge in cigarette sales abroad, especially for American manufacturers. And while the companies say they have done nothing to encourage the smuggling and do not condone it, industry officials acknowledge that a sizable share of the cigarettes sold overseas pass through smuggling rings set up to evade foreign taxes and sell major brands at a discount. $(Page A1.$)

Magalie Laurent, Coney Island Hospital nurse who made first, unsuccessful effort to alert authorities to torture of Abner Louima in Brooklyn police station, says other hospital workers tried to cover up incident; says she was told of alleged brutalization of Louima by another nurse, and notified his family, police and local all-news cable channel New York 1; says Internal Affairs officer who answered her call did not take her seriously; photo (M)

Breezy Point section of Queens, isolated and guarded summer community at far western end of Rockaway Peninsula, stands at crossroads as many of its summer homes are turned into year-round residences and community ponders future of 100 acres of land added to its domain since 1960 through westward drift of sand along Long Island; for many longtime residents, the new land only means having to hike third of mile past dunes separating southernmost residential street from sea, but others, like Tom Young, fear it means development, even though Breezy Point Cooperative strongly assures them that that is not the case; land has become touchstone in insular town trying to modernize against looming backdrop of rest of city; maps; photos (M)

Agricultural officials predict that peach production will fall about 20 percent in New Jersey from last year's record-breaking harvest because of cold snap in late April (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp is drastically reshaping its top management as fraud scandal continues to unfold; eight of highest-level executives have resigned, almost completely eliminating top two levels of management that existed last month; next significant step in management shakeup is expected this week, as new senior managers, led by Dr Thomas Frist Jr, chairman and chief executive, complete decisions on which executives will assume responsibilities of some of officers who recently resigned and on other organizational changes; Columbia executives are reaching out to not-for-profit competitors, trying to portray company as willing to end tactics that critics contended went over the line; some critics are skeptical, saying there are still signs that Columbia's old aggressiveness has not died; chart with former and current executives (M)