December 11, 1997

Elton John gives $32 million to Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund; payment is first installment from sales of Candle in the Wind, hit song he reworked in her honor; Harris poll shows Clint Eastwood is nation's most popular movie star followed by Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, John Wayne and Harrison Ford; police in Stuttgart, Germany, report two works by Pablo Picasso valued at nearly $450,000 were stolen from private apartment; Swedish news agency TT says unreleased recordings by former Beatle John Lennon will be released on CD accompanying edition of A Spaniard in the Works, Lennon's 1965 book; Dec 17 performance of Humperdinck's opera Hansel und Gretel will be broadcast nationally on PBS as part of Live From Lincoln Center series; Juilliard Opera Center's presentation will be first conservatory opera production to be broadcast nationally in the series; photo (L)

Negotiators from around world agree on package of measures that for first time will legally obligate industrial countries to cut emissions of waste industrial gases that scientists say are warming earth's atmosphere; details of one contentious issue--possible trade or sale of emission permits between countries--remain unsettled; US says it wants this issue resolved before it signs treaty; agreement reached by delegates from over 150 nations creates landmark environmental policy to deal with global warming and innovative new mechanisms to carry it out; accord, known as Kyoto Protocol, will require industrial nations to reduce their emmissions of carbon dioxide and five other heat-trapping greenhouse gases to 5.2 percent below those of 1990; US will be required to cut emissions 7 pecent below 1990 levels, on average, in years from 2008 through 2012; photo (M)

Profile of Eugen Zuckermann, survivor of Nazi holocaust who died November 24 at age 71; he was 19 when he was liberated from Nazi camp at Mauthausen, Austria; he believed that Holocaust survivors had duty to share their stories; he wanted to be respected voice in Holocaust discussions and submitted letters and articles to New York Times and national magazines, but none were ever published; he was concerned that next generation will not be interested in horror of Holocaust; photos (L)

Philippines has been hit hard by fall in its currency and stock market in recent months, yet it has not experienced more damaging banking and real estate chaos that has afflicted other countries in East Asia; Philippines has proved exception mainly because it has not tried to leap ahead as suddenly as its neighbors, taking conservative tack at least partly mandated by International Monetary Fund; foreign investors, rather than shying away, as they have elsewhere in region, are still coming in; graphs; photo (L)

Jon Pareles reviews annual Z100 Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden, 10-act bill that included singer Celine Dion, rock group Hanson, singer Fiona Apple and music group Chumbawamba; ball raised money for Share, support organization for breast and ovarian cancer patients, and for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; photo (L)