December 28, 1997

The Clinton Administration, responding to public alarm over the safety of meat and produce, will propose a significant increase in spending for food inspection and safety research in the budget to be presented to Congress early next year, Administration officials have said. After a year that saw outbreaks of food-borne illnesses from tainted Guatemalan raspberries, Louisiana oysters and Midwestern ground beef, President Clinton is seeking an additional $71 million for food safety programs at the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Floyd Norris column holds financial rescue plan for South Korea should determine what parts of Korean private sector are fundamentally sound; says hopelessly weak banks and companies should be allowed to fail, with international banks that lent to them suffering losses; opposes proposal for Korean Government to take over international debts of sick banks; graph (M)

After the massacre, one thing in the house was left recognizable. It was a charred book, extolling the beauty of Scandinavia. Everything else -- the beds, couches, cooking utensils, chairs and the three cars in a garage -- had been incinerated. Someone wiped bloodstains and soot off the tiles with gasoline, but it did not really help. It only added a new stench, clinging to the walls. ''Twenty-four people died here,'' said Belcacem Sheikh, 62, glancing inside his neighbor's ruined four-story house. It was burned by a roving band of about 100 killers, believed by residents to be Islamic militants, when they descended on this town of 8,000 shortly before midnight on Sept. 22.

Continuing to acquire property at a rapid rate, Reckson Associates Realty Corporation has closed on a 540,000-square-foot corporate park in Rye Brook in Westchester County, bringing its office holdings in the metropolitan area to about 8 million square feet of space. The six-building complex, known as Royal Executive Park, could be expanded an additional 350,000 square feet of office space, according to Scott Rechler, chief operating officer of Reckson, a real estate investment trust that is based in Melville, L.I. ''This fits right into our overall strategy,'' Mr. Rechler said. ''Whenever we see an opportunity to acquire more land for future development, we try to take advantage of it.''

Roundup of winners of 'awards' for misdeeds and gaffes in 1997 in world of stocks and finance; cartoons; photo (M)