January 12, 1998

Justice Department has considered and rejected a new offer by Theodore J Kaczynski to try to avoid the death penalty by pleading guilty to Unabom crimes, but the talks over the offer show that both sides in trial are struggling to find a way to end a case that has become a public spectacle in wake of Kaczynski's attempted suicide and bid to conduct his own defense; reported sticking point for Justice Department is that Kaczynski is insisting on retaining right to appeal certain pretrial rulings made by Judge Garland E Burrell Jr (M)

Cuban children whose parents sent them US in early 1960's are only now beginning to deal openly with the memories of that early separation; 14,000 children were brought to US under Operation Pedro Pan, a joint project of US Government and Roman Catholic Church, before Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 ended flights between two countries; parents had hoped to follow their children to US or bring them back to a Cuba freed of Fidel Castro; some of these children say they paid a very high price for their freedom and resent their parents' actions; others are forever grateful for their parents' sacrifice; Rev Bryan O Walsh was Catholic priest who was given blanket authority to issue visa waivers to children; photos (M)

Ice-Bound Region Digs Out Emergency workers and utility crews slowly began restoring normality to upstate New York counties and other areas paralyzed by last week's ice storm. Pages B1 and B6. Ulster Force Kills Again Another killing by a Protestant paramilitary force set off new fears that tit-for-tat violence could send the peace talks over Northern Ireland into turmoil. Page A3.

Upstate New York and parts of New England and Canada struggle to recover from huge ice storm that has left several people dead, downed thousands of trees and power lines, and left hundreds of thousands without electricity; chronology; map; charts (S)

Clinton Administration will require states to determine and report the extent of illicit drug use among their inmates before they can receive more Federal money to spend on prisons; information will be used to create a baseline to measure states' progress in reducing drugs inside prison, which in turn will qualify them for more Federal money; Administration hopes that reducing supply of drugs in prison will cut demand for them after convicts are released (M)