January 28, 1998

Pres Clinton steps up pressure on Iraq, sending senior officials to consult with allies in Europe and Middle East and warning Pres Saddam Hussein, in State of Union address, that his defiance of United Nations arms inspections cannot continue; notes Hussein's past use of weapons of mass destruction and cites determination to deny him capacity to use them again; holds Congress is united on issue; weighs sending Defense Sec William S Cohen to Persian Gulf to seek backing for military strike; is sending State Sec Madeleine K Albright to Europe to confer with British, French and Russian counterparts on Iraq; Britian leads talks on new Security Council resolution to give Hussein another chance to back down; Russians seek way to avoid military strike (L)

Profile of Brian Stokes Mitchell, singer-actor whose standout performance in Broadway musical Ragtime has made him an overnight sensation; photo (M)

Construction crane working on Queensboro Bridge slams into Manhattan-bound car of Roosevelt Island tramway; accident, in which 11 people were slightly injured, was third in four months involving construction at bridge; one worker was killed in September; Roosevelt Island officials say tramway will be shut down for at least one week; law encorcement officials say that preliminary indications are that accident was result of actions by crane's operator; drawing; photo (M)

Analysis of Pres Clinton's State of the Union address; message, originally designed to re-energize his Presidency with call to use any budget surpluses to shore up Social Security, seeks to muffle drumbeat of charges about his involvement with Monica S Lewinsky without mentioning scandal; dwells only on substance (M)

David Gonzalez About New York column discusses La Guardia Theater Ensemble, troupe of students and alumni at La Guardia Community College; Professor Phil Lerman, founder of ensemble, says his experience in directing plays has put to lie many of misconceptions of two-year colleges and their students (M)

Hillary Rodham Clinton charges Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth W Starr's sex-scandal probe of her husband is part of 'vast right-wing conspiracy' to destroy his Presidency, television interview; holds Starr is 'politically motivated' and allied with Clinton's right-wing opponents; says Clinton's relationship with Monica S Lewinsky will be explained eventually; Starr rejects charge, noting Atty Gen Janet Reno assented to adding sex-scandal to broader probe; photo (M)

Christoph Eschenbach to be guest conductor of New York Philharmonic in performances of Bruckner's Symphony No. 8; photo; Directors Guild of America, whose prize winner has also won Oscar for best director all but four times since orgn's first presentations in 1949, makes it nominations: James Cameron for Titanic, Steven Spielberg for Amistad, James L Brooks for As Good As It Gets, Curtis Hanson for L.A. Confidential and Gus Van Sant for Good Will Hunting; photo of Oscar; Berliner Ensemble in Berlin to present play commemorating centennial of Bertolt Brecht's birth; Robert Wilson is adapting and staging work, written by Brecht as radio play based on Charles Lindbergh's flight; American premiere reading of Look, Europe!, by London-based Iranian playwright Ghazi Rabihavi, is presented at Actors Studio (M)

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, even though local economy is expanding and tax revenues are growing, plans to announce relatively austere budget that calls for New York City to increase most spending at less than inflation rate; Giuliani is expected to announce that city will finish 1998 fiscal year with surplus of $1.2 billion (M)

Pres Clinton delivers State of Union address, greeted by applause from Congress; proposes billions of dollars of new spending on social programs, paid for through closing unspecified tax loopholes and billions of dollars in tobacco taxes aimed at discouraging smoking by young people; calls for using any budget surplus to shore up Social Security system; Sen Trent Lott delivers Republican response, holding Clinton offers vision of more Government, while Republicans promise smaller Government and lower taxes; photos; table (M)

Scandal Forces Resignation Of Japan's Finance Minister The Finance Minister of Japan, Hiroshi Mitsuzuka, said he would resign, taking responsibility for a bribery scandal. On Monday, two ministry officials were arrested on charges of accepting bribes from the banks that they supervised. The resignation comes as Japan's banking system is faced with a plethora of problems, including bad debts at home and in other parts of Asia. [Page A1.]

Article on small but noticeable contingent of homeless people beginning to resurface in central Manhattan after several years in which major crackdown had sharply reduced presence of homeless in city's most visible districts; while city officials have said that there has been no slackening in efforts to get homeless into shelters and eliminate makeshift encampments on city streets, interviews with homeless, their advocates and business owners say that small number of homeless are now regularly visible in areas where few if any had been seen in last two years; photo (M)

Karol Kucera defeats Pete Sampras to advance to men's semifinals of Australian Open tennis championships; Conchita Martinez defeats Sandrine Testud to advance to women's semifinals; photo (M)