February 10, 1998

Board of Education pres William C Thompson Jr proposes that 550,000 students in New York City's elementary schools be required to wear uniforms beginning in fall of 1999, unless parents at individual school vote as group to opt out of policy; Thompson's plan would allow students who raise religious objections to be exempt from policy and would provide financial aid to those students whose families cannot afford $100 to $200 a child he estimates it would cost to buy uniform; New York City public school officials estimate that over quarter of city's public schools have already adopted uniform policies, but those policies, like most around country, are strictly voluntary; photo (M)

Market Place column on long-term outlook for Trans World Airlines in light of company's recent impressive gains in efficiency and refinancing deal that raised nearly $225 million; says most analysts and airline industry insiders see TWA's recent rebound as little more than latest evidence that it is almost impossible to kill established airline when economy is growing; holds gradual return to solid profitability at least seems possible despite assertions from company executives that TWA will flourish in next century; graph (L)

Mathematicians are challenging the widely shared Platonic view that mathematical laws exist outside of space and time; suggest that mathematics is a human creation, not arbitrary but arising from the way the body interacts with the world; says mathematics, as it has developed, would not be understood by an extraterrestrial intelligence, which would be expected if it obeyed universal and enternal laws; photos; drawings (M)

Rev Al Sharpton testifies in Tawana Brawley defamation trial, New York State Supreme Court, Poughkeepsie, NY; says his actions and statements as one of Brawley's advisers belonged to honorable tradition of civil rights advocacy; says it was not his role to ascertain truth of Brawley's claim that she was raped by gang of white men, but rather to issue call for justice; repeatedly invokes comparisons to Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr; Sharpton and other Brawley advisers, C Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox, are being sued by former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven A Pagones for identifying him as participant in alleged attack on Brawley, then a teenager, in 1987 (M)

Israel's Chief Rabbinate categorically rules out any cooperation with non-Orthodox branches of Judaism on conversions and religious rites, but stops short of overtly discarding proposed compromise; Reform and Conservative leaders in Israel and US say decision represents outright rejection and call it declaration of war; say they will immediately resume legal and political battles for recognition of their conversions, which they suspended during search for compromise; Prime Min Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been dogged by issue since he took office and has sought to avoid confrontations between various streams of Judaism, hails decision; says it promotes national consensus among Jewish people and state of Israel (M)