July 23, 1998

Alan B Shepard Jr, first American to fly in space, and later one of only 12 astronauts to walk on Moon, dies at age of 74; on May 5, 1961, Shepard, former Navy test pilot, was in cramped Mercury capsule atop seven-story Redstone rocket filled with explosive fuel; he was shot into sky on 15-minute flight that grazed fringes of space, at altitude of 115 miles, and ended in splashdown in Atlantic Ocean 302 miles from Cape Canaveral, Fla; Shepard's successs is credited with giving Pres John F Kennedy confidence, less than three weeks later, to commit nation to goal of landing man on moon within decade; photos; chronology of events in US-USSR space race in 1950's and 60's (L)

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg grants Giuliani administration permission to start enforcing zoning laws that ban sex shops and strip clubs almost everywhere except industrial zones; rejects last-minute request by sex shops for stay; US appeals court also turns down request for stay; lawyers for sex shops file their last request for stay with Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens; photo (M)

Greenspan Warns Investors About End to Exuberance Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, warned investors during his appearance before the House Banking subcommittee not to assume that the good times on Wall Street would last forever. But he could not predict when the exuberance would end and a correction start. His comments helped send stock market gauges lower. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 61.28 points, to 9,128.91. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index closed down 0.99 at 1,164.08. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 9.39, to 1,969.75. [Page D6.]

AIDS epidemic in South Africa is now one of fastest growing in world; experts say country missed unique opportunity it had to prevent kind of explosion of AIDS cases now ravaging rest of Africa; South Africa had health system better than any other on continent, and for years it was protected by apartheid's isolationism from major exposure to infection; but country was absorbed by its transition from white supremacist rule in early 1990's, and no one paid much attention to halting unprotected sex; experts say Government's efforts to combat epidemic have been slow and marred by scandal; now, about 12 percent of all adults in South Africa are infected with HIV; rate of infection is highest, at 20 percent, among women in their 20's; for now, virus is most prevalent among South Africa's poor blacks; photos; map; charts (L)

Pop Life column on musicians who must live up to high expectations after great success and subsequently have difficult time making new record; popular artists such as Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, rapper Dr Dre and Axl Rose of Guns 'n' Roses have all been struggling with new material for years, confronting their own perfectionism, procrastination, writer's block and ambition; photo (M)