January 7, 2000

When Clinton administration officials interviewed Gen. Charles C. Krulak for the job of commandant of the Marine Corps in 1995, he recalled today, no one asked for his views on any social issue facing the military. And there were certainly many brewing at the time, including women in combat and the integration of the sexes in boot camp. And so General Krulak said he was dismayed with the way the two Democratic candidates for president, Vice President Al Gore and former Senator Bill Bradley, had so strongly endorsed allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military. Mr. Bradley said he would expect his appointees to the Joint Chiefs of Staff to carry out his policy.

A TURF battle is being fought in the pile-carpeted footwells of the black sedans that carry white-shoe lawyers and other masters of the universe. When Lincoln redesigned its Town Car for the 1998 model year, customers of executive car services complained that the new car seemed more cramped than the old one. More recently, Cadillac has used the extra legroom of its all-new 2000 DeVille -- 43.2 inches, vs. Lincoln's 41.1 -- to woo car-service operators.

India today intensified its efforts to blame Pakistan for the Indian Airlines hijacking, announcing that four accomplices had been seized in Bombay and that they had identified the five hijackers as Pakistanis and acknowledged official Pakistani sponsorship of the hijacking. The home minister, Lal Krishna Advani, said at a news conference here that the statements of the four reported accomplices -- an Indian, two Pakistanis and a Nepali -- and other ''telltale pointers'' conclusively established Pakistan's role in the seizure of the Airbus. The plane was hijacked as it flew from Katmandu, Nepal, to New Delhi on Dec. 24 with 178 passengers and 11 crew members on board.

Baseball has ordered John Rocker, the Atlanta Braves pitcher, to undergo psychological testing before deciding whether he will be disciplined for the disparaging remarks that he made about gays and minority-group members in a magazine article last month. After Rocker's anti-New York diatribe was published in Sports Illustrated, Selig consulted with the Baseball Players Association and then ordered the testing of the 25-year-old closer yesterday. Selig, who apparently did not speak to Rocker before issuing the mandate, called Rocker's remarks ''reprehensible'' and ''completely inexcusable.''

Patrick O'Brian Dies The reclusive novelist, whose stories about a British naval commander in the Napoleonic Wars sold millions of copies and earned him comparisons to Melville, was 85. PAGE A16 Emission Tests Gone Awry A privatized system of auto emissions testing in New Jersey initially met public opposition. Now, after three weeks of operation, there is an uproar, over long waits and damaged cars. PAGE B1