May 28, 2000

South Beach, southernmost tip of city of Miami Beach, is magnet for beautiful people; South Beach is utterly absorbed by beauty, peopled with fashion models and dreamers; area draws beautiful people of all colors and sexual orientations to its pastel Art Deco hotels, emerald ocean and chic, throbbing nightclubs where unpretty, uncool and unfashionable are unwelcome; photos (M)

In-depth article profiles Zus, Tuvia and Asael Bielski, brothers who formed makeshift forest community in what is now Belorus, rounded up and rescued Jews and formed brigade to fight Nazis during World War II; some of the few survivors, who totaled 1,250 at end of war, comment; Zus and Tuvia later lived ordinary lives in Brooklyn, NYC; photos (L)

Gasoline Prices Soar Drivers now filling up are facing record pump prices for the Memorial Day weekend, and analysts expect further increases. PAGE 24 Wiring Rural India India is becoming a laboratory for small experiments that use computers to link rural areas to the borderless world of knowledge. PAGE 10 Rocket Richard Is Dead Maurice Richard, the charismatic star and prolific goal-scorer of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1940's and the 1950's, is dead at 78. PAGE 34 Innocence Aboard Christopher Buckley reviews ''The Water In Between,'' a doctor's account of deciding to sail from British Columbia to Tahiti (he had never been in a sailboat) and then doing it. He made it, and back. BOOK REVIEW Gun Tied to Wendy's Killings Officials said ballistics tests had confirmed that a handgun found in the possession of a suspect was used to shoot seven Wendy's restaurant workers in Queens. PAGE 29 A New Frontier How Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon raises the stakes for Mideast peace talks. WEEK IN REVIEW The War Widow Pfc. Barry Winchell was murdered for having a gay lover. But in the battle of ''don't ask, don't tell,'' that lover is no poster boy. MAGAZINE Opera's New Crop Custodians of the art of opera tend to exult in the starry dead and treat the living like riffraff. But despite discouraging reports, there are quite a few singers in opera halls now with the mark of genius. ARTS & LEISURE If Not Rich, Loyal at Least Their paper wealth has been snatched away by the slump in technology stocks, but employees at Calico Commerce aren't restive, because of a culture of loyalty uncommon in Silicon Valley. MONEY & BUSINESS Wilds of Northern California It's a landscape of challenges: the mystical Mount Shasta draws climbers, while kayakers try the Salmon River and fly-fishing students attempt to outsmart the trout. TRAVEL

Alex Witchel interview with Judith Krantz, whose new memoir is Sex and Shopping: The Confessions of a Nice Jewish Girl; photo (M)

Sixteen-story residential condominium will rise above Theater for the New City at First Avenue between Ninth and Tenth Streets, solving theater's financial problems; drawing (M)