NATION

G-7 Summit

At the Tokyo meeting of the leaders of the seven major industrial democracies, Bill Clinton acted the parts of statesman and campaigner in equal measure. While the Japanese indulged a fascination with his wife Hillary, Clinton courted a younger generation of Japanese politicians. In public appearances he urged the Japanese to open their markets--a tactic that helped him cast the summit for his public back home as one more part of his jobs program. The meeting started on a promising and surprising note: an agreement in principle by trade ministers to cut anti-import tariffs on hundreds of items (although not the most contentious ones), which could lead to a resumption of the stalled GATT world trade talks. By the end of the week, other substantive achievements were announced: a $3 billion aid plan for Russia and a "framework" agreement that will guide future negotiations to reduce Japan's trade surplus with the U.S.

Perot and the "Radical Middle"

A national survey by President Clinton's pollster found that three-quarters of those who voted for Ross Perot would vote for him if he ran in 1996. The poll described this group as a "radical middle" that Clinton must win over to be re-elected.

Water, Water, Still Everywhere

Floodwaters kept rising to never-before-recorded levels along the upper Mississippi River. While estimates of crop damage exceeded $1 billion, more than 4,500 families also face property damage.

The Biggest Jackpot

There was a small-town winner for the very big, $111 million prize in the Powerball lottery held by 14 states and the District of Columbia. Less than four hours before the drawing, Leslie C. Robins, a 30-year-old English teacher, bought the winning ticket for his fiance at a grocery store in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. After learning that they had beaten odds of 55 million to 1, the couple fled to Florida to escape the media.

Acquittal in Idaho

White separatist Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris, a family friend, were acquitted in the 1992 slaying of a U.S. marshal. The marshal was killed in a gunfight after federal agents converged on Weaver's remote cabin to arrest him for failing to appear in court on a weapons charge. Weaver's 14-year-old-son also died in the shoot-out. The shoot-out was followed by an 11-day siege in which Weaver's wife was killed by a federal sniper.

More Jail Time for Keating

Charles Keating Jr., whose greed and recklessness made him an apt symbol of the savings and loan calamity, was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison for draining the Irvine, California-based Lincoln Savings, a swindle that cost taxpayers $2.6 billion. The sentence will run concurrently with a 10-year state prison sentence that Keating, 69, is serving.

A Third-Rate Burglary?

They didn't actually use the word Watergate, but Democratic Party officials told Chicago police that thieves stole computer disks, research notebooks and strategy documents from a suite they had been using as a temporary headquarters at the Stouffer's Riviere in Chicago, where the Republican National Committee was meeting one floor below.

WORLD

Trying to Expel the Sheik

Washington and Cairo cooperated last week to keep Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman out of circulation. The U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals rejected an asylum bid by the radical Muslim cleric, now being held in a federal prison, and upheld a deportation order issued in March. Egyptian authorities also began seeking his extradition to face charges of inciting antigovernment riots in Egypt in 1989--though the 1874 treaty governing extradition between the U.S. and Egypt does not appear to cover that offense. Egypt hanged seven of the sheik's followers last week for attacks against foreign tourists and conspiring to overthrow the government.

Baghdad Balks at Cameras

No pictures, Saddam Hussein told frustrated U.N. inspectors who have been trying for more than a month to install surveillance cameras at two missile-testing sites. The U.N. responded by proposing to place tamper-proof seals over the most sensitive missile components until the camera issue is resolved.

Yanks in Skopje

An advance guard of 41 soldiers from the U.S. Army's Berlin Brigade arrived in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia to join 700 U.N. peacekeepers keeping an eye on the borders of neighboring Albania and Serbia.

Farewell to Auschwitz

A controversy that has anguished Catholics and Jews for nearly a decade ended with the departure of the last Carmelite nun from a convent adjacent to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, where more than 1 million Jews were slaughtered. When the convent opened in 1984, in a building once used to store poison gas, Jewish organizations around the world protested that this Roman Catholic presence was inappropriate at the very gates of a place of such particularly solemn significance to Jews. Pope John Paul II ordered the nuns to move out in April.

Rioting in Nigeria

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Lagos, Nigeria's capital, to protest the despotism of General Ibrahim Babangida, who three weeks ago annulled last month's election while the votes were still being counted. The general has repeatedly backed away from earlier promises to return his country to civilian rule. He says he will step down at the end of August, but refuses to hand over the government to businessman Moshood Abiola, the clear but unofficial winner of the June election.

The Czar's Bones

British and Russian forensic scientists have determined beyond all doubt that bones discovered two years ago at Ekaterinburg in the Urals are those of Czar Nicholas II and his family, murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918. DNA from the remains was compared with that of samples taken later from Romanov descendants--among them Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The tests shed no light, however, on the fates of the young Prince Alexei and Princess Anastasia, who may have survived the execution.

BUSINESS

Gold Goes Higher and Higher

Generally bad news about the global economy, and rumors that big speculators were buying, made good news for gold. Prices pushed toward $400 an ounce last week, perhaps portending an end to a 13-year down market.

Apple Slices Itself

Locked in a fierce price war with competitors, no-longer-fat-and-happy Apple Computer--whose stock has declined 40% since January and which got a tough-minded new CEO last month--announced plans to lay off 2,500 workers, 16% of its work force.

Northwest Airlines Pact

To head off bankruptcy, Northwest Airlines, the fourth largest U.S. carrier, agreed to give its unions a strong voice on its board of directors and a large financial stake in the company in exchange for contract concessions worth $1 billion.

SCIENCE

No Cure for Hepatitis B

Two of 20 participants in a clinical trial of the drug fialuridine, a new treatment for chronic hepatitis B, suffered from a bad reaction to the drug and died of liver failure. Nine others remain hospitalized. Eli Lilly, fialuridine's American manufacturer, quickly stopped all tests in late June, after the 11 patients started showing dangerous symptoms.

Acid Rain Improvement

Into each person's life a lot less acid rain must fall--so the Federal Government has reported. According to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey, concentrations of sulfate and nitrate--two components of acid rain--declined significantly between 1980 and 1991.

Finding Viroids Faster

Before being released to growers, imported apple and pear trees are kept in federal quarantine centers for up to five years. Inspectors, who have to certify that the plants are free of viruslike microorganisms known as viroids, must wait until the trees bear fruit and check the apples and pears for viroid scarring and spotting. Agriculture Department scientists announced that they have developed a test that takes only two months: botanists graft a branch of the imported tree to a healthy plant, let it grow, then examine sap from a new twig or leaf for viroids.

MEDIA & THE ARTS

Murdoch to Post: Drop Dead

The New York Post, America's oldest continuously published daily, is apparently out of business; provisional publisher Rupert Murdoch dropped his bid to buy the tabloid after he and the unions failed to agree on cost cuts. The Saturday edition of the paper was canceled, and staff members started cleaning out their desks. The unprofitable paper's fate was left in the hands of a bankruptcy court this week, but plausible new buyers seemed unlikely to appear.

Record Price for a Drawing

A slightly damaged drawing by Michelangelo, Holy Family with the Infant Baptist on the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, brought $6.32 million at auction at Christie's in London--a world record for an old-master drawing. The buyer was the supremely well endowed J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California.

Mailer's Picasso

Norman Mailer's latest work in progress, a biography of Pablo Picasso, has become embarrassing for his publisher, Random House, and his prominent editor, Jason Epstein. Picasso biographer John Richardson, who is also edited by Epstein, refused to allow excerpts from his 1991 book, A Life of Picasso: Volume I, 1881-1906, to be used in Mailer's book, which he denounced as a "scissors-and-paste job." Mailer now expects to sell his project--sans the Richardson passages--to another publisher. Richardson is staying at Random House but has switched editors.

By Ginia Bellafante, Christopher John Farley, Richard Lacayo, Alexandra Lange, Erik Meers, Michael Quinn, Anastasia Toufexis, Sidney Urquhart

Health Report

THE GOOD NEWS

Although children who suffer convulsions triggered by fevers have commonly been treated with phenobarbitol, there are concerns about both its efficacy and its side effects. The new and superior replacement is Valium. A six-year study shows that it is safe and effective--and it also reduces the risk of seizures recurring.

Pregnant women infected with the AIDS virus often pass it along to their offspring. One way to cut the risk of transmission is to deliver by caesarean section. Only 14% of babies delivered surgically are infected, vs. 20% born vaginally, researchers report. Studies suggest one way the virus is transmitted is through the birth canal.

THE BAD NEWS

Ambulances and hospital emergency rooms are often poorly prepared to care for children, says a report from the Institute of Medicine. The equipment can be too large and powerful, and technicians are often not trained to recognize differences between children and adults--for instance, youngsters have higher heart rates and lower blood pressure.

Providing impoverished pregnant women with medical coverage doesn't necessarily lead to better maternal health. A Massachusetts study found that the rate of complications remained unchanged after the state extended insurance to low-income expectant women.

SOURCES: Institute of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine, Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials, news reports. Toning Tips of the Pop Icons

MADONNA

Exercise: Three hours a day. Interval and weight training, running. Diet: Vegetables.

DEMI MOORE

Exercise: Three hours a day. Biking, hiking, weight training, running. Diet: Vegetables.

TIPPER GORE

Exercise: Three hours a day. Swimming, weight training, running. Diet: "We became known as the vegetable bus (during the campaign). You'd go to the Clinton bus for doughnuts." THE MORNING LINE

Stories about White House aide DAVID GERGEN's amazing competence and closeness to the President appeared within a few days of one another last week in the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Newsweek and TIME. We asked some observers how long Gergen's press honeymoon will last.

FRED BARNES

New Republic

At least until 1994

"Gergen is the first among equals...If Clinton...starts to fall again, Gergen won't look so good."

DOUG IRELAND

Village Voice

As long as the heat wave

"The first time he gets caught in the inevitable Big Lie, the honeymoon will sour."

SENATOR ROBERT DOLE

Minority leader

As long as the press wants

The media favor Clinton, "so they're glad they've got a spin doctor...to make things look rosy." Informed Sources

Peacekeeping Pays--for Germans

BONN--Soldiers from Germany and the U.S. face similar risks in SOMALIA--but German troops posted there are earning almost four times as much. Under a bill passed by the Bundestag in June, a German soldier serving in Somalia receives a hazardous-duty bonus of 100 deutsche marks a day (about $60). U.S. privates earn only about $150 a month in hazardous-duty pay. The average German soldier on a standard six-month stay in Somalia earns about $35,000 in pay and bonuses, in contrast to only about $9,000 for a U.S. private.

The CIA's Satellite Eavesdropping

WASHINGTON--CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR R. James Woolsey wants to save his budget--and he's willing to do a little high-tech showing off to accomplish it. In a closed-door session with members of Congress, he divulged the breathtaking power of America's expensive spy satellites. He revealed, among other things, that U.S. satellites carry 20 sorts of sensors, including electronic eavesdropping equipment that can pick up virtually any individual on-the-ground conversation.

Jurassic Screw-Up

LOS ANGELES--Not everyone loves JURASSIC PARK. Parts of California's Red Rock Canyon State Park were torn up during filming; a park ecologist estimates that the filmmakers were responsible for $12,000 worth of damage to the park, only $9,000 of which has been paid for. "The Red Rock Canyon Park," a spokesperson for director Steven Spielberg's production company says, "was paid whatever they were to be paid." Campaign Promise Fulfilled!

Bill Clinton promised to have a more "diverse" Administration than his predecessors'. A look at the people with whom he has filled posts requiring Senate confirmation shows that he has succeeded.

REAGAN ADMINISTRATION, as of October 1981: 207 officials named, 16 minorities, 7.7%

BUSH ADMINISTRATION, as of October 1989: 193 officials named, 19 minorities, 9.8%

CLINTON ADMINISTRATION, as of June 1993: 236 officials named, 59 minorities, 25% (15% black, 7% Hispanic, 2% Asian, 1% Native American) DISPATCHES

Hey Einstein, Let's Jacuzzi!

by Ginia Bellafante, in Orlando, Florida

How many 9s do you pass when you start at 1 and count to 100? Eleven hundred men and women possessing a great facility for answering this and similar questions are spending a hot July weekend at Orlando's Peabody Hotel. They have come for the annual gathering of the Mensa society, a group that admits any applicant who has an intelligence-test score in the top 2% of the population; the question above is from a Mensa test, but SAT scores or any standard I.Q. test score will do. Mensa says it provides a "stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members." In fact there are dozens of special-interest groups, on everything from personal investing to Andrew Lloyd Webber. The original mission of Mensa, which was formed at Oxford University in 1946, was to "bring highly intelligent people together to help solve the world's problems." If this year's gathering is any indication, however, that purpose has evolved into something quite different: to bring highly intelligent people together to help them get dates. And to that end, Mensa has created here a sort of Stanford-Binet Club Med with plenty of Inglenook.

Barbara, a public-speaking instructor and professional psychic, does not dissemble about her reasons for joining a group that says it "encourages research into the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence." "Not being gorgeous or anything, I'm no man magnet," she says. "I joined Mensa to meet men." Happily, there are hundreds right here who aren't exactly woman magnets but who are very uninhibited about expressing their feelings. Indeed, I LOVE TO GIVE AND GET BACK RUBS and I NEED A HUG buttons are popular among Mensa males, and some of them are even more direct. "If you want to approach someone you don't know," advises an aerospace-industry worker, "you can just say, `I want a hug.'"

A convention of people with super-high I.Q.s wouldn't be complete without classes and seminars. You can, for example, take Belly Dance for Fun and Fitness; An Intellectual's Guide to Good Sex; or Intelligent S&M for the '90s. There is art as well: My Life as an Erotic Artist is a slide display of works by Hutch, a pudgy Mensan software engineer. He is particularly proud of his penis-shaped ceramic incense burner.

Hutch is absent from one of the weekend's most stimulating events--the Fishbowl, a parlor game in which a group of 28 men and 24 women assemble to ask one another sexually oriented questions. During the session, a fortyish woman wins applause with the sort of inspired reasoning one would expect here: "It's not the size of the wand," she announces in response to no question, "it's the magic in it!"

Maybe, just maybe, some of this year's Fishbowlers will be lucky enough to find the contentment that Janice and Stan now share. They met through Mensa and married. "I often had to hide my intelligence with men," says Janice, who is an employee-relations specialist and part-time clown. "With Stan, I can be myself."