The Week May 22-28

NATION

Clinton Blinks on China Trade

In another foreign policy retreat, President Clinton, under heavy pressure from business interests, announced the renewal of most-favored-nation trade status for China, despite its failure to significantly improve its human- rights record. "We have reached the end of the usefulness" of linking Chinese trade with human rights, said the President, who, echoing the Bush policies he had previously criticized, now pledged to "engage" rather than "isolate" the Chinese.

Rosty Up to His Neck

House Ways and Means chairman Dan Rostenkowski found himself in the midst of an intensifying maelstrom of speculation over whether he would accept a plea bargain -- and prison time -- in a federal corruption case. Democrats fear his departure from the key committee could leave health reform without a guiding hand.

A Big Win Boosts the G.O.P.

Republicans licked their chops over their victory in a special congressional election in which Republican Ron Lewis beat out Democrat Joe Prather for a Kentucky seat that had been Democratic for more than a century. Political analysts, as well as some Democrats, echoed the G.O.P. claim that the Democratic defeat underscored dissatisfaction with President Clinton.

Costly Copter Ride

An afternoon of golf at a private Maryland club, complete with convenient round-trip service aboard a presidential helicopter, led to a public outcry and cost White House director of administration David Watkins his job when an angry President Clinton learned about the trip.

Two States Target Tobacco

Opening a new front in the flaring smoking war, Mississippi filed suit against the nation's tobacco companies to obtain reimbursement for the money it pays, through Medicaid and other health programs, to treat patients with smoking- related diseases. Mississippi's assault was quickly followed by Florida, whose Governor signed a law enabling it to file lawsuits against cigarette makers on behalf of Medicaid patients.

Terrorist Bombers Sentenced

Using words like "coward" and "hypocrite" to describe the defendants, New York Federal Judge Kevin Duffy angrily sentenced each of the four Islamic militants convicted for last year's World Trade Center bombing to 240 years in prison, virtually ensuring that each will stay behind bars for life.

Civil Rights Settlements

Denying it had a policy of racial discrimination, the Denny's restaurant chain nonetheless agreed to pay a blockbuster $54.4 million to settle class-action charges that it refused to serve black customers or treated them shabbily. A day later, in a $75,000 settlement, the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston publicly apologized for assigning an all-white staff to serve visiting Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Farewell to a First Lady

In a simple ceremony, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to her murdered first husband, President John F. Kennedy, and next to the eternal flame she lit for him three decades ago. "She was a blessing to us and to the nation -- and a lesson to the world on how to do things right," eulogized Senator Edward Kennedy.

WORLD

No Peace for Bosnia