THE WEEK: APRIL 23 - 29

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NATION

The Search Continues

The burials in Oklahoma City began -- first for tiny Baylee Almon, the one-year-old whose photograph, taken as she was lifted out of the rubble, was used to symbolize the city's loss on front pages worldwide. By week's end the death toll from the terrorist bombing of the federal building had passed 120. Rescue workers redoubled their efforts as they approached "the pit," a huge mountain of rubble at the center of the explosion where the building's Social Security office and day-care center had collapsed together and where many more dead were expected to be found.

The Suspects

Evidence against bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh mounted as investigators learned he had boasted just days before the bombing that "something big is going to happen." At a hearing, held in the El Reno Federal Corrections Center for security reasons, a federal magistrate ordered him to be held without bail. Two other men, Terry and Joseph Nichols, who were taken into custody as material witnesses, continued to be held, but neither has been charged directly in the bombing. And there was still no break in the search for a second bombing suspect, known only as John Doe No. 2.

Presidential Response

In Minneapolis, President Clinton criticized "purveyors of hate" on the "airwaves" and was in turn attacked by many conservative talk-radio hosts, as well as some of their Republican critics, for appearing to use the Oklahoma tragedy to score points off the right wing. The next day the President backpedaled, saying he had attacked extremism "from the left or the right." He also said he would ask Congress for $1.5 billion to crack down on terrorism, outlining a plan that would include hiring 1,000 additional law enforcers, require explosive materials to be chemically "tagged" to make them easier to track down and make it easier for the FBI to trace and eavesdrop on phone calls.

The Unabomber Strikes Again

A package bomb, apparently intended for someone else, killed Gilbert Murray, an official of the California Forestry Association. With dozens of federal agents on his trail, the perpetrator, known as the Unabomber, taunted his pursuers with letters to the news media and to a former victim. His record to date: 16 bombs in 17 years, with three dead and more than 20 injured.

The Next 100 Days

The Senate returned to work last week as a battle broke out over G.O.P. plans for massive Medicare cuts as part of balancing the budget by 2002. House speaker Newt Gingrich told a seniors' group Friday that Medicare reform would be handled separately from the budget to keep the program from going broke, but G.O.P. sources said the health-care program for the elderly still will play a central role in the party's budget-balancing plans.

Not So Fast, Congress

The Supreme Court struck down a federal law intended to keep firearms out of local schools. In a 5-to-4 decision that could herald a new direction for the court, the Justices ruled that the 1990 Gun-Free School Zones Act could not come under the Constitution's interstate commerce clause and was thus an infringement of state power. An angry Clinton gave Attorney General Janet Reno a week to find a legal way around the ruling.

Top Spook to Clean House