THE WEEK: APRIL 30-MAY 6

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On Friday -- Children's Day in Japan -- employees at a Tokyo subway station extinguished two burning plastic bags of chemicals left in a men's room before their fumes could combine to form enough hydrogen cyanide to kill 10,000 people in seconds. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Meanwhile, Japanese police, continuing their investigation of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, arrested the group's top lawyer, Yoshinobu Aoyama, on charges of slander. As in other arrests, police have so far avoided charging that the cult was involved in the March 20 gassing on the Tokyo subway.

BUSINESS

Housecleaning at Barings

Twenty-one top executives of the bankrupted Barings P.L.C. were fired by the company's new owners. ING Group, a Dutch company, determined that the Barings employees were either directly or indirectly responsible for overseeing the derivatives debacle that broke the British bank in February. Meanwhile, German authorities received more than 1,000 pages of documents from Singapore, which is requesting former Barings trader Nicholas Leeson's extradition to face charges of forgery.

SPORT

N.B.A. Play-Offs: Humble Pie

For the second year in a row, the Seattle Supersonics wasted a stunningly successful season by collapsing in the first round of the N.B.A. play-offs. "It's time to face our embarrassment, be humbled, feel the humility of the sport and go and try to figure out some things," said a subdued coach George Karl after the team's final 114-110 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Derby Day Surprise

Thunder Gulch, the dimmest star in trainer D. Wayne Lukas' trio of starters, thundered out of a wall of 18 horses to win the 121st running of the Kentucky Derby. --By Kathleen Adams, Lina Lofaro, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders and Sidney Urquhart