THE WEEK: DECEMBER 3-9

• Share

(2 of 3)

U.S. Representative Kweisi Mfume was chosen as the new president and executive officer of the N.A.A.C.P. on Saturday, filling a leadership slot that had been empty since the organization's board ousted the controversial Benjamin Chavis last year. Mfume, along with N.A.A.C.P. chairwoman Myrlie Evers-Williams, confronts the daunting task of rebuilding the civil rights group, which faces a multimillion-dollar debt, among other problems.

AT SEA

Still another naval officer has been caught in a sexual- harassment scandal. Rear Admiral Ralph L. Tindal, a deputy NATO commander, was demoted and placed under 30-day house arrest and, to no one's surprise, will take an early retirement after an inquiry found him guilty of harassing a young enlisted woman with whom he had had an affair. Though the relationship was consensual, Tindal reportedly began calling her late at night and otherwise pressuring her when she tried to break it off.

RACE KILLING

In what were apparently racially motivated murders, three white soldiers from Fort Bragg, near Fayetteville, North Carolina, were charged in connection with the gunning down of a local black man and woman who were simply walking down a street; both the victims were shot in the head at close range. According to police, the suspects had been drinking when they set out in a car in search of random black victims. Investigators found what they believe to be the murder weapon in one suspect's off-base home. Also found: Nazi paraphernalia, white-supremacist literature and a bombmaking manual.

CONGRESSMAN CONVICTED

Representative Walter R. Tucker III, whose district includes the city of Compton, just south of Los Angeles, was found guilty by a jury of extortion and tax evasion despite his charge that prosecutors were out to get him solely because he is black. While still proclaiming his innocence, Tucker said he will probably resign his seat in Congress.

A $1 MILLION BIG MAC

Angels exist, at least in the philanthropic sense. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, became the beneficiary of a $1 million giveaway by McDonald's after an anonymous donor mailed a winning contest game piece to the hospital. St. Jude specializes in treating catastrophic children's diseases.

WORLD

U.S. STARTS BOSNIA DEPLOYMENT

Bureaucracy, security concerns and a foot of snow in Sarajevo hampered the arrival of the first 700 U.S. military personnel in the vanguard of NATO's Bosnia peacekeeping effort. Four days after President Clinton gave the order to move out, just 41 American troops had entered the country, along with a larger preparatory team of British soldiers. Most of the advance team is expected to arrive this week before the formal peace treaty between Bosnia's warring parties is signed in Paris on Thursday.

FRANCE UPS NATO COMMITMENT