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Reports that a man shooting at bathers in upper Manhattan late Saturday afternoon reflected an uneasy tension at the Highbridge Pool, where people escaping the heat are next to gangs staking out territories. Reason behind shooting; Gang presence at pools; New precautions.

Reports on the increasing number of Kabul residents turning to the underground due to conditions in the besieged city. Common hatred for Afghan President Najibullah; Work of the underground; Structure of the underground; Day-to-day life in the city.

Reports that guerrillas have encircled and isolated Jalalabad, an Afghan city of 60,000, and are waiting for the government to surrender rather than attacking the city. Severe food shortages in the city, as guerrillas are not allowing delivery of Western supplies.

As the military forces of the Soviet Union withdraw from Afghanistan, the unity of the rebels who fought them is disintegrating. In the rebel-controlled city of Asadabad, two rival `mujahedeen' (rebel) groups are competing for the political control of the Kunar province, each hoping to set a precedent for political supremacy over all Afghanistan. Surge of refugees heading for Pakistan; Increasing range of formerly regional guerrillas.

Focuses on Paghman, Afghanistan, built with European flair as a weekend and summer resort by King Amanullah Khan, once meant to be Afghanistan's most beautiful city. One of the most sought-after prizes of the 14-year guerrilla war against the Soviet-backed government, the town of 40,000 people changed hands almost every year, until today there is nothing left.

States that the leaders of ten Afghan guerrilla factions failed to set aside their differences in an effort to avert a chaotic struggle for power. But Ahmed Shah Masood, the guerrilla field commander whose fighters have encircled Kabul and forced President Najibullah to flee, said he would be willing to accept whatever interim government rebel leaders in Pakistan agreed upon and would not enter Kabul without the other insurgents.

Tells of Etheridge Pierce Jr., 17, being arrested in Rochester on March 30. He was charged with the killings of his grandparents, two other family members and another person on March 26 in a small two-story house in Cambria Heights, Queens--the result of an argument. He is also a suspect in three drug-related killings in Rochester.

Tells about the Kennedy Inn near Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Sometime in the coming weeks, with the arrival of 150 homeless families, the inn will become the largest for-profit welfare hotel in a city that not long ago had pledged it would stop using welfare hotels. Uproar among advocates for the homeless, officials, and residents of neighborhoods near the airport.

Tells of a house in a quiet Queens neighborhood being ransacked by a band of robbers, who, when the robbery went awry, killed two young girls, ages 2 and 5, critically injured the mother and grazed a 14-year-old daughter with a bullet. Authorities believe that the couple next door--the children's baby sitter and her husband--participated in the crime.

Tells of the brothels in Queens, the largest center of prostitution in New York City outside Manhattan. As they have flourished, so have street drug sales, traffic congestion, robberies and shootings. Crackdown against the houses.

Discusses how the immigrant population from various Third World countries that settled in New York City last year have developed niches which enable them to monopolize certain businesses and change the cultural, political and commercial profile of the city. Indian ownership of area gas stations in the city reflects enormous ethnic transformation the last decade; Immigrants' occupational choices are based on skills, background and family values; More.

Tells of the shooting death of Leonid Vinokur, a 48-year-old Jewish immigrant from the Soviet Union, in the Brighton Beach neighborhood in Brooklyn on January 5 as he struggled with a man trying to mug his wife. Anger of the residents against the muggers and drug addicts who control their streets.

Tells about 53-year-old Harris Taormina's Christmas decorations. Each year he transforms his home in Queens with more than 10,000 lights, twirling dolls and singing angels, reindeer and Santa Clauses, and 350 miniature clay figurines that depict life in Bethlehem. About 60,000 people visit every year and Taormina hands out hundreds of stuffed animals and candy canes to the children.

Explains how the July 1990 stabbing death of Julio Rivera, a Hispanic drug user from Queens who lived on the far fringes of gay society, has galvanized the gay community. There have been rallies, candlelight vigils, and a gay rights march, among other things, focusing public attention on the escalating violence against gays in New York City.

Tells how the Irish Voice and other organizations are trucking hundreds of thousands of letters to Virginia from immigrants entering the resident visa lottery. The lottery is an opportunity for the more than 30,000 Irish living illegally in New York City to be lifted out of a world ruled by fear of deportation, paranoia and insecurity.

Comments on the role of Bangladeshi women in the US, which is being questioned by many of them as a result of the recent slaying of a woman by an immigrant who was hired as a house boy. Disillusionment of many immigrants; Independence of women frowned upon in their homes.

Discusses a recent case of child abuse in New York City--that of 8-month-old Ashlei Orellane, which resulted in death--and the scrutiny now being directed on the child welfare system. Question of whether the system is able to respond to reports of abuse.

Tells of the house fire in Queens that killed 5-year-old Velinda Rodriguez and critically injured six other family members. The fire was not deemed suspicious, but the building had no smoke detectors and was full of the flammable belongings of 14 people.

Presents a look at the races for New York's new City Council. Neighborhood politics; Choosing the Council; Contribution of Chinese and Korean immigrants; Immigrants' lack of impact in the voting arena.

Describes the island of Broad Channel in New York City's Jamaica Bay. Its redistricting tug-of-war, which it won. Details of the trouble.

States that residents of Waterbury, Conn., are still fumbling to understand the events of July 29 when, police say, five local teen-agers gunned down a Chinese restaurant's delivery man when he refused to hand over some cartons containing $18 worth of Chinese takeout food.

Tells how numerous banks have sprung up in Flushing since thousands of immigrants, particularly Chinese and Koreans, settled there in the last decade. The banks--American, Chinese, Korean, British, Indian, Pakistani and Colombian--tailor their strategies to serve the savings-minded workers and flourishing small businesses.

Reports that Alejandro Henriquez, 30, was indicted last week on charges of murdering Shamira Bello, 14, Lisa Ann Rodriguez, 21, and Jessica Guzman, 10. Henriquez was already awaiting sentencing on other charges. Guzman's death united the peopleof her working-class neighborhood, who took to the streets in a grass-roots campaign to flush out the killer.

Tells about the Azizi family, Iranian Jews. Their troubles in Iran, their reuniting in the US, and their troubles here when they were visited by Secret Service agents who wanted to talk to the 21-year-old Azizi son, Michael, about a check-theft. The family couldn't understand what was happening and a melee ensued--an extreme case of the trials of strangers in a strange land.

Reports that Alejandro Henriquez, a 30-year-old livery cab driver who was for months the prime suspect in the mysterious killings of five young people from the same area of the South Bronx, has been indicted on charges of murdering three of them. He pleaded not guilty to charges of killing Jessica Guzman, 10, Shamira Bello, 14, and Lisa Rodriguez, 21. He remains a suspect in the other cases.

Describes the illegal call scheme that is flourishing in Queens. Cars with doctored cellular phones act as high-tech mobile phone booths--the computer chip of the phones altered so that calls are billed to a legal, and unsuspecting, customer. The swindle has become an electronic nightmare.

Discusses the arrest of two of the three women who will be charged with the murder of Alice Serghiescu, found suffocated in 1982 at the age of 85. Detectives had suspected the women for more than five years but had never had sufficient evidence to arrest them before.

Describes the effect on Kuwait of the oil well fires that will take at least two years to put out. Officials say it will be five to ten years before Kuwaiti oil production is back to prewar levels.

Describes the destruction in Kuwait City. The people are jubilant, but there is almost no food, water, or electricity available.

Describes a chase that began when two Hudson County, N.J., police officers tried to pull over a car without headlights driven by Hector Castaneda, 17, who had stolen the car from a shopping mall and was driving with a suspended license.

Tells of the discovery of 366 pounds of cocaine and two shivering, louse-infested Colombians hidden under water in the rudder compartment of the Bright Eagle oil tanker when police scuba divers inspected the vessel in New York Harbor.

States that hundreds of illegal Chinese immigrants pay tens of thousands of dollars to become modern-day indentured servants in the New York City area in return for counterfeit identification papers and passage to the US. Smuggling network connected with Chinese organized crime.

Reports that, in the five hours after the end of a year that set a record for homicides, seven people were killed in New York City. Six were shot in separate incidents and one was stabbed to death in an elevator during an argument. Details.

Discusses the case of Zipora Yagodajev, 15, who was found strangled, naked and burned, under the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn early yesterday.

Reports that seven people were killed in New York City in just over seven hours on Saturday night and yesterday morning, bringing to a bloody close a week in which the unofficial homicide tally for the year rose above 2,000 for the first time. Details.

Reports that three men and two boys were arrested and charged in the Halloween rampage on Wards Island in which nine homeless men were injured and one, Carlos Melendez, 35, was killed. Details.

Reports that three men believed to be members of a Vietnamese gang called Born to Kill were found shot to death in an execution-style slaying yesterday in New York City, in what law-enforcement officials said was the latest in a series of gang-related shootings that have spread from Chinatown.

Tells of a 12-year-old girl, Laykama Taylor, being shot to death while playing in the courtyard of a Brooklyn housing complex--the third child hit by stray bullets over the weekend, and the sixth since July 22. Police do not know who fired the shot or the direction from which it came.

Reports on the stabbing death of Thomas Ebbers, a homeless man who roamed the New York City streets and enjoyed watching the sunset. Mystery of his background; Vietnam veteran; Putting his life back together.

Tells of the shooting deaths of four employees of the newly opened Madison Tire Corporation in Brooklyn, by two men who barged into the store. The shootings had the earmarks of an execution, but robbery is not being ruled out.

Tells how Victor Lopez, 18, stabbed and killed a man who mugged and molested his mother, Maria, 37-year old mother of nine, who was on her way to work. Now Lopez has been charged with manslaughter.

States that Robert Felzenberg, 49-year-old president of Payroll Express Corporation, a New Jersey payroll company, was charged with stealing more than $25 million from prestigious clients by promising to cash employees' checks and then walking away with the companies' payroll. He is also accused of transferring $30 million in Payroll Express accounts into the accounts of other companies he owns and into his personal bank account.

Tells of the violence in East New York, where there are daily wars of drug dealers fighting for turf, and where three people were wounded this week--one, a 3-year-old girl. As one 14-year-old said, `You always got to be bad here, or you just don't make it.'

Reports that a federal judge in Brooklyn agreed to combine 44 hand-injury suits (repetitive stress injury) into one consolidated case. These injuries, which can be caused by the routine use of computers, supermarket checkout scanners and other mechanical and electrical devices, have spawned hundreds of individual lawsuits across the country in recent years. Possible precedent for future litigation.

Says that a crowd in a crime-ridden Bronx neighborhood took justice into its own hands on Wednesday night, surrounding a fleeing robbery suspect and stabbing him to death--and then disappearing into the dark. Stumped by uncooperative and silent residents, the police had few clues to the killing.

Reports that Pierre La Roche, a 5 and one-half-month-old boy, was shot in the head yesterday in Manhattan when a bullet tore through an apartment wall as he lay sleeping in bed with his grandmother. He is the sixth child hit by a stray bullet in the last 15 days in the city. He is in intensive care.

Announces that New York City transit police officers will be allowed to carry a more powerful handgun that has been resisted because of its possible danger to the public. Description of the 9-millimeter pistol; Matching the growing firepower of street criminals.

Discusses a shootout in a New Jersey cemetery. Mourners at a gang member's funeral apparently shot back at two or three men, believed to be from rival groups, who opened fire at graveside in what law-enforcement officials say is an escalating Chinatown feud.