National Attention To Carolina Child Murders

THE national venting over the case of a South Carolina woman charged with killing her two children points up the emotional problem of parental abduction - and how to prevent it.

Relatives and strangers filed through a funeral home in Union, S.C., Saturday, mourning over the single closed coffin that held two little boys allegedly drowned by their mother. Susan Smith was in prison near Columbia, charged with murdering 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex.

The deaths stunned the American public, coming as it did after Mrs. Smith's tearful pleas, broadcast nationally over nine days, that her children be returned by a man she said abducted them during a carjacking. Police mounted nationwide searches for the boys. Investigators reported she confessed to killing her sons after a boyfriend said he was ending their relationship, partly, she said, because he did not want to take on the job of raising them.

Democrats Rebound

DEMOCRATIC rebound is reducing Republican hopes for a sweep of executive mansions in the largest US states.

Polls showed gubernatorial races in many states tightening, giving new hope to Democrats in Connecticut, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and elsewhere.

Still, Republicans remain likely to end up running at least five and maybe more of the nation's eight most populous, politically valuable states.