NEWSPEAK

"The President was very firm that he was going to Helsinki, and while we probably wouldn't necessarily always recommed that, certainly it can be done very safely."

--Cmdr. David Wade, chief of staff at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, yesterday on the ability of President Clinton to travel to Finland next week, where he is scheduled to meet with Russian Prime Minister Boris N. Yeltsin. The President tore a tendon in his right knee earlier that morning in a stumble on wooden stairs at golfer Greg Norman's Florida home.