EVENTS

ISRAELI COURT CONVICTS BANKS Four leading Israeli banks Leumi, Hapoalim, Discount, and Mizrahi and nine of their executives were convicted yesterday in a 1983 stock-market crash. The four-year trial tested the accountability of Israeli banks, whose reputations were in tatters after the government had to pay more than $7 billion to bail out ruined investors. The market crashed in October 1983, when it became known that the banks were artificially propping up their own share prices. Bank stocks had become so dominant their collapse lowered the overall stock index by almost 70 percent. Olympic results

Gerda Weissensteiner captured Italy's second gold medal of the Games, dominating all four runs of the women's luge. Canada's Jean-Luc Brassard and Norway's Stine Lise Hattestad unseated the reigning Olympic champions to win the men's and women's freestyle-skiing moguls events. And Johann Olav Koss won his second gold medal in speedskating. He broke the world record twice in two days in the 1,500 meters. Three earthquakes

An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale hit southeastern Sumatra yesterday, killling at least 127 people. Meanwhile, a quake measuring 5.8 also rocked northwestern China yesterday. Officials said they had no immediate word about casualties. The quake struck Gonghe County of Qinghai Province. Also, an earthquake measuring 6.5 was recorded yesterday near the Loyalty Islands east of New Caledonia. The Hong Kong observatory had no further details. US to sell jets to Saudis

Saudi Arabia, replacing its entire fleet of commercial aircraft, will purchase 50 planes from the American aerospace industry and thereby provide jobs for tens of thousands of US workers, President Clinton said yesterday. The planes will be built for the oil-rich kingdom by Boeing Company and the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, proving ``that we can compete,'' Clinton said. Saudi Arabia chose the American companies over foreign competitors, the president said. French fishermen end strike

Fishing boats put to sea yesterday in most of France, though scattered die-hards stayed in port a day after leaders of a violent fishermen's strike called it off. The decision reflected a slow return to work that was already under way by fishermen who were desperate for money.

The two-week walkout seriously embarrassed Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, who took a series of emergency steps to quell rampages by fishermen facing bankruptcy. Strikers ransacked the main Paris food market, destroyed tons of cheap imported fish, and battled riot police in Rennes during a visit by Balladur.