January 5, 1998

Lyrics and Lyricists series at Tisch Center for Arts at 92d Street Y enters its 28th season with planned celebrations of Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern; Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ, will present The Mask of Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes comedy-thriller by Hugh Leonard; New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will hold three-week Brahms Festival to commemorate 100th anniversary of death of Johannes Brahms; third company of show Riverdance will make its debut at Ford Center in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning North American tour; photo (M)

South Korean Government is attempting on its own to secure as much as $35 billion in new financing, according to American commercial and investment bankers; move comes as Bank for International Settlements releases report pointing out that global bankers stepped up lending to country in early 1997 despite indications of 'growing strains in Southeast Asia'; South Korea, by moving to sell bonds on its own, will sidestep American commercial banks' efforts to lead repackaging of country's mountain of troubled loans; almost $40 billion in short-term South Korean debt will have to be restructured by end of March to ease crisis (M)

Samuel Hallal, struggling immigrant businessman, is charged with setting fire to his own tire-repair shop in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; fire tiggers huge explosion that leveled shop and car-repair garage next door, heavily damaging third business and shattering row of nearby houses; Hallal suffers minor injuries; photo (M)

David Levy resigns as Israel's Foreign Minister, saying he has no further place in Prime Min Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition; without five votes of Levy's faction, Netanyahu has only 61-59 majority in Parliament; Levy has criticized Netanyahu for lack of money for social welfare programs in 1998 budget and stagnation in peace negotiations with Palestinians; photos (M)

American economic expansion that began in 1991 is expected to last at least another year, but that does not rule out possibility of trouble; threats to continued boom include effects of Asian crisis, consumer debt crisis, sharp decline in stock prices and punishing trade deficit; some experts even raise specter of deflation, which could pull down incomes as well as prices, leaving many Americans without enough money to pay off their debts; biggest threat this year will be from oversupply in several industries; problem is how to get people to buy up all that is available, not to spend less; photos; charts; graphs (L)