April 30, 1998

Italy will be among 11 countries that will formally join European Monetary Union on May 2; only year ago it was considered one of least likely countries to qualify for single currency plan's strict financial controls; Prime Min Romano Prodi's coalition Government, supported by rare consensus among labor unions, business and taxpayers, made heroic strides in cutting spending and raising revenue to bring down Italy's deficit to European standards; concern is that once in, Italy will relax and fail to sustain necessary and more painful fiscal discipline and structural reform; graph (M)

New York State legislators, three days after Gov George E Pataki vetoed over 1,000 spending items, learn that state tax collections are running hundreds of millions of dollars above his projections, increasing pressure in Assembly and Senate to try to restore some of budget pieces Pataki cut; lawmakers say they have been misled by Pataki about revenues; some accuse administration of slowing down processing of tax returns so that y extent of boon would not be apparent until after he had announced his vetoes; legislators say revenues for fiscal year that began April 1 will be at least $1 billion above Pataki's projection (M)

Translation services are becoming readily available on World Wide Web sites and computer programs; machine translation remains flawed and is unlikely to threaten translation as profession or language study as academic discipline; table; photos (L)

Chicago Bulls defeat New Jersey Nets, 116-102, to sweep NBA playoff series, 3-0; photo (M)

German search team examines quarry near southern city of Coburg in hunt for Amber Chamber, priceless Czarist treasure that vanished during Nazi plunder in World War II; chamber, last sighted in 1945, is assembly of ornately carved amber wall panels and furniture, and was presented to Peter the Great by Prussia in 1712; heads Russia's list of missing treasures seized by German troops; US Sec of State Madeleine K Albright, during visit to Beijing, agrees with Chinese movie director Chen Kaige that Titanic was a terrible movie; photo; Egyptian obelisk on Place de la Concorde in Paris will be restored to glory of its youth, 3,300 years ago in Luxor; will be topped with missing gilt bronze pyramid during May 18 visit by Pres Hosni Mubarak; arrived in Paris in 1836 as gift to King Charles X from viceroy in Egypt; photo; Art Gallery of Ontario will become only North American site of exhibition of rare collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings beginning in June; exhibition will include masterpieces by Manet, Monet, Cezanne, van Gogh, Degas, Gaugin and Seurat (M)