Photo of Mary-Louise Parker who stars in Alan Ayckbourn's new play Communicating Doors

Ayckbourn's Dark Laughs

Profile of Osama bin Laden, exiled Saudi billionaire who from Afghan redoubt has declared war on American interests everywhere; rage is fueled by American power in Middle East and has backing of international network of terrorists and companies; photo (M)

Man With Mission Takes On the U.S. At Far-Flung Sites

Most of Pres Clinton's political opponents back decision to launch missile attacks against terrorist bases in Afghanistan and Sudan, underscoring cherished axiom of American foreign policy that politics stops at water's edge, but some question his timing because of White House sex scandal; most Republican Congressional leaders, such as Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sen Jesse Helms, are supportive, but others, such as Sen Dan Coats says Clinton's loss of credibility because of sex scandal casts doubt on his actions and motives (M)

CRITICS OF CLINTON SUPPORT ATTACKS

American International Group, world leader in corporate insurance, agrees to buy SunAmerica Inc, pioneer in selling investments for retirement, for stock valued at $17.8 billion; deal brings together a pair of chief executives--Maurice R (Hank) Greenberg of American International and Eli Broad of SunAmerica, with Greenberg continuing as chairman and chief executive and Broad becoming member of the board of merged company; chart (M)

Insurers Set $17.8 Billion Stock Deal

St Louis Cardinals beat New York Mets, 2-0, in first game of doubleheader; Mets win second game, 5-4; Mark McGwire hits his 50th and 51st home runs of season; photo (M)

McGwire Hits Historic 50th and Keeps Going

Murray Chass Sports of The Times column on St Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire notes that he is first player to hit 50 or more home runs in three successive seasons; photo (M)

A Smile, A Stance, A Swing

Monterey Peninsula, Calif, sets tone for vintage car market with three-day series of car activities, including collector car auctions; last year, two companies that held auctions there, Rick Cole Auction Co and Christie's sold 176 cars between them for total of $14 million; photos of some expensive cars sold at auction (M)

Collector Market Gets a High-Profile Lift

New York Jets beat New York Giants, 27-23, in preseason game; Giants cornerback Jason Sehorn sustains season-ending knee injury; photo (M)

Sehorn Sidelined for Year, So Giants Lose Twice

Moderate Republicans across Northeast, in one of this year's political oddities, are unrepentantly embracing House Speaker Newt Gingrich even as Democrats prepare to bash them for it; Gingrich, Republican Party's most prolific fund-raiser, is expected to venture into region several more times before Election Day to stump for candidates in tight races; Democrats are puzzled that Republicans are not fleeing from him; moderate Republicans say he is arguably only top Republican leader who listens to their concerns; photo (M)

Moderate Republicans in Region Warm Up to Gingrich

US missile attacks against suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan and Sudan came after intelligence and law enforcement agencies reportedly had strong and conclusive evidence linking exiled Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden to August 7 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 220 people and wounded approximately 5,000; American officials say credible evidence showed number of leading members of international terrorist network sponsored by bin Laden planned to meet on August 20 at terrorist camp near Khost, Afghanistan, to plan further attacks on US, and that by attacking site US hoped to badly damage network; Albanian authorities, aided by American intelligence agents, arrest five men described as Egyptian Islamic terrorists and seize material indicating they planned to bomb American Embassy in capital of Tirana; photo (M)

U.S. Says It Has Strong Evidence Of Threat Justifying Retaliation

Investors are focused on corporate earnings as stock market struggles to get back on its feet, buoyed by reports that profits among biggest companies are still rising, albeit slowly; gauge of corporate profits produced by Government paints darker picture; as measured in National Income and Product Accounts, corporate earnings declined in fourth quarter of 1998; next week, when Commerce Department releases that report for second quarter, analysts expect decline in corporate earnings for third consecutive month; there have been six declines of at least three consecutive quarters since 1960; and five of those times, Dow Jones industrial average fell at least 15 percent from its peak ahead of that profit decline in those five stock spills, average Dow drop was 23.4 percent; average earnings decline of three quarters or more was 11.3 percent; graph (M)

THE MARKETS: Market Place; Different Focus, Different Profit Figures

Prosecutors have been granted court order that temporarily halts witness testimony in cases surrounding failure of A R Baron brokerage firm, a signal that grand jury investigation into Bear, Stearns & Co's role in collapse is reaching critical point; Manhattan District Attorney Robert M Morgenthau applies for order, formally a stay, and New York State Supreme Court Justice E J McLaughlin grants it; order expires on Oct 31; under the stay, neither New York Stock Exchange nor National Association of Securities Dealers may take or allow testimony of witnesses in variety of securities arbitration cases surrounding failure of A R Brown, whose founders stole $75 million from investors from 1991 to 1996; clearing of Baron's customer trades and its back-office administration were handled by Bear, Stearns & Co subsidiary, Bear Stearns Clearing Corp; prosecutor's stay applies to all arbitration cases involving A R Baron, and all that name as respondents Bear, Stearns and Hanifen Imhoff, another firm that had acted as clearing agent for A R Baron (M)

A Pivotal Point In Inquiry for Bear, Stearns

Caryn James reviews HBO film for television The Rat Pack, starring Ray Liotta, Joe Mantegna, Don Cheadle, Agnus Macfayden, William Petersen and Bobby Slayton; photos (M)

Extremes With Impossible Schemes

 Treasury Bond Yields Fall As Investors Flee Stocks  Turmoil in overseas economies sent investors fleeing stocks for the safety of bonds, pushing the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond to 5.51 percent, another new low. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 81.87 points, to 8,611.41.     Rumors that Russian bank failures were imminent and that Venezuela might be forced to devalue its currency, the bolivar, to combat a growing budget deficit, and persistent concerns about a similar move by China, buoyed the Treasury market. All of these things added to investor concerns that the financial crises among emerging markets may be spreading. [Page D5.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

California motorists who obtain restitution from auto makers for defective vehicles may no longer have to promise they will stay quiet as part of their settlements; California lawmakers have passed a bill that would bar auto makers from imposing gag rules in agreements to repurchase cars or trucks that are deemed defective under state's lemon law (M)

California Acts to Bar Gags in Defect Cases

Rapidly expanding stretch of parkland from Battery Park to Chambers Street for parked-starved lower Manhattanites is becoming what Central Park is for uptown residents: closest thing they have to backyard; as hybrid of public-private parkland, series of parks is model of what future may hold for Hudson River shoreline as developers team up with city to turn neglected land into recreational space; some lower Manhattan residents complain that area is being overrun by people who live outside area and do not pay directly to support parks; map; photo (M)

New Backyard in Lower Manhattan; Model Parks Along Hudson Prove Popular (and Populous)

New York International Fringe Festival begins its second year, Lower East Side, NYC, with some 144 offerings; festival operates virtually around-the-clock through August 30; gathers little-known theater companies from around the world for the 12-day event; festival's mandate to those presenting events is, above all else, make it new; Hugh Hysell, aspiring Manhattan director, comments on his offering of revised version of Shakespeare's The Importance of Being Ernest, featuring all-male cast; photos; map of festival site; sampling of festival events by date (L)

Wild, Woolly, Maybe Wondrous

US launches cruise missile attacks against suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for August 7 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed over 300 and injured approximately 5,000; Pres Clinton, in nationwide address, describes attacks as act of self-defense against imminent terrorist plots and of retribution for bombings of embassies; says there are no expendable American targets and vows there will be no sanctuaries for terrorists; links sites in Afghanistan and Sudan to Osama bin Laden, exiled Saudi billionaire tied by American intelligence to embassy bombings; attacks are launched from ships in Arabian and Red Seas, with approximately 75 cruise missiles timed to explode simultaneously in both countries; targets are identified as extensive training complex near Kabul, Afghanistan, and y factory for building blocks of chemical weapons near Khartoum, Sudan; Sudanese Pres Omar el-Bashir scores attacks; Taliban leadership in Afghanistan condemns bombings as showing enmity for Afghan people; photos; maps (L)

U.S. CRUISE MISSILES STRIKE SUDAN AND AFGHAN TARGETS TIED TO TERRORIST NETWORK

Monica S Lewinsky, in second appearance before grand jury, reportedly offers more specifics about her sexual relationship with Pres Clinton and about gifts he gave her as prosecutors seek to draw distinctions between her testimony and that given by Clinton on August 17; reportedly said Clinton intimately caressed her breasts and touched her genitals during several sexual encounters in White House; prosecutors reportedly bore in on events that led her to return gifts from President, which were subpoenaed in Paula Jones sexual misconduct lawsuit; are seeking to determine whether Clinton instructed Lewinsky to turn gifts over to secretary, Betty Currie, rather than give them to Jones's lawyers; Lewinsky reportedly testified she told Clinton that Jones subpoena demanded gifts, but that Clinton told her she could not turn them over if they were not in her possession; reportedly said day after she spoke with Clinton she received telephone call from Betty Currie, who later visited her apartment to retrieve them; Clinton reportedly testified he told Lewinsky in December 1997 that she had no choice but to turn over gifts he had given her to Jones's lawyers, and that he could not recall telling Currie to call her regarding them; prosecutors are also investigating whether Clinton kept some of gifts given to him by Lewinsky that were also subpoenaed in Jones case; Federal Bureau of Investigation's crime laboratory has reportedly determined that stain on blue dress turned over to prosecutors by Lewinsky was semen; photos (M)

Lewinsky Again Faces Jurors as Starr Seeks To Compare Accounts

David Kaczynski and wife receive $1 million reward from Justice Department for turning in older brother, Theodore Kaczynski, as Unabomber who killed three people and injured 29 others with mail bombs over 17-year period; reportedly will distribute reward among victims and their families; photo (M)

Unabomber's Kin Collect Reward Of $1 Million for Turning Him In

Melissa Drexler, 20-year-old Forked River, NJ, woman who delivered her child during her high school prom last year and then placed his body in trash can, pleads guilty to aggravated manslaughter in child's death; Superior Court Judge John A Ricciardi accepts plea and sets sentencing for Oct 29 (M)

Guilty Plea By Mother, 20, In Prom Death

 SUDDEN STRIKE -- The attack was carried out with 75 ship-launched missiles timed to hit simultaneously. Page A10.    TO ACT OR NOT TO ACT? -- Any action against terrorism appears to have the quality of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Page A11.

United States Fury On 2 Continents

Broadway producer Garth H Drabinsky, former head of Livent Inc, created brilliant but mythical setting for his business, a world where much of his famously lavish spending was visible on stage but somehow rarely hurt company's bottom line; one of Drabinsky's props was Livent's financial books, which are being investigated by securities regulators; company's new owners, Michael Ovitz and Roy Furman, say books appear to have been doctored; person close to Livent says Ovitz and Furman knew before they took control that the company had financial problems, though they did not anticipate what they call 'accounting irregularities'; graphs; photos (M)

A Bit of Barnum on Broadway; Livent Drew In a New Team Despite Juggling Expenses

Major League Baseball is investigating possible role of American League umpires in sale of baseballs that were used in perfect game that David Wells of New York Yankees pitched against Minnesota Twins on May 17; photo (M)

Baseball Asking if Umpires Sold Balls From Wells Game

Gov George E Pataki, two months after 26 retarded adults were found to be living in homeless shelters in Westchester County, proposes major expansion of housing program for developmentally disabled people, one that is intended to place thousands of them in group homes around New York State; photo (M)

August 21, 1998

Headlines from August 21, 1998

Ayckbourn's Dark Laughs

Man With Mission Takes On the U.S. At Far-Flung Sites

CRITICS OF CLINTON SUPPORT ATTACKS

Insurers Set $17.8 Billion Stock Deal

McGwire Hits Historic 50th and Keeps Going

Billboard 200

Da Game Is To Be Sold; Not To Be Told

Armageddon -- The Album

Hello Nasty

Dr. Dolittle: The Album

Stunt

Historical Context for August 21, 1998