April 7, 1999

Universal Music and BMG, nation's largest record companies, are expected to announce formation of joint venture to create series of Internet sites to promote and sell music; move recognizes growing importance of Internet in building audience for musicians and for selling music; estimated 2 percent of compact disks sold in US will be bought over Internet this year (M)

World Trade Organization hands US significant but only partial victory in its long-running dispute over banana trade, authorizing Clinton Administration to impose $191 million in sanctions against European-made goods; figure is WTO's estimate of damage done to American companies because of Europe's elaborate quota system that favors importing of bananas from its former colonies, instead of from Central American nations where Chiquita Brands and other American corporations are major growers; US has argued that damage was far higher, amounting to $513 million, and it began collecting 100 percent tariffs on many European luxury goods in early March; photo (M)

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to celebrate its 30th anniversary, as well as impending 70th birthday of founding artistic director Charles Wadsworth, by recreating one of Wadsworth's favorite concerts, from 1974; photo; Jonathan Schwartz, artistic director of Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series, to join WNYC-AM to host two new weekly music shows; more than 150 photographs documenting explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's legendary trip to Antarctica will go on display at American Museum of Natural History; photo; historians in Spain say they believe they have found remains of master painter Velazquez (M)

Children grow up to have linked lives. Haunting and constantly surprising.

NATO bombs accidentally demolish two residential areas in Serbian town of Aleksinac; photos; map; local police report seven people killed and almost 50 others wounded; explosions also damage NATO's reputation for surgical precision in strikes against Slobodan Milosevic and his policies in Kosovo Province; Air Commodore David Wilby says it is possible weapons fell short of target, Serbian army barracks 600 yards away (S)