May 21, 1999

George Vecsey Sports of The Times column notes that New York Knicks beat Atlanta Hawks, 77-70, and lead second-round playoff series, 2-0; says quarter of sellout crowd of 22,558 people in Georgia Dome were rooting for Knicks; photo (M)

Police 'wall of silence' continues to crash down on Justin Volpe, New York City police officer charged with brutal attack on Abner Louima; four officers in last eight days, ignoring Volpe's angry stares, have held jury rapt with chilling accounts of his words and deeds night Louima was brutalized in Brooklyn station house (M)

Tens of thousands of legal and illegal immigrants from Central America and Mexico live jammed into subdivided houses and partitioned apartments across Long Island, biding their time in invisible suburban slums that local officials say they have little hope of controlling; these men and women perform some of lowest jobs on Island's booming economic ladder, but earn wages far greater than anything they could have earned at home--up to $10 an hour; many of these jobs would not get done without immigrant labor; same booming economy that has drawn so many immigrants to Long Island has also created extraordinary shortage of affordable housing and enabled some landlords to charge thousands of dollars a month to groups of men who then split rent as many as 10 or 20 ways; photos (L)

Federal prosecutors describe how senior executives from world's largest producers of vitamins would gather clandestinely for a few days each year to set production quotas, prices and distribution for vitamin ingredients; say midlevel executives would review 'the budget for Vitamin Inc' several months after these top-level meetings to make sure everythig was working as planned or to adjust budget to reflect corporate profits and worldwide demand; Hoffmann-LaRoche Ltd, pharmaceutical unit of Roche Holding AG of Switzerland, pleads guilty to one criminal count of violating Sherman Antitrust Act and agrees to pay $500 million penalty; BASF AG of Germany agrees to pay $225 million fine for its role in conspiracy; dozen smaller companies are still being investigated; photo of Roche executives (L)

Nasdaq chief exec Frank G Zarb's plan to erect huge billboard on 4 Times Square, skyscraper known as Conde Nast building, has sparked dispute with Conde Nast chmn S I Newhouse Jr and their landlord Douglas Durst; Newhouse contends that $20 million electronic sign will block natural light from his windows; Durst is trying to take middle road between his squabbling tenants; photos (M)