September 28, 1999

Article discusses emergence of New Jersey hospital network as major player in basic and secondary medical services; many of New Jersey's largest hospital groups are now waging all-out battle in effort to retain patients in expensive, high profile specialties for which New York teaching hospitals are world famous; major effort is luring prominent doctors to state by giving them rare chance to create well-financed specialty programs; photo; graph (M)

Latin American Markets Respond Calmly to Default Stocks rose and currencies steadied across much of Latin America, the first day of trading after weekend news that Ecuador would default on some foreign debt and Colombia abandoned its system for defending the exchange value of its currency. Analysts attributed the generally calm regional response to relief that both nations had ended weeks of speculation and uncertainty about how they intended to address their economic problems. Even with the Colombian central bank no longer intervening to prop up the value of the peso, the currency there slipped barely 1 percent. [Page C6.]

Scientist at Work profile of Brigid Hogan, leading expert on embryology of the mouse and the scientific co-chairwoman and principal author of National Institutes of Health report on human embryo research; report, published in 1994, described benefits to be expected from study of embryonic stem cells, and said biologists should be allowed to derive cells from surplus embryos created in fertility clinics; precipitated maelstrom because it was scientists' public declaration of various types of human embryo research that were about to become technically feasible and medical benefits to be expected from each; Pres Clinton repudiated notion of creating human embryos for research purposes, and Congress has specifically forbidden National Institutes of Health to pay for any research in which human embryo is destroyed; photo (M)

Article on problems besetting New York Mets as they attempt to break out of slump that has sent them plummeting in standings and jeopardized their playoff chances; photo (M)

Price of gold soars $14, to $281.90 an ounce on New York Commodity Exchange, after rising as high as $288 an ounce; central banks of Europe, which own nearly half of gold held by governments and institutions, have begun rescue mission for gold, which slid to 20-year low earlier this year; banks eased fears that they would flood market by agreeing to limit annual sales of their reserves; what rescue effort means to price of gold over longer term is hard to know since details of banks' agreement were not announced; buyers may thin out in response to big spike in gold's prices; many analysts expect that to happen around $300 an ounce; photo (M)