New York State Gov George Pataki and Democratic majority in State Assembly agree on measure to tighten state's lobbying law, forging unusual alliance on issue; measure features several new provisions, including requirement that lobbyists in counties and some municipalities disclose their activities for first time; two sides decline, however, to adopt major new restrictions on gifts that lawmakers can accept from lobbyists (M)

Odd Alliance Drafts Limits On Lobbying

Bernard Holland reviews Metropolitan Opera production of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby, with Jerry Hadley in title role and Dawn Upshaw as Daisy Buchanan; James Levine conducts; photo (M)

Music Catering To the Words Of Fitzgerald

BP Amoco reportedly has tentative agreement with Tyumen Oil to resolve conflict that threatened company's huge investment in Russia; BP Amoco would regain authority over prized Siberian oil field sold in questionable bankruptcy auction to Tyumen; dispute has come to symbolize problems of dealing with Russia and led BP Amoco to consider pulling out altogether; unclear is whether reported deal is directly related to broader pressure from US; Sec Madeleine Albright has ordered US Export-Import Bank to suspend $500-million loan to Tyumen (M)

BP Reported in Agreement to Regain Important Siberian Oil Field

John Tierney The Big City column discusses work of Doe Fund, which provides shelter, food, social services and paid work to homeless men (M)

The Big City; Helping Hand Holds Out A Broom

William C Rhoden Sports of The Times column compares records and careers of Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; Their Feats Are Similar; Not the Times

Article focuses on work week of New York Giants coaching staff as they prepare for game; photo (M)

PRO FOOTBALL: So Many Plays, So Little Time; Bleary-Eyed Coaches Play Chess With Pieces That Weigh 300 Pounds

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, responding ro rising concerns about posible terrorist attacks on New Year's Eve, says there is no evidence of any specific plot against New York City; outlines painstaking plans to maintain order as up to 2 million people are expected to gather in Times Square to ring in 2000; photo (M)

No Need to Avoid Times Square On New Year's Eve, Giuliani Says

Romania's economic prosperity, which almost vanished under dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, grows even more remote 10 years after revolution that toppled Communism; often-overlooked agrarian country of 22 million, bigger than most Eastern European neighbors, is going through harder times than most; economy, in which any capitalist initiative was throttled by Stalinist system more severe than any East European regime outside Albania, has been unable to adapt to free-market system; middle class, vital for carrying out capitalist reforms, numbers less than 5 percent of population, compared with 30 percent in Czechoslovakia, 20 percent in Hungary and 15 percent in Poland; country's average wage has slipped, to $80 per month, and one-third of population lives on less than $2 per day; violent strikes reminiscent of Ceausescu's waning days have returned; government of Pres Emil Constantinescu--fragile and bickering multiparty coalition elected in 1997 with great hopes for change--is in turmoil; has been accused of corruption and of bungling economy; has not planned 10th anniversary celebration of revolution out of fear that any spark could set off rioting; photos; map (M)

Romania Sees Promise of Prosperity Slip Away

Oliver Stone's brawling, hyper-macho professional football film has enough in-the-thick-of-it playing-field action to satisfy the fantasies of most armchair players. In the style of Mr. Stone's ''Wall Street,'' the movie is also a crude morality play that pits the old ways against the new with the veteran coach Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) embodying tradition and a young hotshot quarterback, Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), the new. Although the acting is uneven (Cameron Diaz is disappointing as a tough team owner), and the final scenes are shamelessly &quot;Rocky&quot;-ish, the movie delivers a credible, action-charged vision of the frenzied world of professional sports as a metaphor for the volatility of American culture. — Stephen Holden

End Zone As War Zone . . . Hut!

Buffalo Sabres defeat New York Rangers, 3-1; photo (M)

Too Old and Too Slow: Rangers Can't Stop Sabres

Baseball Comr Bud Selig finds Los Angeles Dodgers guilty of foreign transgression for signing infielder Adrian Beltre when he was minor; orders team's base of operations in Dominican Republic shut down for year; rules that Dodgers may keep Beltre (M)

Dodgers Get to Keep Beltre, but Are Penalized

Democratic Party officials establish committees to channel large, unregulated contributions to several Senate races--move they say circumvents bans on using such money for individual candidates; have created so-called victory funds, similar to committees established for some Republican Senate candidates, to collect unrestricted 'soft money' donations for races in New York, California, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan and Missouri; say funds will not violate federal laws that limit size of contributions to individual candidates and bar national parties from raising and spending soft money contributions on specific campaigns; type of fund-raising committee was devised by Republicans in 1997 (M)

Democrats Able To Circumvent Donation Limit

Federal prosecutors in New York City charge James J McDermott Jr, former chairman of investment bank Keefe Bruyette & Woods, with insider trading in case in which he is accused of leaking information about potential billion-dollar bank deals to pornographic movie actress Kathryn B Ganon, whom he was dating; leaked information concerned six potential bank mergers, all involving firm's clients; Gannon is accused of illegally earning $88,000 in 1997 and 1998 from trades based on information and of passing information about deals to Anthony P Pomponio, New Jersey businessman charged with making $86,000 in illegal trading profits; McDermott is not accused of making any illegal profits himself, but is first Wall Street chief executive charged with insider trading; photo (M)

Executive's Affair With Stripper Leads to Insider Trading Charges

Lisa Belkin column says having children means never having enough time; says the time pressures she and her husband work under are multiplied for the single parent; drawing (M)

That Which Can't Be Bottled

John B McCoy resigns as chairman and chief executive of Bank One Corp, which he helped transform from regional bank into nation's fourth-largest holding company; photo; president Verne G Istock will assume duties for now; stock rises on surprise announcement, which comes after series of executive departures tied to yearlong earnings slide; move underscores problems financial institutions face after wave of expensive mergers; Bank One's earnings problems are traced to acquisition of First USA credit card, which has had profit declines (M)

THE MARKETS: Market Place; Top Executive At Bank One Steps Down

Marian Burros report on Grand Central Market, new European-style food hall inside railroad terminal that is already crowded with shoppers even though many New Yorkers are unaware of its existence; photos; good offerings from number of vendors noted, along with directions for finding market (M)

Grand Central's Little Secret: It's a Destination for Cooks

Housing and Urban Development Sec Andrew M Cuomo says his agency will take direct control of program that provides $60 million in federal money for services for homeless in New York City because administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani cannot be trusted to distribute money fairly; says he is responding to recent federal court ruling that found administration improperly blocked AIDS service organization from receiving federal money, in retaliation for organization's frequent criticism of Mayor; Giuliani accuses Cuomo of playing politics with nation's program for homeless; Giuliani, who is likely Republican opponent of Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York State Senate race, notes her campaign manager is Bill DeBlasio, who until recently was regional HUD director in New York; Cuomo is informal adviser to Clinton in Senate race (M)

U.S. Wresting Homeless Fund From Giuliani

George Pompidou Center in Paris reopens after being closed for 27 months to allow its insides to be torn apart and thoroughly reorganized; a crucial objective of 'new' center is to focus attention on National Museum of Modern Art and its extraordinary collection of 20th-century works; photos (M)

Pompidou Unearths the Museum Within

British Museum and British Library settle long-running dispute over royalties generated by estate of George Bernard Shaw; under agreement, two institutions will split $11.5 million at issue; William Christie and his Baroque music ensemble, Les Arts Florissants, celebrate his 55th birthday and ensemble's 20th annniversary with concert at Opera Comique in Paris; photo; musicians and trustees of New Jersey Symphony Orchestra announce ratification of new three-year agreement, eight months before contract expires; pact described; Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn, announces its 2000 season of musicals; photo of director Gerald Gutierrez (M)

Footlights

R W Apple Jr, in third of five culinary reports from Italy, describes pastry and sweets scene in Sicily; photos (L)

La Dolce Vita, Sicilian Style

Rick Marin comments on efforts by some restaurants and wine shops to demystify complexities of wine; notes that in some cases, this means the convenience of wines listed by style and weight for today's more curious, knowledgeable customers; photo (M)

When Vouvray Is 'Mellow Yellow'

Bell Atlantic reportedly will receive permission from Federal Communications Commission to become first of Baby Bell local phone carriers allowed into $80 billion long distance market, signaling new era of competition in telecommunications; No. 2 local telephone company will be allowed to expand into broad new market covering long-distance services, ranging from phone calls to advanced data communications; permission, which is expected to cover only New York State, could spearhead broad invasion of long-distance business by other Bells, allowing consumers nationwide to buy local and long-distance service from same company (M)

FIRST BABY BELL TO GAIN APPROVAL FOR LONG DISTANCE

Grace Huang, a 23-year-old viola student at the Juilliard School, was chatting with two classmates and a professor in Room 524 recently about her latest composition: a jazzy score to a mock television commercial for Ethan Allen, the furniture maker and retailer.

 A classical musician studying TV commercials? At Juilliard?

A Symphony of Classicism and Mad Ave.

Federal prosecutors and Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J Hynes, investigating fatal collapse of building under construction in Williamsburg section of Brooklyn and possibility that City Hall had granted uncommon favors for supporters in Williamsburg's Orthodox Jewish community, are looking into allegations that Bruce Teitelbaum, former Giuliani chief of staff, tried to help developers in disputes with city officials trying to enforce building requirements; photo (M)

The Wages of Loyalty; Top Giuliani Fund-Raiser and Ex-Chief Is Investigated

Ahmed Ressam, 32-year-old Algerian arrested in Seattle after entering US from Canada in car loaded with explosives and bomb-making materials, has been focus of French intelligence for some time because of connection to loosely organized Islamic radicals that carried out series of attacks across France in 1996; French officials link him to Fateh Kamel, Algerian veteran of Afghan war; tie him to group that carried out attacks in 1996, which left bystander and several Islamic radicals dead; reportedly briefed American and Canadian officials about their interest in Ressam, including his possible links to financing of Islamic terror activities in Europe and elsewhere; photo (M)

Arrest at U.S. Border Reverberates in France

Stansted Airport is an international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Uttlesford, Essex, 42 miles northeast of Central London.

Just after taking off from London Stansted Airport, Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 crashes into Hatfield Forest near Great Hallingbury, killing all four people on board.

December 22, 1999

Headlines from December 22, 1999

Odd Alliance Drafts Limits On Lobbying

Music Catering To the Words Of Fitzgerald

BP Reported in Agreement to Regain Important Siberian Oil Field

The Big City; Helping Hand Holds Out A Broom

Sports of The Times; Their Feats Are Similar; Not the Times

Billboard 200

Born Again

All The Way...A Decade Of Song

Millennium

...Baby One More Time

Supernatural

Historical Events

Historical Context for December 22, 1999