February 5, 2000

Pfizer Inc reportedly nears completion of $87 billion deal to acquire Warner-Lambert and create largest US drugmaker; will reportedly exchange 2.75 shares of company stock for every Warner-Lambert share; American Home Products, which agreed to merge with Warner-Lambert, will drop bid in exchange for $1.8 billion in breakup fees (M)

Chris Woodruff of United States loses to Byron Black of Zimbabwe in Davis Cup play, Harare, Zimbabwe, with John McEnroe's first day on sideline as captain of US Davis Cup team everything he feared; photos of Black and Woodruff (M)

Ten million Russians, including one million in St Petersburg, still live in Soviet-era communal flats, makeshift cubicles crammed with people and utterly devoid of privacy; residents share bathrooms, hallways and common kitchen; they are mired in communal milieu by inertia, lack of choice and outright poverty; photos; diagram (M)

Amateur historians in New Jersey are busy spending their time and money pinning down memories, trying to keep the past alive; Robert MacAvoy and his friend Chuck Eckhardt spend their weekends traipsing through cemeteries of New Jersey, trying to document graves of Civil War veterans before elements destroy headstones; other dedicated amateurs are studying things like defunct dairies and departed railroads; in Monmouth County, volunteers with metal detectors have devoted thousands of hours to excavating famous battlefield; other examples of amateur historians at work cited; photos; map (L)

Federal District Judge Leonard B Sand, nearly eight years after Social Security Adm agreed to review cases of thousands of New Yorkers who claimed they were wrongfully denied disability benefits during Reagan Adm, criticizes agency for moving too slowly, saying people are dying before their claims can be processed; orders Social Security Adm to give prompt attention to backlog, and to report back if it cannot process at least 30,000 cases a year until work is complete (M)

United States Justice Dept, after 14-month investigation of Passaic's voting patterns and procedures, takes city to court, charging that its system of electing Council members in citywide voting discriminates against Hispanic voters; Hispanics are estimated to make up well over half voting age population, yet throughout most of 1990's;, there wsa only one Hispanic member on seven-member Council; last May, a second made it; lawsuit asks Federal District Court to throw out system in which top vote-getters are elected, regardless of where they live; suit seeks instead to carve Passaic into seven Council districts; three would be dominated by Hispanic voters, presumably guaranteeing election of three Hispanic Council members; Mayor Margie Semler is indignant over what she sees as outside interference, and lawsuit has rankled many others as well, including two Hispanic Council members; photo (M)

Poorly financed, often incompetent defense lawyers have emerged as common thread in Illinois cases in which 13 innocent men were sentenced to death; legal experts say situation in Illinois is mirrored in many other states; some supporters of death penalty, many of whom back Gov George Ryan's moratorium on executions, also criticize legal system for failing to provide adequate defenses; photo (M)

John Tierney Big City column reports on responses to last week's column inviting readers to come up with names to describe dot-com louts; notes some suggestions were technotrash, dolt-coms, netjerks and netwit (M)

South Koreans, especially producers of pickled cabbage called kimchi, are increasingly angered over Japan's alleged attempts to co-opt their national dish; staple of Korean diet for centuries has become increasingly popular and lucrative export in recent years, particularly to Japanese market; Japanese are marketing their own copycat versions and, worse, calling it kimchi; Koreans have brought complaint to international food regulators; photos; chart (M)

Labor Department reports number of new jobs jumped in Jan by 387,000, while unemployment rate fell to 4 percent, lowest level in 30 years, from 4.1 percent; Labor Sec Alexis Herman says labor market, despite low unemployment, is not inflationary, interview; holds ususually warm mid-Jan weather drove up job growth; employment graphs and tables (M)

Profile of and interview with hockey star Pavel Bure, who some say has single-handedly turned Florida Panthers' sagging fortunes around; Bure is leading NHL in goals with 37; photo (M)

Maurice Greene sets Millrose G