February 10, 2000

Tense standoff between police and hijackers of Afghan airliner at Stansted airport outside London ends peacefully with hijackers releasing 150 or so people aboard plane and surrendering to authorities; police say they have not identified hijackers and refuse to discuss their demands (M)

Sarah Lyall interviews Dave Eggers, 29-year-old author of best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; photos (M)

Thousands of Democrats and independents across South Carolina and country are transforming presidential race by voting for Sen John McCain; he has made great strides toward Republican nomination because of help of non-Republicans; experts estimate that 10 to 30 percent of voters will cross over party lines in South Carolina primary on Feb 19; say many Democrats are also switching their party affiliations in closed primary states, and attribute shift to McCain; photo (M)

Anne Raver column on Duisburg Nord, vast landscape park built on 500 acres of industrial wasteland in western Germany; project, designed by landscape architect Peter Latz, has left much of rubble untouched; slag heaps, blast furnaces abandoned ore bunkers and elevated rails from former steel mills form very fabric of park; photos (M)

New class of computers called Internet appliances, endowed with modest microprocessors and little memory, will give consumers cheap, quick and almost effortless Internet access; most will come with factory-set function keys for weather, e-commerce, news and services like e-mail and virtual address books; other devices will also increasingly give users easy Web access without personal computer; companies big and small plan to offer Internet-only terminals by summer; table comparing Internet appliance with low-priced notebook computer; photos (M)

Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds reportedly have reached tentative trade that would send Ken Griffey Jr to Reds (M)

Anonymous assaults on major Web sites continue as computer vandals cripple E Trade, one of largest online brokerage houses, and Zdnet.com, media site; Justice Dept pledges to find those responsible, but computer experts question whether any defense can easily be deployed against attacks; Atty Gen Janet Reno says FBI has opened criminal investigation; impact of attacks deepens on third day of what appears to be well-planned siege by single individual or group; attacks, in addition to damaging commerce at sites that have become targets, slow traffic in some portions of Internet; publicly traded shares of e-commerce companies drop in value as investors try to understand implications (M)

Joyce Purnick Metro Matters column on former NYC Schools Chancellor Ramon C Cortines supporting Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani and his call for mayoral control of New York City school system (M)

NYC Mayor Giuliani administration, escalating feud over $500 million in welfare-to-work contracts, is pushing to severaly restrict city comptroller's power to review and approve municipal contracts, which now total $7 billion a year; Giuliani has asked his three appointees to to city's five-member contract policy board to rescind city policies that require Comptroller Alan G Hevesi to be given detailed documents and enough time to determine if bidders have been treated equitably; maneuver occurs after Hevesi rejected three contracts that city had awarded to organizations hired to help people on welfare find work (M)

Dave Anderson Sports of The Times column discusses Tiger Woods winning AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament for his sixth consecutive PGA tour victory; photo (M)

Article discusses controversy in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, over proposed continuing-care retirement community; group of residents is trying to stop project and its six new buildings; warns about dangerous zoning precedents, increasing traffic and argues that project's scale is too big for tiny riverfront village; skirmish is part of broader battle unfolding in suburbs, particularly in Westchester County, concerning development of retirement communities; photo (M)

Pianist Victor Borge will make guest appearance with New York City Housing Authority Chamber Orchestra in benefit concert saluting Black History Month, at Weill Recital Hall; photo; Gerard Schwarz will become music director of Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; will continue as music director of New York Chamber Symphony, Seattle Symphony and Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra; El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan will exhibit paintings of more than 80 Caribbean and Latin American masters including Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Fernando Botero and Rufino Tamayo in show, Latin American Still Life: Reflections of Time and Place; photo; works by socially committed composer Hikaru Hayashi will be centerpiece at opening of 25th anniversary season of Music From Japan at Merkin Concert Hall in performances by Vox Vocal Ensemble and Tokyo String Quartet; 50th Berlin film festival opens with screening of Wim Wenders's thriller The Million Dollar Hotel, starring Mel Gibson and Milla Jovovich (M)