March 2, 2000

Sol Lewitt sells designs for wall drawings and detailed instructions for how they should be carried out; two hundred of his wall drawings have been installed in homes around the world; photo (M)

Clinton administration will ask Congress for sweeping new powers to combat money laundering in wake of discovery that Bank of New York served as conduit for $7 billion in Russian money, some of which reportedly derived from illegal activitiees; administration will seek authority to ban financial transactions between US banks or brokerage houses and off-shore financial centers; administration also looks for ways to make it harder for drug traffickers to funnel profits through American banks; Treasury Sec Lawrence H Summers will announce proposed legislation on Mar 2; effort to seek new powers is clearly response to situation in Russia, where financial mismanagement has been problem for Clinton administration and International Monetary Fund (M)

Henrietta Dax, bookstore owner in Cape Town, South Africa, crisscrosses southern Africa in pickup truck as a sort of Marco Polo of books, buying books indigenous to area at each stop with cash or through barter and selling them to customers worldwide, clientele includes book collectors, governments and universities; photos (M)

Azerbaijan's Pres Heydar Aliyev is attempting to end Congressional ban on US government aid to Azerbaijan, measure passed to punish country for its blockade of Armenia; Azerbaijan has been on government blacklist since 1992 thanks to well-coordinated lobbying effort by Armenian-Americans and strong coalition of supporters of Armenia in Congress; Aliyev has engaged in face-to-face lobbying, and some high-powered hired professionals are doing same behind the scenes; some of most powerful American oil companies, including Exxon, Mobil, Unocal and Pennzoil-Quaker State, have been acting quietly on Azerbaijan's behalf; US oil company executive says restrictions on government assistance to Azerbaijan are interfering with efforts of American companies to develop oil there; Pres Clinton is leaving decision on lifting ban to Congress; map; photos (M)

Israeli government defies Prime Min Ehud Barak's appeals and approves preliminary bill that would make future referendum on peace with Syria extremely difficult to pass; move reveals instability of Barak's broad-based coalition and will certainly complicate his peacemaking efforts at time he is trying to entice Syria back to negotiating table; bill would require absolute majority of all eligible voters, not just those who report to polls, to approve referendum; many doubt it will ever become law, but its initial approval sends signal to Syria, which is already skittish, that Barak may not win public backing for what he promises; Syria is seeking full return of Golan Heights; photo (M)