March 9, 2000

Big East Conference college basketball tournament begins; Georgetown, Notre Dame, Connecticut, Seton Hall and Villanova advance; photo (M)

Pres Clinton sends Congress bill to usher China into World Trade Organization; claims opening China's markets will undermine Communist Party control; long-delayed transmission of bill to Congress sets off battle within Democratic Party that intertwines politics of trade, presidential election and Clinton's final effort to recast relations with Beijing; Clinton is dependent on support from House and Senate Republicans to pass measure; Vice Pres Gore, seeking to appease labor unions that vociferously oppose deal, has said he would negotiate something better if elected to office; Gov George W Bush supports China's entry into WTO, but has not given his position on tying passage of bill to providing new arms for Taiwan, issue several Republicans are pressing; Clinton, in speech at Johns Hopkins University, says little about Taiwan, whose tense relations with China have been worsening; photo (M)

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers are relenting somewhat on their ban of schooling for girls; schools of varying sizes are opening in homes, some secretly, others discreetly; United Nations estimates that 10,000 young girls are going to classes in Kabul, and more all the time; women operating schools secretly rely on word-of-mouth to attract students; most girls are eager; one teacher notes country's young girls have lost four years of education, and that children with illiterate parents have suffered most; photo of one girl who dressed herself as boy to attend school (M)

Whitney Museum of American Art's Biennial includes art work expected to provoke Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and reintroduce First Amendment issues raised by Sensation exhibition at Brooklyn Museum of Art last fall; Sanitation, installation by Hans Haacke, German-born New York artist, puts Giuliani in company of Nazis, with quotations by him threatening to cut off funding for Brooklyn Museum, written in Fraktur script favored by Third Reich, with sound of jackboots marching in background; work was commissioned by museum, which did not know ahead of time exactly what he would produce; Maxwell L Anderson, Whitney's director, says museum will back Haacke and take its chances with City Hall, despite artist's deliberate intent to provoke Giuliani and public; Whitney Museum gets only small amount of monetary support from city, but it will seek city money for construction when it expands at some point in next few years; photo (M)

Joyce Purnick Metro Matters column discusses complexities of New York City's Board of Elections in regard to voting rules and regulations; cites filing of change of registration from Democrat to Independent years ago and still being a registered Democrat (M)