Justice Dept begins criminal investigation into whether White House officialls illegally suppresssed large numbers of e-mail messages subpoenaed in investigations of Clinton administration campaign fund-raising and other activities; court papers show that investigators are looking into accusations that White House officials threatened employees of nongovernment contractor, Northrup Grumman, if they disclosed that messages were missing; case reviewed (M)

JUSTICE OFFICIALS BEGIN AN INQUIRY INTO WHITE HOUSE

 Making Ours Look Cheap  Americans may be fretting over the prospect of $2-a-gallon gasoline, but in Europe, where prices have been near $4 for years, most drivers only wish they had it so bad.   PAGE A4

INSIDE

Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani and interim Schools Chancellor Harold O Levy meet for first time in search for common ground in running school system; meeting caps 24 hours of events that are ominous for prospects of summer school program; impasse over merit pay for teachers threatens to force Levy to scale down his plans for sending hundreds of thousands of faltering students to summer school; teachers union delegates have rejected Giuliani's plan to pay teachers on basis of their individual performance in summer school; photo (M)

Summer School Plans in Peril, Mayor and Levy Talk

Ben Brantley reviews play Aida, directed by Robert Falls; music is by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls and David Henry Hwang; play stars Heather Headley, Sherie Rene Scott and Adam Pascal; photos (M)

Destiny And Duty, Nile Style

Health officials from New York metropolitan region begin first part of three-step attack on mosquitoes to reduce chances of sequel to last year's West Nile virus outbreak; New York State Health Comr Antonia C Novello says plan consists of disrupting mosquitoes reproduction, monitoring mosquitoes and birds for signs of virus and instituting new procedures at hospitals to catch earliest hint of human cases; says pesticide spraying will occur only as last resort (M)

Latest Battle With Virus To Be Fought In Backyards

Biologists, opening new window into mysteries of animal design and nature of life, descibe how they have decoded almost entire genetic rule book for making Drosophila fruit fly, organism whose study is deeply interwoven with progress of modern biology; achievement closes a cycle in scientific history that began in 1910, when Thomas Morgan of Columbia University chose Drosophila as experimental animal with which he would work out many of basic principles of genetics; announcement in Pittsburgh is a milestone in effort to sequence human genome, because it seems to validate a high-risk decoding strategy adopted by Dr J Craig Venter of Celera Corp, which is competing against public consortium of university centers to be first to decode human genetic inheritance; despite rivalry in decoding human genome, work is a collaboration between team of scientists led by Venter and another led by Dr Gerald M Rubin, University of California biologist who directs public consortium's work on fruit fly; photo of fly (M)

On Road to Human Genome, A Milestone in the Fruit Fly

Michigan State beats Syracuse, 75-58, in semifinals of Midwest Regional NCAA basketball tournament; photo (M)

Spartans Rally Past Orangemen

The Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission accused both Consolidated Edison and its own staff yesterday of mishandling an earlier inspection of the Westchester nuclear plant that leaked radiactive steam last month.  

Con Ed Is Criticized In Nuclear Inspection

Floyd Norris column on financial problems of MicroStrategy Inc focuses on PricewaterhouseCoopers's role as auditors for company; says accounting firm's actions raises questions about firm's competence and its commitment to being independent auditor whose word can be trusted when it certifies that financial statements comply with rules; graph (M)

Failed Audit: The Humiliation of PricewaterhouseCoopers

Pope John Paul II, standing alone before granite slab symbolizing graves of unidentified victims of Holocaust, bows his head in long silence at Hall of Remembrance of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial; declares, in a speech later, 'In this place of memories, the mind and heart and soul feel an extreme need for silence'; Pope's visit to Yad Vashem, where he meets with Holocaust survivors, including several Jews from his Polish hometown of Wadowice, is for Israel the high point of his trip; Pope declares 'I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church, motivated by the Gospel law of truth and love and by no political considerations, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time, and in any place'; Prime Min Ehud Barak tells Pope that his coming to Tent of Remembrance at Yad Vashem 'is a climax of this historic journey of healing'; photo of Pope; maps (L)

At Yad Vashem, Pope Tries to Salve History's Scars

First Alliance Corp in Irvine, Calif, nationwide home equity lender facing host of lawsuits accusing it of deceptive sales practices, announces it has stopped making new loans and has filed for bankruptcy protection; mortgage company, which has offices in more than dozen states, including New York, New Jersey and California, says that it has closed its loan offices and laid off 85 percent of its work force of roughly 480 employees; under federal law, one immediate effect of bankruptcy filing is to freeze all pending lawsuits facing company and force those plaintiffs, who include many elderly homeowners and AARP, to pursue their claims in bankruptcy court; other lawsuits caught in bankruptcy litigation noted; bankruptcy cases cover parent company and several subsidiaries, including its flagship, First Alliance Mortgage Co; graph (M)

TROUBLED LENDER SEEKS PROTECTION

Abuse of prescription drugs is increasingly common form of drug abuse for college and high school students around country, according to drug experts around country and dozens of students interviewed at eight universities in Northeast this week; whether it is stimulants like Ritalin, Aderol and Dexedrine, painkillers like Percocet, Percodan and Vicodin, migraine pills like butalbital, nerve relaxers like Xanax and Valium, or even powerful antipsychotic agents like Thorazine, nation's growing list of prescribed drugs is finding its way out of medicine cabinets and onto college campuses at rate that is troubling to many doctors and epidemiologists; case of Josh Doroff, Trinity College senior who died after taking lethal combination of illicit drugs, cited; photo (L)

New Campus High: Illicit Prescription Drugs

Shinobu Yaguchi's road comedy ''Adrenaline Drive'' feels as if it was built to fit the contours of pop music, with oddball, freaky bits of comedy that leap out of nowhere.    When the out-of-it Suzuki (Masanobu Ando) stands before a group of gangsters and punishment is imminent, one of the crooks loosens his pants and begins to slide his belt out of its loops. The diffident Suzuki barely has enough going on to hold his head up under the best of circumstances -- and he doesn't see too many of those -- and bends his neck down even farther as his mouth goes slack with fear. But the thug is just tucking his shirt into his pants.  

Making Out Like Bandits, Thanks to Silly Crooks

St John's Coach Mike Jarvis says agent, Andy Miller, was present at recent meeting that Jarvis had with Erick Barkley to discuss his future; says Barkley has not made his final decision on whether to leave school to enter NBA draft (M)

At a Meeting, Barkley Lets an Agent Tag Along

Nuclear Regulatory Commission accuses Consolidated Edison and its own staff of mishandling 1997 inspection of Indian Point 2 nuclear plant; says that structural weaknesses should have been detected well before Feb 15 radiation leak (M)

N.R.C. Faults '97 Inspection At Power Plant

Dow Jones industrial average climbs above 11,000 for first time in six weeks, gaining 253.16 points, or 2.3 percent, to 11,119.86; Standard & Poor's 500-stock index sets its third consecutive record, rising 26.71 points, or 1.8 percent, to 1,527.35, while Nasdaq composite index gains 75.86 points, or 1.6 percent, to 4,940.61; bond prices also gain, with price of benchmark 30-year issue rising 26/32, to 104 25/32; yield falls to 5.91 percent from 5.96 percent; graph; charts on stocks with large price percentage gains and losses and US key interest rates (M)

Dow Climbs Over 11,000 In Wide Rally

Automobiles article on Americans' continuing appetite for MG, car that has not been built in 20 years; John H Twist, guru to MG owners, has made University Motors in Ada, Mich, a mecca for enthusiasts; he comments on recent announcement that Alchemy Partners, turnaround specialists, hope to transform Rover into MG Car Co; photos; chart (M)

MG's Faithful Get Hopes Up Again

Iowa State beats UCLA, 80-56, in semifinals of Midwest Regional NCAA basketball tournament; photo (M)

Iowa State Overlooked? Not Anymore

New 25-screen AMC Empire multiplex theater will open on 42nd Street in April; moviegoers will buy their tickets beneath huge mural showing three female muses in long flowing robes; mural, lost for 60 years under layers of paint, has been restored at insistence of historic preservationists; Harriet Irgang, director of Rustin Levenson Art Conservation, which restored mural, says she is fairly certain that all three women are in fact same man, Julian Eltinge, once-famous female impersonator for whom theater was first named in 1912; photos (M)

A Theater's Muses, Rescued; Mural Figures Recall Celebrity of a (Well-Painted) Face

Vladimir V Putin says that if he is elected president in March 26 election, he will use trusted group of former colleagues from KGB to tackle Russia's endemic corruption; in brief interview with Ted Koppel of ABC News program Nightline, Putin seeks to assure the West that his intelligence connections will be used to build a more fair and even-handed system (M)

Putin Will Use Ex-K.G.B. Men To Battle Graft

 Home Equity Lender Files For Bankruptcy Protection  First Alliance, a nationwide home equity lender facing a host of lawsuits accusing it of deceptive sales practices, announced that it had stopped making new loans to homeowners and that it had filed for bankruptcy protection.    The mortgage company, which had offices in more than a dozen states, including New York, New Jersey and California, said that it has closed its loan offices and laid off 85 percent of its work force. [Page A1.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

Dave Anderson Sports of The Times column on New Jersey Devils pres Lou Lamoriello's decision to fire Coach Robbie Ftorek and promote Larry Robinson as Ftorek's successor; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; Lamoriello In Rangers' Future?

New Jersey Devils pres Lou Lamoriello, concerned by recent slump, dismisses Coach Robbie Ftorek and replaces him with Larry Robinson; it is drastic move by team that has third-best record in NHL and is in first place in Eastern Conference; photo (M)

First-Place Devils Fire Their Coach

Stock market regulators are growing concerned that recent surge in investor indebtedness, which has been greatest at online firms, reflects participation of many people who do not understand how dangerous stock market debt can be; some online brokerage firms have recently increased their margin requirements; Charles Schwab requires greater down payment than 50 percent minimum set by Federal Reserve on 270 securities its executives feel are too volatile or illiquid; Datek Online Holdings, TD Waterhouse and Ameritrade have large number of stocks where they refuse to extend credit, while requiring higher down payment for others; Lael Desmond, medical student, comments on financial problems he encountered by buying stocks on margin; graphs; photos (M)

Buying on Margin Becomes a Habit; Investors Turn to Credit in a Bull Market

US Airways and its flight attendants continue talks to avert partial strike or shutdown set for 12:01 am on March 25; labor dispute has already hurt US Airways as threat of strike has cut into its airline ticket sales; US Airways has said that it will shut down operations if no tentative agreement is reached by midnight; industry analysts say shutdown could reduce revenue by $25 million to $30 million a day; photo (M)

March 24, 2000

Headlines from March 24, 2000

JUSTICE OFFICIALS BEGIN AN INQUIRY INTO WHITE HOUSE

INSIDE

Summer School Plans in Peril, Mayor and Levy Talk

Destiny And Duty, Nile Style

Latest Battle With Virus To Be Fought In Backyards

Billboard 200

Supernatural

Latest Greatest Straitest Hits

Life Story

Dr. Dre -- 2001

BTNHResurrection

Historical Context for March 24, 2000