March 24, 2000

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)

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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.

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)

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)

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)

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)