Immigrants from Bangladesh own most of 'Indian' restaurants in New York City; almost all of restaurant owners come from Sylhet region in Bangladesh; owners say they use Indian names because Americans know about India; map; photo (M)

The Star of Bangladesh; In New York, Don't Take 'Indian' Food Too Literally

Queens College pres Allen L Sessoms, who wanted to make campus into elite university with AIDS research center, resigns under pressure from top City University of New York officials; CUNY trustees say officials pressed for Sessoms's resignation because they believed he misled them in saying that he had successfully raised money for center; Sessoms photo (M)

Under Siege, A President Leaves CUNY

Task force of New York school officials and executives of several big computer companies proposes to distribute laptop computers to city schoolchildren and to create a school Web site that would give companies advertising space in exchange for services and equipment; plan comes two months after Board of Education approved proposal to allow corporate donors to have their names attached to school classrooms, libraries or athletic fields in recognition of donations to pay for facilities; board members say plans, which they acknowedge are unusual for publicly financed school system, are a way of attracting dollars for programs that could not be paid for with taxes (M)

School Board Considers Deal To Swap Ads for Computers

Interior Dept approves plans for $500 million casino to be operated by St Regis Mohawk Indian tribe in Catskills, where local officials have hoped that gambling might bring economic revival to depressed resort area; under proposal, 30 acres of land next to Monticello Raceway in Sullivan County will be put in trust for Mohawks for casino complex; plan must be approved by Gov George E Pataki; map; photo (M)

Tribe Wins Federal Approval for Casino in the Borscht Belt

Federal Judge Harold Baer Jr strikes down city regulation governing number of protesters allowed on steps of City Hall; rules that city has unfairly restricted access to favored spot for everything from demonstrations to news conferences; struggle for City Hall steps has become one of symbolic battles of Giuliani administration, with mayor arguing that increased security is needed (M)

Judge Strikes Down Rule Limiting City Hall Protests

Comment on Jean-Philippe Rameau, Baroque master who who died 14 years after Bach, and whose elegant music is too often overshadowed by heavy weight of Bach; drawing; some upcoming Rameau performances noted (S)

Paying Court To a Wry Master Of the Baroque

Clyde Haberman column on Eileen Tobin, 84-year-old Manhattan writer who was recently published in book form for first time in anthology called The Crimson Edge: Older Women Writing (M)

Joy and Anger As a Career Takes Flight

Kansas City Royals fans believe their team is doomed to miss baseball's post-season because it cannot compete with the richest franchises.  Article, Page D1.  

Baseball's Have-Nots

Floyd Norris column on investors' confidence in PBHG New Opportunities fund and PBHG Select Equity fund despite huge losses; says New Opportunities fund has lost 42 percent of its value in less than four weeks and Select Equity fund is down 37 percent; holds vast majority of investors are holding on to the funds, which accounts for the 9 percent rise for New Opportunities and the 10 percent gain for Select Equity in last two days; says people who made a lot of money buying highflying technology stocks over last year, and particularly over last six months, are not convinced that anything has changed in stock market; says volatility may have shaken out some speculators, but many still believe; Frank P (Quint) Slattery V, who manages funds, comments; graph (M)

The Fund Flies, Then Flops. The Investors Still Believe.

Latest New York Times/CBS News Poll finds that Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani's response to shooting of Patrick M Dorismond has resulted in his lowest job approval ratings in seven years in office, jolting his campaign for United States Senate while catapulting Hillary Rodham Clinton into the lead for first time in a year; poll finds that Giuliani's attempt to discredit Dorismond after he was shot by New York City police officer has raised concerns about Giuliani's temperament and qualifications, while voters' perceptions of Cinton have improved; she now enjoys 49 percent to 41 percent lead over Giuliani; when undecided voters are pressed to state their leaning, Clinton moves a full 10 points ahead of Giuliani, 52 percent to 42 percent; strikingly, Giuliani is now tied with Clinton upstate, where he is drawing just 44 percent; tables, graphs illustrate poll findings (L)

GIULIANI'S RATINGS DROP OVER ACTIONS IN DORISMOND CASE

Smithfield Foods, world's largest hog producer and pork processor, is at center of fierce debate over rise of big agriculture; Smithfield, by aggressively acquiring its larger rivals over last two years and using precision genetics, huge hog farms and giant meatpacking plants to control every stage of production, has ballooned into $5 billion company that accounts for more than fifth of nation's pork; company has come under intense scrutiny from regulators who say that agricultural giants may wield too much control over food supply; Agriculture Department has called company 'absurdly big' and has asked Justice Department's antitrust division to review Smithfield's deal to acquire Murphy Family Farms; attorney general in Iowa, big pork producing state, has challenged merger in state court, arguing that Smithfield is trying to skirt state law that forbids meatpacking company to operate hog farms; there are also growing concerns that company's hog waste could pose dangers to local water supplies, and that giant hog operations could cripple small farmers; Smithfield chairman-chief executive Joseph W Luter 3d comments; graph; map; photos (M)

Goliath of the Hog World; Fast Rise of Smithfield Foods Makes Regulators Wary

Crucial policy changes and spate of High Court decisions regarding Israel's treatment of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians have occurred since right-wing government was replaced last summer by broad coalition including several leftists and human rights advocates; through the years, Israel has been consistently criticized by many human rights and civil rights orgns for invoking national security to explain practices that were considered exclusionary, discriminatory and coercive toward Israeli Arabs and Palestinians; torture of Palestinian suspects has been banned; practice of stripping Palestinians of their residency rights in East Jerusalem has all but ended; in a landmark ruling, equal right of Arabs to land allocated by state has been affirmed; and for first time in Israel's history, land long considered part of a Jewish town was taken away and returned to Arab village from which it was expropriated decades ago; photo (M)

Israel Is Slowly Shedding Harsh Treatment of Arabs

San Diego Padres beat New York Mets, 8-5; photo (M)

The Mets Are Struggling, Especially When It Counts

Young couple trapped in Soviet Union via false amnesty. Sumptuous, moving political drama.

Welcome Home, Imperialist Dogs

Dave Anderson, in Sports of The Times column, notes that Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, who have combined to win 13 Masters, will play first two rounds of tournament as threesome; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; Golf's Big Three Together Again

Volatile swings in stock markets has served as unwelcome reminder of perils of buying stocks on margin, particularly when brokerage firms tell investors to come up with additional cash; many in market point to rise in such borrowing and worry that Americans have gone to troubling lengths to reap bigger and bigger rewards in bull market that seems to have infinite number of legs; New York Stock Exchange says margin debt reached record $265 billion in February, from about $152 billion at end of 1998; margin debt now accounts for more than 1.5 percent of NYSE's total market value, also a record; trader Aaron Talsky, who was forced to sell some of his stock this week to meet margin requirements, comments; photo (M)

Swings in Markets Push Some Margin Buyers Out on a Limb

 Inquiry of Auction Houses Focuses on 2 Ex-Chairmen  Prosecutors in the federal antitrust inquiry of Sotheby's and Christie's have evidence that a scheme to limit competition by fixing commissions charged to buyers and sellers was set in motion not by subordinates, but by two former chairmen of the world's auction giants, according to people involved in the investigation.  

BUSINESS DIGEST

 Habib Bourguiba Dies    The former Tunisian president, who long dominated his nation as wholly as Nehru did India or Nasser did Egypt, was 96.  PAGE B13    Unsafe Blood Supplies    More than two-thirds of the world's nations are failing to supply safe blood to their people, the World Health Organization says.  PAGE A8    Planet Claim Is Retracted    What was once believed to be the only planet ever directly observed outside the solar system has turned out to be an ordinary star. PAGE A21    Genome Nears Completion    A private company has announced that it would assemble the whole human genome within three to six weeks. PAGE A20    Catskill Casino Clears Hurdle    Federal officials approved plans yesterday for a casino at Monticello Raceway, leaving final approval up to Gov. George E. Pataki. PAGE B1    Queens College Head Quits    Allen L. Sessoms, who wanted to turn Queens College into an elite university with an AIDS research center, has resigned. PAGE B1

INSIDE

Autos on Friday interview with Richard Parry-Jones, Ford's vice presdent in charge of product development and quality; photos (M)

A Ford Vice President Has a European Touch

Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who has not seen his son Elian since third week of November when boy and his mother departed Cuba on a small and rickety boat for a new life in the United States, sets foot on American soil, stepping off small chartered plane that brings him to Washington from Havana; announces somberly that he has come with his new wife and 6-month-old son to take Elian back to Cuba; Justice Dept officials say they will move quickly to transfer custody of boy to his father; but they acknowledge that it could take several days to accomplish that, depending on degree of resistance from Miami relatives who have been caring for Elian; photos (L)

Cuban Boy's Father, in U.S., Waits as Talks Stall

Many Kansas City Royals fans say they no longer dream that their once-mighty team will make it to World Series; their cynicism does not bode well for baseball; there is growing consensus among team owners, fans and experts on game that disparity between high-revenue teams and those in small markets threatens sport's future popularity; photo (M)

BASEBALL: Next Year Never Comes; Grumbling Escalates Among Baseball's Have-Nots

Dennis Paulson leads Masters golf tournament after opening round; photo (M)

Mystical Augusta Winds Play Havoc With Field

Turmoil in German banking industry intensifies, as chairman of Dresdner Bank Bernhard Walter resigns because of failed merger deal with Deutsche Bank AG; resignation comes one day after Walter canceled plans for $29 billion combination with Deutsche Bank; Walter's moves seem to strengthen belief among industry executives that Dresdner has become takeover target for rivals across Europe and possibly even US; Deutsche Bank chairman Rolf-Ernst Breuer acknowledges that his own company is not immune from hostile takeover attempts; there are sporadic calls for Breuer to resign; Breuer says he sees no reason to resign; Walter blames Deutsche Bank for merger's collapse; photo (M)

Merger Failed, German Bank Chief Resigns

A federal judge in Manhattan yesterday struck down a city regulation governing the number of protesters allowed on the steps of City Hall, ruling that the city had unfairly restricted access to a favored spot for everything from demonstrations to news conferences.    The struggle over the City Hall steps has become one of the symbolic battles of the Giuliani administration, with the mayor arguing that increased security is needed and opponents claiming that they have been barred from the city's quintessential public space.  

Jude Strikes Down Rule Limiting City Hall Protests

Nawaz Sharif, ousted as Pakistan's prime minister in military coup in October, is convicted of hijacking a commercial airliner, sentenced to life imprisonment rather than death and ordered to forfeit all his personal property; Shariz's crime was not an ordinary hijacking, in that he was not even aboard plane; his crime was to issue orders, which he later rescinded, telling ground control to refuse landing permission to Karachi-bound airliner, sending it out of country; pilot maintained that plane ran low on fuel, endangering lives of passengers; among the 198 people on plane was Gen Pervez Musharraf, who came to power that day in a coup; case reviewed; photos (M)

April 7, 2000

Headlines from April 7, 2000

The Star of Bangladesh; In New York, Don't Take 'Indian' Food Too Literally

Under Siege, A President Leaves CUNY

School Board Considers Deal To Swap Ads for Computers

Tribe Wins Federal Approval for Casino in the Borscht Belt

Judge Strikes Down Rule Limiting City Hall Protests

Billboard 200

No Strings Attached

Supernatural

War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc)

Reinventing The Steel

Unleash The Dragon

Historical Context for April 7, 2000