May 13, 2000

Prime Minister Tony Blair set out to modernize England by building bridges to both the Continent and the United States. So far he has been succeeding, and with a baby due any day, he retains the British public firmly on his side. A report by Warren Hoge in The Times Magazine.

Conventional wisdom that Million Mom March for gun control is good for Vice Pres Gore's presidential hopes does not apply in Beaver County, Pa, which is haven for hunters and NRA, Gore's sworn enemy; local Democrats squirm when Gore stumps for gun control, as he often does, because issue is divisive headache that drives their friends and neighbors into arms of Gore's presumed Republican rival, George W Bush; Gore victory will almost certainly require keeping places like Beaver County solidly in Democratic column despite issue that plays well with suburban women but infuriates many men in places like western Pennsylvania; photo of Jim Rooker, former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher who now owns tavern; Repr Bart Stupak, one chagrined Democrat, notes that Gore supports gun measures that go beyond simple safety devices to encompass photo licenses for gun buyers, ban on cheap handguns and one-per-month limit on handgun purchases;

John Tierney, The Big City column, discusses marital problems between Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani and his wife Donna Hanover; says Giuliani should have warned Hanover of substance of announcement; concedes Giuliani may have been acting in familiar role as nonpolitician who rejects the rules; refers to announcement as personal whim of mayor (M)

UN Sec Gen Kofi Annan, faced with wars on several fronts in Africa, says peacekeeping efforts need kind of military help that US is now unwilling to provide; sees little room for US role in new style of peacekeeping, given American reluctance to put troops on the ground; Annan, who would like to send in sophisticated military teams to assess problems and set up missions, says it is disheartening to confront continent with calamities from end to end, and consider what this says about African leadership; interview; photo; map (M)

University of Rochester has ambitions to be powerhouse in medical research, bringing in money from National Institutes of Health which would facilitate construction of new research buildings and recruitment of biomedical students; in April, university officials announced award of broad patent covering use of new type of painkiller that could bring in billions of dollars; patent says that research in late 1980's and early 1990's pioneered development of Cox-2 inhibitors, which has become pharmaceutical industry's fastest-selling product; legal fights developing with companies that have developed products based on university's research are delaying payment of royalties and lengthy proceedings could keep case tied up for years; photo (M)

Federal jury in Colorado rules against Anti-Defamation League in lawsuit over anti-Semitic remarks recorded from telephone conversation; privacy rights win over defamation as jury awards $10.5 million in damages to William and Dorothy Quigley for illegal taping by Mitchell and Candace Aronson, neighbors in Evergreen with whom Quigleys were feuding; ruling that league regional official Saul F Rosenthal defamed Quigleys with public remarks that relied on illegal taping puts limits on how far organization can go in fulfilling mission of exposing anti-Semitism; original feud and subsequent suits and countersuits recounted (M)

Interview with Anne M Mulcahy on challenges she faces as Xerox Corp's new president and chief operating officer; sales force reorganization and back office consolidation have left company in chaos; photo (M)

Flare-Up in Horn of Africa Diplomats said a new outbreak in fighting on the disputed Ethiopian-Eritrean border was a push by Ethiopia to end a war that has worsened severe food shortages and claimed thousands of lives. PAGE A8

Juan Villalonga, chairman of Spain's Telefonica, is devoting much energy to expansion in Latin America while spinning off businesses like cell phones and multimedia operations; company stock has soard since he took over in 1996, but has fallen back sharply in recent months; map; graph; photos (M)

William C Rhoden Sports of The Times column holds Miami Heat coach Pat Riley's luster is wearing thin; holds playoff series against New York Knickerbockers is critical for Riley; sees Heat limited to brawling style of basketball that used to define Knicks; photo (M)

United States District Court Judge Nina Gershon dismisses three lawsuits against planned water filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park, allowing city to proceed with construction of project assailed by community groups and environmentalists as misuse of public parkland; plant is to be built under golf course and is intended to filter 10 percent of city's water; Parks Council and Friends of Van Cortlandt Park will likely appeal decision; city was under federal court order to choose site for plant which will filter water from Croton Aqueduct system because water contains traces of potentially dangerous microorganisms; corporation counsel Michael D Hess says it would be difficult to comply with order if lawsuits had not been decided in city's favor; map (M)

Article on plight of 240,000 'stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh,' who have lived in 66 squalid camps, in tightly packed thatch firetraps, for 29 years, ever since East Pakistan won independence and became Bangladesh; left behind were those who had been loyal to Pakistan, some of them active collaborators now considered traitors; they expected to be welcomed into rest of Pakistan, but instead had property confiscated and were herded into camps, often for their own protection; occupants, called Biharis because most originally came from Indian state of Bihar, are free to leave, but few have money to do so; Biharis were Muslim minority in India and then Urdu-speaking minority in East Pakistan (M)