May 16, 2000

Elvis Mitchell reports on Cannes International Film Festival (M)

Researchers explore ways to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by expanding plant and soil carbon reservoirs, or 'sinks,' on land; these sinks could be expanded by such practices as no-till agriculture, conversion of cropland into grassland and maximizing forestation; environmentalists prefer limiting emission of heat-trapping gases to finding ways to absorb them in the terrestrial biosphere, but proponents of carbon sink idea argue that it could be a valuable interim alternative; photos; diagrams (M)

Lycos Agrees to a Sale The Internet portal agreed to be acquired by Telefonica of Spain in a deal worth more than $12 billion, including partnership with the Bertelsmann conglomerate. PAGE C1

Supreme Court, 5-4, invalidates six-year-old provision of federal law that permits victims of rape, domestic violence and other crimes motivated by gender to sue attackers in federal court; strikes down civil remedy provision of Violence Against Women Act, declaring that Constitution requires distinction between what is truly national and what is truly local; decision is latest application of court's newly restrictive view of Congressional power and of degree of deference Congress is owed by federal courts; majority opinion by Chief Justice William H Rehnquist rejects each of two sources of constitutional authority Congress asserted as basis for legislation; concludes that civil remedy provision is neither valid regulation of interstate commerce nor proper means of enforcing equal protection guarantee of 14th Amendment; affirms lower-court ruling dismissing suit by plaintiff Christy Brzonkala against two Virginia Polytechnic Institute varsity football players, whom she accused of raping her in dormitory room (M)

Increasing number of Chinese farmers whose livelihoods have been destroyed by water pollution are fighting back with lawsuits seeking compensation; although China has enacted strict antipollution laws in past decade, enforcement is still lax in many places in country's whose rivers are among dirtiest in world; aggressive central government campaign to identify and punish polluters has made big difference in some cities and other places where it has focused, but has failed to penetrate fully vast rural areas, where laws are often ignored by local enterprises and officials; map; photos (M)