August 25, 2000

Pres Clinton's upcoming visit to Colombia comes as country's neighbors fear increased US military aid will step up fighting that could push coca growing, drug trafficking, refugees and conflict across their borders; Colombian conflict has already led to guerilla incursions into Panama and Venezuela, rebel influence among Indian dissidents in Ecuador, and new Colombian plantings of coca and poppies in Peru; regional leaders fear impact of $1.3 billion in additional US aid over next two years to train and equip anti-narcotics brigade; Sec Madeleine Albright, visiting region, hears warnings from nervous Ecuadorean and Brazilian leaders; photo of Pres Gustavo Noboa of Ecuador and Pres Andres Pastrana of Colombia; map (M)

Poles feel discontent even though their country's new market economy is flourishing; largest, most successful transformation in central Europe has created two million small- and medium-sized private enterprises, such as wood-processing plant built from scratch by Urszula Malinowska and her husband in Biala Rawska; photos; map; Malinowska, who is likely to vote for reformed Communists, says changes have come with mixed blessings: small businesses do not get much help from government, tax laws are complex and contradictory, and being outside European Union allows Western trading partners to 'take advantage' of Poland; sourness is widely felt by Poles whose rapid progress is nonetheless falling behind their own expectations (M)

Judge James A Parker releases Dr Wen Ho Lee on bail, saying government case against Los Alamos scientist no longer has 'clarity and persuasive character' to keep Lee in detention until he is tried in November for allegedly mishandling nuclear weapons secrets; Lee must post $1 million bond and accept home detention; photo; order is humiliating blow for prosecutors who have kept Lee in prison for more than eight months under unusually harsh conditions; suggests government case could be unraveling at least in part (M)

Floyd Norris comment on whether decimalization of stocks, which begins on Aug 28 with 13 issues, will increase price competition among brokers and hurt their profits; graph (M)

Verizon Communications rearches settlements with striking workers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Washington; agrees to lower mandatory overtime, but otherwise settlements are basically the same as those between company and workers in New York and New England; Verizon says it will take it about a month to work through its backlog of repairs and orders (M)