November 26, 2000

Analysts of retail trade industry are pessimistic or cautious in their predictions for coming holiday shopping season; this year's growth in sales is expected to be approximately 2.5 percent, down from 4 to 5 percent year-over-year since mid 1990's; share prices of retail companies have fallen steadily since April, reflecting investors' concerns; photos; graphs (M)

Last-minute disputes between European and American negotiators result in collapse of negotiations aimed at finishing treaty to curb global warming; breakdown follows two weeks of intensive talks in Hague, stunning many participants, environmental groups and observers; Frank E Loy, top American negotiator, agrees with several European participants that effort should continue, even when he and Clinton administration hand over task to new administration; talks are riven by conflicting agendas; poor countries seek billions of dollars to help them adapt to climate change, and rich nations seek to blunt economic impact of treaty by finding least costly ways to cut their emissions of warming gases; latest failure attributed to persistent disagreement between industrial powers on opposite sides of Atlantic over role of trees and properly managed farmland in acting as 'sinks' to absorb carbon dioxide, dominant greenhouse gas; photo (M)

Article discusses how Harry Helmsley's empire has been dispersed since his death in 1997; notes that while his widow Leona M Helmsley still controls formidable portfolio, sale of about half of Helmsley properties and leaseholds nationwide, largely through Douglas L Harmon and Benjamin V Lambert of Eastdil Realty, has yielded some $2.5 billion; photo; map (M)

Milosevic Resurfaces The ousted Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, appeared at a gathering of his Socialist Party and struck back at his opponents. PAGE 10

Windmills are nation's fastest-growing source of electricity, with capacity expected to double in next year; with development of bigger, more sophisticated turbines, cost of wind-generated electricity, once seen as prohibitive, is now nearly competitive with that of its rivals; around world, wind generation of electricity expanded by 39 percent in 1999 alone; wind already supplies 10 percent of Denmark's electricity; in United States, wind generates far less than 1 percent of nation's electricity, with bulk of projects in California; utility companies struggling to meet soaring electrical demands and steep and volatile oil and gas prices now regard windmills as being worthy of larger role; study finds that together, South Dakota, North Dakota and Texas have sufficient wind resources to provide electricity for entire nation; photos (M)