March 12, 2001

Newsrooms across the country face budget cuts and layoffs as declining ad revenue leaves publishers no other way to produce the profits that investors expect; Mike Cassidy of San Jose Mercury News uses his column to challenge publisher, Knight Ridder, not to let 'irrational markets' define financial success, but standing up to Wall Street is not so simple for an industry pulled in opposite directions by momentum investors and value investors; graph (M)

New York City Department of Investigation is conducting investigation into demolition of bungalows on Staten Island linked to Dorothy Day, founder of Catholic Worker movement; demolition stunned Landmarks Preservation Commission, which thought it had non-aggression pact with developer John DiScala, and was just four days away from formally nominating site for historic preservation (M)

Lawrence Van Gelder column reports on Shakespeare's Humor, show in which Prof Harold Bloom will play Falstaff, organ recital at Church of Holy Apostles, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition in San Francisco and Royal Shakespeare Co performance in Ann Arbor, Mich; photos (M)

Interview with Kenneth Lonergan, whose screenplay for You Can Count on Me has been nominated for an Academy Award and whose new play, Lobby Hero, is about to open Off Broadway; photo; this is first in series, Artist at Work, about artists who have achieved success in their own fields and are now on verge of wider prominence (L)

Five members of New Jersey family, grandmother, her son and three of his children who were visiting for weekend, are killed shortly after dawn when fire of unknown origin roars through two-story frame home in Mount Olive, NJ; dead are identified as: Anna Vokoun, her son Glen and his children Jessica, Danielle and Glen Jr; photo (M)

Syria is living through heady period of ferment, shifting from repressive and stagnant socialized state created by late president Hafez al-Assad, to reign of son Bashar al-Assad and outcome remains uncertain; change is in keeping with Bashar's promise to transform country, fostering more openness and robust economy, but has been more in tone than substance; daily life remains unchanged and long-dominant Baath Party easily ressurects oppressive measures whenever it deems denunciations of government to be too harsh; even though Bashar intimates he wants freer country, question remains how free; general sense is that he seeks change along lines of China, unfettering economy while Baath Party hold political reins firmly; photo (M)

Buddha Statues Destroyed Aid workers said that despite pleas from abroad, the Taliban, Afghanistan's hard-line Islamic rulers, had finished destroying two giant Buddhas hewn from a cliff. PAGE A4 27th President for Harvard Harvard, in choosing Lawrence H. Summers to be its next president, gets a scholar who vows to recommit the university to undergraduate education. PAGE A9

Allegra Goodman article in Writers on Writing series on how she fights off the inner critic who might otherwise cause her to give up; photo (M)

Joyce Purnick Metro Matters humorous column has candidates for New York City mayoral democratic primary having their staffs join groups with political influence despite personal beliefs (M)

European Fine Art Fair opens in Maastricht, Netherlands, and there seem to be more European buyers on hand than Americans, a possible fallout of nervousness in stock markets; rare paintings of all subjects and styles are up for sale, and works on paper appear to be particularly popular; photos (M)

Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe and Viktor & Rolf show that Paris is still the think tank of serious style. Fashion, Page B8.

Article examines how much will nightclub visit on Dec 27, 1999, end up costing hip-hop impresario Sean Combs; first, he could lose his freedom if a jury convicts him on gun possession and bribery charges stemming from shooting at Club New York and then his lawyers will have to deal with $1.4 billion in civil lawsuits filed after shooting; other potential costs to bottom line of his business empire discussed; photo (M)