March 20, 2001

Profile of Gunther Schuller, composer, conductor, record producer and author; he is seen a heavyweight intellectual who works in both jazz and classical music; 75th-birthday concert is held for him in Sanders Theater, Cambridge, Mass; photo (M)

Senate begins debate on McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill, with co-sponsor Sen John McCain urging colleagues to 'take a risk' for country; bill wins first symbolic test of strength, with narrow defeat of amendment sponsored by Republican Sen Pete V Dominici to assist candidates who run against millionaires, but sharp differences quickly emerge; debate described; provisions of McCain-Feingold bill compared with legislation sponsored by Republican Sen Chuck Hagel and Pres Bush position on issue; photo (M)

National Institute of Standards and Technology observes its 100th anniversary, and its 3,200 employees are using centenary as occasion to publish new accounts of some of agency's achievements and justify its budget, currently about $720 million; NIST has revolutionized definition of global standards and art of measurement; photos (L)

Ann Powers reports on 15th South by Southwest, annual five-day conference and festival in Austin, Tex, diagnosing state of America's popular music culture; notes enormous flux in every area of music business, from technological challenges posed by Napster to consolidation transforming record labels, radio and retail stores; photo (M)

Exxon Mobil Corp is losing $3.5 million a day from shutdown of its onshore gas fields in Indonesian province of Aceh, where there have been attacks on workers by separatist rebels; output has been cut 78 percent, to average 350 million cubic feet per day (S)

Benefits Will Last Longer The government said the Medicare trust fund would not run out of money until 2029, and the Social Security fund would last to 2038. PAGE A18

Fired workers at Computer Associates say company is disguising mass layoff as individual firings of subpar employees to avoid paying severance; labor lawyers say if it lacks documentation for firings, company might also have opened itself to lawsuits that argue that firings were discriminatory; company says firings were routine and that it did nothing wrong; since November, company has fired hundreds of workers around world; it will not disclose how many people have been let go, or whether its overall work force of about 18,000 has grown or shrunk in that time (M)

Persian Gulf oil states toss lifeline to financially foundering Palestinian Authority in form of $300 million aid package, making Arab donors its chief source of budgetary support for first time; Islamic Development Bank, under plan devised with support of International Monetary Fund, will provide up to $40 million per month for six months from new 'intifada fund;' most of money will come from Saudi Arabia, United Emirates and Kuwait, which previously refused to privide direct aid to semiautonomous government; payments are in addition to unpublicized transfer of $80 million in Arab grants and loans to authority since December 2000, exceeding $65 million received from European governments; photo (M)

New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee, almost three years after New Jersey Turnpike shooting that helped turn racial profiling into national issue, begins high-stakes hearings in Trenton with testimony by state police officials who say attorney general's office knew for years before shooting that racial profiling was common practice in traffic stops and searches; Sgt Thomas Gilbert, trooper in charge of gathering data on arrests by race, testifies that he regularly relayed information to office of then Attorney General Peter G Verniero; photo (M)

Thailand's economic growth increased at annual rate of 3.1 percent in fourth quarter from year earlier; economy grew 4.3 percent for all of 2000 (S)

India's state of Maharashtra has stopped paying its bills for huge $3 billion power plant built by Dabhol Power Co, which is largely owned by Enron Corp; says it does not need and cannot afford most of power; Dabhol Power has invoked central government's guarantee to pay up since state has not, and central government says it will honor commitment; Dabhol project has potential to sour foreign investors on India and to sour Indians on foreign investors; accounts for more than 10 percent of total direct foreign investment in India since 1992; map; graph; photos (M)

Intense fighting between Albanian rebels and government forces near Tetovo, Macedonia, described; Albanians appear to have arms, ammunition and men they need in drive taking shape around country's second-largest town to take over large areas of Albanian populations; Macedonian Army deploys tanks and truckoads of troops in and around area for 'final operation' to rout rebels, who have grown from handful of fighters reportedly to force of several hundred; map; photo (M)