Article discusses outlook for Masters golf tournament; photo (M)

Changes to Blunt Long Hitters Loom in the Masters' Future

Atlanta Braves defeat New York Mets, 3-2; photo (M)

Mets' Rally In the Ninth Is Wiped Out By a Chopper

Bass PLC pays 810 million pounds ($1.16 billion) for Compass Group's Posthouse chain of 79 three-star hotels; Macdonald Hotels, in joint venture with Bank of Scotland, is paying 235 million pounds ($336.9 million) for 48 country house Heritage hotels owned by Compass; graph (S)

COMPASS SELLS HOTELS

Joyce Purnick Metro Matters column contends that year-end report from New York City's Administration for Children's Services shows that while city has made remarkable progress in improving child services, much of efforts are caught in financial squeeze (M)

Metro Matters; Danger Signs Amid Progress For Children

 Calls for Verniero to Resign Are Increasing in New Jersey  Nearly half of the Republicans in the State Senate joined calls for the resignation of State Supreme Court Justice Peter G. Verniero, saying that he ignored racial profiling when he was Attorney General.   PAGE B1    'Race Ceiling' in Politics  Mayor Marc H. Morial of New Orleans faces a problem common to black politicians: the high hurdles to statewide office.   PAGE A12

INSIDE

Smithsonian's National Museum of American History is staging exhibit, Paint by Number: Accounting for Taste in the 1950's, which represents first full accounting of popular pasttime since 1992; several collectors describe what drew them to paint-by-numbers art; photos (M)

What's Right With This Picture?

Norway's central bank keeps its benchmark interest rates unchanged (S)

RATES STEADY IN NORWAY

Curators and conservators face daunting task in quest tp preserve 20th-century artworks; some modern paintings like monochromatic works from 1960's pose special problems; some more recent works--collage, conceptual art, performance and video art and installations that use unorthodox materials or simple technology in unexpected ways--can be curator's nightmare; efforts of curators at Guggenheim Museum to repair damage to Ad Reinhardt's Black Painting described; photos (M)

When Modern Art Shows Its Age; Conservators Struggle to Reconstruct the Fragile and Ephemeral

China hardens its position on midair collision of American spy plane and Chinese jet, with Pres Jiang Zemin demanding official apology and Chinese Foreign Min Tang Jiaxuan calling United States 'arrogant'; Tang also accuses US of making 'groundless accusations' against China; escalating war of words seen reflecting widespread feeling in China, in and out of government, that Pres Bush has been dismissive of China's concerns ever since incident occurred; despite heated atmosphere, it still appears that both governments hope to minimize long-term fallout of event; Secretary of State Colin L Powell issues statement of regret over loss of Chinese pilot, although US continues to insist it will not apologize for incident; Bush and other American officials demand that 24 Americans on board be returned promptly; photos (M)

BEIJING STEPS UP ITS WAR OF WORDS OVER AIR COLLISION

Bridgestone/Firestone is set to begin largest advertising campaign in its history to reassure customers after recall last August of Firestone tires installed mainly on Ford Explorers; also plans to announce several moves to improve tire safety; by contrast, Ford Motor Co's television commercials for redesigned 2002 Explorer will not mention safety, and its print advertisements will allude to safety only indirectly, and in small print; Firestone's campaign was developed by Grey Advertising and overseen by Shu Ishibashi, executive vice president of Firestone; photo (M)

2 Approaches To Aftermath Of Tire Recall

Paris Club of creditor countries suspends debt negotiations with Ecudor's government because of failure of Congress to approve tax revisions, giving creditors right to demand immediate reimbursement for interest payments that have been suspended since 1995; legislature's refusal to ratify highly unpopular increase of 3 percent in value-added tax also brings Ecuador close to violating restructuring agreement it signed with International Monetary Fund (S)

DEBT CONFLICT IN ECUADOR

David Pogue State of the Art column hails TiVo, digital video recorder that records on hard drive and offers wide range of options; drawing; photos (M)

Recorders To Let You Tame TV

Japan's coalition government fails to produce plan to address lingering problems in banking system and give lift to economy, which is sliding toward recession; main problem involves proposal to set up fund to buy some of 39 trillion yen ($311 billion) in stocks held by Japanese banks; plan, meant to spare banks further losses on their stock portfolios without having shares dumped on open market and hammering prices, has drawn fire from some politicians who oppose using public funds to underpin stock prices; government approves component of package that would require Japan's 16 major banks to clear 12.7 trillion yen of their worst loans from their books within two years; photo (M)

Tokyo Fails to Come Up With a Plan on Bank Crisis

American expatriate Rick Mather is one of most talked-about architects in London, where he has quietly beaten out roster of internationally known names for commissions to make over some of city's most cherished institutions; brings clean, glass-eyed aesthetic to museums, universities and libraries; his master plan for city's South Bank Center and some other projects discussed; photos (M)

An American Expatriate Sheds Light on London

Boston Red Sox pitcher Hideo Romo pitches no-hitter in 3-0 victory over Baltimore Orioles; photo (M)

Nomo Hurls a No-Hitter in His Red Sox Debut

New York State Supreme Court, Queens, Judge Joseph G Golia rules that state repeatedly violated its own environmental laws in its haste to install mini-power plant in Queens; rules it must halt work on project until it conducts thorough environmental review; photo (M)

Judge Stops Power Project Until Review Is Conducted

Number of unemployed Germans increased by 12,000 in March, to seasonally adjusted 3.8 million; unemployment rate remains unchanged at seasonally adjusted 9.3 percent (S)

GERMAN UNEMPLOYMENT RISES

Article discusses preparations for New York International Orchid Show, which opens today in Winter Garden of World Financial Center in lower Manhattan; photo (M)

Orchids Blossoming In City's Great Indoors; Plants Thrive on Sills and in Closets

Article in series, Judging the Tax Cut, about how taxpayers at varying income levels would be affected by Bush tax cut proposal; first article focuses on Barney Taylor Jr of Atlanta, Ga, 32-year-old partner in software company that has fallen on hard times; Taylor, who is black, voted for Vice Pres Al Gore, disagreeing with Pres Bush's support for capital punishment, among other reasons; but he thinks Bush may have point in trying to reduce tax rates; he and his family would pay $1,000 less in annual federal taxes under administration's proposal; Taylor's wife is unimpressed with that figure; what excites Taylor is prospect that tax cut would allow more companies to create more jobs; photos (L)

From Bumpy Road in Georgia, Favorable View of Bush Plan

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, will stage exhibit American Folk through August 5, which will feature extraordinary objects created by ordinary people, from itinerant painters in New Hampshire to schoolgirls in Cape Cod; photo; Philip Glass, David Raskin, Carter Burwell and Paul Chihara will answer questions relating to translating their music for screen at Composing for Film series, at American Museum of the Moving Image; Richard Westenburg will conduct Musica Sacra in Bach's Mass in B Minor on April 8; Jonathan Miller will conduct Bach's St Matthew Passion, featuring soprano Heidi Grant Murphy and tenor Paul Agnew among others, at Harvey Theater of Brooklyn Academy of Music; photo; Guggenheim Museum will highlight work of 16 Italian cinematographers with exhibit, Conversations Between Shadows and Light: Italian Cinematography (M)

FOOTLIGHTS

South Korean economic policy makers will use $4.4 billion of National Pension Fund and smaller funds to brace stock market; Korea composite index slips below psychologically crucial 500-point barrier, closing at 493.69, down 9.57, lowest point in 28 months; photo (M)

Korea to Use Pension Money To Bolster Its Stock Market

Anne Raver's Human Nature column on houses and gardens in central Arizona that are designed to fit arid landscape; photos (M)

In the Desert's Warm Embrace

Nearly half of New Jersey Republican State Senators join calls for resignation of State Supreme Court Justice Peter G Verniero, saying that he ignored racial profiling by state police when he was New Jersey's attorney general and gave evasive answers to committee investigating practice (M)

State Senators Ask Verniero To Quit Court

 Lucent Denies Speculation About Possible Bankruptcy  Lucent Technologies, struggling to quash persistent doubts about its financial condition that incited a big sell-off in its stock, went out of its way to dismiss speculation that it plans to file for bankruptcy protection.    Bankruptcy rumors on Wall Street pushed shares of Lucent down as much as 30 percent, to $5.50, its lowest level since the company was spun off by AT&T in 1996. Lucent's shares recovered somewhat, closing down 14 percent, at $6.75, after its chief financial officer issued a statement calling the speculation ''baseless and irresponsible.'' [Page C4.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

Government rests its case in embassy bombings trial in Federal court in Manhattan; manual, entitled Military Studies In the Jihad Against the Tyrants, was recently introduced at trial as example of how terrorists act (M)

Translation: 'The How-To Book of Terrorism'

John Beecher is an American ice hockey forward for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted 30th overall by the Bruins in the first round of the 2019 NHL entry draft. He played college ice hockey for the Michigan Wolverines men's ice hockey team from 2019 to 2022.

Johnny Beecher, American ice hockey player

John_Beecher_(ice_hockey)

Felipe Peña Biafore is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Lanús.

Felipe Peña, Argentine footballer

Felipe_Peña

Aldo Olivieri was an Italian football goalkeeper from 1931 to 1943, and manager after World War II.

April 5, 2001

Headlines from April 5, 2001

Changes to Blunt Long Hitters Loom in the Masters' Future

Mets' Rally In the Ninth Is Wiped Out By a Chopper

COMPASS SELLS HOTELS

Metro Matters; Danger Signs Amid Progress For Children

INSIDE

Billboard 200

Hotshot

Part III

Everyday

Thugs Are Us

Just Push Play

Notable Births

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for April 5, 2001