June 12, 2001

Number of Americans behind on mortgage payments increased sharply in last year; survey by Mortgage Bankers Assn of America finds percentage of homeowners whose payments are more than 30 days late exceeded 10 percent for first time ever at end of 2000; rate did not exceed 8 percent, even during recessions of early 1990's and early 1980's; overall, about 400,000 families wera at least 30 days late on mortgages in early months of 2001 than at beginning of 2000; possible reasons for trend outlined; photo; graph (M)

AOL Times Warner is teaming up with Legend Holdings, China's largest computer maker, in joint venture to develop interactive services in China; Legend will hold 51 percent stake, while AOL will have rest; each company has promised to invest $100 million in venture; photo (M)

Movie and television production is booming in Toronto, lured from United States by tax incentives and cheap dollar; influx alters city's hotels and restaurants and is as economic boom to city, but some people wonder if city has not overextended itself to accommodate film and television production companies; photos (L)

Kaj-Erik Relander, chief executive of Finland's Sonera, resigns his post to join Accel Partners, venture capital firm in London; Aimo Eloholma will assume Relander's duties while new chief executive is sought (M)

European competition commissioner is investigating why prices of digital videodiscs cost more in European Union than in US (S)

Scientists find new ways of generating random numbers, which are needed in cryptography, game-playing, sociological surveys and various scientific calculations; RAND Corp's classic 1955 work, A Million Random Digits took years to compile; Hotbits, Swiss-based Web site, derives its numbers with a Geiger counter trained on sample of krypton 85; Random.org uses radio tuned between stations; Silicon Graphics Corp gets its random numbers with help of six lava lamps; photos (M)

Article discusses matchup between opposing centers Shaquille O'Neal and Dikembe Mutombo in NBA chanmpionship series; photo (M)

Profile of and interview with Al Larson, father of Jonathan Larson, who died five years ago at age 35 without seeing his musical Rent become a big hit; a new musical based on Larson's work, Tick, Tick...Boom!, is opening at Jane Street Theare in Greenwich Village; photos (L)

Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system for PC's, which will be commercially available on October 25, includes software that will greatly expand ability to make telephone calls over Internet; will exploit next generation of Internet, offering computer-based telephony with better-quality voice and with more powerful features than traditional phone; will weave improved versions of features it already offers, like online video meeting software and Internet voice chat, and integrate them with more sophisticated version of company's identity system, known as Passport; says new system will transform very nature of telephone (M)

Timothy J McVeigh is executed by lethal injection at federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind, for bombing of Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Okla, on April 19, 1995 that killed 168 people; dies unrepentant, without word of regret, as relatives of victims watch from viewing room in death chamber and on closed-circuit television; sent members of press scribbled copy of Invictus, poem of rebellion written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley; Pres Bush says due process ruled; says McVeigh met fate he chose for himself; execution described; witnesses, including family members of victims, comment; bombing, worst act of terrorism on US soil, recalled; McVeigh is first federal prisoner to be executed since 1963; photos (M)

Anna Kisselgoff reviews England's Royal Ballet performing La Fille Mal Gardee at Kennedy Center in Washington; photos (L)

Article on eight students from United States receiving scholarshiops to Latin American School of Medical Sciences in Havana, Cuba; students are undergoing six-year course of study alongside aspiring doctors from 24 Latin American, Caribbean and African nations; students, chosen from more than 100 applicants from disadvantaged families, intend to return to US and practice in same poor neighborhoods they grew up in; photo (M)