August 20, 2001

Seattle Mariners defeat New York Yankees, 10-2; photo (M)

Profile of Hilary Rosen, chief lobbyist for Recording Industry Association of America; she deftly represents interests of big record companies at time when industry faces mounting complaints from consumers, antitrust regulators and legislators about online efforts, complaints from disaffected musicians and sales slump; graphs of Internet downloads and industry sales; photos (M)

Bush administration is considering withdrawing from air pollution lawsuits filed against power plants in Midwest and South, and Northeastern states that have also sued will be hard pressed to pursue cases on their own; state and local officials, as well as environmentalists and power companies, say without Washington's participation most of cases will be dropped because states lack legal standing to pursue them; say remaining actions would be made far more difficult without vast resources of EPA and Justice Department; federal government's reversal could also dissolve landmark agreements with two power companies that have accepted great reductions in pollution from plants; environmentalists are also concerned that if new source review program survives it will be in greatly scaled-back form; cite, among other factors, Pres Bush's appointment of Donald Schregardus as chief enforcement officer of EPA; as chief environmental officer for State of Ohio, Schregardus was part of administration that strenuously opposed filing of new source review lawsuits; map (M)

Political Twist in Art Theft The Jewish Museum has received a letter saying that a stolen Chagall will not be returned until peace has been achieved between Israel and the Palestinians. PAGE B1 Call for Election Standards The states carry out elections in widely disparate ways, according to a report by House Democrats, who say the government should require national standards. PAGE A12

World economy, which grew at raging pace in 2000, has slowed to crawl as US, Europe, Japan and some major developing countries undergo rare simultaneous slump; latest economic statistics show many regional economic powers have become economically stagnant, defying expectations that growth in other countries would help compensate for slowdown in US; many experts say that though $33 trillion world economy is still likely to expand in 2001, but that world is experiencing economic whiplash, with growth rates retreating more quickly than at any time since oil shock of 1973; there is no single factor to account for widespread weakness, persuading economists that recovery may be slow in coming; biggest surprise is sluggish performance in Europe, especially Germany, where leaders had until recently, thought they could escape American slowdown; result is that Europe, with combined economy about as big as US, is in no position to take over as locomotive of world economic growth; photos; charts (L)