Thousands of young American soldiers who entered military in time of prolonged peace and prosperity face prospect of going to war; at military bases across country, looming possibility of being sent overseas is foremost in their thinking; many are barely out of high school, and thought joining armed forces was way to learn trade and help support families; many new soldiers across country say that while they may not have counted on having to hunt down terrorists, especially so soon in their careers, they are quickly coming to terms with their military responsibilities; photo (M)

Peacetime Recruits Getting Ready for War's Perils

New York Rangers defeat New Jersey Devils, 6-1, in preseason hockey game; photo (M)

Hockey Rivalry Is Relegated To a Back Seat at the Garden

New York Mets defeat Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-2; photo (M)

Gonzalez and Zeile Lead Mets to Sweep

 Shift in U.S. Farm Policy  The Bush administration called for a major shift in farm policy away from subsidies and toward international trade.   PAGE A12    New Race for Mayor  Six mayoral candidates offered a troubled view of New York's future, as they began discussing ways the city could rebuild.   PAGE A20

ALSO INSIDE

Investors jettisoned stocks as too risky and sought relative safety in bonds, sending share prices down sharply for much of the day. But stocks regained much of their losses in the final hour of trading.    Business Day, Page C1.

Sell-Off Eases Late

Japan is realizing just how heavily its economy depends on airplanes in wake of terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon and disruption of world air transportation system; for electronic exporters, hopes for good end to bad year are foundering on gloomy predictions of tight-walleted American Christmas; sense of world in crisis is pumping new life into Prime Min Junichiro Koizumi's faltering program for free-market economic restructuring; photo (M)

Japan Learns Yet Again How Tied It Is to Trade

Bush administration is divided over scope and timing of military reponse to last week's attack on United States; some senior officials, led by Paul D Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense, and I Lewis Libby, chief of staff to Vice Pres Cheney, press for earliest and broadest military campaign against not only Osama bin Laden network in Afghanistan, but also other suspected terrorist bases in Iraq and in Lebanon's Bekaa region; they want to include Iraq on target list with aim of toppling Pres Saddm Hussein; but Secretary of State Colin L Powell argues that administration must take time to prepare diplomatic groundwork for American military action, first in Afghanistan, by consulting with allies and building case to justify American actions under international law; it is unclear what position Joint Chiefs of Staff have taken on scope of any possible retaliation; Defense Sec Donald H Rumsfeld is said to have joined consensus position of leaving Iraq and other targets out of initial plans (M)

Bush's Advisers Split on Scope Of Retaliation

David Pogue State of The Art column on how aftermath of terrorist attacks is likely to change technology landscape; sees consumers looking for staples, not frills, in technology and less interested in electronics designed to let them keep working when at home after hours; cites emergence of cellular phone as vital personal-security gear and key role played by Internet (M)

Thinking About Gadgets For a More Sober World

Some people who live in vicinity of World Trade Center refuse leave their homes despite collapse of twin towers; photos (M)

Neighbors, Shining Through; When the Nest Resists The Storm

Standard & Poor's puts credit ratings of five of Japan's eight major life insurance companies on watch for possible downgrade, citing weak capital levels and high exposure to Japan's slowing economy; assets of five companies, Asahi Mutual Life, Meiji Life, Mitsui Mutual Life, Sumitomo Life and Yasuda Mutual Life, are dwindling dangerously as stock market weakens (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: Japan: Insurers On Credit Watch

Efforts are under way to find temporary housing for residents of Battery Park City, who were evacuated following collapse of World Trade Center on Sept 11; photos (M)

For Evacuees, New Homes and Help

Bush administration is proposing to give airline companies $5 billion in cash immediately and to help protect them from liability in Sept 11 attacks; airlines sought $12.5 billion in loan guarantees; administration will immediately direct $3 billion of $40 billion it received from Congress to pay for airplane and airport security; American Airlines and United Airlines will each lay off at least 20,000 workers, bringing total of industry layoffs to 100,000; photo (M)

White House to Seek $5 Billion As Part of Airline Rescue Plan

Metropolitan Opera plans free live closed-circuit screening of its sold-out benefit for World Trade Center disaster relief on September 23 at Lincoln Center Plaza; New York Is Book Country, citywide literary festival that began on September 19, cancels annual street fair as well as many other of its events in wake of attack on World Trade Center; jade carvings of Olmec ballplayers from 900 BC, as well as stone carvings and other art reflecting triumph and sacrifice, will be on display through December 30 at Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC; photo; paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, Adolph Gottlieb, George Inness and Andy Warhol, as well as traditional and contemporary American Indian artists, will be exhibited at UBS PaineWebber Art Gallery in Manhattan; Expanding on a Legacy: American Art From the Montclair Musuem will include examples of Hudson River School, Realism and Abstract Expressionism; works from Pablo Picasso Foundation in Malaga, Spain, will be exhibited at Art Gallery of the Graduate Center; Picasso From Malaga: Graphic Works From the Fundacion Picasso, includes work that prefigures Guernica; photo (M)

Footlights

Elvis Mitchell's Critic's Notebook column appraises recent Toronto International Film Festival (M)

At Toronto Festival, Unease on the Screens and the Streets

Bond investors become optimists on economy; are growing more confident that lower interest rates and renewed spending by US government will reinvigorate economy in not-too-distant-future; two-year Treasury yields 2.82 percent, down from 3.5 percent before terrorist attacks; five-year Treasury note yields 3.8 percent, down from 4.3 percent before disasters; yields on 30-year bond have risen to 5.55 percent, from 5.44 percent before attacks (Market Place column) (M)

Market Place; Bond Investors Show Signs of Optimism

Article discusses how New Yorkers are trying to return to semblance of normalcy following World Trade Center attack; many say they are finding pleasure in simple routines and looking to one another for reassurance; photos (M)

For a City Still in Shock, Picking Up Life's Routine

Pakistan's military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf goes on nationwide television to offer tense, sometimes emotional defense of his decision to join United States in hunt for Osama bin Laden; asks Pakistanis to trust him in what he calls nation's gravest crisis in 30 years; confirms that US has asked to use Pakistan's air space and seeks its intelligence about bin Laden and its logistical support for possible military thrust into Afghanistan; makes no mention of US ground troops or special forces using air bases in Pakistan; says categorically that Taliban has rejected handover of bin Laden; his speech has nervous Pakistanis crowding around television sets, eager to hear why he promised Pres Bush 'full support' for American military operation; that support has already carried high political price; Islamic militant groups linked to bin Laden and some political parties promise to do all they can to disrupt American military venture involving Pakistan, beginning with call for general strike on Sept 21; photo (M)

PAKISTANI DEFENDS JOINING WITH U.S.

 Other Buildings Called Sound  Though buildings near the World Trade Center show evidence of damage, none are in danger of imminent collapse, engineers said after a series of inspections.   PAGE B1    3 Are Held in Detroit  Federal agents seeking a suspected operative of Osama bin Laden have arrested three men in Detroit after a search of their house found a diagram of aircraft.   PAGE B2

A NATION CHALLENGED

Only 555 tickets are sold for September 19 matinee performance of Phanton of the Opera at Majestic Theater in Times Square, which holds 1,636 people, as Broadway theater reels from terrorist attacks against World Trade Center; many who bought tickets did not show up; photo (M)

At 'Phantom,' Empty Seats And Defiance

Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani has become international celebrity in days since terrorist attack on World Trade Center; newspapers from Australia to England sing his praises, and Pres Jacques Chirac calls him French equivalent of 'Rudy the Rock'; mayor's makeshift pressroom at command center is jammed with European journalists; Giuliani, whose most recent spate of national attention centered on very public nature of his messy divorce and relationship with another woman, has now risen to national hero and political comer; photos of Giuliani with Pres Chirac and with Kofi Annan, UN secretary general (M)

In Crisis, Giuliani's Popularity Overflows City

Some performing artists in New York City say experience of being on stage has changed, subtly as well as profoundly, after destruction of World Trade Center; photos (M)

Voices Not Silenced, Feet Not Stilled; As They Return to Work, Artists Talk Performing in a Time of Tragedy

Prominent American novelists question relevance of their craft immediately following terrorist attacks of Sept 11, but end up affirming to themselves value and purpose of what they do; do not feel compelled to abandon their traditional subject matter or subject of ordinary life, even though world now seems changed forever; photo (M)

Novelists Reassess Their Subject Matter

Royal Dutch/Shell Group lowers its target for annual growth in oil and natural gas output to 3 percent; forecast is cut from average of 5 percent growth a year through 2005; company takes action because of slowing demand for energy and delays in new fields in Africa and Middle East (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Britain: Oil Growth Slowing

Pres Bush and leaders of both parties in Congress meet to discuss plans to boost faltering economy in wake of attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon; Congressional leaders also meet with Federal Reserve Chmn Alan Greenspan, who advised them not to adopt plan before extent of damage to economy is known; various tax and spending proposals are discussed; photo (M)

Bush and Leaders Confer on Way To Bolster Weakened Economy

Pirelli persuades Olivetti's former chief executive, Roberto Colaninno, and Bell investors to buy bonds that are scheduled to be repaid six years from now in Olivetti shares; wants to renegotiate its deal with Bell over acquisition of Olivetti; two investors have agreed to give Pirelli one billion euros ($954 million) in loans at rates that are chepaer than credit that is given to rivals (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Italy: Pirelli Cuts Olivetti Price

The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is a global military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks in 2001, and is one of the most recent global conflicts spanning multiple wars. Some researchers and political scientists have argued that it replaced the Cold War.

In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declares a "War on Terror".

September 20, 2001

Headlines from September 20, 2001

Peacetime Recruits Getting Ready for War's Perils

Hockey Rivalry Is Relegated To a Back Seat at the Garden

Gonzalez and Zeile Lead Mets to Sweep

ALSO INSIDE

Sell-Off Eases Late

Billboard 200

Toxicity

Songs In A Minor

Aaliyah

Now 7

No More Drama

Historical Events

Historical Context for September 20, 2001