November 3, 2001

Bush administration imposes stringent financial sanctions on Hamas, Hezbollah and 20 other suspected terrorist organizations; move is sign that admistration feels confident enough in Arab countries' support for action against Osama bin Laden to include anti-Israeli groups that have considerable support in Arab world; US has long frozen Hamas and Hezbollah assets in US, but members of Congress have urged stronger action; new list includes other Arab groups, three Colombian groups, Real Irish Republican Army and Basque group ETA; latter are included to show US is not just focusing on Israel and Palestinians; photos of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin (M)

Murray Chass comments on New York Yankees' dominance in baseball, contending they have become best team in baseball history over last six years; photo (L)

Interviews with law enforcement officials show that impressions of arrests since Sept 11 fostered by both government and civil rights advocates are overstated; several hundred of 1,147 people taken into custody since attacks have been released from jail, and many were simply questioned briefly and released; government releases daily tally drawn from new arrests around country, but officials say they have no overall record on how many are still being held (M)

Service sector of US economy, main engine of job creation since World War II, has been dealt powerful blow by events of Sept 11; 111,000 service positions were lost from September to October, out of 619,000 jobs that disappeared overall; decline is sector's largest drop ever; travel-related businesses are particularly hard-hit, as is retail trade; photo (M)

FBI Dir Robert S Mueller III says that after weeks of investigation, government has no idea who is behind anthrax attacks, and appeals to public in solving case; says FBI has been unable to determine source of microbes that killed four people; so far, 17 people have definitely contracted anthrax (M)