Poor and downtrodden of New York City muster sympathy for families of victims of Sept 11 terror attacks; comments from several people who are homeless and take meals in soup kitchen, where lines for food have grown longer and donations more meager; photo (M)

Among the Poor, Sympathy for the Families of Sept. 11

Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, moderate Argentine governor, becomes country's caretaker president and immediately declares default on its $132 billion debt, promising to use money saved to create jobs and fortify social programs; default is largest in history, but is not considered imminent threat to other countries because crisis has been slow to unfold and many creditors had opportunities to limit their risk; bank controls remain in effect, and Rodriguez Saa says he has no intention of ending practice of pegging peso's value to dollar; will expand printing of scrip to pay government workers; election for new president will be held on March 3; photo (M)

ARGENTINE LEADER DECLARES DEFAULT ON BILLIONS IN DEBT

Travel agencies feel effects of Sept 11 terror attacks and, combined with recession and large cuts made by corporations in travel and entertainment budgets, industry is seeing enormous drop in business; agencies in Manhattan report drop off in business anywhere from 40 to 65 percent; even boom in private charter flights among extremely well-heeled cannot begin to make up lost profits; photo (M)

A Stay-at-Home Public Is Only the Latest Worry for Travel Agents

Carl Malamud will shortly unveil NetTopBox, television viewers' program guide that employs technologies that help people navigate World Wide Web; cross-referencing within software gives greater depth and breadth than printed guides or guides found on any cable service; photo (M)

A Cybernaut Plans Software for Navigating TV

New York Giants defeat Seattle Seahawks, 27-24; photo (M)

Darwin's Darlings: Giants Survive With Another Rally

Alain Levy, recently appointed chief executive of EMI Recorded Music, is busy trying to revive his EMI Group subsidiary and excise memory of ousted Ken Berry, under whose leadership subsidiary disintegrated and was fraught with strife; is making no public statements on plans to reorder unit; photo; table (M)

The Silent Record Executive; EMI's New Chief Keeps His Own Counsel About Plans

Japan's prime minister, a nationalist who has raised the profile of the country's military, called for increased territorial vigilance after the Japanese Coast Guard traded heavy fire with a vessel suspected of being a North Korean spy ship. The ship sank just inside an economic zone claimed by China, and its crew of 15 is believed to have drowned.    Article, Page A9.

Japan Talks Tough After a Naval Battle

New York Gov George Pataki reconsiders pledge to raise pay for lawyers who represent poor because of huge, new budget deficits projected for state; court-appointed lawyers in New York are paid second-lowest rate in nation: $40 per hour for court appearances and $25 per hour out of court; fewer lawyers are willing to accept appointments and those who do are being urged to take more; lack of action by state may mean issues will be settled by courts and in fact Federal District Court Judge Jack Weinstein recently issued opinion in which he said defendants are being deprived of their right to counsel as direct result of low pay (M)

Pataki Rethinks His Promise of a Raise for Lawyers to the Indigent

Profile of Elizabeth Devine, writer on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS drama; she began as technical adviser to show, having been crime scene investigator with Los Angeles Sheriff's Department for 15 years, was offered job as writer after several months and decided to leave her county job; photos (M)

Gory Details Cheerfully Supplied; Trading Police Forensics For Writer's Life on 'C.S.I.'

 China Jails 6 Linked to Sect  Six people affiliated with a Beijing university have been sentenced to prison for distributing material from the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.   PAGE A9    Shoplifting on the Rise  In addition to plunging profit margins and unseasonably warm weather, retailers are also having to cope with a rising tide of shoplifters.     BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C2

INSIDE

New York Jets defeat Indianapolis Colts, 29-28; photo (M)

Late Drive Beefs Up Jets' Shaky Effort

Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai begins work of governing, convening meeting of his ministers who report on conditions in their provinces; issues addressed are rampant banditry in eastern part of country, reconstruction, how to feed internally displaced people and encourage them to return to their homes; Karzai says national government will move quickly to open provincial offices; ministry, which includes three women, meets with United Nations officials to press for continued support, including help developing expertise needed to govern; international coalition will help pay administrative costs for initial six months providing start-up materials for each minister as basic as office furniture, telephone equipment and computer; photos of Yunus Qanooni, interior minister, Muhammad Fahim, defense minister and Dr Abdullah Abdullah, foreign minister (M)

New Afghan Leaders Begin Tough Tasks, Amid Debate Over U.S. Raid on Convoy

Article in American Journal series, which reports on how places around country have adapted to life after Sept 11 and to onset of war; describes scene at World Trade Center, which has become magnet for hundreds of tourists who pose for photographs in front of charred ruins of once-proud towers; photo of Moran's, bar near ground zero that has reopened for business (M)

The Shouting Above the Din at Moran's Heralds a Bar Returning to Normal

Exhibit of artifacts taken from sunken English slave ship Henrietta Marie is on display at New York State Museum in Albany; photos (M)

Relics of Slavery, Up From the Deep; Shackles From Shipwreck Become a Cause for a Black Diver

Hewlett-Packard sets its sights on 96 percent of printing industry volume still produced on traditional offset presses, hoping that hundreds of thousands of customized catalogs and other reports will be printed on its next-generation, high-speed digital presses; opinions vary on compatibility of that business goal with desktop printing business that Hewlett dominates and with its intended merger with Compaq Computer; photo (M)

Hewlett Aims To Replace The Print Shop

Leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Pakistani group that has been challenging Indian rule in Kashmir and has been linked to Dec 13 attack on Indian Parliament, react with studied indifference when group is added to official US list of terrorist organizations and Pres Bush asks Pakistan's government to disband it and arrest its leaders; indifference reflects idea common among Islamic militants that God's will, and certainly not American power, is ultimate driving force of mankind's affairs; also echoes something of turbulent history of region and fatalism it has engendered in succeeding generations; map; photo (M)

Kashmir's Islamic Guerrillas See Little to Fear From U.S.

Makers of The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring are encouraged by early response to film, which they strove to make faithful enough to Tolkien's work to satisfy its most fervent fans while keeping it accessible to those unfamiliar with its intricate, mythic world; photos (M)

The Quest Of 'The Ring': Draw Novices Not Just Fans

Guidance systems employed in US airstrikes in Afghanistan make them devastatingly accurate; satellites, electronic-eavesdropping planes and human ground spotters are working together more reliably than ever, enabling distant commanders to direct warplanes to targets with stunning speed and accuracy; Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners confirm that precise bombing from planes they often could not hear or see broke will of battle-hardened troops; relatively small number of civilian casualties made possible by pinpoint bombing helps US maintain support of friendly Islamic nations, and air campaign's deadly effectiveness helps embolden opposition commanders; photos; drawing (L)

Use of Pinpoint Air Power Comes of Age in New War

Profile of Jenny Potter, member of United States women's Olympic hockey team, who is juggling preparation for Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, and motherhood; photo (M)

Rookie Mom Keeps Focused on Hockey

Jean-Marie Messier, chairman of Vivendi Universal, stirs concern in French movie industry by calling for end of France's complex system of financing movies through government subsidies, special taxes and mandatory investment by television companies; Vivendi owns Canal-Plus, French pay-television channel that must spend $140 million a year on buying and investing in French films to balance imported movies it shows; critics accuse Messier, who has moved his operating base to New York, of embracing philosophy of Hollywood, which has always opposed France's movie-financing plan; photo (M)

Remark by Vivendi Chief Unnerves French Film Industry

People aboard American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami tell how their suspicions were raised by passenger who turns out to have had explosives hidden in his basketball shoes and how they subdued him; several say they knew from beginning of flight that there was something not right about passenger, identified as Richard Colvin Reid; photos (M)

A 'Strange' Traveler Acted, And the Passengers Reacted

Overview of day's events in fight against terrorism (M)

An Unidentified Passenger, Governing in Kabul, Need in America

Tests confirm that explosives packed with wires were hidden in sneakers of man who was violently subdued by passengers and flight attendants aboard American Airlines jet over Atlantic; suggest material is C-4, powerful military-grade plastic explosive that has been used by variety of terrorist groups; man, tentatively identified as Richard Colvin Reid, is British citizen of Jamaican ancestry and convert to Islam; FBI finds nothing to link him to Muslim extremists; photos; diagram of plane; map (M)

F.B.I. TESTS FIND EXPLOSIVE IN SHOES OF JET PASSENGER

Junk e-mail spikes in last three months, becoming No. 1 complaint of America Online's customers; cost of e-mail is insignificant to sender, but it costs recipient time and effort; critics say deluge of junk e-mail, also called spam, threatens to undermine utility of Internet at precisely time when anthrax fears and cost-cutting efforts have prompted more businesses to use it as substitute for postal mail (M)

You've Got Mail. Lots of It, and It's Mostly Junk.

Americans are signing up for signing up for broadband Internet access despite economic recession and demise of many service providers; some 10.7 million households now have broadband service, compared with 5.6 million a year ago; 68 percent connect by cable while 31 percent use phone-line variant, digital subscriber line; consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction are equal for both types of connection (M)

December 24, 2001

Headlines from December 24, 2001

Among the Poor, Sympathy for the Families of Sept. 11

ARGENTINE LEADER DECLARES DEFAULT ON BILLIONS IN DEBT

A Stay-at-Home Public Is Only the Latest Worry for Travel Agents

A Cybernaut Plans Software for Navigating TV

Darwin's Darlings: Giants Survive With Another Rally

Billboard 200

Weathered

Now 8

NOW That's What I Call Christmas!

Britney

Christmas Extraordinaire

Historical Context for December 24, 2001