May 19, 2002

Defense Opens in Bombing The defense opened its case in the murder trial of Bobby Frank Cherry, who is charged in the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four girls. PAGE 18 Battle on the Mountaintops A judge is fighting the Bush administration over the dumping of strip-mined mountaintops into Appalachian streams and valleys. PAGE 18

Analysis by New York City Comptroller's office shows that in April, for first time since September, number of jobs in city rose, by respectable 7,000 or so; there are gains in some interesting and important sectors since March, like business services; hotels, stores and restaurants add employees in April; charts; graphs (M)

Members of Congressional Black, Hispanic and Asian Pacific Caucuses hold their first tricaucus retreat, hoping to create atmosphere of understanding among groups that often feel pitted against one another for resources and recognition; organizers of three-day event, held at resort in Northern Virginia, take pains to avoid news media to allow participants to open up without worrying about how it would play; members of groups hope to begin new era in coalition politics to promote policy agenda focused on education, economic empowerment, health care and immigration; developing agenda of groups is effort to realize strength in numbers; black caucus has 38 members, Hispanic caucus has 18 and Asian Pacific caucus has 9, although dozens of 'affiliated members' in Congress have interest in Asian-related issues; photo (M)

American intelligence agencies intercept vague yet troubling series of communications among Al Qaeda operatives in last few months indicating that terrorist group is trying to carry out operation as big as Sept 11 attacks or bigger; new interceptions are so general that they leave Pres Bush and his counterterrorism team in dark about time, place or method of what is being called second-wave attack; as result, government is limited to taking broad defensive measures; officials describe messages as cryptic and ambiguous, and compare them with pattern of those picked up in months before Sept 11, when Qaeda operatives were also overheard talking about big operation; those signals were among evidence intelligence agencies presented to Pres Bush in Aug about possibility of imminent attack against United States; government's frustration in not being able to fully piece together clues, then or now, underscores problem in fighting unconventional foe like Al Qaeda; photo (M)

New Jersey Nets prepare for Game 1 against Boston Celtics, denying that regular season record of Celtics defeating Nets is viable predictor of postseason performance; photo (M)