October 27, 2003

Royal rule in Saudi Arabia is being challenged by Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, group of London-based Saudis who represent first opposition voice broadcasting into kingdom; their summons to two street protests in Saudi Arabia this month emboldened so many people to take part that police ended up arresting more than 350 people; government alarm at dissidents' influence is reflected in Ramadan-eve address in Riyadh from country's senior religious leader, who warns Saudis to shun such demonstrations; Saad al-Faghi, head of exile group, says he believes movement's Al-Islah network is reaching audience in millions because of large number of individual satellite dishes in Saudi Arabia; people communicate with his service by cellphone and Internet chat rooms; callers from Riyadh used mobile telephones to give station accounts of Oct 14 police crackdown, including arrest and beating of 65-year-old woman; Saudi government has jammed Al-Islah's radio broadcasts for five days, but Fagih is confident his engineers will restore full transmission; he says Royal Family's recently announced elections for local councils are meaningless without freedom of expression and assembly; photo (M)

Public assistance rolls in New York are rising as number of people who have exhausted their five-year limit on federal welfare benefits apply for state's Safety Net Assistance program; New York City and State share cost of program, which supplies same amount of funds as federal program, but with no limit on time clients may receive benefits; many recipients are employed part time but still make little enough to qualify for aid; some lose parts of benefits for not cooperating in welfare-to-work effort (M)

Article on manuscript of Scherzo from Beethoven's String Quartet in E flat (Op 127), entirely in Beethoven's hand, that Sotheby's plans to auction in London on December 5; Sotheby's expects manuscript, owned by Stifelsen Musikkulterens Framjande (Foundation for the Furthering of Music Culture) in Stockholm, to bring between $1.6 million and $2.5 million (M)

Ronald and Karen Kowalski draw ire from their Easton, Conn, neighbors by giving Sprint rights to place cellular phone tower in their backyard; Mr Kowalski is partner at Cacace, Tusch & Santagata, law firm that Sprint has often retained on tower placement; Kowalski considered $500,000 bid for rights from upscale neighbors, but eventually took Sprint's offer; legal attempts to upset tower's construction fail because state law has firmly established that municipalities have no real say in tower placement; photo (M)

Profile of and interview with Jack Valenti, 82, longtime president of Motion Picture Assn of America; Valenti comments on plan to retire, perhaps by 2004, and his decision, later amended, to bar distribution of advance videotapes and DVD's to Academy Award voters in effort to thwart growing film piracy problem; photo (M)