February 16, 2004

New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services plans to transfer hundreds of children in residential centers and group homes to foster homes or other homelike settings; will move about 450 of about 1,350 institutionalized children over three-year period; critics question whether move will be quick enough to help state's most troubled children (M)

Public broadcasters in Britain, France and Italy are coming under scrutiny of regulators; at BBC and French public television network France 2, top executives have resigned after journalists were cited for mistakes in reporting; in Italy, Prime Min Silvio Berlusconi's government is moving to increase its oversight of public broadcaster RAI, raising concerns about independence of news and other programming; difficulty of striking balance between quality and commercial success is increasingly common lament among many public broadcasters in Europe; France 2's reporting mistakes are attributed to its struggle to stay competitive despite trailing badly in ratings and resources; photo (M)

Fear and chaos have become way of life in Gonaives, Haiti, key crossroads held by armed rebels calling for Pres Jean-Bertrand Aristide's ouster; possibility that rebels, led by Butteur Metayer, are backed by sinister figures from Haiti's violent past, coupled with government's weak and disorganized security arrangements, could take conflict, now limited to uprisings by small armed groups in cities across nation, to new level; Gonaives rebels apparently have not massed enough militants to take on police and pro-Aristide militants in other major cities; Aristide does not seem to have enough manpower to take back Gonaives by force; map; photo (M)

New York Knicks trade Keith Van Horn to Milwaukee Bucks and Michael Doleac, Joel Przybilla and draft pick to Atlanta Hawks for Bucks forward Tim Thomas and Hawks center Nazr Mohammed; photos (M)

Bush administration heads for clash with states over Medicaid financing as federal officials crack down on ploys used by many states to shift costs to federal government; officials act as fiscally troubled states cut benefits and restrict eligibility for program that serves 50 million low-income people; says states in many cases have been paying their share with 'phantom dollars;' National Conference of State Legislatures holds 'Medicaid maximization' strategies are legitimate and needed to avoid cutting benefits for poor (M)