Senator John McCain warns Major League Baseball during Commerce Committe hearing that Congress will act if baseball cannot successfully negotiate stricter drug testing policies; photos (M)

Baseball Receives Steroid Warning

Notre Dame University defeats West Virginia University, 65-64, in first round of Big East Conference tournament; Villanova University defeats Seton Hall University, 61-60; photos (M)

Notre Dame and Villanova Are Good to Last Shot

Bernard Holland reviews New York City Opera production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd starring Mark Delavan and Elaine Paige; photos (M)

Supertitles And Meat Pies As Hors d'Oeuvres

Photo of Haiti's new prime minister, Gerard Latortue

INSIDE

Article on Thomas Gordon Smith, classical scholar, architect and consultant to Metropolitan Museum of Art who favors neo-Classicical design of 1830's; Smith is working on new space for early 19th-century furnishings in museum's American wing; photos (M)

Giving Neo-Classical a Little More Neo; An Architect Who Quietly Battles Trends Finds That He Nearly Is One

World Business Briefing: Switzerland: Airline Chi

World Business Briefing | Europe: Switzerland: Airline Chief Resigns

Sen John Kerry and Howard Dean, who Kerry bested in Democratic primary contests, meet at Kerry headquarters in Washington to plot path to mutual goal of ousting Pres Bush from White House; photos; Dean's official endorsement expected later; Kerry also meets with Democratic national chairman Terry McAuliffe; Sen John Edwards will bring fund-raising network to meet with Kerry; Kerry, talking with supporters in Chicago and apparently not realizing microphone was on, calls Republican critics 'most crooked' and 'lying group I've ever seen'; Republican chairman Marc Racicot demands apology; Kerry campaign maps strategy of countering Bush's huge financial advantage by having local surrogates respond to attacks and seeking smaller donations, using Howard Dean's huge e-mail database (M)

Kerry and Dean, All Forgiven, Join to Unseat a Common Foe

Mexico and Japan resolve final disputes in negotiations for free trade pact, clearing way for deal to be ready by end of March (S)

World Business Briefing | Americas: Mexico: Trade Deal Advances

French industrial company Alstom warns of increase in restructuring costs and says it might miss its earlier forecast of profits, development that would force it to renegotiate $1.8 billion in loans; graph (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: France: Alstom Cuts Outlook

Japan Airlines System Corp warns it will lose more money this year than previously expected and says it plans to eliminate 4,500 jobs, or 8 percent of its work force, over next three years (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: Japan: Airline To Cut Jobs

Chad Vignola resigns as top lawyer for New York City Education Dept over nepotism issue that forced resignation of Deputy Chancellor Diana Lam; resignations are blow to Bloomberg administration, which has been trying to root out corruption and patronage in school system; Schools Chancellor Joel I Klein has had to retreat twice from positions in which he defended actions taken by both subordinates over hiring of Lam's husband, Peter Plattes, as regional instruction specialist (M)

Schools' Top Lawyer Quits In Uproar Over Nepotism

Major Internet providers America Online, Earthlink, Yahoo and Microsoft file lawsuits to shut down leading senders of junk e-mail, invoking new federal antispam law that took effect Jan 1; seek monetary damages and injunctions against different groups of suspected spammers; 62 percent of all e-mail in February was spam, up from 58 percent in December before law took effect; photo; graph; AOL sues Davis Wolfgang Hawke, former neo-Nazi group leader selling penis enlargement pills; Microsoft sues JDO Media over multilevel marketing scheme; Yahoo sues Golddisk.net and related companies in Ontario over mortgage and travel e-mail; all four also sue 220 yet unidentified spammers, many operating offshore (M)

4 Big Internet Providers File Suits To Stop Leading Senders of Spam

Intel Corp takes hard line in festering trade dispute with Chinese government, declaring it will not meet China's June 1 deadline for adhering to its proposed new standard for wireless computing; Intel has informed some of its largest customers in China that they might need to find alternative supplier of microprocessors if they want to keep selling wireless products in China after that date; Intel's not meeting Chinese timetable reflects larger objection on part of Intel and other American technology companies, which have been angry since China announced last year that it wanted to develop separate national standard for short-range wireless networks, known as Wi-Fi (M)

Intel to Miss China Deadline On Standard For Wireless

World Business Briefing | Asia: Japan: Growth Estimate Cut

US trade deficit rose to monthly record of $43.1 billion in January as imports continued to flood in from China and American exports were hurt by slumping demand in Europe and elsewhere; photo; graph; Commerce Department report intensifies battle over trade and jobs in presidential campaign; analysts also cite higher prices for oil and forty percent drop in meat and poultry exports because of mad cow disease scare; weak dollar should bolster US exports but China, with trade surplus larger than that of entire European Union, locks its currency at fixed rate (M)

DEFICIT IN TRADE TOPS $43 BILLION, MONTHLY RECORD

Martha Stewart, more than anyone, has turned gardening from passing fancy into driving passion for many Americans; articles in Martha Stewart Living send gardeners flocking to local nurseries; photos (M)

Can Plants Survive A Martha Drought?

The Oil Company as Social Worker

House, 276-139, approves bill to bar suits against fast-food outlets, other restaurants and food manufacturers by plaintiffs claiming their products caused obesity; sponsor Ric Keller, Florida Republican, warns of attack against food industry by same trial lawyers who went after tobacco; White House endorses measure but outlook is uncertain for Senate version sponsored by Mitch McConnell; Rep James Sensenbrenner suggests fat people look in mirror for who is to blame; Democrat Jim McGovern says House has become place where trivial issues are debated passionately and serious ones not at all; Prof John Banzhaf sees 'hysteria,' saying he knows of only one such suit covered by law, and it was dismissed (M)

Vote in House Offers a Shield In Obesity Suits

Julius Baer, one of few private Swiss banks with publicly traded shares, says profit last year fell 55 percent, to 82 million Swiss francs ($63.7 million) (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Switzerland: Bank's Profit Falls

Hong Kong government says it will sell bonds for first time in more than decade as local authorities, facing political pressure particularly on democracy issues, stay away from new taxes; credit-rating agencies and wide range of business groups and economists had urged government to broaden its tax base, most likely through some kind of sales tax; Financial Sec Henry Tang says he will ask government to study issue of sales tax at end of year, and that it will take three years to put any tax in place; Standard & Poor's criticizes Tang's budget; photo (M)

Hong Kong to Borrow, Avoiding New Tax

Anna Kisselgoff reviews performance by Netherlands Dance Theater at Brooklyn Academy of Music; photo (M)

A Victorian Party For a Slow Slide To an Earthquake

Neil Strauss Pop Life column on CD's that have remained his personal favorites over past decade; photos (M)

CD's That Still Sound Good Years Later

Shares continue their recent slide as investors seem increasingly worried about weakness in economy and prospects for growth in profits; week's drop has wiped out year's gains for Nasdaq composite index and Dow Jones industrial average, though Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is still up slightly for year; several big investors say stocks, while no longer cheap, are still reasonably valued and that possibility of steep pullback appears slight; Standard & Poor's 500-stock index drops 16.69 points, or 1.5 percent, to 1,123.89; Nasdaq composite index falls 31.01 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,964.15; Dow Jones industrial average declines 160.07 points, or 1.7 percent, to 10,296.89; graph; chart (M)

Recent Slide in Stocks Steepens, With Dow Falling 160

Irkut, formerly secret maker of military airplanes that spent decades helping Soviet Union defend itself against capitalist West, has turned to stock market to raise cash to buy other companies and develop new planes; Irkut became first Russian military company to sell shares on stock market with its initial public offering last week; shares, representing 20 percent of company, and worth about $100 million, trade in Moscow, where they close at 76 US cents each, up 17 percent from their first day of trading on March 4; Irkut president Alexei Fedorov comments; maps; photo (M)

Russian Plane Maker Embraces Capitalism

David Pogue State of the Art column on hand-held video players from Archos and RCA; devices record and play music, picture and movie files downloaded from personal computer; cost less, have more recording features and are much smaller than personal DVD players; photos; drawing (M)

Hand-Helds That Offer Video to Go

The 2004 Madrid train bombings were a series of coordinated, nearly simultaneous bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004—three days before Spain's general elections. The explosions killed 193 people and injured around 2,500. The bombings constituted the deadliest terrorist attack carried out in the history of Spain and the deadliest in Europe since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. The attacks were carried out by individuals who opposed Spanish involvement in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Madrid train bombings: Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain kill 191 people.

March 11, 2004

Headlines from March 11, 2004

Baseball Receives Steroid Warning

Notre Dame and Villanova Are Good to Last Shot

Supertitles And Meat Pies As Hors d'Oeuvres

INSIDE

Giving Neo-Classical a Little More Neo; An Architect Who Quietly Battles Trends Finds That He Nearly Is One

Billboard 200

Feels Like Home

The College Dropout

Tough Luv

Fallen

When The Sun Goes Down

Historical Events

Historical Context for March 11, 2004