March 16, 2004

New York City's Panel for Educational Policy approves Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to impose strict promotion rules for third-graders, but only after he and Staten Island Boro Pres James P Molinaro fire and replace three members just before vote; photo of Chancellor Joel Klein and others at vote; Bloomberg defends unusually muscular use of power now that education administration is accountable to mayor, saying his representatives must vote for what he believes in; students scoring at lowest level in English and math tests will have to repeat third grade unless they improve after summer school or teachers appeal; 15,000 of 74,000 students could be affected; Bloomberg emphasizes determination to end social promotions; critics say retentions most affect black and Hispanic children, who often lag behind whites and Asians (M)

Ulster County, NY, Dist Atty Donald A Williams files criminal charges against Unitarian ministers Kay A Greenleaf and Dawn Sangrey for performing same-sex weddings in New Paltz after court barred Mayor Jason West from doing so; denies action is violation of constitutional separation of church and state because ceremonies have legal significance; issue at hand is whether ministers confirmed that couples had marriage licenses, but it also raises larger issue of criminalization of clergy who perform such weddings (M)

Maurice Watkins, who came to Iraq as contractor fumigating army bases, is now in charge of Iraq's Olympic boxing team, quixotic bunch of teenage boys and lumpy men who hope to bring their country's flag back to Olympics; 47-year-old Chevrolet salesman from Houston, nicknamed Termite, is onetime boxer who gave up Olympic hopes to turn professional; photos of Iraqi hopefuls training at Hilla Sports Club (M)

Thailand delays for at least two months plans to privatize Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand because of protests by labor unions; government of Prime Min Thaksin Shinawatra planned to sell 25 percent stake in utility this spring for as much as 70 billion baht ($1.8 billion) (S)

A Distant Neighbor Is Found Far beyond Pluto, out where the Sun is only a pinpoint of pale light, a frozen world has been found on the dark fringes of the solar system. The discovery pushes back the point once considered the planetary system's edge. PAGE A20 Stewart Resigns Two Posts Martha Stewart resigned as an executive and board member of the company she founded. She remains the largest stockholder and continues as a creative adviser. PAGE C1

Article on author Alice Randall, who is holding discussions about black women's problems with interracial relationships and why so many black athletes only choose white women; Randall's soon-to-be-published novel is Pushkin and the Queen of Spades; photo (M)

Just before a shareholder vote on their proposed merger, Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial reached a $675 million settlement with regulators yesterday over improper trading in their mutual funds, requiring Bank of America to replace most of its fund directors within a year.

Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, who implored Pres Clinton to lower budget deficit and tacitly condoned tax increases to do so, is developing theory that has him warning more emphatically about risks of raising taxes, even as deficit heads toward record $500 billion and Congressional Budget Office reports deficit now stems almost entirely from tax cuts and spending increases, not economic slowdown; Greenspan's thesis is that gains in personal wealth and growing sophistication of financial markets have allowed Americans, individually and as a nation, to borrow much more than would have seemed manageable twenty years ago; good news for Pres Bush's re-election hope means Fed may well keep interest rates low, defusing Democratic criticism that Bush has intensified record indebtedness; Greenspan believes household balance sheets are 'in good shape' because home and stock values have risen faster than debts; he is sanguine about more than $500 billion in annual borrowing from foreigners and makes clear he will not try to torpedo Bush's tax-cutting agenda; other economists are more worried about low-interest borrowing and heavy debt of those without stable incomes or assets; photos; graph (M)

Martha Stewart resigns as executive and board member of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in wake of conviction of lying to federal investigators in connection with her ImClone Systems stock trade; Stewart, who owns 61 percent of company's shares, will continue as creative adviser; photos (M)

Hong Kong's CNOOC Ltd says net profit in year to Dec 31 was $1.45 billion, up 32 percent from 2002 (S)

Saudi Aramco still employs 2,000 Americans, offering them attractive perks and a measure of American work environment, even as pressure from Islamic conservatives forces company to become more Saudi in makeup and management style; Aramco's female employees are allowed to wear Western clothing and drive company property; photo (M)

Alessandra Stanley reviews new CBS series Century City starring Hector Elizondo, Ioan Gruffudd and Nestor Carbonell; photo (M)