December 2, 2004

Smaller exporters in Europe are expressing more and more fear about how rise in value of euro and other currencies and decline in United States dollar will affect their businesses; euro reaches record high of $1.3319 in New York trading and British pound rises to 12-year high of $1.9327; distress in European industry is increasing pressure on European Central Bank to respond, either by intervening in currency market to curb rise of euro or by lowering interest rates; photos (M)

Powell, in Haiti, Hears Violence Close at Hand Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, on a one-day visit to Haiti to offer support to its leaders, got a taste of the persistent violence there when gunfire erupted outside the government building where he was holding talks, and gun battles through the day killed three people and hurt nine. There was no indication that the incident was directed at Mr. Powell or at the United States. PAGE A17 Antigun Program Squeezed Because of what were called competing budget priorities, Congress has ended direct financing for the centerpiece program of the Bush administration's efforts to prosecute black-market gun crimes. PAGE A32 Woman's Execution Delayed Gov. Rick Perry of Texas delayed the execution of a woman hours before she was to die for the murders of her husband and children. PAGE A26 Senate Shifting on Abortion Abortion opponents have long considered the Senate a roadblock to abortion restrictions and conservative judicial nominees. But the recent elections may be changing that. POLITICAL MEMO, PAGE A34 A Patch for the Libido Procter & Gamble will ask a federal advisory panel to recommend approval of the first drug to increase a woman's sex drive. PAGE C1 After a Visit to Good Friends in Canada, a Welcome Home From a Best Friend Barney, President Bush's dog, escorted the President, Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser; Andrew H. Card Jr., his chief of staff; and Dan Bartlett, left, his communications director, on their return yesterday. PAGE A24

Touch-screen technology and other innovations and interactive exhibits give museum-goers deeper understanding of objects that cannot be handled; photo (M)

Egyptian government, which saw no profit from 1978 touring show of Tutankhamun artifacts, expects to clear $10 million in every city visited by new show; its financial goals have cultural institutions around United States weighing crowds his treasures are likely to draw against prospect of having to charge as much as $30; show is being mounted for Egypt by private, for-profit entities led by Anschutz Entertainment Group; exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, is to start American tour in June at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where normal admission price of $9 has been raised to $30 for show; it will travel to museums in Chicago and Fort Lauderdale, Fla, after that; Metropolitan Museum of Art, part of original King Tut tour, refuses to agree to terms demanded this time by Egypt and its commercial partners, as do Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and Philadelphia Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum of Art is considering idea; photo (M)

US Agriculture Department reportedly lifts almost all restrictions on imports of Mexican avocados; year-round restrictions in California, Florida and Hawaii will be lifted by 2007 (S)