North Carolina University defeats Michigan State University, 87-71, to advance to men's NCAA tournament championship game; photos (M)

Deep and Talented, Tar Heels Run Off Without Spartans

Daylight saving time resumed at 2 a.m. today. Clocks were set ahead one hour.  

A Reminder

MARTIN McDONAGH has never killed a kitten. He has never torn the wings off flies, blown up a stove or bludgeoned a woman to death with a fireplace poker. He is a pacifist, a perfectionist and, he promises, a very happy person.    ''I try to be as nice as I possibly can to people,'' says Mr. McDonagh, smiling meekly. And then, after a perfectly timed pause, he adds, ''Except journalists.''  

Suffer the Little Children

Home Front column on trend among landlords in Lower Manhattan to try to rent space to restaurants and bars; liquor licenses help boost their earnings so they can pay rents well above what other service establishments and retail stores can afford; trend is not necessarily welcomed by area residents; photo (M)

Where Setting Up Shop Just Got a Little Pricier

New York city continues to evolve and has lost some of its most cherished buildings along the way; Plaza Hotel will close at end of month so its new owner Elad Properties can begin process of converting most of its rooms into condominiums; 13 noted buildings that have been lost to modernization described; photos (L)

Goodbye to All That

Michele Green travel article on stays at director Francis Ford Coppola's three eco-lodges in Central America; amenities at Blancaneaux Lodge in Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve in Belize, Turtle Inn near Placencia, Belize, and La Lancha at Lake Peten Itza, Tikal, Guatemala described; photos; map (L)

Eco-Tourism: The Director's Cut

Roman Catholic Church lost charismatic and influential leader with death of Pope John Paul II, but Poland lost one of great men of its history; Poles in Krakow light candles and pray for man who represented savior of national soul; reign began with Poland as Communist dictatorship and ended with Poland free and democratic, at least in part because of his moral authority; reactions around world to news of pope's death described; photos (L)

Krakow and Beyond: Prayers, Tributes and Awe

WITH his first New York show since 2000, Damien Hirst, abandoning his famous menagerie of dead sharks and pharmaceuticals and eight-foot-wide ashtrays and air-blown beach balls and humongous anatomical models, has unveiled at Larry Gagosian's Chelsea emporium 31 photorealist paintings, all heavily assistant-aided and tongue in cheek. The subjects include skulls, crystals, pills, a doctor proffering a brain, an empty hospital hallway, an emaciating crack addict, a bloody soccer hooligan, dissecting tables -- campy shockers, aimed at Page Six and hedge fund speculators.     The show's opening galvanized the predictable mob of ebullient celebrities and tut-tutting rubberneckers. They cheerfully congregated before paintings of car bombings and of a monkey receiving an injection in the face. It isn't clear whether anyone noticed, amid the revelry, that a moment had passed.  

This Is Your Brain on Pause

International buyers, drawn by outsized real estate gains, weak dollar, low mortgage rates and city's burnished image of livablity, are flocking to Manhattan housing market; little data exists to quantify trend; brokers and mortgage lenders estimate increase in sales to international buyers at 10 to 25 percent; international buyers prefer Midtown area; photos (M)d

In Any Language, Manhattan's Hot

Older pitchers like New York Yankees' Randy Johnson (age 41) and Houston Astros' Roger Clemens (age 42)are proving that age can be defied through conditioning and protecting talent; photos (M)

Better With Age

Selena Roberts Sports of The Times column discusses records of past, which drum up collective feelings of respect and awe, and records being set today, which stand precariously as suspicions of steroid use color accomplishments (M)

Past Glory Versus Today's Suspicions

New book The Hookup Handbook, by Andrea Lavinthal and Jessica Rozler, zeroes in on new trend in dating in New York City, which is seeing young single women date more, but have less sex; photos (M)

Casual Relationships, Yes. Casual Sex, Not Really.

 A SPECIAL SECTION -- John Paul II was a politically deft figure who transcended geographical and ideological boundaries.   PAGE 39    UNEASY FLOCK -- Under John Paul II, a drifting Catholic Church gained new rigor and a clear direction. But that direction has dismayed many American Catholics.   WEEK IN REVIEW    AN EDITORIAL -- Keeper of the flock for a quarter of a century.   PAGE 46  

JOHN PAUL II

All but three of 117 cardinal electors were appointed by Pope John Paul II and so nearly all potential successors fit his mold of doctrinal conservatism; nationality and professional experience are pivotal in absence of clear front-runner; critical question is whether to choose Italian or candidate from third world; Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Italian Cardinals Dionigi Tett amanzi and Angelo Scola, and German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger are among contenders; cardinals may choose older pope to avoid another long reign, though some say John Paul's long infirmity favors choice of youthful candidate; photos (L)

Challenge Is Posed in Selecting a Successor

United States government plans to spend more than $2 billion on routine 10-year overhaul to extend life of aging W-76 nuclear warheads, but some scientists say W-76 has fundamental flaw that will cause it to explode with far less force than intended; government denies assertion but is considering replacing warhead altogether; some arms control advocates oppose overhaul, while others oppose replacement for fear of starting new arms race; dependability issue emerged nationally as Congress approved new weapons design effort, Reliable Replacement Warhead program, in 2004; drawing, diagram (L)

A Fierce Debate on Atom Bombs From Cold War

IT is hard to remember now that when Pope John Paul II was elected 27 years ago, the church he inherited was destabilized and dispirited.    His immediate predecessor, John Paul I, had been found dead in bed one morning after only 34 days in office. The pope before that, Paul VI, spent his last years melancholy and withdrawn, his accomplishments overshadowed by the uproar over Humanae Vitae, his encyclical affirming the church's ban on contraception.  

Catholics in America: A Restive People

Pope John Paul II dies in Rome at age 84, ending extraordinary if sometimes polarizing 26-year reign; tens of thousands of people gather in St Peter's Square; Pope suffered for decade from Parkinson's disease but health hit its last crisis on March 31; John Paul brought charisma, intellectual vigor and energy to office, visiting 129 foreign countries as pulse of Catholic Church moved from increasingly secular Europe to Africa, Asia and Latin America; transformed papacy to television-ready voice for peace, war and life; cardinals will have to face range of issues in choosing successor; photos (L)

Pope Succumbs to Illness Suffered at Length and in Public

SOUTH KOREA'S automakers have made steady gains with American customers by selling low-price vehicles packed with features and supported by long warranties. Now they are adding some styling pizazz to the mix, which includes levels of refinement approaching that of well-regarded Japanese-brand cars.    Check out the Kia Spectra 5, a sporty new hatchback. While the last-generation Spectra came only as a frumpy small sedan, Kia has thoroughly revamped the line for 2005 and added this five-passenger ''five door'' model -- like many competitors, Kia counts the rear hatch as a door.   

2005 Kia Spectra: The Virtue of Chic With the Value of Cheap

COULD this be the same Republican Party that was on such triumphant display after President Bush's re-election just four months ago?    Republicans and conservatives are quarreling over Congress's intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, and the rising influence of Christian conservatives. Some Republicans in Washington and statehouses are balking at federal tax cuts in the face of deficits or spending cuts, while a few are worried that the war in Iraq will lead to more foreign entanglements. Republicans are beginning to whisper in the past tense as they discuss Mr. Bush's signature second-term measure, the revamping of Social Security.   

Squabbles Under the Big Tent

EVEN by operatic standards, the plot turned with stunning swiftness. Not two months ago, Riccardo Muti seemed the unshakable master of the Teatro Alla Scala, the legendary opera house in Milan. But now, besieged in the political arena and denounced by the orchestra he so lovingly molded over two decades, he has all but lost his grip on the company.    New twists arise almost daily. But at least at press time, Mr. Muti, the house's music director, was scheduled to conduct the Scala orchestra and chorus in a program of Beethoven and Schubert starting on Thursday. With the first rehearsal scheduled for tomorrow, many in the music world were wondering whether the musicians would strike, as they have done periodically since mid-February, perhaps this time unseating Mr. Muti and tipping a deeply muddled situation into outright chaos.   

Mutiny at La Scala

New churches in rural and suburban areas are

A New Church? Not in Their Backyard.

Corporations are fattening retirement packages of their chief executives; it is not uncommon for retired executives who were paid tens or even hundreds of millions dollars during their tenures to receive $1 million or more in pension benefits every year for as long as they live; unlike executives' salary or stock options, cost of retirement packages is rarely laid out for shareholders; table of retirement packages received by 20 top executives; photos (L)

The New Executive Bonanza: Retirement

Pharmaceutical industry spends billions of dollars developing obesity drugs, some say in response to public health warnings of obesity epidemic among one-third of public, but many analysts see big market in 60 percent of American adults who are overweight, and others see danger of appeal to those who just want to drop a few pounds; some experts caution that variety of factors causing obesity may defy mass-market solution, and odds are against some one losing significant weight and not regaining it; different weight-loss treatments and research described; article in occasional series Obesity Inc; photos; chart (L)

Drug Makers Race to Cash In on Nation's Fight Against Fat

Gretchen Morgenson column on reduction in American Life Insurance Co's capital and surplus due to drop in share price of its parent company, American International Group; notes that American Life had net position of 61 million AIG shares at end of 2004 and that those shares have lost 19.8 percent of their value since then; says that as with Enron Corp, this case shows problems that can result when company has too much of its capital tied to its parent company's stock price; graph (M)

A.I.G.: Whiter Shade of Enron

Writer Stephen King discusses mental state of Boston Red Sox fans as they prepare for start of 2005 regular season months after winning championship; drawing; photo (M)

It's Weird but True. The Gloom Is Gone in Mudville.

François Gérin was a member of the House of Commons of Canada. He was a lawyer by career.

April 3, 2005

Headlines from April 3, 2005

Deep and Talented, Tar Heels Run Off Without Spartans

A Reminder

Suffer the Little Children

Where Setting Up Shop Just Got a Little Pricier

Goodbye to All That

Billboard 200

The Massacre

Now 18

In Between Dreams

American Idiot

The Documentary

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for April 3, 2005