May 9, 2005

Community and political opposition has squashed every oil refinery project in United States for last 29 years, leading to acute shortage of plants needed to refine more than 20 million barrels of crude oil country consumes every day; Glenn McGinnis, oil business veteran trying to build refinery in Arizona, is hoping that high cost at gasoline pumps and higher energy prices over all will help him persuade persuade local officials and residents to allow refinery in their backyard; he cleared significant hurdle when Arizona awarded him crucial emissions permit; still ahead are countless rounds of negotiations with local, state and federal agencies to secure dozens more permits; tortuous process described; photo; graphs (M)

Kevin Brown is naturally pessimistic, so he knew what the fans were thinking in the second inning yesterday, when the Oakland Athletics loaded the bases with no outs. Brown was thinking it, too: here we go again. ''Of course those things ran through my mind,'' said Brown, a frequent victim of big innings. ''But you step back on the rubber, and it's all about making a pitch.''

China is being pressured to abolish or change its vast system of re-education camps that operate outside court system; estimated 300,000 prostitutes, drug users, petty criminals, members of Falun Gong and other political prisoners have been stripped of any legal rights and locked inside vast penal system that is separate from judicial system; system, relic of Mao era, is major tool Communist Party uses to maintain hold on power and social order; it allows police to sweep up masses of people without time and complications of court trials; China is facing pressure at home and abroad to change; key members of European Union express reluctance to lift arms embargo without significant gesture by China on human rights; outside China, Falun Gong is waging aggressive campaign to pubilcize its allegations of mistreatment, which Chinese government denies; history of labor re-education camps detailed; photo; map (M)

Nicolai Ouroussoff reviews new Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by Peter Eisenman, in Berlin, Germany; photos; map (M)

Dia Art Foundation, which opened museum in Chelsea in 1974, plans to move from its two spaces on West 22nd Street to 820 Washington Street, at Gansevoort Street, in Manhattan's meatpacking district; New York City, which owns derelict building, is supporting Dia's proposed museum, which must go through public review and be approved by city; map (M)