November 25, 2005

China Says Oil Company Caused Chemical Spill The Chinese government blamed the country's biggest oil company for a pollution spill that allowed a 50-mile slick of toxic benzene to reach the northern city of Harbin, with almost four million people, on the river that normally supplies it with running water. PAGE A16 Europeans Criticize Israel A European Union report says Israeli policies in Jerusalem are reducing the possibility of ever reaching an agreement there. PAGE A12 Putin Backs Curbs on Groups President Vladimir V. Putin defended Russia's right to scrutinize activity by charities and nongovernmental organizations. PAGE A24 Questions on Fund-Raising Campaign fund-raising is often derided as legalized bribery. Now the Justice Department is saying it can be illegal. PAGE A28 Test-Driving the Xbox 360 Microsoft's new gaming and home media system is reviewed by Seth Schiesel after he logged more than 40 hours. WEEKEND, PAGE E37 New Pope: Quiet but Active Pope Benedict XVI is showing signs of a papacy that moves quietly but where changes are being carried out, nonetheless. PAGE A3

The first bar I ever went to in New York was a woody, grungy and completely addictive spot on the corner of Avenue B and East Seventh Street called Horseshoe Bar. Or 7B. Or, sometimes, Vazac's. The bar's name, you see, seemed to change depending on which regular you talked to: I, for example, called it U Bar, for reasons I can't remember. That was in 1988, when I was a bright-eyed drama student at New York University with big dreams of becoming the next Marlon Brando. Or Sam Shepard. Or both. I hadn't thought about the Horseshoe Bar in a while, until last week, when I suddenly saw my old local on the silver screen as a central location in ''Rent,'' the new movie version of Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer Prize winning 1996 musical about a group of melodic strivers living in the East Village.

Iraq Abbas of Baghdad searches in vain for her husband, Fayadh Abdul Hamid al-Timimi, who was arrested in their home by Iraqi police commandos on May 26, shortly after bombing in their neighborhood; man who was among 169 starving and abused prisoners recently discovered by American forces in bunker maintained by Iraqi authorities says Timimi was badly beaten in Iraqi detention center before being taken to bunker in stretcher, unable to walk; his account is confirmed and denied by different officials, who also issue conflicting statements on Timimi's current whereabouts; Iraqi officials insist that all men in bunker had links to insurgency; rights workers say case illustrates lack of accountability on part of Iraqi authorities, who have been rounding up suspected insurgents and packing them into growing number of official and unofficial detention facilities that operate virtually unchecked; photo (M)

Alden J McDonald, chief executive of Liberty Bank and Trust, largest black-owned bank in New Orleans, tours moldy, stinking remains of bank branches hit hardest by flooding and looting that followed Hurricane Katrina, at the same time looking for signs of activity in city's predominantly black eastern half that might justify reopening of some branches (A Bank Rebuilds series); finds little cause for optimism, with reconstruction of city's economy turning out to be slower and more complex that many people first thought; looted buildings have yet to be cleaned up and wrecked structures yet to be leveled because there are not enough workers to haul away debris; some businesses, like Liberty, are trapped in limbo as they try to negotiate settlements with insurers; photos (M)

European Central Bank is being urged to reconsider plan to lift interests rates for first time in five years; bank's assertion that Europe is finally on sustainable growth plan is undercut by survey of German business showing larger-than-expected decline in confidence in November; survey follows reports on decline in consumer spending in France and drop in business confidence in Belgium; complicating matters further is report about decline in consumer prices in five German states in October, since bank's president, Jean-Claude Trichet, cited threat of rising inflation as main reason to lift rates (M)