December 21, 2006

People are increasingly making donations to charities in names of friends, family, co-workers and clients as holiday gifts; drawing; photo (M)

After their double overtime victory over the Bobcats on Wednesday night, the Knicks are now 2-0 since brawling with the Denver Nuggets and losing four players to suspension.

The F.C.C. approved new rules that will make it easier for telephone companies to offer television service.

Dave Anderson Sports of The Times column discusses imminent retirement of New York Giants running back Tiki Barber; photo (M)

In Enrique Metinides’s photographs, accidents and random violence describe a world where fate is absurd and the only logic is visual.

John Rockwell reviews performance by Richard Move company MoveOpolis] at Dance Theater Workshop; photos (M)

New York State Public Authorities Control Board votes to approve Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, removing last regulatory hurdle for $4-billion plan that is one of biggest real estate deals in city's history; photo; approved version of Forest City Ratner project is eight million square feet over 22 acres along Atlantic Avenue, encompassing housing complex of about 6,400 market-rate and subsidized units, Nets basketball arena and office space in elaborate towers that will dwarf nearby neighborhoods; two lawsuits still remain; vote follows days of tense negotiations between Empire State Development Corp and aides to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who controls votes along with Gov George Pataki and Sen Joseph Bruno; Silver's financing concerns are appeased by revised detailed projection and new concessions; at least 200 of market-rate condominiums will be subsidized for first-time homeowners, $3 million will be spent on improving local parks and highest tower will be shorter than Williamsburgh Savings Bank building, Brooklyn's tallest at 512 feet (M)

A O Scott reviews film Venus, directed by Roger Mitchell; Peter O'Toole and Jodie Whittaker star; photo (M)

Eli Lilly documents show that for at least one year, company provided information to doctors about blood-sugar risks of its schizophrenia drug Zyprexa that did not match data that company circulated internally when it first reviewed its clinical trial results; February 2000 memo sent to scientists says original results showed that patients on drug were 3.5 times as likely to experience high blood sugar levels as those taking placebo; memo is one of hundreds of internal Lilly documents provided to New York Times by lawyer in Alaska who represents mentally ill patients; results Lilly provided to doctors until at least late 2001 indicated that patients taking Zyprexa were only slightly more likely to suffer high blood sugar as those taking placebo; weight gain and high blood sugar are important risk factors for diabetes, and question of whether Zyprexa causes diabetes has been subject of scientific debate for several years; Lilly says no link has ever been proven Lilly says later figures are accurate and information in February 2000 is out of context (M)

Article in series The Energy Challenge explains UN-backed program under which businesses in Europe and Japan help pay to reduce pollution in countries like China as way to stay within Kyoto Protocol limits on emissions of climate-changing gases; example is large rusting chemical factory in Quzhou whose emissions of HFC-23 contribute as much to global warming each year as million American cars driven 12,000 miles each; cleanup incinerator costs $5 million but foreign companies will pay about $500 million based on European market in carbon dioxide emissions; huge profits will be divided by owner, government energy fund, and consultants and bankers who put deal together from London; deal is still less costly to companies than cleaning up own operations; efforts are watched in US as alternative to taxes on fossil fuels but lucrative deals distract attention from broader efforts and encourage short-term fixes; huge payment will also enable Quzhou factory to keep making air conditioners with refrigerant banned in West and sell them to fast-growing middle class in China and India; struggle pits China, biggest beneficiary, against Europeans who want payments to help only factories retooling for modern refrigerants; China, India, Brazil and South Korea collect four-fifths of payments, two-thirds going to projects to eliminate HFC-23 greenhouse gas; photo; map; graph; program also conflicts with 1987 Montreal Protocol requiring phasing out of ozone-depleting substances (M)

New York City Council approves first major overhaul of popular tax break for housing developers, aimed at getting them to build tens of thousands of apartments for lower-income people; changes effective in 2008 will expand areas in which developers who want tax break must make one out of every five apartments affordable, with boundaries reconsidered every two years; lower-priced units will now have to be in each building, not elsewhere in city; tax breaks for market-rate units are capped to limit role in gentrification; $400-million trust fund planned to developer low-priced housing in 15 poorest neighborhoods; 20,000 new units of lower-cost housing projected over ten years; impact will likely be greatest in old industrial areas like Brooklyn-Queens waterfront; compromise brokered by Speaker Christine Quinn expands areas in Manhattan and Brooklyn where developers must include reduced-cost housing to get breaks; map (M)

Many parents may have fleetingly harbored the fantasy of equipping their children with tracking devices.