The New York Times

PESTICIDE BANNED - The Environmental Protection Agency banned most uses of a pesticide applied widely for years on fruits and vegetables and tightened restrictions on another, in the first regulations intended specifically to protect children.

MONEY LAUNDERING - A routine investigation into cable television piracy has evolved into an exploration of the secret world of offshore money laundering, giving investigators what one agent called an unprecedented insight into banking in the Cayman Islands.

DROUGHT - After the television reporters finished their stand-ups in the fields of stunted corn, the Harshmans still had a drought on their hands and a farm crisis the family described as the worst since the Great Depression.

CHINESE MISSILE - China said it test-launched a new type of long-range missile and then excoriated the United States for selling military equipment to Taiwan in the middle of a major diplomatic crisis.

CHRISTIAN COALITION - In a victory for the beleaguered Christian Coalition, a federal judge rejected most charges in a lawsuit that accused the group of illegally distributing millions of voter guides and mailings to promote Republican candidates.

OPERA - New York State Theater, home to the New York City Opera and the New York City Ballet, is about to install an electronic sound-enhancement system on an experimental basis. The City Opera will be the first major American company to openly embrace a comprehensive amplification system.

GERMANY - Always a crucible of the best and worst in Germany, Weimar has emerged a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall as a focus of national questioning and conflict.

TRAIN CRASH - Two crowded trains hurtled head-on into each other early Monday morning, killing at least 210 people -- many of them soldiers -- at a railroad station in eastern India near the border of West Bengal and Assam, railway authorities said.

SWEEPSTAKES CURBED - By a unanimous vote, the Senate approved new restrictions and penalties for companies that try to tempt people into buying magazine subscriptions and other products by sending them mail filled with promises of millions of dollars in "sweepstakes" winnings.

BABY MUSIC - The current craze of playing classical music to infants may be wrong. The truth is that the studies behind the Mozart effect were conducted on college students and the "effect" lasted for only a few minutes.

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