[20200001] |In an Oct. 19 review of "The Misanthrope" at Chicago's Goodman Theatre ("Revitalized Classics Take the Stage in Windy City," Leisure & Arts), the role of Celimene, played by Kim Cattrall, was mistakenly attributed to Christina Haag.
[20200002] |Ms. Haag plays Elianti.

[20201001] |Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Inc. said it expects its U.S. sales to remain steady at about 1,200 cars in 1990.
[20201002] |The luxury auto maker last year sold 1,214 cars in the U.S.
[20201003] |Howard Mosher, president and chief executive officer, said he anticipates growth for the luxury auto maker in Britain and Europe, and in Far Eastern markets.

[20202001] |BELL INDUSTRIES Inc. increased its quarterly to 10 cents from seven cents a share.
[20202002] |The new rate will be payable Feb. 15.
[20202003] |A record date hasn't been set.
[20202004] |Bell, based in Los Angeles, makes and distributes electronic, computer and building products.

[20203001] |Investors are appealing to the Securities and Exchange Commission not to limit their access to information about stock purchases and sales by corporate insiders.

[20203002] |A SEC proposal to ease reporting requirements for some company executives would undermine the usefulness of information on insider trades as a stock-picking tool, individual investors and professional money managers contend.

[20203003] |They make the argument in letters to the agency about rule changes proposed this past summer that, among other things, would exempt many middle-management executives from reporting trades in their own companies' shares.
[20203004] |The proposed changes also would allow executives to report exercises of options later and less often.

[20203005] |Many of the letters maintain that investor confidence has been so shaken by the 1987 stock market crash -- and the markets already so stacked against the little guy -- that any decrease in information on insider-trading patterns might prompt individuals to get out of stocks altogether.

[20203006] |"The SEC has historically paid obeisance to the ideal of a level playing field," wrote Clyde S. McGregor of Winnetka, Ill., in one of the 92 letters the agency has received since the changes were proposed Aug. 17.
[20203007] |"Apparently the commission did not really believe in this ideal."

[20203008] |Currently, the rules force executives, directors and other corporate insiders to report purchases and sales of their companies' shares within about a month after the transaction.
[20203009] |But about 25% of the insiders, according to SEC figures, file their reports late.

[20203010] |The changes were proposed in an effort to streamline federal bureaucracy and boost compliance by the executives "who are really calling the shots," said Brian Lane, special counsel at the SEC's office of disclosure policy, which proposed the changes.

[20203011] |Investors, money managers and corporate officials had until today to comment on the proposals, and the issue has produced more mail than almost any other issue in memory, Mr. Lane said.
[20203012] |The SEC will probably vote on the proposal early next year, he said.

[20203013] |Not all those who wrote oppose the changes.
[20203014] |The Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities for the American Bar Association argues, for example, in its lengthy letter to the SEC, that the proposed changes "would substantially improve the {law} by conforming it more closely to contemporary business realities."

[20203015] |What the investors who oppose the proposed changes object to most is the effect they say the proposal would have on their ability to spot telltale "clusters" of trading activity -- buying or selling by more than one officer or director within a short period of time.
[20203016] |According to some estimates, the rule changes would cut insider filings by more than a third.

[20203017] |The SEC's Mr. Lane vehemently disputed those estimates.
[20203018] |The rules will eliminate filings policy-making divisions, such as sales, marketing, finance and research and development, Mr. Lane said.

[20203019] |The proposed rules also would be tougher on the insiders still required to file reports, he said.
[20203020] |Companies would be compelled to publish in annual proxy statements the names of insiders who fail to file reports on time.

[20203021] |Considered as a whole, Mr. Lane said, the filings required under the proposed rules "will be at least as effective, if not more so, for investors following transactions."

[20203022] |But Robert Gabele, president of Invest/Net, a North Miami, Fla., company that packages and sells the insider-trading data, said the proposal is worded so vaguely that key officials may fail to file the reports.

[20203023] |Many investors wrote asking the SEC to require insiders to report their purchases and sales immediately, not a month later.
[20203024] |But Mr. Lane said that while the SEC regulates who files, the law tells them when to do so.
[20203025] |Investors who want to change the required timing should write their representatives in Congress, he added.
[20203026] |The SEC would likely be amenable to legislation that required insiders to file transactions on a more timely basis, he said.

[20204001] |The nation's largest pension fund, which oversees $80 billion for college employees, plans to offer two new investment options to its 1.2 million participants.

[20204002] |The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund said it will introduce a stock and bond fund that will invest in "socially responsible" companies, and a bond fund.

[20204003] |Both funds are expected to begin operation around March 1, subject to Securities and Exchange Commission approval.
[20204004] |For its employees to sign up for the options, a college also must approve the plan.
[20204005] |Some 4,300 institutions are part of the pension fund.

[20204006] |The new options carry out part of an agreement that the pension fund, under pressure to relax its strict participation rules and to provide more investment options, reached with the SEC in December.

[20204007] |The new "social choice" fund will shun securities of companies linked to South Africa, nuclear power and in some cases, Northern Ireland.
[20204008] |Also excluded will be investments in companies with "significant" business stemming from weapons manufacture, alcoholic beverages or tobacco.
[20204009] |Sixty percent of the fund will be invested in stocks, with the rest going into bonds or short-term investments.

[20204010] |The bond fund will invest in high-grade or medium-grade bonds, mortgages or asset-backed securities, including as much as 15% in foreign securities.
[20204011] |The fund also might buy and sell futures and options contracts, subject to approval by the New York State Insurance Department.

[20204012] |Under two new features, participants will be able to transfer money from the new funds to other investment funds or, if their jobs are terminated, receive cash from the funds.

[20204013] |The investment choices offered by the pension fund currently are limited to a stock fund, an annuity and a money-market fund.

[20205001] |New Brunswick Scientific Co., a maker of biotechnology instrumentation and equipment, said it adopted an anti-takeover plan giving shareholders the right to purchase shares at half price under certain conditions.

[20205002] |The company said the plan, under review for some time, will protect shareholders against "abusive takeover tactics.

[20206001] |W. Ed Tyler, 37 years old, a senior vice president at this printing concern, was elected president of its technology group, a new position.

[20207001] |Solo woodwind players have to be creative if they want to work a lot, because their repertoire and audience appeal are limited.
[20207002] |The oboist Heinz Holliger has taken a hard line about the problem: He commissions and splendidly interprets fearsome contemporary scores and does some conducting, so he doesn't have to play the same Mozart and Strauss concertos over and over again.

[20207003] |Richard Stoltzman has taken a gentler, more audience-friendly approach.
[20207004] |Years ago, he collaborated with the new music gurus Peter Serkin and Fred Sherry in the very countercultural chamber group Tashi, which won audiences over to dreaded contemporary scores like Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time."

[20207005] |Today, the pixie-like clarinetist has mostly dropped the missionary work (though a touch of the old Tashi still survives) and now goes on the road with piano, bass, a slide show, and a repertoire that ranges from light classical to light jazz to light pop, with a few notable exceptions.
[20207006] |Just the thing for the Vivaldi-at-brunch set, the yuppie audience that has embraced New Age as its very own easy listening.
[20207007] |But you can't dismiss Mr. Stoltzman's music or his motives as merely commercial and lightweight.
[20207008] |He believes in what he plays, and he plays superbly.
[20207009] |His recent appearance at the Metropolitan Museum, dubbed "A Musical Odyssey," was a case in point.
[20207010] |It felt more like a party, or a highly polished jam session with a few friends, than a classical concert.

[20207011] |Clad in his trademark black velvet suit, the soft-spoken clarinetist announced that his new album, "Inner Voices," had just been released, that his family was in the front row, and that it was his mother's birthday, so he was going to play her favorite tune from the record.
[20207012] |He launched into Saint-Saens's "The Swan" from "Carnival of the Animals," a favorite encore piece for cellists, with lovely, glossy tone and no bite.
[20207013] |Then, as if to show that he could play fast as well, he offered the second movement from Saint-Saens's Sonata for Clarinet, a whimsical, puckish tidbit that reflected the flip side of the Stoltzman personality.

[20207014] |And so it went through the first half: an ingeniously chosen potpourri of pieces, none longer than five minutes, none that would disturb or challenge a listener.
[20207015] |Mr. Stoltzman introduced his colleagues: Bill Douglas, pianist/bassoonist/composer and an old buddy from Yale, and jazz bassist Eddie Gomez.
[20207016] |An improvisational section was built around pieces by Mr. Douglas, beginning with "Golden Rain," a lilting, laid-back lead in to the uptempo "Sky," which gave Mr. Stoltzman the opportunity to wail in a high register and show off his fleet fingers.
[20207017] |Bach's "Air" followed.
[20207018] |Mr. Stoltzman tied the composer in by proclaiming him "the great improviser of the 18th century," and then built on the image by joining with Mr. Douglas in some Bach two-part inventions, cleverly arranged for clarinet and bassoon by Mr. Douglas.
[20207019] |Keeping the mood light, the two then chanted and chortled their way through some murderous polyrhythms, devised by Mr. Douglas as an alternative to Hindemith's dry theory-teaching techniques, and then, with Mr. Gomez, soared and improvised on the composer's tight "Bebop Etudes."

[20207020] |The end of the first half, however, brought what the standing-room-only crowd seemed to be waiting for: the pop singer Judy Collins, who appears on "Inner Voices."
[20207021] |Glamorous and pure-voiced as ever, Ms. Collins sang Joni Mitchell's "For Free" -- about an encounter with a street-corner clarinetist, to which Mr. Stoltzman contributed a clarinet obligatto -- and Mr. Douglas's lush setting of a Gaelic blessing, "Deep Peace."
[20207022] |"Deep Peace" also featured a slide show of lovely but predictable images of clouds, beaches, deserts, sunsets, etc.
[20207023] |It was all too mellow to be believed, but they probably would have gotten away with it, had they not felt compelled to add Ms. Collins's signature tune, "Amazing Grace," and ask for audience participation.
[20207024] |That went over the permissible line for warm and fuzzy feelings.

[20207025] |Was this why some of the audience departed before or during the second half?
[20207026] |Or was it because Ms. Collins had gone?
[20207027] |Either way it was a pity, because Mr. Stolzman offered the most substantial music of the evening just after intermission: Steve Reich's "New York Counterpoint," one of a series of Reich works that juxtapose a live performer with recorded tracks of his or her own playing.
[20207028] |(Mr. Reich's new "Different Trains" for string quartet uses the technique magisterially.)

[20207029] |Mr. Stoltzman must have worried that his audience might not be able to take it: He warned us in advance that "New York Counterpoint" lasts 11 1/2 minutes.
[20207030] |He also unfortunately illustrated this intricate, jazzy tapestry with Mr. Pearson's images, this time of geometric or repeating objects, in a kitschy mirroring of the musical structure that was thoroughly distracting from Mr. Reich's piece and Mr. Stoltzman's elegant execution of it.
[20207031] |The rest of the concert was more straight jazz and mellow sounds written by Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Bill Douglas and Eddie Gomez, with pictures for the Douglas pieces.
[20207032] |It was enjoyable to hear accomplished jazz without having to sit in a smoke-filled club, but like the first half, much of it was easy to take and ultimately forgettable.

[20207033] |Is this the future of chamber music?
[20207034] |Managers and presenters insist that chamber music concerts are a hard sell, but can audiences really enjoy them only if the music is purged of threatening elements, served up in bite-sized morsels and accompanied by visuals?
[20207035] |What's next?
[20207036] |Slides to illustrate Shostakovich quartets?
[20207037] |It was not an unpleasant evening, certainly, thanks to the high level of performance, the compositional talents of Mr. Douglas, and the obvious sincerity with which Mr. Stoltzman chooses his selections.
[20207038] |But it was neither deep nor lasting: light entertainment that was no substitute for an evening of Brahms.

[20207039] |Ms. Waleson is a free-lance writer based in New York.

[20208001] |One of Ronald Reagan's attributes as President was that he rarely gave his blessing to the claptrap that passes for "consensus" in various international institutions.
[20208002] |In fact, he liberated the U.S. from one of the world's most corrupt organizations -- UNESCO.
[20208003] |This is the U.N. group that managed to traduce its own charter of promoting education, science and culture.
[20208004] |Ever since, the remaining members have been desperate for the United States to rejoin this dreadful group.

[20208005] |Now UNESCO apologists are lobbying President Bush to renege on President Reagan's decision to depart.
[20208006] |But we can think of many reasons to stay out for the foreseeable future and well beyond.

[20208007] |The U.S., along with Britain and Singapore, left the agency when its anti-Western ideology, financial corruption and top leadership got out of hand.
[20208008] |The personal antics of agency Director Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow drew much attention, such as when several of his top aides were uncovered as KGB plants and ejected from France and when a mysterious office fire was set just before Congress sent accountants to trace U.S. funds.

[20208009] |Mr. M'Bow was an extreme case, but even his replacement, the more personally genial Spanish biochemist Federico Mayor, has had little success at achieving reforms.
[20208010] |Several ridiculous projects continue, including the "New International Economic Order," which means redistributionism from the West to pay for everyone else's statism.
[20208011] |The Orwellian "New World Information Order" would give government officials rights against the press; journalists would be obliged to kowtow to their government, which would have licensing and censorship powers and, indeed, duties to block printing of "wrong" ideas.

[20208012] |UNESCO somehow converted the founding U.N. ideals of individual rights and liberty into "peoples' rights."
[20208013] |Million-dollar conferences were held to chew on subjects such as "ethical responsibilities of scientists in support of disarmament" and "the impact of the activities of transnational corporations."

[20208014] |The agency was so totally subverted from the high principles of its founding that even the Soviets now wonder about an agency that seemed so congenial to them.
[20208015] |Glasnost may be partly responsible, but Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze last year admitted, "The exaggerated ideological approach undermined tolerance intrinsic to UNESCO."

[20208016] |UNESCO is now holding its biennial meetings in Paris to devise its next projects.
[20208017] |Mr. Mayor's hope that references to "press freedom" would survive unamended seems doomed to failure; the current phrasing is "educating the public and media to avoid manipulation."
[20208018] |He hasn't been able to replace the M'Bow cabal.
[20208019] |Soviets remain in charge of education programs, a former head of an African military tribunal for executions is in charge of culture, and a hard-line Polish communist in exile directs the human-rights and peace division.
[20208020] |Of the agency's 2,750 staff members, 230 are in the field working on actual projects, such as literacy and oceanographic research.

[20208021] |The position of the United States, which once contributed 25% of the budget, is that nothing has changed.
[20208022] |John Bolton, the assistant secretary of state for international organizations, told Congress that the continuing "statist, restrictive, nondemocratic" programs make rejoining any time soon "extremely unlikely."
[20208023] |This hasn't much bothered the UNESCO delegates, who last week couldn't even agree to raise funds by selling off a fancy 19th-century French chateau the agency somehow owns.
[20208024] |Other countries, including West Germany, may have a hard time justifying continued membership.

[20208025] |We see an even stronger argument against UNESCO than its unsurprising failure to reform.
[20208026] |This is that the Reagan Revolution spanning Eastern Europe and Tiananmen Square shows the power of ideas unencumbered by international civil servants or government functionaries.
[20208027] |Free markets, free minds and free elections have an appeal that seems to get muddled only when delivered through U.N. organizations -- which of course are made up largely of governments that fear these principles at home.

[20208028] |The Babelists of the United Nations are experts at obfuscation.
[20208029] |This can have its purposes at times, but there's no reason to cloud the importance and allure of Western concepts of freedom and justice.
[20208030] |We can see plenty of reasons to stay out, and none to rejoin UNESCO.

[20209001] |Researchers at Plant Genetic Systems N.V. in Belgium said they have developed a genetic engineering technique for creating hybrid plants for a number of key crops.

[20209002] |The researchers said they have isolated a plant gene that prevents the production of pollen.
[20209003] |The gene thus can prevent a plant from fertilizing itself.
[20209004] |Such so-called male-sterile plants can then be fertilized by pollen from another strain of the plant, thereby producing hybrid seed.
[20209005] |The new generation of plants will possess the flourishing, high-production trait known as "hybrid vigor," similar to that now seen in hybrid corn.

[20209006] |"The development could have a dramatic effect on farm production, especially cotton," said Murray Robinson, president of Delta & Pine Land Co., a Southwide Inc. subsidiary that is one of the largest cotton seed producers in the U.S.

[20209007] |On a commercial scale, the sterilization of the pollen-producing male part has only been achieved in corn and sorghum feed grains.
[20209008] |That's because the male part, the tassel, and the female, the ear, are some distance apart on the corn plant.
[20209009] |In a labor-intensive process, the seed companies cut off the tassels of each plant, making it male sterile.
[20209010] |They sow a row of male-fertile plants nearby, which then pollinate the male-sterile plants.
[20209011] |The first hybrid corn seeds produced using this mechanical approach were introduced in the 1930s and they yielded as much as 20% more corn than naturally pollinated plants.
[20209012] |The vast majority of the U.S. corn crop now is grown from hybrid seeds produced by seed companies.

[20209013] |A similar technique is almost impossible to apply to other crops, such as cotton, soybeans and rice.
[20209014] |The male part, the anthers of the plant, and the female, the pistils, of the same plant are within a fraction of an inch or even attached to each other.
[20209015] |The anthers in these plants are difficult to clip off.
[20209016] |In China, a great number of workers are engaged in pulling out the male organs of rice plants using tweezers, and one-third of rice produced in that country is grown from hybrid seeds.
[20209017] |At Plant Genetic Systems, researchers have isolated a pollen-inhibiting gene that can be inserted in a plant to confer male sterility.
[20209018] |Jan Leemans, research director, said this gene was successfully introduced in oil-producing rapeseed plants, a major crop in Europe and Canada, using as a carrier a "promoter gene" developed by Robert Goldberg at the University of California in Los Angeles.

[20209019] |The sterilizing gene is expressed just before the pollen is about to develop and it deactivates the anthers of every flower in the plant.
[20209020] |Mr. Leemans said this genetic manipulation doesn't hurt the growth of that plant.

[20209021] |The researchers also pulled off a second genetic engineering trick in order to get male-sterile plants in large enough numbers to produce a commercial hybrid seed crop.
[20209022] |They attached a second gene, for herbicide resistance, to the pollen-inhibiting gene.
[20209023] |Both genes are then inserted into a few greenhouse plants, which are then pollinated and allowed to mature and produce seed.

[20209024] |The laws of heredity dictate that half of the plants springing from these greenhouse-produced seeds will be male sterile and herbicide resistant and half will be male fertile and herbicide susceptible.
[20209025] |The application of herbicide would kill off the male-fertile plants, leaving a large field of male-sterile plants that can be cross-pollinated to produce hybrid seed.

[20209026] |Mr. Leemans said the hybrid rapeseeds created with this genetic engineering yield 15% to 30% more output than the commercial strains used currently.

[20209027] |"This technique is applicable to a wide variety of crops," he said, and added that some modifications may be necessary to accommodate the peculiarities of each type of crop.
[20209028] |He said the company is experimenting with the technique on alfalfa, and plans to include cotton and corn, among other crops.
[20209029] |He said that even though virtually all corn seeds currently planted are hybrids, the genetic approach will obviate the need for mechanical emasculation of anthers, which costs U.S. seed producers about $70 million annually.

[20209030] |In recent years, demand for hybrid seeds has spurred research at a number of chemical and biotechnology companies, including Monsanto Co., Shell Oil Co. and Eli Lilly & Co.
[20209031] |One technique developed by some of these companies involves a chemical spray supposed to kill only a plant's pollen.
[20209032] |But there have been problems with chemical sprays damaging plants' female reproductive organs and concern for the toxicity of such chemical sprays to humans, animals and beneficial insects.

[20209033] |However, Paul Johanson, Monsanto's director of plant sciences, said the company's chemical spray overcomes these problems and is "gentle on the female organ."

[20209034] |Biosource Genetics Corp., Vacaville, Calif., is developing a spray containing a gene that spreads from cell to cell and interferes with the genes that are responsible for producing pollen.
[20209035] |This gene, called "gametocide," is carried into the plant by a virus that remains active for a few days.
[20209036] |Robert Erwin, president of Biosource, called Plant Genetic's approach "interesting" and "novel," and "complementary rather than competitive."
[20209037] |"There is a large market out there hungry for hybrid seeds," he said.

[20209038] |Mr. Robinson of Delta & Pine, the seed producer in Scott, Miss., said Plant Genetic's success in creating genetically engineered male steriles doesn't automatically mean it would be simple to create hybrids in all crops.
[20209039] |That's because pollination, while easy in corn because the carrier is wind, is more complex and involves insects as carriers in crops such as cotton.
[20209040] |"It's one thing to say you can sterilize, and another to then successfully pollinate the plant," he said.
[20209041] |Nevertheless, he said, he is negotiating with Plant Genetic to acquire the technology to try breeding hybrid cotton.

[20210001] |A bitter conflict with global implications has erupted between Nomura Securities Co. and Industrial Bank of Japan, two of the world's most powerful financial companies.

[20210002] |The clash is a sign of a new toughness and divisiveness in Japan's once-cozy financial circles.
[20210003] |Not only are Japan's financial institutions putting their enormous clout to work; increasingly they're squaring off against one another in unprecedented public fashion.
[20210004] |Already, the consequences are being felt by other players in the financial markets -- even governments.

[20210005] |What triggered the latest clash was a skirmish over the timing of a New Zealand government bond issue.
[20210006] |Nomura was attempting to organize the 50 billion-yen ($352 million) borrowing in Japan at a time when many Japanese banks, led by Industrial Bank of Japan, were pressuring the Wellington government to help them recover loans made to a defunct investment bank that had been owned by New Zealand's civil-service pension fund.
[20210007] |Unwilling to put up new money for New Zealand until those debts are repaid, most banks refused even to play administrative roles in the new financing, forcing an embarrassed Nomura to postpone it this week.

[20210008] |The dispute shows clearly the global power of Japan's financial titans.
[20210009] |Aside from Nomura's injured pride, the biggest victim so far has been the New Zealand government.

[20210010] |Barred by its budget law from making any new domestic bond issues, Wellington's Debt Management Office had been casting abroad to raise the 3 billion New Zealand dollars (US$1.76 billion) to NZ$4 billion it needs to come up with by the end of its fiscal year next June 30.
[20210011] |With Japan's cash-flush banks aligned against it, though, raising money may be difficult.
[20210012] |Not only can they block Wellington from raising money in Japan, bankers here say, but as the largest underwriters in the Eurobond market, they might be able to scuttle borrowings there, too.

[20210013] |New Zealand's finance minister, David Caygill, lashed out at such suggestions.
[20210014] |He told reporters in Wellington Tuesday that the government hadn't guaranteed the loans to DFC New Zealand Ltd., an investment bank 80%-owned by the National Provident Fund, and wouldn't bail it out.

[20210015] |"It may very well be what the Japanese banks want," he told Radio New Zealand.
[20210016] |"I think it would be irresponsible and I am not about to be blackmailed by Japanese banks or any other international interests."

[20210017] |No less significant than the Japanese banks' attempt to cut off funds to pressure a foreign government are the implications of a confrontation between Japan securities and banking industries.
[20210018] |Anxiety is rising over recent government proposals to eventually lower the strict barriers that now separate -- and protect -- the two industries from each other.

[20210019] |Both sides are jealously guarding their turf, and relations have been at a flashpoint for months.
[20210020] |The banks badly want to break into all aspects of the securities business.
[20210021] |Meanwhile, the securities companies -- most of them smaller than the banks -- are seeking access only to limited kinds of banking that wouldn't open them to the full brunt of competition from the banks.

[20210022] |Nomura, the world's biggest securities company largely by virtue of its protected home field, and Industrial Bank of Japan, Japan's most innovative and aggressive bank in capital markets abroad, captain the opposing sides.
[20210023] |And their suspicions of each other run deep.

[20210024] |In the past year, both have tried to stretch the limits of their businesses.
[20210025] |Nomura started a credit-card venture with American Express Co. that allowed cardholders to use their Nomura securities accounts like a bank account, attracting the wrath of banks.
[20210026] |And Industrial Bank of Japan started up a London securities subsidiary that sells Japanese stocks to non-Japanese institutions overseas, a move that stirred the anger of the stock brokerage firms.
[20210027] |The New Zealand bond issue simply has brought the two institutions face-to-face.

[20211001] |ITEL CORP. reported third-quarter earnings, which were mistakenly shown in the Quarterly Earnings Surprises table in yesterday's edition to be lower than the average of analysts' estimates.
[20211002] |On a pretax basis, Itel's third-quarter earnings of 30 cents a share were actually 7.14% higher than the average of estimates.

[20212001] |Raymond E. Ross, 53 years old, formerly group vice president, U.S. plastics machinery, at this machine tool, plastics machinery and robots concern, was named senior vice president, industrial systems, succeeding David A. Entrekin, who resigned Monday.

[20213001] |John A. Conlon Jr., 45, was named a managing director at this investment-banking company.
[20213002] |He will be in charge of research, equity sales and trading, and the syndicate operation of Rothschild.
[20213003] |Mr. Conlon was executive vice president and director of the equity division of the international division of Nikko Securities Co.

[20214001] |As Yogi Berra might say, it's deja vu all over again.

[20214002] |Crouched at shortstop, Bert Campaneris, once Oakland's master thief, effortlessly scoops up a groundball and flips it to second.
[20214003] |In the outfield, Paul Blair, the Orioles' eight-time Gold Glove winner, elegantly shags a fly.
[20214004] |On the mound, former Red Sox great Luis Tiant, the wily master of 1,001 moves, throws an off-speed strike.

[20214005] |"Babies, kiddies," growls their manager -- a fellow named Earl Weaver, who, in a different time, handled four World Series teams and now handles the Gold Coast Suns.
[20214006] |"Old-time kiddies," he says.

[20214007] |Perhaps.
[20214008] |But for the next few months, these boys of summers long past are going to be reveling in an Indian summer of the soul.
[20214009] |Now that the baseball season is officially over, you see, it's time for a new season to begin.

[20214010] |Today is the debut of the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a new eight-team pro sports circuit, modeled after the highly successful senior tennis and golf tours and complete with good salaries, a cable television contract and even expansion plans.
[20214011] |One hundred and ninety two former greats, near greats, hardly knowns and unknowns begin a 72-game, three-month season in spring-training stadiums up and down Florida.
[20214012] |For everyone involved, it's one more swig of that elixir of youth, baseball.

[20214013] |"Someone always makes you quit," says legendary St. Louis Cardinals centerfielder Curt Flood, the league's commissioner.
[20214014] |"You feel you want one more -- one more at-bat, one more hit, one more game."

[20214015] |Until the baby-faced heroes of today reclaim these ballparks for spring training, there is one more.

[20214016] |And not just for the players.
[20214017] |It's one more for the baseball-loving lawyers, accountants and real estate developers who ponied up about $1 million each for the chance to be an owner, to step into the shoes of a Gene Autry or have a beer with Rollie Fingers.

[20214018] |"Nothing can be better than this," says Don Sider, owner of the West Palm Beach Tropics.
[20214019] |Early in the morning Mr. Sider, an estate lawyer, pores over last wills and testaments.
[20214020] |Midmorning, he dons an orange-and-blue uniform and, for fun, may field a bunt from Dave Kingman.

[20214021] |It's one more, too, for the fans who dream of a season that never ends.
[20214022] |"I feel like a little kid," says a gleeful Alex de Castro, a car salesman, who has stopped by a workout of the Suns to slip six Campaneris cards to the Great Man Himself to be autographed.
[20214023] |The league's promoters hope retirees and tourists will join die-hard fans like Mr. de Castro and pack the stands to see the seniors.

[20214024] |The league is the brainchild of Colorado real estate developer James Morley -- once a minor-leaguer himself -- who says he had the idea last January while lying on a beach in Australia.
[20214025] |When he sent letters offering 1,250 retired major leaguers the chance of another season, 730 responded.
[20214026] |Eventually, about 250 made the trip to Florida to compete for the available slots.
[20214027] |(Players have to be 35 or older, except for catchers, who are eligible at 32 because life behind the plate is so rough.)

[20214028] |For some players, the lure is money -- up to $15,000 a month.
[20214029] |Others, just released from the majors, hope the senior league will be their bridge back into the big-time.

[20214030] |But as they hurl fireballs that smolder rather than burn, and relive old duels in the sun, it's clear that most are there to make their fans cheer again or recapture the camaraderie of seasons past or prove to themselves and their colleagues that they still have it -- or something close to it.

[20214031] |"My fastball is good.
[20214032] |Real good," says 39-year-old Pete Broberg, working in the midday heat of the Tropics camp.
[20214033] |Mr. Broberg, who started with the now-defunct Washington Senators, says that when he left baseball in 1978, he "never looked back."
[20214034] |For a long time, he ignored baseball altogether, even the sports pages.

[20214035] |Now Mr. Broberg, a lawyer, claims he'd play for free.
[20214036] |"You can't give it up that easily," he says.
[20214037] |"I tried."

[20214038] |The nagging memory of one afternoon fourteen years ago drove Jim Gideon, a lean 36-year-old righthander to take a four-month leave from selling insurance in Texas to try out for Mr. Weaver's team.

[20214039] |"It doesn't replace pitching in the majors, but it proves to me that I would have been able to play if I'd stayed healthy," he says.
[20214040] |Back in 1975, late in the season, a then-21 Mr. Gideon made his only major league appearance, five and two-thirds innings for the Texas Rangers against the Chicago White Sox.
[20214041] |He gave up seven hits, walked five and didn't get a decision.
[20214042] |Arm troubles forced him back to the minors the next year.

[20214043] |"There's a satisfaction in going against the rules," offers Will McEnaney, once a stopper with Cincinnati's Big Red Machine.
[20214044] |He means the rule that a player can't cut it after a certain age.

[20214045] |These days he hustles to house-painting jobs in his Chevy pickup before and after training with the Tropics.
[20214046] |While sipping a beer after practice, he vividly recounts getting the Red Sox's Carl Yastrzemski to pop out to end the 1975 World Series, and repeating the feat against the Yankees' Roy White in 1976.

[20214047] |Some of the game's reigning philosophers dislike the idea of middle-aged men attempting a young man's sport.

[20214048] |"I personally don't enjoy seeing players who I remember vividly from their playing days running about and being gallant about their deficiencies," says Roger Angell, New Yorker magazine's resident baseball sage.
[20214049] |"I feel people should be allowed to remember players as they were."

[20214050] |Worse, says baseball author Lawrence Ritter, "Someone will get a heart attack and that will be the end of the whole story."

[20214051] |But the ballplayers disagree.
[20214052] |Most are trim.
[20214053] |Some have been training for months; others only recently left active status.
[20214054] |(No one has worked out the players' average age, but most appear to be in their late 30s.)
[20214055] |And there's pride.
[20214056] |"I'm not going to look stupid," vows former Pittsburgh Pirate second baseman Rennie Stennett, sweat dotting his brow as he prepares for some practice swings.

[20214057] |"It's going to be a tough league," promises the 47-year-old Mr. Campaneris.
[20214058] |"There will be a lot of malice."
[20214059] |Men who have played hard all their lives aren't about to change their habits, he says.

[20214060] |Nonetheless, one can't help wonder whether the game will be just a little bit slower.

[20214061] |At the weatherbeaten Pompano Beach municipal stadium, Mr. Blair, the 45-year-old former Oriole, knows his power isn't what it used to be.
[20214062] |So he adjusts.
[20214063] |He no longer crowds the plate.
[20214064] |He's not thinking about home runs anymore, just base hits.
[20214065] |Still, "how sweet it is," he says, savoring the fat sound of the well-hit line drive that bounces off the center field wall.

[20214066] |And don't expect many complete games by pitchers -- perhaps three out of 288, laughs Mr. Fingers, the former Oakland reliever.
[20214067] |Expect "tricky" stuff from pitchers, says Mr. Weaver, the manager.
[20214068] |Expect brushbacks but no beanballs, says Mr. McEnaney.
[20214069] |Even expect stolen bases, says the wiry and fit Mr. Campaneris: "If you know how to slide, it's no problem," he says.

[20214070] |And expect slower fastballs.
[20214071] |"I'm not so young anymore," concedes the cigar-chomping, 48-year-old Mr. Tiant.
[20214072] |"I won't be throwing 90 mph, but I will throw 80-plus," he says.

[20214073] |White-haired Pedro Ramos, at 54 the league's oldest player and a pitcher-coach with the Suns, has lost even more speed.
[20214074] |Stuffing a wad of Red Man into his cheek, he admits the fastball he brought into the majors in 1955 has become a slowball.
[20214075] |Its maximum velocity is 72 mph.
[20214076] |But he isn't worried.
[20214077] |He will compensate with the guile learned from his years in the majors.
[20214078] |He has good control.
[20214079] |He will keep the ball down, move it around.

[20214080] |After all, he says, "Even to make love, you need experience.

[20215001] |Alltel Corp. said it will acquire the 55% of Pond Branch Telephone Company Inc.'s cellular franchise that it doesn't own already.
[20215002] |Terms weren't disclosed.

[20215003] |Alltel holds 45% of the franchise, which has operations in Aiken, S.C., and Augusta, Ga.
[20215004] |Alltel, which provides local telephone service in 25 states, said it exercised its right of first refusal following an offer from an undisclosed third party to acquire the majority position in the franchise.

[20216001] |Stewart & Stevenson Services Inc. said it received two contracts totaling $19 million to build gas-turbine generators.
[20216002] |The separate contracts were from Paragould Light & Water Commission, a utility in Paragould, Ark., and PSE Inc., a cogeneration-plant operator in Houston.

[20216003] |Stewart & Stevenson makes equipment powered with diesel and gas turbines.

[20217001] |Liberty National Bancorp said its acquisition of Florence Deposit Bank, Florence, Ky., first announced in April, has been completed in a transaction valued at $13.1 million.

[20217002] |Liberty National exchanged about 78.64 shares of its common stock for each of Florence Deposit's 5,600 shares outstanding.

[20217003] |Liberty National, a bank holding company, has assets exceeding $3 billion.

[20218001] |Hani Zayadi was appointed president and chief executive officer of this financially troubled department store chain, effective Nov. 15, succeeding Frank Robertson, who is retiring early.
[20218002] |Mr. Zayadi was previously president and chief operating officer of Zellers Inc., a retail chain that is owned by Toronto-based Hudson's Bay Co., Canada's largest department store operator.

[20219001] |Tuesday, October 31, 1989

[20219002] |The key U.S. and foreign annual interest rates below are a guide to general levels but don't always represent actual transactions.

[20219003] |PRIME RATE: 10 1/2%.
[20219004] |The base rate on corporate loans at large U.S. money center commercial banks.

[20219005] |FEDERAL FUNDS: 9% high, 8 13/16% low, 8 7/8% near closing bid, 8 15/16% offered.
[20219006] |Reserves traded among commercial banks for overnight use in amounts of $1 million or more.
[20219007] |Source: Fulton Prebon (U.S.A.) Inc.

[20219008] |DISCOUNT RATE: 7%.
[20219009] |The charge on loans to depository institutions by the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

[20219010] |CALL MONEY: 9 3/4% to 10%.
[20219011] |The charge on loans to brokers on stock exchange collateral.

[20219012] |COMMERCIAL PAPER placed directly by General Motors Acceptance Corp.: 8.55% 30 to 44 days; 8.25% 45 to 59 days; 8.40% 60 to 89 days; 8% 90 to 119 days; 7.90% 120 to 149 days; 7.80% 150 to 179 days; 7.55% 180 to 270 days.

[20219013] |COMMERCIAL PAPER: High-grade unsecured notes sold through dealers by major corporations in multiples of $1,000: 8.62% 30 days; 8.55% 60 days; 8.45% 90 days.

[20219014] |CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT: 8.09% one month; 8.04% two months; 8.03% three months; 7.96% six months; 7.92% one year.
[20219015] |Average of top rates paid by major New York banks on primary new issues of negotiable C.D.s, usually on amounts of $1 million and more.
[20219016] |The minimum unit is $100,000.
[20219017] |Typical rates in the secondary market: 8.53% one month; 8.50% three months; 8.30% six months.

[20219018] |BANKERS ACCEPTANCES: 8.49% 30 days; 8.44% 60 days; 8.27% 90 days; 8.12% 120 days; 8.05% 150 days; 7.98% 180 days.
[20219019] |Negotiable, bank-backed business credit instruments typically financing an import order.

[20219020] |LONDON LATE EURODOLLARS: 8 3/4% to 8 5/8% one month; 8 3/4% to 8 5/8% two months; 8 11/16% to 8 9/16% three months; 8 9/16% to 8 7/16% four months; 8 1/2% to 8 3/8% five months; 8 7/16% to 8 5/16% six months.

[20219021] |LONDON INTERBANK OFFERED RATES (LIBOR): 8 3/4% one month; 8 11/16% three months; 8 7/16% six months; 8 7/16% one year.
[20219022] |The average of interbank offered rates for dollar deposits in the London market based on quotations at five major banks.

[20219023] |FOREIGN PRIME RATES: Canada 13.50%; Germany 9%; Japan 4.875%; Switzerland 8.50%; Britain 15%.
[20219024] |These rate indications aren't directly comparable; lending practices vary widely by location.

[20219025] |TREASURY BILLS: Results of the Monday, October 30, 1989, auction of short-term U.S. government bills, sold at a discount from face value in units of $10,000 to $1 million: 7.78% 13 weeks; 7.62% 26 weeks.

[20219026] |FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTGAGE CORP. (Freddie Mac): Posted yields on 30-year mortgage commitments for delivery within 30 days.
[20219027] |9.78%, standard conventional fixed-rate mortgages; 7.875%, 2% rate capped one-year adjustable rate mortgages.
[20219028] |Source: Telerate Systems Inc.

[20219029] |FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE ASSOCIATION (Fannie Mae): Posted yields on 30 year mortgage commitments for delivery within 30 days (priced at par) 9.75%, standard conventional fixed-rate mortgages; 8.75%, 6/2 rate capped one-year adjustable rate mortgages.
[20219030] |Source: Telerate Systems Inc.

[20219031] |MERRILL LYNCH READY ASSETS TRUST: 8.63%.
[20219032] |Annualized average rate of return after expenses for the past 30 days; not a forecast of future returns.

[20220001] |Canada's gross domestic product rose an inflation-adjusted 0.3% in August, mainly as a result of service-industry growth, Statistics Canada, a federal agency, said.

[20220002] |The August GDP was up 2.4% from its year-earlier level.
[20220003] |GDP is the total value of a nation's output of goods and services.

[20220004] |Statistics Canada said service-industry output in August rose 0.4% from July.
[20220005] |Output of goods-producing industries increased 0.1%.

[20220006] |Separately, Statistics Canada reported that its industrial-product price index dropped 0.2% in September, its third consecutive monthly decline.
[20220007] |It also reported a 2.6% decline in its raw-materials price index for September.

[20221001] |Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. was dropped, effective today, from the recreational products and services industry group of the Dow Jones Equity Market Index.
[20221002] |Columbia Pictures is being acquired by Sony Corp., which is based in Japan.

[20222001] |People's Savings Financial Corp. said it will buy back as much as 10% of its 2.4 million shares outstanding because the stock is undervalued.

[20222002] |The holding company said it has been "unfairly associated" with other banks in New England that have had major loan losses in recent quarters.
[20222003] |The company said its People's Savings Bank unit doesn't have a "large exposure to construction and commercial loans that have caused the loan-loss problems in many of the banks.

[20223001] |A seat on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange was sold for $410,000, down $6,000 from the previous sale Oct.

[20223002] |Seats currently are quoted at $400,000 bid, $425,000 asked.
[20223003] |The record price for a full membership on the exchange is $550,000, set March 9.

[20224001] |In a surprise move, the British government cleared the way for a bidding war for Jaguar PLC by agreeing to remove an obstacle to a takeover of the auto maker.

[20224002] |Trade and Industry Secretary Nicholas Ridley told the House of Commons yesterday that he will relinquish the government's so-called golden share in the company as long as Jaguar shareholders agree.
[20224003] |The golden share restricts any individual holding to 15% and expires at the end of 1990.
[20224004] |It was in Jaguar's best interests "for the company's future to be assured and the present climate of uncertainty resolved as quickly as possible," Mr. Ridley said.

[20224005] |Mr. Ridley's decision fires the starting pistol for perhaps a costly contest between the world's auto giants for Britain's leading luxury-car maker.
[20224006] |Both General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have been trying to amass 15% stakes in Jaguar.
[20224007] |Ford, which already has an unwelcome 13.2% holding, is prepared to bid for the entire company and had lobbied the government to lift the takeover restrictions early.
[20224008] |GM has been negotiating a friendly transaction with Jaguar that likely would involve joint ventures and an eventual stake of just under 30%.

[20224009] |But the government's action, which caught Jaguar management flat-footed, may scuttle the GM minority deal by forcing it to fight for all of Jaguar.
[20224010] |"I can't believe they (GM) will let Ford have a free run," said Stephen Reitman, a European auto industry analyst at UBS-Phillips & Drew.
[20224011] |"I am sure they will be going for a full bid."

[20224012] |Many investors certainly believe a bidding war is imminent.
[20224013] |Jaguar shares skyrocketed yesterday after Mr. Ridley's announcement, following their temporary suspension on London's Stock Exchange.
[20224014] |In late trading, the shares were up a whopping 122 pence ($1.93) -- a 16.3% gain -- to a record 869 pence on very heavy volume of 9.7 million shares.
[20224015] |In the U.S. over-the-counter market, Jaguar shares trading as American Depositary Receipts closed at $13.625, up $1.75.

[20224016] |Analysts expect Ford will make the first move, perhaps today, with an initial offer of about 900 pence ($14.25) a share.
[20224017] |Such a proposal values Jaguar at more than #1.6 billion ($2.53 billion).
[20224018] |Speculation about a takeover fight has sent Jaguar shares soaring in the past six weeks.
[20224019] |The share price was languishing at about 400 pence before Ford's Sept. 19 announcement of its interest in a minority stake.

[20224020] |Ford is "in the driving seat at the moment," observed Bob Barber, an auto analyst at brokers James Capel & Co.

[20224021] |An aggressive Ford bid for Jaguar would put pressure on GM to make a better offer as the British company's "white knight."
[20224022] |Such a countermove could end Jaguar's hopes for remaining independent and British-owned.
[20224023] |But it isn't clear how long GM would be willing to fight Ford for Jaguar.
[20224024] |Because of their longstanding rivalry, GM just "wants to make sure Ford pays a huge packet for (Jaguar)," said John Lawson, an auto analyst at London's Nomura Research Institute.

[20224025] |People close to the GM-Jaguar talks agreed that Ford now may be able to shut out General Motors.
[20224026] |"It's either going to be a shootout, or there only may be one player in town," one person said.
[20224027] |Another person close to the talks said, "It is very hard to justify paying a silly price for Jaguar if an out-and-out bidding war were to start now."

[20224028] |In a statement, Jaguar's board said they "were not consulted about the (Ridley decision) in advance and were surprised at the action taken."
[20224029] |The statement emphasized that holders representing 75% of the shares voting at a special shareholders' meeting must agree to lift the takeover restrictions.
[20224030] |Jaguar officials in the U.S. noted that Ford, as Jaguar's largest shareholder, now has the power to call for such a meeting.

[20224031] |U.S. auto analysts also noted that Ford is in the best position to benefit from the large number of Jaguar shares that have moved over the past month into the hands of arbitragers waiting for the highest takeover bid.
[20224032] |Jaguar's own defenses against a hostile bid are weakened, analysts add, because fewer than 3% of its shares are owned by employees and management.

[20224033] |Ford officials in the U.S. declined to comment on the British government's action or on any plans to call a special Jaguar shareholders meeting.
[20224034] |But GM officials said they, too, were surprised by the move, which left them to "consider all our options and explore matters further."
[20224035] |Although GM has U.S. approval to buy up to 15% of Jaguar's stock, it hasn't yet disclosed how many shares it now owns.

[20224036] |In a prepared statement, GM suggested its plans for Jaguar would be more valuable in the long run than the initial windfalls investors might reap from a hostile Ford bid.
[20224037] |"Our intensive discussions with Jaguar, at their invitation," GM said, "have as their objectives to create a cooperative business relationship with Jaguar that would provide for the continued independence of this great British car company, to ensure a secure future for its employees and to provide an attractive long-term return for its shareholders."

[20224038] |Jaguar was shocked by Mr. Ridley's decision, because management had believed the government wouldn't lift the golden share without consulting the company first.

[20224039] |Indeed, the government is taking a calculated risk.
[20224040] |Mr. Ridley's announcement set off a howl of protests from members of the opposition Labor Party, who accused the Thatcher administration of backing down on promised protection for a privatized company.
[20224041] |The British government retained the single golden share after selling its stake in Jaguar in

[20224042] |The Conservative government's decision may reflect its desire to shed a politically sensitive issue well before the next election, expected in late 1991.
[20224043] |"It's now a very good time politically to get this over and done with," observed Daniel Jones, professor of motor industry management at the University of Cardiff in Wales.
[20224044] |The government, already buffeted by high interest rates and a slowing economy, has been badly hurt by last week's shake-up in Mrs. Thatcher's cabinet.

[20224045] |At the same time, the government didn't want to appear to favor GM by allowing a minority stake that might preclude a full bid by Ford.
[20224046] |Mr. Ridley hinted at this motive in answering questions from members of Parliament after his announcement.
[20224047] |He said he was giving up the golden share "to clear the way so the playing field is level between all contestants."

[20224048] |Bradley A. Stertz in Detroit contributed to this article.

[20225001] |Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich., and Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, said they completed the formation of Dow Elanco, a joint venture combining their plant-sciences businesses as well as Dow's industrial pest-control business.

[20225002] |The companies said Dow Elanco will be the largest research-based agricultural concern in North America, with projected first-year revenue of $1.5 billion.
[20225003] |Dow will own 60% of the venture, with Eli Lilly holding the rest.
[20225004] |The venture will be based in Indianapolis.

[20226001] |William A. Wise, 44 years old, president of the El Paso Natural Gas Co. unit of this energy and natural-resources concern, was named to the additional post of chief executive officer, succeeding Travis H. Petty, 61, who continues as a vice chairman of the parent.

[20227001] |Erwin Tomash, the 67-year-old founder of this maker of data communications products and a former chairman and chief executive, resigned as a director.
[20227002] |Dataproducts is fighting a hostile tender offer by DPC Acquisition Partners, a group led by New York-based Crescott Investments Associates.
[20227003] |Under the circumstances, Dataproducts said, Mr. Tomash said he was unable to devote the time required because of other commitments.
[20227004] |Mr. Tomash will remain as a director emeritus.
[20227005] |The company had no comment on whether a replacement would be named.

[20228001] |Robert Q. Marston, president emeritus, University of Florida, and a director of this maker of medical devices, was named chairman.
[20228002] |Dr. Marston, 66 years old, succeeds Alexander T. Daignault, 72, who didn't stand for re-election due to mandatory board retirement policy.

[20229001] |SFE Technologies said William P. Kuehn was elected chairman and chief executive officer of this troubled electronics parts maker.

[20229002] |The 45-year-old Mr. Kuehn, who has a background in crisis management, succeeds Alan D. Rubendall, 45.

[20229003] |Jerome J. Jahn, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said Mr. Rubendall was resigning by "mutual agreement" with the board.
[20229004] |"He is going to pursue other interests," Mr. Jahn said.

[20229005] |Mr. Rubendall couldn't be reached.
[20229006] |Mr. Kuehn, the company said, will retain the rest of the current management team.

[20229007] |For the nine months ended July 29, SFE Technologies reported a net loss of $889,000 on sales of $23.4 million.
[20229008] |That compared with an operating loss of $1.9 million on sales of $27.4 million in the year-earlier period.

[20229009] |In national over-the-counter trading, SFE Technologies shares closed yesterday at 31.25 cents a share, up 6.25 cents.

[20230001] |Sales of new cars in Europe fell 4.2% in September from a year earlier and analysts say the market could continue to soften in the months ahead.

[20230002] |After a stronger-than-expected pace early this year, analysts say the market, after a series of sharp swings in recent months, now shows signs of retreating.

[20230003] |Statistics from 12 countries which normally account for 94% of non-communist Europe's passenger car sales showed new car registrations totaled 911,606 in September, down 21% from August and down 4.2% for the year to date.

[20231001] |Tokyo stocks rebounded Tuesday from two consecutive daily losses in relatively active dealings.

[20231002] |London shares also rose, while trading in Frankfurt, West Germany, ended higher.

[20231003] |In Tokyo, the Nikkei index of 225 selected issues was up 132.00 points to 35549.44.
[20231004] |The index fell 109.85 Monday.

[20231005] |Volume on the First Section was estimated at 900 million shares, up from 582 million shares Monday.
[20231006] |Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 542 to 362, while 208 issues were unchanged.

[20231007] |Small-lot buying targeted at incentive-backed issues pushed up the Nikkei.
[20231008] |But other sectors failed to attract investor interest and remained sluggish, making overall trading appear mixed.

[20231009] |Individuals and corporations, as well as dealers trading for their own account, actively bought Tuesday.

[20231010] |An official at Wako Securities said these investors feel the need to make quick profits, despite destabilizing external factors, such as political uncertainty tied to the ruling party's fate at next year's Lower House elections-an event which could directly affect the stock market.

[20231011] |The Tokyo Stock Price Index of all issues listed in the First Section, which declined 5.16 on Monday, was up 16.05, or 0.60%, at 2692.65 on Tuesday.

[20231012] |The Second Section index, which fell 21.44 points Monday, was up 6.84 points, or 0.19%, to close at 3642.90.
[20231013] |Second Section volume was estimated at 14 million shares, unchanged from Monday.

[20231014] |Institutional investors mostly remained on the sidelines Tuesday.

[20231015] |A fund manager at a life-insurance company said three factors make it difficult to read market direction.
[20231016] |First, he said, domestic interest rates are likely to stay at higher levels as increased anticipation of inflation followed rising consumer prices reported last week.
[20231017] |Second, the dollar is showing persistent strength despite a slowdown in the U.S. economy shown by economic indicators.

[20231018] |Third, oil prices haven't declined although supply has been increasing.

[20231019] |The topic that attracted participants' attention was Mitsubishi Estate's purchase of 51% of Rockefeller Center Properties, announced late Monday in New York.
[20231020] |Mitsubishi Estate ended the day at 2680, up 150.
[20231021] |The gains also sparked buying interest in other real-estate companies, traders said.
[20231022] |Sumitomo Realty & Development rose 40 to 2170.
[20231023] |Heiwa Real Estate gained 40 to 2210.

[20231024] |Investor focus shifted quickly, traders said.
[20231025] |Many of the morning-session winners turned out to be losers by afternoon.

[20231026] |In other stock-market news, the Tokyo Stock Exchange said that for the week ended Friday, the balance of margin buying rose 189.8 billion yen ($1.34 billion), to 7.160 trillion yen ($50.46 billion).
[20231027] |The balance of short positions outstanding fell 159.7 billion yen, to 779.8 billion yen.

[20231028] |In London, prices finished at intraday peaks, comforted by a reassuring early performance on Wall Street and news that the British government will waive its "golden share" in auto maker Jaguar.
[20231029] |But trading was very sketchy, as investment decision makers remain wary from gyrations and upsets of recent weeks.

[20231030] |"Volume has been appalling," said a dealer at a British brokerage concern.
[20231031] |"The market was dragged up by the scruff of its neck by Wall Street and by market makers getting caught short.
[20231032] |No one wants stock on their books."

[20231033] |Meanwhile, the broad-based Financial Times 100-share index added 30.4 points to end at 2142.6, while reaching its minimum of 2120.5 a half hour into the session.

[20231034] |At the close, the narrower 30-share index was up 19.7 points to 1721.4.
[20231035] |Volume totaled a modest 334.5 million shares, up from 257.8 million shares Monday.

[20231036] |The market also moved at early afternoon on news that Jaguar shares were being temporarily suspended at 746 pence ($11.80) each.
[20231037] |Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Nicholas Ridley said later in the day that the government would abolish its golden share in Jaguar, the luxury auto maker being stalked by General Motors and Ford Motor.

[20231038] |The golden share dates from Jaguar's public offering in 1984 and was designed to protect the company from takeover.
[20231039] |The golden share was scheduled to expire at the beginning of

[20231040] |But although the golden share has been waived, a hostile bidder for Jaguar would still have to alter the British concern's articles of association which ban shareholdings of more than 15%.
[20231041] |Jaguar shares closed at 869 pence, up 122 pence, on hefty turnover of 9.7 million shares.

[20231042] |As the London trading session drew to a close, the market was still listening to the parliamentary debate on the economy, with new Chancellor of the Exchequer John Major expected to clarify his approach to the British economy and currency issues.

[20231043] |On the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, share prices closed higher in fairly thin trading, as selective buying by foreigners helped propel prices.
[20231044] |The DAX index closed at 1472.76, up from 1466.29.

[20231045] |Despite the modest gains, traders said the market remains dull, with investors remaining cautiously on the sidelines.

[20231046] |Contributing to the market's reserved stance was the release later in the day of new data on the health of the U.S. economy, in the form of the U.S. index of leading indicators.
[20231047] |Additionally, the end of the month position-squaring might have also played a minor role, traders said.

[20231048] |Elsewhere, share prices closed higher in Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan and Paris.
[20231049] |Prices were mixed in Zurich and lower in Stockholm.

[20231050] |Stocks closed higher in Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Sydney and Wellington, but were lower in Seoul.
[20231051] |Taipei was closed for a holiday.

[20231052] |Here are price trends on the world's major stock markets, as calculated by Morgan Stanley Capital International Perspective, Geneva.
[20231053] |To make them directly comparable, each index is based on the close of 1969 equaling 100.
[20231054] |The percentage change is since year-end.

[20232001] |French consumer prices rose 0.2% in September from the previous month and were up 3.4% from a year earlier, according to definitive figures from the National Statistics Institute.

[20232002] |The state agency's figures confirm previous estimates and leave the index at 178.9, up from 178.5 in August and 173.1 a year earlier.
[20232003] |The index is based on 1980 equaling 100.

[20232004] |A breakdown showed that food prices were the most active part of growth with a rise of 0.6%.
[20232005] |An official linked the gain essentially to higher prices for beef and pork.
[20232006] |He said summer drought problems that had hit several southern agricultural regions had stopped being a major source of price pressure in September.

[20233001] |Japan's index of leading indicators rose to 63.6 in August, above the so-called boom-or-bust line of 50 for the first time since May, the Economic Planning Agency said.

[20233002] |The leading index recovered from July's revised level of 36.6 on strong performances in consumer durables and machinery orders, among other factors, according to an agency spokeswoman.

[20233003] |The index is intended to measure future economic performance.
[20233004] |A figure above 50 indicates the economy is likely to expand; one below 50 indicates a contraction may be ahead.

[20234001] |Metromedia Co. said its Metromedia Long Distance unit has been renamed Metromedia-ITT Long Distance, reflecting acquisitions from ITT Corp., which licenses its name to closely held Metromedia.

[20234002] |Metromedia said its unit is the fifth-largest provider of long-distance communications service in the U.S., with projected 1989 revenue of more than $550 million.

[20234003] |Metromedia, headed by John W. Kluge, has interests in telecommunications, robotic painting, computer software, restaurants and entertainment.

[20235001] |South Korean consumer prices rose 5% in the first 10 months of this year, matching the government's target for the entire year, according to the Bank of Korea and the Economic Planning Board.

[20235002] |According to reports released by the two government agencies, domestic consumer and wholesale prices each rose by 0.2% in October from the previous month.

[20235003] |As a result, consumer prices for the first 10 months of 1989 surged by 5% and wholesale prices by 1.3%.
[20235004] |The South Korean government had been projecting a 5% consumer price increase for the entire year.

[20236001] |Martin Marietta Corp. said it won a $38.2 million contract from the U.S. Postal Service to manufacture and install automated mail-sorting machines.

[20236002] |Under terms of the three-year contract, Martin Marietta said it will make and install 267 of the new machines at 156 postal offices.
[20236003] |The new machines are capable of sorting by zip code up to 10,000 large flat mail pieces, including magazines and parcels, an hour.

[20237001] |Thomas A. Donovan, 37 years old, formerly vice president, West Coast operations, at this hazardous-waste-site remediation concern, was named executive vice president and chief operating officer, both newly created posts, and a director, filling a vacancy.
[20237002] |Canonie said it anticipates naming Mr. Donovan to succeed Richard F. Brissette, 55, as president and chief executive officer, effective March 1.
[20237003] |Mr. Brissette will remain a Canonie board member and will be a consultant to the company.

[20238001] |Yields on savings-type certificates of deposit dropped slightly in the week ended yesterday.

[20238002] |The average yield on a six-month CD of $50,000 or less was 7.90%, compared with 7.94% a week earlier.
[20238003] |The average one-year savings-type CD was down to 7.99% from 8.01%, according to Banxquote Money Markets, a New York information service that tracks CD yields.

[20238004] |"This week was uneventful for the CD market," said Norberto Mehl, chairman of Banxquote.
[20238005] |"The major banks haven't even reacted to sharp rises in the three-month Treasury bill rates" in the past two weeks.
[20238006] |Banks that adjusted payouts on CDs in the most recent week made only fractional moves, he said.

[20238007] |The CD trend runs counter to the direction of short-term interest rates at the Treasury bill auction Monday.
[20238008] |The average six-month bill was sold with a yield of 8.04%, up from 7.90%.
[20238009] |The average three-month issue rose to 8.05% from 7.77%.

[20238010] |Typically, banks offer CD yields higher than those on Treasury bills, which are considered the safest short-term investments; banks need a competitive edge to sell their products.
[20238011] |But when market interest rates move up rapidly, increases in bank CD yields sometimes lag.

[20238012] |Most yields on short-term jumbo CDs, those with denominations over $90,000, also moved in the opposite direction of Treasury bill yields.
[20238013] |The average six-month yield on a jumbo CD was at 7.90%, down from 7.93%, Banxquote said.
[20238014] |For longer-term CDs, yields were up.
[20238015] |The average two-year and five-year jumbos were up 0.02 of a percentage point to 7.91% and 7.96%, respectively.

[20238016] |However, CDs sold through major broker-dealer networks were up slightly almost across the board.
[20238017] |The average six-month CD in that category added 0.05 percentage point to 8.35%, for example.
[20238018] |Mr. Mehl attributed the rise specifically to the Treasury bill increase.

[20238019] |Among the major banks surveyed by Banxquote in six regions of the country, 8.33% is the highest yield available.
[20238020] |It is offered by the flagship banks of New York's Manufacturers Hanover Corp. in the one-year maturity only.
[20238021] |The yield is offered across a range of maturities at San Francisco's BankAmerica Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co.
[20238022] |Just two weeks ago, BankAmerica's yields in many of those maturities was 8.61%.

[20238023] |Still, on average, the major California banks have the highest yields on CDs, according to Banxquote.
[20238024] |The average yield there on six-month issues is 8.32%.

[20239001] |I had to reach back to French 101 when the monsieur avec clipboard leaned over my shoulder during the coffee phase of dinner and asked whether I wanted to ride in a montgolfiere.

[20239002] |I was a last-minute (read interloping) attendee at a French journalism convention and so far the festivities had been taken up entirely by eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping and drinking.
[20239003] |The man with the clipboard represented a halfhearted attempt to introduce a bit of les sportif into our itinerary.
[20239004] |But as the French embody a Zen-like state of blase when it comes to athletics (try finding a Nautilus machine in Paris), my fellow conventioners were having none of it.
[20239005] |The diners at my table simply lit more Gauloises and scoffed at the suggestion of interrupting a perfectly good Saturday morning to go golfing or even montgolfing (ballooning to you; the brothers Montgolfier, French of course, were the world's first hot-air balloonists).

[20239006] |Back in the U.S.A. this kind of chi-chi airborne activity wins heartwarmingly covetous responses.
[20239007] |As in: "You went ballooning??!!
[20239008] |In France??!!"
[20239009] |Americans it seems have followed Malcolm Forbes's hot-air lead and taken to ballooning in a heady way.
[20239010] |During the past 25 years, the number of balloonists (those who have passed a Federal Aviation Authority lighter-than-air test) have swelled from a couple hundred to several thousand, with some estimates running as high as 10,000.
[20239011] |Some 30 balloon shows are held annually in the U.S., including the world's largest convocation of ersatz Phineas Foggs -- the nine-day Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta that attracts some 800,000 enthusiasts and more than 500 balloons, some of which are fetchingly shaped to resemble Carmen Miranda, Garfield or a 12-story-high condom.
[20239012] |(The condom balloon was denied official entry status this year.)

[20239013] |But in Epinal, a gray 16th-century river town adjacent to France's Vosges mountain region, none of these Yankee-come-lately enthusiasms for things aloft was evident.
[20239014] |Ballooning at the de rigueur hour of 6 a.m. held all the attraction for most people of sunrise root-canal work.
[20239015] |Feeling the naggings of a culture imperative, I promptly signed up.

[20239016] |The first thing anybody will tell you about ballooning is that it requires zip in the way of athletic prowess, or even a measure of derring-do.
[20239017] |(So long as you don't look down.)
[20239018] |They will also tell you that even if you hate heights, you can still balloon.
[20239019] |(I still say don't look down.
[20239020] |At least not when you are ascending.)
[20239021] |What they won't tell you is not to go aloft in anything you don't want to get wet.
[20239022] |I'm not referring to the traditional champagne drenching during the back-on-terra-firma toast.
[20239023] |I'm talking about landing in a canal.
[20239024] |In a porous wicker basket.
[20239025] |With a pilot who speaks no English.

[20239026] |To wit, my maiden voyage (and novitiates are referred to as virgins) began at dawn on a dew-sodden fairway and ended at noon in a soggy field.
[20239027] |(Balloon flights almost always occur at dawn or dusk, when the winds are lightest.)
[20239028] |In between came lots of coffee drinking while watching the balloons inflate and lots of standing around deciding who would fly in what balloon and in what order (the baskets hold no more than four passengers).
[20239029] |When it wasn't my turn in the balloon I followed its progress from the "chase car," listening to the driver holler into a walkie-talkie.
[20239030] |After long stretches of this attendant ground activity came 20 or so lovely minutes of drifting above the Vosges watching the silver mists rise off the river and the French cows amble about the fields.
[20239031] |It's hard not to feel that God's in his heaven with this kind of bird's-eye view of the world, even if your pilote in silly plaid beret kept pointing out how "belle" it all was.
[20239032] |Eventually little French farmers and their little French farmwives came out of their stone houses and put their hands above their tiny eyes and squinted at us.

[20239033] |No wonder.
[20239034] |We were coming down straight into their canal.
[20239035] |See, the other rule of thumb about ballooning is that you can't steer.
[20239036] |And neither can your pilot.
[20239037] |You can go only up or down (by heating the balloon's air with a propane burner, which does make the top of your head feel hot) and ride the air currents.
[20239038] |Which makes the chase car necessary.
[20239039] |Most balloonists seldom go higher than 2,000 feet and most average a leisurely 5-10 miles an hour.
[20239040] |When the balloon is cruising along at a steady altitude there is little sense of motion.
[20239041] |Only when one is ascending -- or in our case descending a tad trop rapidement -- does one feel, well, airborne in a picnic basket.

[20239042] |"What's he doing?" hissed my companion, who was the only other English-speaking member of the convention and whose knuckles were white.
[20239043] |"Attention," yelled our pilot as our basket plunged into the canal.
[20239044] |"You bet attention," I yelled back, leaping atop the propane tanks, "I'm wearing alligator loafers!"
[20239045] |Our pilot simply laughed, fired up the burner and with another blast of flame lifted us, oh, a good 12-inches above the water level.
[20239046] |We scuttled along for a few feet before he plunged us into the drink again.

[20239047] |Eventually we came to rest in a soggy patch of field where we had the exquisite pleasure of scrambling out of the basket into the mud while the French half of our ballooning tag team scrambled in.
[20239048] |I looked at my watch.
[20239049] |Barely half-an-hour aloft.
[20239050] |Back in the chase car, we drove around some more, got stuck in a ditch, enlisted the aid of a local farmer to get out the trailer hitch and pull us out of the ditch.
[20239051] |We finally rendezvoused with our balloon, which had come to rest on a dirt road amid a clutch of Epinalers who watched us disassemble our craft -- another half-an-hour of non-flight activity -- that included the precision routine of yanking the balloon to the ground, punching all the air out of it, rolling it up and cramming it and the basket into the trailer.
[20239052] |It was the most exercise we'd had all morning and it was followed by our driving immediately to the nearest watering hole.

[20239053] |This meant returning to the golf course, where we watched a few French duffers maul the first tee while we sat under Cinzano umbrellas, me nursing an espresso and my ego.
[20239054] |A whole morning of ballooning and I had been off the ground barely 30 minutes.
[20239055] |Still, I figured the event's envy-quotient back in the U.S.A. was near peerless.

[20239056] |As for the ride back to camp, our pilot and all the other French-speaking passengers clambered into the chase car.
[20239057] |My American companion and I were left to ride alfresco in the wicker basket.
[20239058] |As we streaked by a blase gendarme, I couldn't resist rearing up on my soggy loafers and saluting.

[20239059] |Ms. de Vries is a free-lance writer.

[20240001] |Treasury Undersecretary David Mulford defended the Treasury's efforts this fall to drive down the value of the dollar, saying it helped minimize damage from the 190-point drop in the stock market Oct. 13.

[20240002] |Testifying before a House subcommittee, Mr. Mulford said that if the Treasury hadn't intervened in foreign-exchange markets in September and early October to reduce the dollar's value, the plunge in the stock market might have provoked a steep fall in the currency that might have "unhinged financial markets."

[20240003] |Mr. Mulford, responding to critics of intervention, also said intervention is "highly visible," is taken seriously by financial markets and works better than "was recognized some time ago."

[20240004] |Differences between the Treasury and the Federal Reserve on the usefulness of intervention to help restrain the dollar resurfaced at the hearing.
[20240005] |Fed Vice Chairman Manuel Johnson, who had dissented from the Treasury's policy, told lawmakers, "I became convinced about what looked to me like an attempt to push the dollar down against the fundamentals in the market."

[20240006] |Intervention, he added, is useful only to smooth disorderly markets, not to fundamentally influence the dollar's value.

[20240007] |Rep. John LaFalce (D., N.Y.) said Mr. Johnson refused to testify jointly with Mr. Mulford and instead asked to appear after the Treasury official had completed his testimony.
[20240008] |A Fed spokesman denied Mr. LaFalce's statement.

[20240009] |Mr. Mulford said reports of tension between the Treasury and Fed have been exaggerated, insisting that they involved "nuances."
[20240010] |Mr. Johnson also said that "in the scheme of things, these things are minor."

[20240011] |On other matters, Mr. Mulford said West Germany is contributing to imbalances in the world economy because of its success as an exporter.
[20240012] |"The solution is stronger domestic growth {in Germany}," he said.
[20240013] |But because the growth of the German economy has been stronger than expected, Mr. Mulford said, it's difficult for the U.S. to argue that Germany ought to adopt more stimulative monetary and fiscal policies.

[20240014] |Germany's trade surplus is largely with other European countries rather than with the U.S., Mr. Mulford acknowledged.
[20240015] |But nonetheless U.S. companies might be more successful in European markets if not for the German export push, he said.

[20241001] |Five officials of this investment banking firm were elected directors: E. Garrett Bewkes III, a 38-year-old managing director in the mergers and acquisitions department; Michael R. Dabney, 44, a managing director who directs the principal activities group which provides funding for leveraged acquisitions; Richard Harriton, 53, a general partner who heads the correspondent clearing services; Michael Minikes, 46, a general partner who is treasurer; and William J. Montgoris, 42, a general partner who is also senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer.
[20241002] |The board increased by one to 26 members.
[20241003] |In the past year, one inside director resigned, while three others retired.

[20242001] |Some U.S. allies are complaining that President Bush is pushing conventional-arms talks too quickly, creating a risk that negotiators will make errors that could affect the security of Western Europe for years.

[20242002] |Concerns about the pace of the Vienna talks -- which are aimed at the destruction of some 100,000 weapons, as well as major reductions and realignments of troops in central Europe -- also are being registered at the Pentagon.
[20242003] |Mr. Bush has called for an agreement by next September at the latest.
[20242004] |But some American defense officials believe the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should take more time to examine the long-term implications of the options being considered.

[20242005] |For one thing, Pentagon officials, who asked not to be identified, worry that the U.S. will have a much tougher time persuading Europeans to keep some short-range nuclear weapons on their soil once Soviet armored forces are thinned out.
[20242006] |At the same time, they contend that a reduction of NATO forces under a treaty will increase the possibility of a conventional Soviet attack unless the West retains a residual force of nuclear weapons in Europe.

[20242007] |Allies concerned about the deadline include the British, French and smaller NATO allies, some of whom don't have adequate staffs to provide quick answers to the questions being raised by what generally are considered the most complex arms-control talks ever attempted.

[20242008] |So far, no ally has complained openly, preserving the impression that NATO is in line with the Bush position that a quick agreement bringing Soviet conventional forces down to parity with NATO is the West's top bargaining priority.

[20242009] |But even though NATO negotiators have only 10 months left under the Bush timetable, they are still wrestling over such seemingly fundamental questions as "What is a tank?"
[20242010] |Five of the six categories of weapons under negotiation haven't even been defined.

[20242011] |Tanks currently are defined as armored vehicles weighing 25 tons or more that carry large guns.
[20242012] |The Soviets complicated the issue by offering to include light tanks, which are as light as 10 tons.
[20242013] |Oleg A. Grinevsky, the chief Soviet negotiator in the conventional-arms talks, argued that this would mean the Soviets would have to destroy some 1,800 tanks, while the U.S. would lose none because it has no light tanks in Europe.

[20242014] |But the issue is stickier than it seems.
[20242015] |France, Britain and Italy all have light tanks they would like to keep out of the talks.
[20242016] |And some U.S. Army analysts worry that the proposed Soviet redefinition is aimed at blocking the U.S. from developing lighter, more transportable, high-technology tanks.

[20242017] |Defining combat aircraft is even tougher.
[20242018] |The Soviets insisted that aircraft be brought into the talks, then argued for exempting some 4,000 Russian planes because they are "solely defensive."

[20242019] |NATO hasn't budged from its insistence that any gun-carrying plane has offensive capability.
[20242020] |The dispute over that issue, according to one U.S. official, is a "potential treaty stopper," and only President Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev may be able to resolve it.

[20242021] |Accounting problems raise more knotty issues.
[20242022] |Greece and Turkey, for example, are suspected of overstating their arsenals in hopes that they can emerge from the arms-reduction treaty with large remaining forces to deter each other.

[20242023] |Other nations aren't sure how many weapons they have in their own arsenals.
[20242024] |"It's just going to be sloppy, both on our side and theirs {the Warsaw Pact's}," says one NATO analyst.

[20242025] |So far, neither the Bush administration nor arms-control experts in Congress seem moved by arguments that these problems may take more time to thrash out than President Bush has allowed.
[20242026] |They argue that the bigger danger would be that the West would delay action so long that the Soviets might back away from the current conciliatory attitude.

[20242027] |"So what if you miss 50 tanks somewhere?" asks Rep. Norman Dicks (D., Wash.), a member of the House group that visited the talks in Vienna.
[20242028] |"The bottom line is that if we can get that {Warsaw Pact} superiority brought down to parity, we ought to keep pressing ahead as quickly as possible.
[20242029] |I worry more about things becoming so unraveled on the other side that they might become unable to negotiate.

[20243001] |International Lease Finance Corp. announced a leasing contract with charter carrier American Trans Air Inc., in a transaction involving six Boeing Co. 757-200s.
[20243002] |The value of the jets, including spares, is in excess of $250 million.

[20243003] |Two of the 757-200s are new aircraft to be delivered to American Trans Air, the main subsidiary of Amtran Inc., in December 1991 and January 1992.
[20243004] |Four of the planes were purchased by International Lease from Singapore Airlines in a previously announced transaction.

[20243005] |Delivery of the first aircraft is set for early November, a second for December and two for April 1990.

[20244001] |Norway's unemployment rate for October was 3.6%, unchanged from September but up from 2.6% in the same month last year.
[20244002] |The figure excludes a record number employed by extraordinary government work programs, the Labor Directorate announced Tuesday.

[20244003] |Including those in the state programs, there were 143,800 Norwegians, or about 6.5% of the work force, without permanent employment in October, up from September's 136,800.

[20244004] |The number of people registered as jobless at the end of October declined by 900 from September to 78,600.
[20244005] |Those employed in state-funded special programs increased by 7,400 to 65,200 in the same period, the Directorate said.

[20244006] |In October 1988, there were 40,800 fewer employed by government programs.

[20245001] |Coca-Cola Co., aiming to boost soft-drink volume in Singapore, said it is discussing a joint venture with Fraser & Neave Ltd., its bottling franchisee in that country.

[20245002] |The venture would be the latest in Coke's rapid expansion of overseas investment.
[20245003] |So far this year, it has put nearly $700 million into bottling operations in Australia, New Zealand and France.

[20245004] |The move also reflects Coke's eagerness to have a hand in developing the soft-drink markets in Pacific Basin countries.
[20245005] |Aside from Europe, the Pacific division is where Coke will be focusing much of its attention for years to come.

[20245006] |That's because when Coke looks to the Pacific area, it sees an economic and demographic gold mine.
[20245007] |In countries such as Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, economies are growing, resulting in a rise in disposable income that consumers can use for soft drinks.
[20245008] |And unlike Europe and the U.S., where populations are aging, the Pacific Basin countries have growing proportions of youths -- the heaviest consumers of Coca-Cola and other sodas.

[20245009] |A Coca-Cola spokesman said it is too early to say how the joint venture would be structured, or how much the company would invest in the transaction.
[20245010] |In the past, however, Coke has typically taken a minority stake in such ventures.
[20245011] |By acquiring stakes in bottling companies in the U.S. and overseas, Coke has been able to improve bottlers' efficiency and production, and in some cases, marketing.
[20245012] |Coke has tended to increase its control when results were sluggish in a given country.

[20245013] |That doesn't appear to be the case in Singapore, a country of about three million people with a relatively high soft-drink consumption rate -- a key indicator of Coke's success in a market.
[20245014] |In Singapore, per-capita consumption is about one-third that of the U.S.
[20245015] |And combining Fraser & Neave's own soft drinks with Coca-Cola's gives the Singapore company more than half the share of the soda market there, Coke said.

[20245016] |Fraser & Neave, which also has interests in packaging, beer and dairy products, holds the Coke licenses for Malaysia and Brunei, where per-capita consumption isn't as high as in Singapore.
[20245017] |Coke could be interested in more quickly developing some of the untapped potential in those markets.
[20245018] |A Coke spokesman said he couldn't say whether that is the direction of the talks.

[20245019] |Coke said the joint-venture arrangement, which needs approval from both companies' boards, should be completed early next year.

[20246001] |AMERICAN BRANDS Inc., Old Greenwich, Conn., said it increased its quarterly 11% to 68 cents a share from 61 cents, payable Dec. 1 to stock of record Nov. 10.
[20246002] |The increase follows the company's report of strong earnings for the third quarter, and reflects what American Brands called its "tradition of sharing earnings growth" with shareholders.
[20246003] |American Brands is a consumer products company with core businesses in tobacco, distilled spirits and life insurance.
[20246004] |As of Sept. 30, American Brands had 95.2 million shares outstanding.

[20247001] |Giovanni Agnelli & Co. announced a transaction that will strengthen its indirect control of Fiat S.p.A. and will admit Prince Karim Aga Khan as its first non-family shareholder.

[20247002] |Giovanni Agnelli, a limited partnership that is the master holding company for Fiat's Agnelli family, owns approximately 75% of the shares in Istituto Finanziario Industriale, which in turn owns approximately 40% of Fiat, Italy's biggest private-sector industrial group.

[20247003] |The company said Maria Sole Agnelli Teodorani, sister of Fiat Chairman Giovanni Agnelli, agreed to trade her shares in IFI for new ordinary shares in the limited partnership, which will give her control of 4.67% of Giovanni Agnelli & Co.

[20247004] |The Aga Khan, meanwhile, agreed to trade some of his stake in Luxembourg-based Ifint S.A., another Agnelli family company, for 7.45% of Giovanni Agnelli & Co.'s capital.
[20247005] |His new stake would be in the form of preferred shares, which receive higher dividends but have voting rights only in extraordinary shareholders assemblies.
[20247006] |The Aga Khan owns 10% of Ifint's capital, while IFI owns 23%.

[20247007] |As a result of the transaction, which is expected to be approved at a shareholders meeting Nov. 24, Giovanni Agnelli & Co. will control 79.18% of IFI's ordinary shares.
[20247008] |Its capital will also be raised to 232.4 billion lire ($172.5 million) from the current 204.3 billion lire.
[20247009] |IFI also has nonvoting preferred shares, which are quoted on the Milan stock exchange.

[20247010] |The value of the two transactions wasn't disclosed, but an IFI spokesman said no cash would change hands.

[20247011] |The move strengthens the existing links between the Agnellis and the Aga Khan, the head of the world's Ismaili Moslems who is a longtime family friend and frequently goes sailing with Mr. Agnelli.

[20247012] |Mr. Agnelli and the Aga Khan also have some business ties, and a spokesman for the Agnelli company didn't rule out that the current agreement could lead to further collaboration.
[20247013] |For instance, Ifint earlier this year bought an 18% stake in Alisarda, the Aga Khan's airline, which flies between Italy and Sardinia.

[20247014] |Giovanni Agnelli & Co., which was formed in January 1987 as a way of keeping the Agnellis' controlling stake in Fiat together despite an ever-growing family tree, has been playing a more active role in the Agnelli group of late.

[20247015] |It raised financing of 300 billion lire for the purchase this summer by another Agnelli-related group of the food concern Galbani S.p.A., by selling a chunk of its IFI shares to Mediobanca S.p.A.
[20247016] |Mediobanca said during the weekend that it agreed to sell the shares back to Giovanni Agnelli for 333 billion lire.

[20248001] |Your Oct. 2 page-one article on people riding so-called "railbikes" on railroad tracks was a disservice to your readers.
[20248002] |It unfortunately encourages others to engage in a highly dangerous and illegal activity that only a very few are doing now.
[20248003] |And it treats such activities in a frivolous, cavalier fashion, with total indifference to common sense and public safety.

[20248004] |Saul Resnick

[20248005] |Vice President

[20248006] |Public Affairs

[20248007] |Conrail

[20249001] |MCI Communications Corp. said it received a three-year contract valued at more than $15 million to provide network, credit-card and other telecommunications services to Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.

[20250001] |Congressional Democrats and the Bush administration agreed on a compromise minimum-wage bill, opening the way for the first wage-floor boost in more than nine years.

[20250002] |The agreement ended a long impasse between the congressional leaders and the White House over the wage issue.
[20250003] |President Bush in June vetoed a measure passed by Congress and said he wouldn't accept any minimum-wage rise that went beyond limits he set early in this year's debate on the issue.

[20250004] |The compromise was a somewhat softened version of what the White House had said it would accept.
[20250005] |Under the agreement with the House and Senate leaders, the minimum wage would rise from the current $3.35 an hour to $4.25 an hour by April 1991.
[20250006] |Employers could also pay a subminimum "training wage" for 90 days to new workers who are up to 19 years old, and then for another 90 days if the company institutes a specific training program for the newcomers.

[20250007] |White House officials were delighted that the compromise includes the concept of a training wage, which Mr. Bush has fought for throughout the year.

[20250008] |"For the first time in history, we have a training wage that will be part" of the nation's labor laws, said Roger Porter, assistant to the president for economic and domestic policy.

[20250009] |White House aides said that although they made a small compromise on the length of a training wage, the final minimum-wage increase will meet the standards set by Mr. Bush.

[20250010] |The bill vetoed by the president in June, which the House failed to override, would have lifted the minimum wage to $4.55 an hour by late 1991, with a training wage for up to two months, generally for a worker's first job.

[20250011] |Mr. Bush had been holding out for a bill boosting the wage floor to $4.25 an hour by the end of 1991, coupled with a six-month training wage for workers newly hired by any employer.
[20250012] |Under the compromise, the $4.25 level would be reached nine months earlier, while the training subminimum would be shorter, unless it is tied to a training plan.

[20250013] |Democrats argued that the training wage was a way of allowing employers to pay less than the minimum wage, while new workers need far less than six months to be trained for their jobs.

[20250014] |Democrats had been negotiating with some Republican congressional leaders on a compromise lately.
[20250015] |With congressional elections next year, GOP leaders have worried about opposing a minimum-wage rise for low-paid workers at a time when Congress is moving toward a capital-gains tax cut that would directly benefit wealthier taxpayers.
[20250016] |Republicans have been imploring the White House to compromise on the wage issue.

[20250017] |In the Senate, Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.), chairman of the Labor Committee, and Pete Domenici, (R., N.M.) ranking minority member of the Budget Committee, have been working on a compromise, and their soundings showed that the Senate appeared to be heading toward enough strength to override another Bush veto, a Democratic staff official said.

[20250018] |The House is scheduled to vote this week on the compromise, as a substitute to a new Democratic bill, itself watered down from last spring's version.
[20250019] |The Senate will probably vote not long afterward.

[20250020] |Some Democrats thought they might have compromised too much.
[20250021] |Rep. Austin Murphy (D., Pa.), chairman of the House labor standards subcommittee, said they might have done better "if we'd held their feet to the fire."
[20250022] |Mr. Kennedy suggested Democrats "yielded a great deal" on the size of the increase, but he cited concessions from the White House on the training wage, which he said make it "less harsh."

[20250023] |With only 16-year-olds to 19-year-olds eligible, 68% of workers getting less than $4.25 an hour, who are adults, won't be subject to the training wage, he said.
[20250024] |The AFL-CIO, which previously opposed the administration's subminimum idea, said the compromise has "adequate safeguards, so the youth are not exploited and older workers are not displaced."

[20250025] |Gerald F. Seib contributed to this article.

[20251001] |Moody's Investors Service Inc. said it lowered the ratings on about $3.2 billion of Houston Lighting & Power Co.'s securities because of the company's low levels of interest coverage and internal cash generation.

[20251002] |Houston Lighting is a unit of Houston Industries Inc., a utility holding company in Houston.

[20251003] |Downgraded by Moody's were Houston Lighting's first-mortgage bonds and secured pollution-control bonds to single-A-3 from single-A-2; unsecured pollution-control bonds to Baa-1 from single-A-3; preferred stock to single-A-3 from single-A-2; a shelf registration for preferred stock to a preliminary rating of single-A-3 from a preliminary rating of single-A-2; two shelf registrations for collateralized debt securities to a preliminary rating of single-A-3 from a preliminary rating of single-A-2, and the unit's rating for commercial paper to Prime-2 from Prime-1.

[20251004] |Moody's said Houston Lighting's current situation has some positive aspects, including managing "very well" the construction and commercial operation risks of Units 1 and 2 of the South Texas Project nuclear power plant.
[20251005] |Capital requirements will be declining and no new generating facilities will be required for several years, Moody's said.

[20252001] |Scott C. Smith, formerly vice president, finance, and chief financial officer of this media concern, was named senior vice president.
[20252002] |Mr. Smith, 39, retains the title of chief financial officer.

[20253001] |Armstrong World Industries Inc. agreed in principle to sell its carpet operations to Shaw Industries Inc.
[20253002] |The price wasn't disclosed but one analyst estimated that it was $150 million.

[20253003] |Armstrong, which has faced a takeover threat from the Belzberg family of Canada since July, said that disposing of the carpet business would improve "total financial performance."
[20253004] |The move also would allow the company to concentrate on core businesses, which include ceramic tile, floor coverings and furniture.

[20253005] |Moreover, such a sale could help Armstrong reassure its investors and deter the Belzbergs, who own a 9.85% stake in the Lancaster, Pa., company.
[20253006] |Analysts expect Armstrong to use proceeds of the sale to reduce debt, buy back stock or perhaps finance an acquisition.

[20253007] |The carpet division had 1988 sales of $368.3 million, or almost 14% of Armstrong's $2.68 billion total revenue.
[20253008] |The company has been manufacturing carpet since 1967.
[20253009] |Recently it upgraded its plants so that it could make stain-resistant products with higher quality dyes.

[20253010] |For the past year or two, the carpet division's operating profit margins have hovered around 5%, high by industry standards, but disappointing compared with the 13% to 19% margins for two of Armstrong's chief businesses, flooring and building products.

[20253011] |Analysts hailed the planned transaction as being beneficial to Armstrong and Shaw, the market leader in the U.S. carpet industry, with an estimated 17% to 20% share.
[20253012] |Shaw, based in Dalton, Ga., has annual sales of about $1.18 billion, and has economies of scale and lower raw-material costs that are expected to boost the profitability of Armstrong's brands, sold under the Armstrong and Evans-Black names.

[20253013] |Yesterday, in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Shaw's shares closed ex-dividend at $26.125, up $2.25.
[20253014] |Armstrong's shares, also listed on the Big Board, closed at $39.125, up 12.5 cents.

[20253015] |Yesterday, Armstrong reported flat earnings for the third quarter and nine months, worsened by the stock dilution of an employee stock ownership plan adopted earlier this year.

[20253016] |For the quarter, earnings were $47 million, or 92 cents a share, including a one-time gain of $5.9 million.
[20253017] |In the year-ago quarter, earnings were $42.9 million, or 93 cents a share.

[20253018] |Yesterday, Armstrong announced an agreement to sell its small Applied Color Systems unit to a subsidiary of the Swiss company, Brauerei Eichof Ltd.
[20253019] |The price wasn't disclosed.

[20253020] |Armstrong expects to close the sale of the color unit in late November and the carpet sale in December, with the gains to be applied to fourth quarter or first-quarter results.

[20254001] |The government's primary economic-forecasting gauge rose a slight 0.2% in September, but economists said the report offered little new information on the degree to which the U.S. economy is slowing.

[20254002] |The small increase in the index of leading indicators, which had climbed 0.5% in August but was unchanged in July, does lend support to the view that the economy has slowed noticeably.
[20254003] |However, it doesn't give much of a clue as to whether a recession is on the horizon.

[20254004] |"I don't think it provides much new information on the economy," said Richard Rippe, economist at Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
[20254005] |So far this year, the index of leading indicators has risen in four months, fallen in four months and remained unchanged in the other month.

[20254006] |In another report yesterday, the Commerce Department said sales of new single-family houses plunged 14% in September to an annual rate of 618,000 from 719,000 in August.
[20254007] |The declines were particularly pronounced in the Northeast and in the South, where Hurricane Hugo was a factor.

[20254008] |Although September's weakness followed two strong months for home sales, the decline supports other indications that the drop in mortgage rates earlier this year has had only a limited beneficial effect on the housing market.

[20254009] |The September drop was the largest since a 19% drop in January 1982, but monthly changes in this measure are even less reliable than those in other economic indicators.
[20254010] |Because the figures are based on a small sample, the department said it is 90% confident only that new-home sales fell somewhere between 5% and 23% during the month.
[20254011] |The department also said it takes four months to establish a trend.

[20254012] |So far this year, 534,000 newly built homes have been sold, down 4.5% from the like months of 1988.

[20254013] |The index of leading indicators got a major boost in September from a surge in consumer expectations as measured by the University of Michigan.
[20254014] |This measure had dropped sharply in August.
[20254015] |The Commerce Department said that as a result of a new adjustment to the formula used to calculate the index, the influence of this component has been reduced.

[20254016] |Of the 11 components to the index, only three others rose in September: the money supply, the length of the average work week and stock prices.

[20254017] |Several components that track the health of the manufacturing sector of the economy turned down in September.
[20254018] |These include new orders for manufactured consumer goods, lead times on vendor deliveries, orders for new plant and equipment, and backlogs of orders for durable goods.

[20254019] |Meanwhile, the National Association of Manufacturers said yesterday a recent poll of 53 executives on its board found that 61% don't expect a recession to occur until 1991 or later.
[20254020] |The remainder expect a downturn to begin sometime in

[20254021] |Although manufacturers often are quick to call for lower interest rates, 60% of the executives said they would prefer that the Fed keep inflation-fighting as its top priority even if that means higher rates.
[20254022] |The other 40% said the Fed ought to worry less about inflation and bring interest rates down.

[20254023] |All the figures are adjusted to remove usual seasonal patterns.

[20254024] |Here are the net contributions of the components of the Commerce Department's index of leading indicators.
[20254025] |After various adjustments, they produced a 0.5% rise in the index for August and a 0.2% rise for September.
[20254026] |September, and the change from August, are: from 1.11 in the previous month.

[20255001] |Boston Edison Co. said it will take a previously reported $60 million charge against earnings in the fourth quarter.

[20255002] |The charge resulted from a settlement approved yesterday by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities.
[20255003] |As expected, the settlement limits rate increases for three years and ties future charges to customers for operation of the troubled Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to that plant's performance.

[20255004] |In its order, the state regulatory agency said the company "must be held accountable for the mistakes made in the management of the plant's operation."
[20255005] |Pilgrim had been closed for 32 months.

[20256001] |The average interest rate rose to 8.3875% at Citicorp's $50 million weekly auction of 91-day commercial paper, or corporate IOUs, from 8.337% at last week's sale.

[20256002] |Bids totaling $515 million were submitted.
[20256003] |Accepted bids ranged from 8.38% to 8.395%.

[20256004] |Citicorp also said that the average rate rose to 8.0087% at its $50 million auction of 182-day commercial paper from 7.962% at last week's sale.

[20256005] |Bids totaling $475 million were submitted.
[20256006] |Accepted bids ranged from 8% to 8.019%.
[20256007] |The bank holding company will auction another $50 million in each maturity next Tuesday.

[20257001] |An imaginative novelist writing a thriller about amateur spy-chasing might invent a Clifford Stoll, but it's unlikely.
[20257002] |It's also unnecessary.
[20257003] |Amateur spy-chaser Clifford Stoll is a real person, or as he might waggishly put it, a surreal person.

[20257004] |He is 37, an astronomer with impressive credentials, and something of a genius at making computers do his bidding.
[20257005] |He once described himself as a "Berkeley Hippie," and played the role well; obligatory ragged jeans, a thicket of long hair and rejection of all things conventional, including, for a time at least, formal marriage to his "sweetheart," Martha Matthews.
[20257006] |He also is an entertaining writer, combining wisecracks and wordplay with programmatic detail and lucid explanations of how computers work.
[20257007] |In "The Cuckoo's Egg" (Doubleday, 326 pages, $19.95), he spins a remarkable tale of his efforts over 18 months to catch a computer spy.

[20257008] |The result last spring was the arrest by West German authorities of five young West Germans, accused of stealing information from computers in the U.S. and Europe and selling it to the Soviet KGB.
[20257009] |One of them, 25-year-old Markus Hess of Hannover, allegedly used the international telecommunications network to break into more than 30 high-security computers in the U.S., searching for secrets.
[20257010] |He probably didn't penetrate any top-secret files, but the KGB in East Berlin was willing to pay two of his associates, Peter Carl and Dirk Brezinski, $15,000 for some of the material Hess collected.
[20257011] |They promised yet more for really good stuff.

[20257012] |Mr. Stoll draws his title from the cuckoo's habit of laying eggs in the nests of other birds, making them surrogate parents.
[20257013] |The computer spy had discovered that a popular editing/electronic mail program called Gnu-Emacs could do tricks with the widely used Unix operating system created by AT&T.
[20257014] |Using Gnu-Emacs, the spy could substitute a bogus "atrun" program for the one that routinely cleans up the Unix system every five minutes.
[20257015] |Once his cuckoo's egg was laid, he could enter Unix and become a "super-user," with access to everything.

[20257016] |Mr. Stoll was scanning the heavens at the Keck observatory of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in 1986 when his grant ran low and he was asked to switch to helping run the lab's computers.
[20257017] |He discovered a 75-cent discrepancy in the charges made to various departments for computer time and traced it to a user named "Hunter," who had no valid billing address.
[20257018] |Mr. Stoll suspected the intruder was one of those precocious students who has fun breaking into computers.

[20257019] |But after much tracking, it became evident to Mr. Stoll, through various clues, that the hacker was not on the Berkeley campus or even in California.
[20257020] |Finding him became an obsession for Mr. Stoll.
[20257021] |He made a midnight requisition of all the printers he could lay hands on so that he could monitor all the telephone lines coming into the lab's computers.
[20257022] |After discovering that the hacker had taken over the dormant account of a legitimate user named Joe Sventek, he rigged up an alarm system, including a portable beeper, to alert him when Sventek came on the line.
[20257023] |Some nights he slept under his desk.
[20257024] |His boss complained about neglect of other chores.

[20257025] |The hacker was pawing over the Berkeley files but also using Berkeley and other easily accessible computers as stepping stones to the network of computers used by the military and national security agencies.
[20257026] |The White Sands missile range and CIA contractor Mitre Inc. were among the targets.
[20257027] |When the hacker moved, Mr. Stoll moved too, calling up other systems managers to alert them but keeping his own system open to avoid arousing suspicion.
[20257028] |Sometimes, if the hacker seemed to be into a sensitive file, he would drag his keychain across the terminal to create static or slow the system down to frustrate his quarry.

[20257029] |The FBI initially showed little interest, and he had the impression other federal security agencies were tangled up in legal red tape.
[20257030] |The CIA told him it does not do domestic counterespionage.
[20257031] |One learns a lot from this book, or seems to, about crippling federal bureaucracy.
[20257032] |"Seems to" because it's possible that the CIA and the National Security Agency were more interested than they let on to Mr. Stoll.

[20257033] |Finally, he got help.
[20257034] |Tymnet is a major network linking computers.
[20257035] |One of its international specialists, Steve White, took a quick interest in Mr. Stoll's hunt, ultimately tracing the hacker to West Germany.
[20257036] |The West Germans then took over and finally found Markus Hess.

[20257037] |Eventually, Mr. Stoll was invited to both the CIA and NSA to brief high-ranking officers on computer theft.
[20257038] |He savored the humor of his uncombed appearance among these buttoned-up chaps.
[20257039] |Back in Berkeley, he was violently scolded by a left-wing lady friend for consorting with such people.
[20257040] |He became angry in return.
[20257041] |He had developed a hatred for the hacker and a grudging appreciation of the federal "spooks" who make national security their business.
[20257042] |At several different levels, it's a fascinating tale.

[20257043] |Mr. Melloan is deputy editor of the Journal.

[20258001] |Mips Computer Systems Inc. today will unveil a new general-purpose computer that will compete with more expensive machines from companies such as Sun Microsystems Inc. and Digital Equipment Corp.

[20258002] |The closely held Sunnyvale, Calif., company also will announce an agreement to supply computers to Control Data Corp., which will sell Mips machines under its own label.

[20258003] |The new Mips machine, called the RC6280, will cost $150,000 for a basic system.
[20258004] |The computer processes 55 million instructions per second and uses only one central processing chip, unlike many rival machines using several processors.
[20258005] |The machine employs reduced instruction-set computing, or RISC, technology.

[20258006] |At that price, an analyst familiar with the machine said, the computer offers up to 10 times the performance of similar machines.
[20258007] |"In the price range it's a tremendously high-performing product," said Sandy Gant, an analyst at the market-research firm InfoCorp.

[20258008] |The machine is part of an effort by Mips to establish itself as a supplier of computers, not just of integrated-circuit technology.
[20258009] |Mips also wants to wedge into markets other than traditional RISC applications such as engineering; Mips said the new machine will also be used by businesses and for communications.
[20258010] |"This clearly demonstrates that Mips is a systems company rather than just a chip company," said Mips Vice President John Hime.

[20258011] |The Control Data deal is a boon for Mips because it gives the the five-year-old company one more ally as it battles more established electronic concerns such as Sun, Hewlett-Packard Co., Motorola Inc. and Intel Corp. for the emerging market for RISC machines.
[20258012] |RISC technology speeds up a computer by simplifying the internal software.

[20258013] |For Mips, which expects revenue of $100 million this year, big-name allies such as Control Data are essential to attract software developers to the company's RISC architecture.
[20258014] |"The thing it says about Mips is that they're on a roll right now," said Ms. Gant at InfoCorp.
[20258015] |"They're getting some major wins," she added.

[20258016] |Last month, for example, Mips agreed to supply its computers to Nixdorf Computer AG of West Germany and France's Groupe Bull.
[20258017] |Sony Corp., Tandem Computers Inc. and Digital Equipment have agreed to sell MIPS computers and companies such as Japan's NEC Corp. and West Germany's Siemens A.G. have agreed to make Mips chips under license.

[20258018] |Today's agreement gives Control Data a machine to compete against Digital and other general-purpose computer makers, said John Logan, a computer-market analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. of Boston.
[20258019] |The machine is essentially a mainframe computer, he said.
[20258020] |"Suddenly CDC (Control Data) has a competitive product to fight back against the VAX9000," a machine Digital announced last month, he added.

[20258021] |Control Data, based in Minneapolis, Minn., expects its sales of Mips systems, including the new RC6280, to amount to more than $100 million by the end of 1991, Mips said.
[20258022] |Nixdorf, Bull and others will also sell versions of the machine, said Mips President Robert Miller.

[20258023] |Mips will start shipping its new machine in the first quarter of 1990, he said.
[20258024] |The machine uses a single processor, which makes it easier to program than competing machines using several processors.
[20258025] |The computer can process 13.3 million calculations called floating-point operations every second.
[20258026] |The machine can run software written for other Mips computers, the company said.

[20259001] |Another fight is brewing between Congress and the Bush administration over how to pay for the savings-and-loan bailout without adding to the federal budget deficit.

[20259002] |In a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee, the General Accounting Office and the Congressional Budget Office, which both are arms of Congress, advised the new S&L bailout agency to abandon plans to raise temporary working capital through debt issued from an agency that wouldn't be counted on the federal budget.

[20259003] |Officials of the Resolution Trust Corp. have said privately that such a plan was the most likely alternative to raise short-term cash for the bailout.

[20259004] |Instead, the GAO and the Congressional Budget Office said, the RTC should consider using Treasury debt, which is less expensive and subject to oversight by Congress.
[20259005] |The spending could be exempted from meeting deficit-reduction targets in the Gramm-Rudman budget law.

[20259006] |The RTC has projected that it will require between $50 billion to $100 billion in temporary working capital.
[20259007] |The borrowing to raise these funds would be paid off as assets of sick thrifts are sold.
[20259008] |The new S&L law allows the RTC to issue notes for as much as 85% of the value of the assets it holds.

[20259009] |But higher interest rates paid on off-budget debt could add billions to the bailout costs, and wouldn't be subject to congressional scrutiny, Ways and Means members argued.
[20259010] |"To allow this massive level of unfettered federal borrowing without prior congressional approval would be irresponsible," said Rep. Fortney Stark (D., Calif.), who has introduced a bill to limit the RTC's authority to issue debt.

[20259011] |The RTC will have to sell or merge hundreds of insolvent thrifts over the next three years.
[20259012] |The new S&L bailout law allows $50 billion to be spent to sell or merge sick S&Ls and their assets, but that is a net cost.
[20259013] |In the meantime, the agency must raise cash to maintain assets, such as real estate, until they can be sold.
[20259014] |Then the short-term debt is paid off through the proceeds of selling the assets.

[20259015] |David Mullins, assistant secretary of the Treasury, said that the working capital is necessary to reduce the final costs of the bailout, by allowing the agency to sell savings and loans without their bad assets, then hold the assets until they can be sold under favorable conditions.

[20259016] |He said it hasn't yet been determined how the RTC will raise the cash, but the administration doesn't want it to be included on the federal budget, because it would "distort" the budget process by requiring either exemptions from Gramm-Rudman or big increases in the budget deficit.

[20259017] |But the worst possibility would be raising no working capital, he said.
[20259018] |"If working capital financing is not provided," he said, "the RTC may have to slow {S&L sales} or dump acquired assets through fire sales.

[20260001] |Panhandle Eastern Corp. said it applied, on behalf of two of its subsidiaries, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to build a 352-mile, $273 million pipeline system from Pittsburg County, Okla., to Independence, Miss.

[20260002] |The natural gas pipeline concern said the 500 million cubic feet a day capacity pipeline would be built by a proposed joint venture between two Panhandle Eastern units-Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. and Trunkline Gas Co.
[20260003] |Texas Eastern Transmission will build and operate the system, which will connect the Arkoma Basin with several interstate pipelines.

[20261001] |Now was that a quarter cup or a half cup?

[20261002] |Not a gripping question, unless you're the pastry chef of this city's Chez Panisse restaurant and you've just lost your priceless personal dessert notebook.

[20261003] |Chez Panisse was listed among the top 30 restaurants in the world this year by Connoisseur magazine.
[20261004] |The tattered black binder, bulging with 18 years' worth of recipes held together by rubber bands, was in chef Lindsey Shere's purse when it was stolen from her house recently.

[20261005] |The Berkeley police don't have any leads but doubt the crime was driven by a passion for sweets.
[20261006] |Instead, they figure the culprit probably took money from Ms. Shere's wallet and discarded all the tips in the five-by-eight-inch looseleaf.

[20261007] |Chez Panisse, whose founder, Alice Waters, is considered the inventor of the cooking style known as California cuisine and whose patrons make reservations a month in advance, hasn't exactly subjected diners to vanilla ice cream because of the theft.
[20261008] |For one thing, Ms. Shere can draw on her cookbook, published by Random House four years ago, which is teeming with recipes for such specialties as kiwi sherbet, gooseberry fool (a creamy dish made with crushed stewed berries) and hazelnut "oeufs a la neige."
[20261009] |For another, sympathetic fans have sent Ms. Shere copies of her recipes clipped from magazines over the years.

[20261010] |Still, the restaurant's ever-changing menu of five-course dinners -- it supposedly hasn't repeated a meal since opening in 1971 -- requires constant improvisation.
[20261011] |And that puts added pressure on Chez Panisse dessert-menu planners.
[20261012] |"We make what we know how to make," says business manager Richard Mazzera.

[20261013] |Many in the Bay Area's pastry community express disbelief that Ms. Shere kept only one copy of such valuable notes, but she has received moral support from Baker's Dozen, a group of California pastry chefs that meets regularly to discuss issues like how to keep meringues from weeping and how bovine eating habits affect butter texture.

[20261014] |Ms. Shere has offered a $500 reward for the book's return but figures she'll have to reinvent many recipes from scratch.
[20261015] |"It's an overwhelming job," she says.
[20261016] |"There are so many possible proportions when you consider how many things are made out of eggs and butter and milk.

[20262001] |Newport Electronics Inc. named a new slate of officers, a move that follows replacement of the company's five incumbent directors last week.

[20262002] |Milton B. Hollander, 60 years old, was named chief executive officer, succeeding Barrett B. Weekes.
[20262003] |Mr. Hollander's Stamford, Conn.-based High Technology Holding Co. acquired most of its 49.4% stake in Newport in August.
[20262004] |Mr. Hollander was named chairman last week, succeeding Mr. Weekes, who was among the ousted directors.

[20262005] |The company has declined requests to discuss the changes, but Mr. Weekes has said that Mr. Hollander wanted to have his own team.

[20262006] |Scott Wakeman was named president and chief operating officer of U.S. operations, titles that had been held by Mr. Weekes.
[20262007] |Mr. Wakeman was vice president of the instrument and controls division of closely held Omega Engineering Inc., another company controlled by Mr. Hollander.
[20262008] |A company spokesman didn't know Mr. Wakeman's age.

[20262009] |James R. Lees, 51, vice president of Newport's European operations, was named executive vice president and chief operating officer of European operations, assuming some former duties of Mr. Weekes.

[20262010] |Arthur B. Crozier, 34, an attorney, was named secretary, succeeding John Virtue, who was another of the ousted directors.

[20263001] |UNIFIRST Corp. declared a 2-for-1 stock split.
[20263002] |The Wilmington, Mass., garment service company also boosted its quarterly dividend 20% to three cents a share adjusted for the split.
[20263003] |The dividend had been five cents a share.
[20263004] |The split and quarterly dividend will be payable Jan. 3 to stock of record Nov. 16, the company said.
[20263005] |The split will raise the number of shares outstanding to about 10.2 million.
[20263006] |Separately, UniFirst reported that net income rose 21% to $3 million, or 29 cents a share adjusted for the split, for the fourth quarter ended Aug. 26.
[20263007] |A year earlier UniFirst earned $2.4 million, or 24 cents a share adjusted for the split.
[20263008] |Sales rose to $52.4 million from $50.1 million.

[20264001] |Fibreboard Corp. said it completed the previously reported sale of approximately 27,500 acres of timberland near Truckee, Calif., to closely held Sierra Pacific Industries Corp., Arcata, Calif., for $32.5 million.
[20264002] |The lumber, insulation and fireproofing concern said the transaction, which includes a swap of other timber interests, would result in a $13.5 million after-tax gain, to be recorded in the fourth quarter.

[20265001] |Healthcare International Inc. said it reached a 120-day standstill agreement with its HealthVest affiliate calling for Healthcare to pay HealthVest $5 million right away and additional amounts in the future.

[20265002] |Under the agreement, Healthcare, a manager of health-care facilities, said it would pay HealthVest $3.9 million in overdue rent and mortgage payments and repay $1.1 million in funds that HealthVest advanced for construction work on facilities.
[20265003] |In return, HealthVest agreed that it won't exercise its rights and remedies against Healthcare during the 120-day period.

[20265004] |After the payment, Healthcare still will be $6.5 million in arrears on rent and mortgage payments to HealthVest, a real estate investment trust whose portfolio consists largely of properties operated by Healthcare.
[20265005] |Healthcare has given HealthVest a 12% note for that overdue amount, to be repaid over three years.

[20265006] |In addition, Healthcare agreed to make monthly rent and mortgage payments of $2.7 million to $3 million to HealthVest during the standstill period, to be paid when Healthcare successfully completes asset sales.
[20265007] |Because Healthcare actually owes HealthVest $4.2 million in rent and mortgage payments each month, the amount due above the amount paid will be added to the three-year note.

[20265008] |The funds should help ease a cash bind at HealthVest, which has been unable to pay its debts because Healthcare hasn't made complete rent and mortgage payments since July.
[20265009] |A spokesman said HealthVest has paid two of the three banks it owed interest to in October and is in negotiations with the third bank.

[20265010] |Healthcare, which has been in a severe liquidity bind, said it is able to make the payments because it completed a transaction with Greenery Rehabilitation Group Inc. in which Greenery purchased stock and warrants for $500,000 and loaned Healthcare $9 million.
[20265011] |The loan is backed by Healthcare's 5.4% stake in HealthVest and interest in certain facilities.

[20266001] |I was pleased to note that your Oct. 23 Centennial Journal item recognized the money-fund concept as one of the significant events of the past century.
[20266002] |Actually, about two years ago, the Journal listed the creation of the money fund as one of the 10 most significant events in the world of finance in the 20th century.
[20266003] |But the Reserve Fund, America's first money fund, was not named, nor were the creators of the money-fund concept, Harry Brown and myself.
[20266004] |We innovated telephone redemptions, daily dividends, total elimination of share certificates and the constant $1 pershare pricing, all of which were painfully thought out and not the result of some inadvertence on the part of the SEC.

[20266005] |President

[20266006] |The Reserve Fund

[20267001] |The crowning moment in the career of Joseph F. O'Kicki came as 300 local and state dignitaries packed into his elegant, marble-columned courtroom here last year for his swearing in as President Judge of Cambria County.

[20267002] |Baskets of roses and potted palms adorned his bench.
[20267003] |The local American Legion color guard led the way.
[20267004] |As the judge marched down the center aisle in his flowing black robe, he was heralded by a trumpet fanfare.

[20267005] |To many, it was a ceremony more befitting a king than a rural judge seated in the isolated foothills of the southern Allegheny Mountains.
[20267006] |But then Judge O'Kicki often behaved like a man who would be king -- and, some say, an arrogant and abusive one.
[20267007] |While his case may be extreme, it reflects the vulnerability of many small communities to domineering judges.

[20267008] |Last March, nine months after the judge's swearing-in, the state attorney general's office indicted him on a sweeping array of charges alleging more than 10 years of "official oppression" in Cambria County, a depressed steel and mining community in western Pennsylvania.
[20267009] |The allegations, ranging from theft and bribery to coercion and lewdness, paint a disquieting picture.

[20267010] |According to testimony in a public, 80-page grand-jury report handed up to the state attorney general, Judge O'Kicki extorted cash from lawyers, muscled favorable loans from banks and bullied local businesses for more than a decade.

[20267011] |Prosecutors, in an indictment based on the grand jury's report, maintain that at various times since 1975, he owned a secret and illegal interest in a beer distributorship; plotted hidden ownership interests in real estate that presented an alleged conflict of interest; set up a dummy corporation to buy a car and obtain insurance for his former girlfriend (now his second wife); and maintained 54 accounts in six banks in Cambria County.

[20267012] |In testimony recorded in the grand jury report, court employees said the judge, now 59 years old, harassed his secretaries, made imperial demands on his staff and hounded anyone who crossed him.
[20267013] |Bailiffs claimed they were required to chauffeur him to and from work, mow his lawn, chop his wood, fix his car and even drop by his house to feed his two grown mutts, Dixie and Husky.
[20267014] |One former bailiff charged that the judge double-crossed him by reneging on a promise of a better paying job after pocketing a $500 bribe.

[20267015] |Some of the allegations are simply bizarre.
[20267016] |Two former secretaries told the grand jury they were summoned to the judge's chambers on separate occasions to take dictation, only to find the judge in his bikini underwear.
[20267017] |One secretary testified that the judge once called her to his office while wearing nothing at all.

[20267018] |The judge, suspended from his bench pending his trial, which began this week, vehemently denies all the allegations against him, calling them "ludicrous" and "imaginative, political demagoguery."
[20267019] |He blames the indictment on local political feuding, unhappiness with his aggressive efforts to clear the courthouse's docket and a vendetta by state investigators and prosecutors angered by some of his rulings against them.

[20267020] |"I don't know whose toes I've stepped on," says the judge.
[20267021] |"I'll find out, eventually, who pushed the state police buttons into action."

[20267022] |Even if only some of the allegations stand up, however, they provide ample testimony to the awesome power of judges in rural communities.
[20267023] |That power can sometimes be abused, particularly since jurists in smaller jurisdictions operate without many of the restraints that serve as corrective measures in urban areas.

[20267024] |Lawyers and their clients who frequently bring business to a country courthouse can expect to appear before the same judge year after year.
[20267025] |Fear of alienating that judge is pervasive, says Maurice Geiger, founder and director of the Rural Justice Center in Montpelier, Vt., a public interest group that researches rural justice issues.

[20267026] |As a result, says Mr. Geiger, lawyers think twice before appealing a judge's ruling, are reluctant to mount, or even support, challenges against him for re-election and are usually loath to file complaints that might impugn a judge's integrity.

[20267027] |Judge O'Kicki, a stern and forbidding-looking man, has been a fixture in the local legal community for more than two decades.
[20267028] |The son of an immigrant stonemason of Slovenian descent, he was raised in a small borough outside Ebensburg, the Cambria County seat, and put himself through the University of Pittsburgh Law School.
[20267029] |He graduated near the top of his class, serving on the school law review with Richard Thornburgh, who went on to become governor of Pennsylvania and, now, U.S. Attorney General.
[20267030] |It was also in law school that Mr. O'Kicki and his first wife had the first of seven daughters.
[20267031] |He divorced his first wife three years ago and married the daughter of his court clerk.

[20267032] |Last year, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice John P. Flaherty called Mr. O'Kicki one of the finest judges "not only in Pennsylvania but in the United States."
[20267033] |Clearly, the judge has had his share of accomplishments.
[20267034] |After practicing law locally, he was elected to his first 10-year term as judge in 1971; in 1981, he was effectively re-elected.
[20267035] |Six years ago, Judge O'Kicki was voted president of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges by the state's 400 judges.
[20267036] |He has been considered several times for appointments to federal district and appellate court vacancies in Pennsylvania.
[20267037] |And when he ran unsuccessfully for a state appellate court seat in 1983, the Pennsylvania Bar Association rated him "one of the best available," after interviewing local lawyers.

[20267038] |"He probably was the smartest guy who ever sat on our bench," says a former president of Cambria County's 150-member bar association, who, like most lawyers in Cambria County, refuses to talk about the judge publicly.
[20267039] |"He's sharp as a tack.
[20267040] |He could grasp an issue with the blink of an eye."

[20267041] |For more than a decade, virtually no one complained about Judge O'Kicki.
[20267042] |"What about those institutions that are supposed to be the bedrock of society, the banks and the bar association. . . ?" wrote a columnist for the Tribune-Democrat, a newspaper in nearby Johnstown, shortly after the scandal became public.
[20267043] |"If only a banker or a lawyer had spoken out years ago, the judicial process wouldn't be under the taint it is today."

[20267044] |Officials with the Pennsylvania Judicial Inquiry and Review Board, the arm of the state that investigates judicial misconduct, counter that they had no inkling of anything amiss in Ebensburg.
[20267045] |"Nobody told us; nobody called us," says an official close to the case who asked not to be named.
[20267046] |"Nobody had the guts to complain."

[20267047] |Certainly not the lawyers.
[20267048] |Johnstown attorney Richard J. Green Jr. shelled out $500 in loans to the judge over five years, he said in testimony to the grand jury.
[20267049] |"The judge never made a pretense of repaying the money," said Mr. Green.
[20267050] |Eventually, Mr. Green testified, he began ducking out of his office rather than face the judge when he visited.

[20267051] |When Mr. Green won a $240,000 verdict in a land condemnation case against the state in June 1983, he says Judge O'Kicki unexpectedly awarded him an additional $100,000.
[20267052] |Mr. Green thought little of it, he told the grand jury, until the judge walked up to him after the courtroom had cleared and suggested a kickback.

[20267053] |"Don't you think I ought to get a commission . . . or part of your fee in this case?" Mr. Green said the judge asked him.

[20267054] |Appalled, Mr. Green never paid the money, he testified.
[20267055] |But he didn't complain to the state's Judicial Inquiry and Review Board, either, saying later that he feared retribution.
[20267056] |Mr. O'Kicki said he will respond to Mr. Green's allegation at his trial.

[20267057] |Like most of Cambria County's lawyers and residents who had dealings with the judge, Mr. Green declined to be interviewed for this article.
[20267058] |And no one with a complaint about the judge would allow his name to be printed.

[20267059] |"I don't have anything much to say, and I think that's what you're going to find from everyone else you talk to up here," says local attorney Edward F. Peduzzi.

[20267060] |Says another lawyer: "The practice of law is a matter of biting one's lip when you live in a small community.
[20267061] |One had best not dance on top of a coffin until the lid is sealed tightly shut."

[20267062] |The judge was considered imperious, abrasive and ambitious, those who practiced before him say.
[20267063] |He sipped tea sweetened with honey from his high-backed leather chair at his bench, while scribbling notes ordering spectators to stop whispering or to take off their hats in his courtroom.
[20267064] |Four years ago, he jailed all nine members of the Cambria County School Board for several hours after they defied his order to extend the school year by several weeks to make up for time lost during a teachers' strike.

[20267065] |Visitors in his chambers say he could cite precisely the years, months, weeks and days remaining until mandatory retirement would force aside the presiding president judge, giving Judge O'Kicki the seniority required to take over as the county's top court administrator.
[20267066] |The judge, they say, was fiercely proud of his abilities and accomplishments.

[20267067] |"My name is judge," Judge O'Kicki told a car salesman in Ebensburg when he bought a new red Pontiac Sunbird in October 1984, according to the grand-jury report.
[20267068] |The dealership dutifully recorded the sale under the name "Judge O'Kicki."

[20267069] |Yet, despite the judge's imperial bearing, no one ever had reason to suspect possible wrongdoing, says John Bognato, president of Cambria County's 150-member bar association.

[20267070] |"The arrogance of a judge, his demeanor, the way he handles people are not a basis for filing a complaint," says Mr. Bognato.
[20267071] |"Until this came up and hit the press, there was never any indication that he was doing anything wrong."

[20267072] |State investigators dispute that view now, particularly in light of the judge's various business dealings in Cambria County.
[20267073] |The judge came under scrutiny in late 1987, after the state attorney general's office launched an unrelated investigation into corruption in Cambria County.

[20267074] |The inquiry soon focused on the judge.
[20267075] |Even his routine business transactions caused trouble, according to the grand jury report.
[20267076] |When the judge bought his new Sunbird from James E. Black Pontiac-Cadillac in Ebensburg five years ago, the dealership had "certain apprehensions" about the judge's reputation, according to the grand-jury report.
[20267077] |The dealership took the extra step of having all the paper work for the transaction pre-approved by Ebensburg's local lender, Laurel Bank.

[20267078] |Then, as an additional precaution, the car dealership took the judge's photograph as he stood next to his new car with sales papers in hand -- proof that he had received the loan documents.

[20267079] |But when the judge received his payment book, he disavowed the deal.
[20267080] |"There was no loan, there is no loan, there never shall be a loan," the judge wrote the bank on his judicial stationery, according to the report.

[20267081] |Later, the judge went a step farther.
[20267082] |After Laurel Bank tried to repossess the car, a vice president asked him to intervene in an unrelated legal dispute involving a trust account.
[20267083] |The judge wrote again.

[20267084] |"I find myself in an adversary relationship with Laurel Bank, and I am not inclined to extend myself as far as any favors are concerned," the judge wrote back in a letter attached to the grand jury's report.
[20267085] |"Perhaps if my personal matters can be resolved with Laurel bank in the near future, I may be inclined to reconsider your request. . . ."
[20267086] |The judge now says it was "unfortunate" that he chose to write the letter but says "there was certainly no intent to extort there."

[20267087] |The bank acquiesced.
[20267088] |It refinanced the judge's loan, lowered its interest rate and accepted a trade-in that hadn't originally been part of the deal -- a beat up 1981 Chevy Citation the dealer had to repair before it could be resold.

[20267089] |The incident wasn't the only time the judge got special treatment from his local bank.
[20267090] |Two years later, he wrote to complain that the interest he was paying on an unsecured $10,000 loan was "absolutely onerous."
[20267091] |Paul L. Kane, Laurel's president at the time, quickly responded.
[20267092] |The bank, he wrote back, was "immediately" lowering the rate by 3.5%, "as a concession to you."

[20267093] |The judge says he can't discuss in detail how he will defend himself at his trial, although he contends that if he were as corrupt as state prosecutors believe, he would be far wealthier than he is.
[20267094] |His seven-bedroom cedar and brick house outside of Johnstown is up for sale to pay for his lawyers.

[20267095] |The judge says he is confident he will return to his old bench.
[20267096] |Already, he notes, the 76 charges originally filed against him have been trimmed to 27.
[20267097] |Most of the allegations no longer pending were ethics charges withdrawn by state prosecutors as part of a pre-trial agreement.
[20267098] |The heart of the case -- "official oppression" -- remains intact.

[20267099] |"If I lose, I lose my position, my career, my pension, my home and my investments," says the judge.
[20267100] |"My God and I know I am correct and innocent.

[20268001] |Many thanks for Alexander Cockburn's comic masterpiece ("U.S. Economy: A House Built on Junk-Bond Sand," Viewpoint, Oct. 19).
[20268002] |The use of the abominable construction practices in the Soviet Union -- as evidenced by the collapse of sand apartment blocks during the Armenian earthquake -- as a metaphor for the U.S. economic system was a sublime example of Mr. Cockburn's satirical muse.

[20268003] |I await his sequel: the economic and social resiliency of the San Francisco Bay area and the outstanding work of the local governments and the private charitable organizations there as metaphors for the supremacy of whatever failed system Mr. Cockburn now believes in.
[20268004] |It should be a scream.

[20268005] |William S. Smith

[20269001] |As a money manager and a grass-roots environmentalist, I was very disappointed to read in the premiere issue of Garbage that The Wall Street Journal uses 220,000 metric tons of newsprint each year, but that only 1.4% of it comes from recycled paper.
[20269002] |By contrast, the Los Angeles Times, for example, uses 83% recycled paper.
[20269003] |With newspapers being the largest single component of solid waste in our landfills, and with our country overflowing with trash, all sectors of our society and all types of businesses must become more responsible in our use and disposal of precious natural resources.

[20269004] |The Wall Street Journal is an excellent publication that I enjoy reading (and must read) daily.
[20269005] |Please make me and thousands of other readers more comfortable with our daily purchase of your newspaper by raising your environmental standards to your overall impeccable quality levels, and increase your use of recycled paper.

[20269006] |Virginia M.W. Gardiner

[20270001] |FIRST AMERICAN FINANCIAL Corp. declared a special dividend of one share of Class B common stock for each share of Class A common stock, payable to holders of record on Nov. 10 if the Securities and Exchange Commission approves this as the effective date of the registration statement.
[20270002] |Shareholders of the Santa Ana, Calif., title-insurance company approved the creation of this second class of stock, which will be traded on the national over-the-counter market and which the company said would be used for acquisitions and other general corporate purposes.

[20271001] |The following were among yesterday's offerings and pricings in the U.S. and non-U.S. capital markets, with terms and syndicate manager, as compiled by Dow Jones Capital Markets Report:

[20271002] |Continental Cablevision Inc. --
[20271003] |$350 million of senior subordinated debentures, due Nov. 1, 2004, was priced at par to yield 12 7/8%.
[20271004] |Rated single-B-1 by Moody's Investors Service Inc. and single-B by Standard & Poor's Corp., the issue, which is non-callable for five years, will be sold through underwriters led by Morgan Stanley & Co.

[20271005] |Beatrice Co. --
[20271006] |$251 million of notes, due Nov. 1, 1997, was priced in a two-part offering through underwriters at Salomon Brothers Inc.
[20271007] |The size of the issue was scaled back from an originally planned $350 million.
[20271008] |The first part, consisting of $151 million of 13 3/4% senior subordinated reset notes, was priced at 99.75.
[20271009] |The rate on the notes will be reset annually to give the issue a market value of 101.
[20271010] |However, the maximum coupon at which the notes can be reset is 16 1/4%.
[20271011] |The minimum coupon is 13 3/4%.
[20271012] |The second part, consisting of $100 million of senior subordinated floating-rate notes, was priced at 99 3/4 to float 4.25% above the three-month London interbank offered rate.
[20271013] |The initial coupon on the floating-rate notes will be 12.9375%.
[20271014] |The issue is rated single-B-3 by Moody's and single-B-plus by S&P.

[20271015] |New Jersey Wastewater Treatment Trust --
[20271016] |$75.1 million, two-part offering of bonds apparently was won by a Merrill Lynch Capital Markets group.
[20271017] |The group's bid for $40.9 million of wastewater treatment insured bonds, Series 1989 A, produced a 7.0826% true interest cost.
[20271018] |The Series 1989 A bonds are insured and rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P.
[20271019] |The group's bid for $34.2 million of wastewater treatment bonds, Series 1989 B, produced a 7.0808% true interest cost.
[20271020] |The Series 1989 B bonds are uninsured and rated double-A by Moody's and S&P.
[20271021] |Both the Series 1989 A and Series 1989 B bonds were priced to yield from 6% in 1991 to 7.15% in 2008-2009, according to a Merrill Lynch official.

[20271022] |Matagorda County Navigation District No. 1, Texas --
[20271023] |$70.3 million of pollution control revenue bonds (Houston Lighting & Power Co. Project), due Oct. 1, 2019, were tentatively priced by a Goldman, Sachs & Co. group at 98 1/4 to yield 7.649% with a coupon of 7 1/2%.
[20271024] |Interest on the bonds will be treated as a preference item in calculating the federal alternative minimum tax that may be imposed on certain investors.
[20271025] |The bonds are insured and rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P.

[20271026] |Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. --
[20271027] |$500 million of Remic mortgage securities is being offered in 11 classes by a Morgan Stanley group.
[20271028] |The offering, Series 109, is backed by Freddie Mac 10% securities.
[20271029] |Complete details weren't immediately available.

[20271030] |Lomas Mortgage Funding Corp. II --
[20271031] |$100 million issue of collateralized mortgage obligations is being offered in four classes by a Morgan Stanley group.
[20271032] |The securities yield from 9.35% to 10.48% for a 30-year issue with an average life of 21.18 years.
[20271033] |The 10.48% yield represents a spread to the 20-year Treasury of 2.45 percentage points.
[20271034] |The collateral consists of collateralized whole loans with a weighted average coupon rate of 11.08% and weighted average remaining term to maturity of 28 years.
[20271035] |The issue is rated triple-A by S&P, Moody's and Fitch Investors Service Inc.
[20271036] |The issue is 6% to 7% overcollateralized, and 75% of the loans are covered by a General Electric pool policy covering losses of as much as 10% of the original principal balance of the loans.

[20271037] |J.C. Penney Co. --
[20271038] |$350 million of JCP Master Credit Card Trust asset-backed certificates, Series B, with a final stated maturity of Oct. 15, 2001, was priced at 99.1875 to yield 9.192% with a coupon of 8.95%.
[20271039] |The certificates, which have an average life of 10.05 years, were priced at 1.31 percentage points over the benchmark Treasury 10-year note.
[20271040] |Rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P, the issue will be sold through First Boston Corp.
[20271041] |The issue is backed by a 12% letter of credit from Credit Suisse.

[20271042] |Keio Teito Electric Railway Co. (Japan) --
[20271043] |$300 million of bonds due Nov. 16, 1993, with equity-purchase warrants, indicating a 3 3/4% coupon at par via Nomura International Ltd.
[20271044] |Each $5,000 bond carries one warrant, exercisable from Nov. 30 through Nov. 2, 1993, to buy company shares at an expected premium of 2 1/2% to the closing share price when terms are fixed Tuesday.

[20271045] |Diesel Kiki Co. (Japan) --
[20271046] |$200 million of bonds due Nov. 16, 1994, with equity-purchase warrants, indicating a 4 1/2% coupon at par via Yamaichi International Europe Ltd.
[20271047] |Each $5,000 bond carries one warrant, exercisable from Nov. 30 through Nov. 2, 1994, to buy company shares at an expected premium of 2 1/2% to the closing share price when terms are fixed Monday.

[20271048] |Chugoku Electric Power Co. (Japan) --
[20271049] |$150 million of 8 7/8% bonds due Nov. 29, 1996, priced at 101 7/8 to yield 8 7/8% less full fees via Nikko Securities Ltd.
[20271050] |Fees 1 7/8.

[20271051] |Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Singapore branch (Italian parent), via the Law Debenture Trust Corp. --
[20271052] |10 billion yen ($70 million) of 6% bonds due Feb. 24, 1993, priced at 101 1/4, via Daiwa Europe Ltd.

[20271053] |Okobank (Finland) --
[20271054] |10 billion yen of 6% bonds due Nov. 30, 1992, priced at 101.225 to yield 6.056% via IBJ International.

[20272001] |EG&G Inc. said it acquired Laboratorium Prof. Dr. Berthold, a German maker of scientific instruments.

[20272002] |Terms weren't disclosed.
[20272003] |The Wellesley, Mass., maker of scientific instruments and electronic parts said Berthold expects 1989 sales of more than 100 million Deutsche marks ($54.5 million) and employs about 400 people.
[20272004] |Berthold is based in Wildbad, West Germany, and also has operations in Belgium.

[20272005] |John M. Kucharski, EG&G's chairman and chief executive, said the acquisition "will extend EG&G's core technologies, strengthen its position in the European Economic Community and assure a strength and presence in the Eastern European market."
[20272006] |He said it especially will strengthen the company's efforts in the rapidly growing field of bio-analytical instrumentation, and in applied nuclear physics.

[20272007] |Separately, EG&G said it sold most of its Mason Research Institute subsidiary to Transgenic Sciences Inc., a closely held biotechnology company based in Worcester, Mass.
[20272008] |The sale, for $7 million in cash and securities, will leave EG&G with a 12% stake in Transgenic, executives said.
[20272009] |Mason is the largest toxicology lab in New England, with annual revenue of $8 million and 140 employees.

[20272010] |Mason serves commercial and government customers, including the National Institutes of Health.
[20272011] |The combined companies will become profitable by January 1990, said James P. Sherblom, Transgenic's chairman and chief executive officer.

[20273001] |The Internal Revenue Service said it is willing to let the U.S. Tax Court decide how much oil man William Herbert Hunt will owe the government after his assets are liquidated.

[20273002] |The surprise announcement came after the IRS broke off negotiations with Mr. Hunt on a settlement of the one-time tycoon's personal bankruptcy case.
[20273003] |Although the action removes one obstacle in the way of an overall settlement to the case, it also means that Mr. Hunt could be stripped of virtually all of his assets if the Tax Court rules against him in a 1982 case heard earlier this year in Washington, D.C.
[20273004] |The IRS has been seeking more than $300 million in back taxes from Mr. Hunt.

[20273005] |Separately, a federal judge hearing Mr. Hunt's bankruptcy case yesterday turned down a proposed $65.7 million settlement between Mr. Hunt and Minpeco S.A., another major creditor in the case.
[20273006] |The Peruvian minerals concern had been seeking a claim of $251 million against Mr. Hunt.
[20273007] |In addition to turning down the compromise, Judge Harold C. Abramson said he would allow a claim of only $19.7 million.
[20273008] |Minpeco attorneys said they would appeal the decision to a federal district court.

[20273009] |Regarding Mr. Hunt's taxes, he and the IRS have apparently agreed on a basic formula for liquidating his estate in which the IRS would get 70% of the proceeds from a liquidating trust and 30% would go to other creditors.
[20273010] |But they have been at odds over how much Mr. Hunt would owe the government after his assets are sold.
[20273011] |The IRS had demanded $90 million but Mr. Hunt would agree to no more than $60 million.

[20273012] |Grover Hartt III, a government lawyer, warned that Mr. Hunt stood to lose certain oil and gas properties, $200,000 in English pottery, a Colorado condominium and other assets he might have kept if he had settled with the IRS.
[20273013] |"But they wanted to roll the dice and we're going to let them," Mr. Hartt said.

[20273014] |Stephen McCartin, Mr. Hunt's attorney, said his client welcomed the gamble.

[20273015] |The Tax Court isn't expected to rule before early next year.

[20274001] |Japan has found another safe outlet for its money: U.S. home mortgages.

[20274002] |An increasing number of big Japanese investors are buying up U.S. home mortgages that have been pooled and packaged for sale as interest-bearing instruments known as mortgage-backed securities.
[20274003] |As much as 10% of new U.S. mortgage securities issued by the Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae, and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, now flow into Japanese hands.

[20274004] |That may not come as a surprise to Americans who have watched the Japanese snap up properties in the U.S. from golf courses to a stake in Rockefeller Center.
[20274005] |But it marks a big change for the Japanese, who shunned mortgage securities after getting burned by a big downturn in interest rates a few years back.

[20274006] |"You can't say it's a "tsunami" (tidal wave), but we're making some headway," says Fannie Mae's chairman, David O. Maxwell, who visits Tokyo at least once a year to explain and drum up investor interest in mortgage securities.
[20274007] |"Interest is a great deal higher than it was a year ago."
[20274008] |The steady growth of the mortgage securities market in the U.S. has even triggered talk of building up a similar market here.

[20274009] |Evidence of the growing Japanese demand for mortgage securities abounds.
[20274010] |Earlier this year, Blackstone Group, a New York investment bank, had no trouble selling out a special $570 million mortgage-securities trust it created for Japanese investors.
[20274011] |Industrial Bank of Japan, which claims to be the biggest Japanese buyer of U.S. mortgage securities, says it will more than double its purchases this year, to an amount one official puts at several billion dollars.
[20274012] |And a Fannie Mae seminar this week promises to draw hundreds of prospective investors, who can be expected to channel tens of billions of dollars into the market in the next few years.

[20274013] |"Last year, there were only several big investors who were interested," says Kinji Kato, a vice president at the international arm of Nomura Securities Co.
[20274014] |"This year, some investors are changing their policies and investing a lot."
[20274015] |Ultimately, he says, strong demand could help to drive down interest rates on mortgage securities.

[20274016] |At the moment, Nomura is the only Japanese institution authorized to act as a primary seller of Fannie Mae instruments.
[20274017] |But other Japanese institutions say privately that they are considering asking to join the 59-dealer selling group.

[20274018] |These securities are attractive to Japanese investors for three reasons.
[20274019] |First, they are safe.
[20274020] |While they aren't backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, as Treasury bonds are, it is widely assumed that the government would support them if necessary.
[20274021] |(U.S. Treasury bonds are still the dollar-denominated investment of choice for long-term Japanese investors).
[20274022] |Second, they are liquid.
[20274023] |The secondary market in federally backed mortgage securities now exceeds $900 billion, or nearly half of the $2.2 trillion in U.S. residential mortgages issued.
[20274024] |Third, they offer high yields.
[20274025] |At the moment, some offer as much as 1.6 to 1.8 percentage points over Treasury securities of similar maturities.

[20274026] |But there is a risk, which the Japanese discovered when they first dipped their toes into the market nearly five years ago.
[20274027] |Since most mortgages can be prepaid or refinanced at any time, issuers of mortgage securities retain the right to buy back their bonds before maturity.
[20274028] |That's a headache for long-term investors, since it forces them to reinvest their money -- usually at lower rates than the original mortgage securities carried.

[20274029] |"Two or three years ago, the problem was that people didn't understand the prepayment risk," says Nomura's Mr. Kato.
[20274030] |"So they were surprised and very disappointed by prepayment."

[20274031] |Compounding the trouble to Japanese investors, mortgage securities pay interest monthly, since most mortgages require homeowners to make monthly payments.
[20274032] |But Japanese institutional investors are used to quarterly or semiannual payments on their investments, so the monthly cash flow posed administrative problems.
[20274033] |As a result, Japanese investors steered clear of the mortgage securities.

[20274034] |But they didn't lose touch with the U.S. issuers.
[20274035] |Since 1985, Japanese investors have bought nearly 80% of $10 billion in Fannie Mae corporate debt issued to foreigners, money that Fannie Mae uses to buy mortgages from U.S. banks.
[20274036] |And Japanese investors took up nearly all of two $200 million Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits, a kind of collateralized mortgage obligation, that were offered to foreigners this year.

[20274037] |In addition, further packaging of mortgage-backed securities, such as Blackstone's fund, have reduced the effects of prepayment risk and automatically reinvest monthly payments so institutions don't have to.
[20274038] |Freddie Mac for years has offered a so-called participation certificate that guarantees it won't be prepaid for a set number of years and offers semiannual payments.

[20275001] |As Georgia-Pacific's bid for Great Northern Nekoosa has shown, uninvited takeovers are still alive despite premature reports of their demise.
[20275002] |Therefore, the debate about poison pills will continue to rage in the boardrooms of corporations and the halls of academia.

[20275003] |Although poison pills come in different colors and shapes, they usually give current shareholders the right to buy more stock of their corporation at a large discount if certain events occur -- typically, if a hostile bidder acquires more than a specified percentage of the corporation's stock.
[20275004] |However, these discount purchase rights may generally be redeemed at a nominal cost by the corporation's directors if they approve of a bidder.

[20275005] |Supporters of poison pills argue that their adoption forces bidders to negotiate with a corporation's directors, who are thereby put in a better position to pursue the long-term interests of the corporation.
[20275006] |Recent studies by Georgeson & Co. conclude that corporations with poison pills have experienced greater stock-price appreciation than corporations without poison pills during the past few years.

[20275007] |Critics of poison pills argue that they harm shareholders by letting corporate management defeat takeover bids at premium prices and by deterring premium bids from ever being made to shareholders.
[20275008] |These critics are backed by several academic studies showing that the adoption of poison pills reduces shareholder values not merely in the short run, but also over longer periods.

[20275009] |Institutional investors that must evaluate poison pills on a regular basis are interested less in this general debate than in the answers to specific questions about the corporation issuing the pill.
[20275010] |Does this corporation have a high-quality management team with a good track record?
[20275011] |Does this team have a viable strategy for improving shareholder values, and does this strategy require implementation over an extended period?
[20275012] |Will the adoption of this particular form of a poison pill significantly improve the chances for management to carry out this strategy?

[20275013] |If the answers to these questions are affirmative, then institutional investors are likely to be favorably disposed toward a specific poison pill.
[20275014] |However, the problem is that once most poison pills are adopted, they survive forever.
[20275015] |Although the current management team may be outstanding, who will be the CEO in 10 years?
[20275016] |Although the five-year strategy may be excellent, what will be the strategy in 25 years?

[20275017] |The solution to this problem is a time-limited poison pill.
[20275018] |The limit could range from three years to seven years, depending on the composition of the management team and the nature of its strategic plan.
[20275019] |At the end of this period, the poison pill would be eliminated automatically, unless a new poison pill were approved by the then-current shareholders, who would have an opportunity to evaluate the corporation's strategy and management team at that time.

[20275020] |One rare example of a time-limited poison pill is the shareholder rights plan adopted by Pennzoil last year after it received a huge litigation settlement from Texaco.
[20275021] |Pennzoil's poison pill covers five years in order to give current management enough time to put these proceeds to work in a prudent manner.

[20275022] |Another interesting example is the poison pill adopted recently by Pittsburgh-based National Intergroup Inc., a diversified holding company.
[20275023] |The State of Wisconsin Investment Board, which owned about 7% of the company's voting stock, worked with management to devise a time-limited poison pill.
[20275024] |This pill automatically expires after three years unless continued by a vote of the shareholders.

[20275025] |The attitude of the Wisconsin Investment Board reflects a growing receptivity to time-limited poison pills on the part of institutional investors, as shown by the discussions at recent meetings of the Council of Institutional Investors and my informal survey of several retirement plans with large stock positions.

[20275026] |More widespread time limits on poison pills would allow shareholders to evaluate a specific poison pill within the context of a specific management team's strategy.
[20275027] |Such concrete analysis is likely to lead to more fruitful dialogue between management and shareholders than the abstract debate about poison pills.

[20275028] |Mr. Pozen is the general counsel and a managing director of Fidelity Investments in Boston.

[20276001] |Michael Blair, former president and chief executive officer of Enfield Corp., failed to win election to the company's board at a special shareholder meeting.

[20276002] |Mr. Blair said after the meeting that he had filed separate lawsuits in the Ontario Supreme Court for unjust dismissal against Enfield and for libel against its largest shareholder, Canadian Express Ltd., and two executives of Hees International Bancorp Inc., which controls Canadian Express.

[20276003] |Holders at the meeting elected a full slate of Canadian Express nominees to Enfield's 11-member board.

[20276004] |Mr. Blair and Hees have been feuding for months.
[20276005] |Yesterday's election was a sequel to Enfield's annual meeting in June when Mr. Blair disallowed proxies in favor of two Hees nominees.
[20276006] |The Ontario Supreme Court overturned Mr. Blair's decision.
[20276007] |He later resigned from his executive positions with Enfield, saying that actions by its board "amounted to {my} dismissal."

[20276008] |Mr. Blair said his libel suit seeks 10 million Canadian dollars (US$8.5 million) from Canadian Express and Hees executives Manfred Walt and Willard L'Heureux.
[20276009] |He said his suit against Enfield seeks two years severance pay, equivalent to C$720,000.
[20276010] |Hees and Canadian Express executives couldn't be reached for comment.

[20276011] |Enfield is a holding company with interests in manufacturing concerns.
[20276012] |It is 38.5% owned by Canadian Express, another holding company.
[20276013] |Hees is a merchant bank controlled by Toronto financiers Peter and Edward Bronfman.
[20276014] |All the concerns are based in Toronto.

[20277001] |Buying 51% of Rockefeller Group Inc. is right up Mitsubishi Estate Co.'s alley in one sense: The huge Japanese real estate company is entering a long-term relationship with a similarly conservative U.S. owner of tony urban property.

[20277002] |But in another sense, the $846 million purchase is uncharacteristically nervy, industry analysts say.
[20277003] |The usually cautious giant will become the majority owner of the company that owns New York's beloved Rockefeller Center at a time when tensions over Japanese purchases of U.S. property are at an all-time high.

[20277004] |Officials of Rockefeller Group and Mitsubishi Estate prefer to focus on the affinities, nearly dismissing the threat of a backlash from the U.S. public.
[20277005] |"We think there will be positive as well as negative reactions," says Raymond Pettit, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Rockefeller Group.
[20277006] |"On balance, we think it will be positive."

[20277007] |But some Japanese government officials and businessmen worry that the prominent purchase is just the sort of deal that should be avoided for the time being.
[20277008] |In particular, they criticize the timing, coming as it does on the heels of Sony Corp.'s controversial purchase of Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc.

[20277009] |"Officially, yes, we encourage the free flow of direct investment," says a Foreign Ministry official.
[20277010] |"But they didn't have to choose this particular moment."

[20277011] |During the past year, government officials and leading business organizations have repeatedly urged Japanese companies to refrain from flashy real estate purchases in the

[20277012] |Since the mid-1980s, Japan's other major real estate purchases in the U.S. include Dai-Ichi Seimei America Corp.'s $670 million purchase of an office building at 153 East 53rd St. in Manhattan in 1987 and Mitsui Fudosan Inc.'s $610 million purchase of the Exxon Building, part of Rockefeller Center, in 1986.
[20277013] |In Los Angeles, Arco Plaza was sold to Shuwa Corp. for $620 million in 1986, and Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. paid $300 million for Atlanta's IBM Tower last year.

[20277014] |Altogether, annual Japanese investment in U.S. commercial real estate grew from about $1.3 billion in 1985 to about $7.1 billion in 1988.

[20277015] |Many Japanese companies have taken the warnings by the country's leaders to heart and sought development partnerships rather than landmark properties.
[20277016] |Critics say Mitsubishi Estate's decision to buy into Rockefeller reflects the degree to which companies are irritated by the pressure to act for the good of Japan.
[20277017] |"Those who have no money and aren't buying think it's right to refrain, but those with money who want to buy for themselves pay no attention," says an official of the Japan-U.S. Business Council.

[20277018] |But to Mitsubishi Estate, the acquisition has just the elements that should win support from both sides.
[20277019] |First of all, it is a friendly acquisition in which Rockefeller sought out Mitsubishi Estate and asked it to buy a majority share.
[20277020] |Secondly, the two companies found a similarity in their business and development philosophies and intend to cooperate in a range of activities from real estate to telecommunications.
[20277021] |Finally, Mitsubishi Estate has no plans to interfere with Rockefeller's management beyond taking a place on the board.

[20277022] |"We'll continue to work with them, in keeping with the reputation of the company, and we'll rely very much on their leadership," says Mitsubishi Estate President Jotaro Takagi.

[20277023] |Rockefeller may well have found its match in Mitsubishi Estate, a company of long history, strong government ties and sound resources.
[20277024] |In asset terms, Mitsubishi Estate is the largest real estate firm in Japan.
[20277025] |The core of its holdings is 190,000 square meters of incredibly expensive property in the Marunouchi district, the business and financial center of Tokyo, often jokingly called "Mitsubishi Village."

[20277026] |The Mitsubishi family company acquired that property from the government some 100 years ago when it was a portion of samurai residential land running from the moat of the Imperial Palace east toward the hodgepodge of tiny shops and twisted alleys that made up the merchants' district.
[20277027] |At the time, Japan had just opened its doors to the world after about 250 years of isolation and needed a Western-style business center.
[20277028] |Mitsubishi built the government's dream development, the story goes, in exchange for the official decision to locate Tokyo's central railway station there.

[20277029] |That was just an early step in a relationship with government that has earned the Mitsubishi group the dubious moniker of "seisho," literally government-business, a title that has the pejorative connotation of doing the government's bidding, but also suggests the clout inherent in maintaining such close ties.

[20277030] |Mitsubishi Estate is one of the dozens of companies in today's Mitsubishi group.
[20277031] |It's known for its cautiousness in part because it has had little need for bold overseas ventures: In the year ended March 31, 57.4% of its total revenue came from office building management.
[20277032] |Its earnings can rise 10% to 12% annually simply from the natural turnover of tenants and automatic rent increases, says Graeme McDonald, an industry analyst at James Capel Pacific Ltd.
[20277033] |For the latest fiscal year, the company's net income jumped a robust 19% to 35.5 billion yen ($250.2 million).

[20277034] |For Mitsubishi Estate, the Rockefeller purchase will catapult it firmly into the overseas real estate business, the one area where it has lagged notably behind Japanese competitors such as Mitsui, which had purchased the Exxon Building.

[20277035] |"Japanese companies need to invest in overseas real estate for diversification," says Yoshio Shima, an industry analyst at Goldman Sachs (Japan) Corp.

[20277036] |Rockefeller isn't the first overseas purchase for Mitsubishi Estate -- it has already played a leading role in designing Los Angeles's Citicorp Plaza.
[20277037] |But the Rockefeller investment is its largest.
[20277038] |Nonetheless, it will barely make a dent in Mitsubishi Estate's finances, analysts say.

[20277039] |Mitsubishi Estate hasn't decided how it will raise the funds for the purchase, which are due in cash next April, but the Marunouchi holdings alone are estimated to have a market value of as much as 10 trillion yen to 11 trillion yen.
[20277040] |Moreover, as a member of the Mitsubishi group, which is headed by one of Japan's largest banks, it is sure to win a favorable loan.
[20277041] |Analysts say the company also could easily issue new convertible bonds or warrants.

[20277042] |Meanwhile, at home, Mitsubishi has control of some major projects.
[20277043] |It is the largest private-sector landowner of the Minato-Mirai 21 project, a multibillion-yen development in the port city of Yokohama, about an hour outside Tokyo.
[20277044] |The project is one of a select group of public projects opened to U.S. firms under a U.S.-Japan construction trade agreement reached last year.
[20277045] |The centerpiece of that complex, the Landmark Tower, will be Japan's tallest building when it is completed in 1993.

[20277046] |Mitsubishi is also pushing ahead with a controversial plan to redevelop Marunouchi into a business center of high-tech buildings, a project budgeted for 30 years and six trillion yen.

[20278001] |Time Warner Inc. and Sony Corp. may be today's public enemies, but the two entertainment giants could end up becoming partners in a number of ventures as part of a settlement of their acrimonious legal dispute over Hollywood producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters.

[20278002] |The Warner Bros. studio and Sony signaled they are close to a settlement yesterday, asking a Los Angeles Superior Court to postpone a hearing scheduled for tomorrow on Warner's request for a preliminary injunction blocking Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters from taking the top posts at Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc.

[20278003] |In separate statements, the two sides said they want to have "further discussions."

[20278004] |Sony is acquiring Columbia and Guber-Peters Entertainment Co. in two separate transactions valued at more than $5 billion.
[20278005] |Warner Communications Inc., which is being acquired by Time Warner, has filed a $1 billion breach-of-contract suit against Sony and the two producers.
[20278006] |Warner has a five-year exclusive contract with Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters that requires them to make movies exclusively at the Warner Bros. studio.

[20278007] |The two sides in the legal battle have hurled accusations of duplicity at each other for weeks, and both Warner and Sony have accused each other of trying to sabotage each other's prospects for success in the entertainment business.
[20278008] |But it may amount to little more than posturing; the two have continued on-again, off-again settlement talks over the last few weeks, and people familiar with the talks say the matter could be resolved within a week.

[20278009] |Both Warner and Sony declined to comment on the terms of the settlement discussions.
[20278010] |But the people familiar with the talks said that Warner isn't expected to get any cash in the settlement.
[20278011] |Instead, Sony is likely to agree to let Warner participate in certain of its businesses, such as the record club of Sony's CBS Records unit.
[20278012] |Warner has surpassed Sony as the largest record company, but it doesn't have a powerful world-wide record club like CBS.

[20278013] |The two sides are also discussing certain business ventures involving cable rights to Columbia's movies.
[20278014] |In addition, Sony is expected to agree to swap Columbia's 35% stake in the sprawling Burbank, Calif., studio that Warner and Columbia share, in exchange for the old MGM studio lot that Warner acquired with the purchase of Lorimar Telepictures Corp.

[20278015] |Still, it may be tough for the two to have a smooth partnership in anything, in the wake of sworn affidavits filed over the last week.
[20278016] |One, for example, came from CBS Records Chairman Walter Yetnikoff, who will head a committee that will oversee Sony's entertainment division, including both records and movies.
[20278017] |In his affidavit, Mr. Yetnikoff accused Warner Chairman Steven J. Ross of having an "antiSony, anti-Japanese bias" and said that Mr. Ross had tried to talk him out of letting Sony buy CBS Records two years ago for that reason.

[20278018] |Mr. Ross, who will be chairman and co-chief executive officer of Time Warner after the merger is complete, denied that in his own affidavit, and called Mr. Yetnikoff's remarks "vicious" and his claims "reckless, irresponsible and baseless," saying Warner under his leadership has started a number of businesses in Japan.

[20278019] |Mr. Ross also said he enjoys "warm professional and personal relationships" with Japanese executives including Sony Chairman Akio Morita, "who has visited my home here."

[20278020] |But despite the acrimony between Mr. Ross and Mr. Yetnikoff, officials of the Time side of Time Warner have reportedly been increasingly interested in a settlement that might yield attractive business opportunities.
[20278021] |Time executives such as the company's president, N.J. Nicholas, who will eventually be co-chief executive of Time Warner alongside Mr. Ross, have no personal relationships or ego at stake in the fight over the Guber-Peters duo, and were never directly drawn into the fray.

[20278022] |Talks between the two sides could unravel, of course, as they have more than once since Sony announced its plans to hire Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters.
[20278023] |But both sides appear to be more willing now to meet each other's terms to resolve the issue.
[20278024] |And although Warner has said it wanted the producers to fulfill the terms of their contract, the producers said in sworn court declarations that they didn't believe the relationship could be repaired after the acrimony of the legal battle.

[20278025] |Any settlement is also expected to exclude Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters from any of the projects they were working on at Warner.
[20278026] |The Guber-Peters duo have 50 projects in various stages of development and production at Warner, including "Bonfire of the Vanities" and "A Bright Shining Lie."

[20278027] |But that doesn't mean Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters might not eventually get their hands on some of their projects; studios develop hundreds of movies but produce only 10 to 20 each year.
[20278028] |Once a studio chooses not to actually make a movie that is in development, producers are typically free to take it elsewhere.

[20278029] |Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters also almost certainly wouldn't be able to participate in future sequels to "Batman," the blockbuster hit they produced for Warner.
[20278030] |But in acquiring Guber-Peters Entertainment, Sony will actually get a piece of the profits from "Batman," since the publicly held concern gets certain revenue from the movies Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters produce.
[20278031] |The two producers own a combined 28% stake in Guber-Peters.

[20279001] |Southern Co.'s Gulf Power Co. subsidiary pleaded guilty to two felony charges of conspiracy to make illegal political contributions and tax evasion, and paid $500,000 in fines.

[20279002] |Gulf Power's guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Robert L. Vining yesterday marks the end of only one part of a wide-ranging inquiry of Southern Co.
[20279003] |The company is the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into whether its officials and its utility subsidiaries conspired to cover up their accounting for spare parts to evade federal income taxes.

[20279004] |"The terms announced today are strictly between the United States and Gulf Power," said U.S. Attorney Robert L. Barr.
[20279005] |"This is only a further step in a lengthy investigation."

[20279006] |The plea settlement does not allow Southern Co. to charge any of the $500,000 to its customers, or take action against employees who provided information during the federal inquiry.
[20279007] |Gulf Power had been under investigation for violating the Utility Holding Company Act, which prohibits public utilities from making political contributions.

[20279008] |In a statement, Southern Co. President Edward L. Addison said, "We believe our decision to plead (guilty) to these charges is responsible and proper.
[20279009] |And our action today will allow Gulf Power to avoid prolonged, distracting legal proceedings."
[20279010] |He did not say what effect, if any, the $500,000 fine would have on the company's earnings.

[20279011] |Mr. Barr said yesterday's plea by Gulf Power, which came after months of negotiations, was based on evidence that Gulf Power had set up an elaborate payment system through which it reimbursed outside vendors -- primarily three Florida advertising agencies -- for making illegal political contributions on its behalf.

[20279012] |The Appleyard Agency, for example, allegedly made contributions from 1982 to 1984 to various funds for political candidates, then submitted bills to Gulf Power.
[20279013] |The contributions were funded by monthly payments of $1,000 to $2,000 to Appleyard in the guise of a "special production fee" -- in effect, hiding the nature of the payments from the Internal Revenue Service, federal prosecutors said.

[20279014] |The government also indicated that former Gulf Power senior vice president Jacob F. "Jake" Horton was the mastermind behind the use of the ad agencies -- Appleyard, Dick Leonard Group II Inc. and Hemmer & Yates Corp. -- to make payments to various political candidates from 1981 to 1988.
[20279015] |Mr. Horton, who oversaw Gulf Power's governmental-affairs efforts, died mysteriously in a plane crash in April after learning he might be fired following the uncovering of irregularities in a company audit.

[20279016] |Government officials declined to say whether the investigation includes the ad agencies or the politicians involved.

[20279017] |In New York Stock Exchange trading, Southern Co. rose 50 cents a share to $27.125.

[20280001] |`Frequent Drinker' Offer Stirs Up Spirited Debate

[20280002] |TO GRAB a bigger piece of the declining scotch market, Seagram Co. has launched a controversial "frequent drinker" promotion for its Chivas Regal brand.

[20280003] |Under the program, dubbed Chivas Class, customers who send in two labels from Chivas bottles will receive an upgrade in seating class on some Trans World Airlines flights.
[20280004] |Repeat customers also can purchase luxury items at reduced prices.

[20280005] |But at a time of mounting concern over alcohol abuse, some liquor marketers consider Seagram's frequent buyer promotion risky.
[20280006] |"I'm surprised they're doing this," says Penn Kavanagh, president of Schieffelin & Somerset Co., which markets Johnnie Walker scotches.
[20280007] |"I would be very leery of anything that says if you drink more, you get more."

[20280008] |Others question the impact on Chivas's upscale image of a promotion that has customers soaking off labels.
[20280009] |"It's really bizarre," says Albert Lerman, creative director at the Wells Rich Greene ad agency.
[20280010] |"Chivas has an image of something you would savor, rather than guzzle."

[20280011] |Chivas Class isn't the first such promotion.
[20280012] |Last year, J&B Scotch offered 500 TWA frequent flier miles in exchange for a label.
[20280013] |And Dewar's gave discounts on Scottish merchandise to people who sent in bottle labels.

[20280014] |But the scope of Seagram's Chivas promotion sets it apart.
[20280015] |The current campaign is just the first leg of an aggressive three-to-five-year direct marketing plan.

[20280016] |Seagram says the promotion is designed to build brand loyalty rather than promote heavy drinking.
[20280017] |Seagram asks customers to buy only two or three bottles over a 12-month period, says Richard Shaw, vice president of U.S. direct marketing.
[20280018] |"We're not asking them to save up 50 proof-of-purchases.
[20280019] |We're not saying drink more, we're saying trade up."

[20280020] |Goya Concocts a Milk For Hispanic Tastes

[20280021] |MOST FOOD companies these days are trimming the fat and cholesterol content of their products to appeal to health-conscious consumers.
[20280022] |But Goya Foods Inc. believes it can milk some sales by bucking the trend.

[20280023] |The Secaucus, N.J., company has formed a joint venture with a distributor called La Lecheria to market a higher-fat milk targeted at Hispanic consumers.
[20280024] |To give Leche Fresca the creamier taste Goya says Hispanics prefer, the new brand has a butterfat content of 3.8%.
[20280025] |That compares with 3.5% butterfat for whole milk.

[20280026] |A spokesman for Borden Inc., the nation's largest milk producer, concedes Goya may be on to something.
[20280027] |Borden sells considerably more whole milk than reduced-fat milks in southern and Hispanic markets, he says.
[20280028] |Borden even tested a milk with 4% butterfat in the South, but decided the market was too small.

[20280029] |Goya is selling Leche Fresca in nearly 500 grocery stores and bodegas in New York and parts of New Jersey.
[20280030] |And it's adding 15 to 20 new outlets a day, says Greg Ricca, sales director at La Lecheria.
[20280031] |Because of Leche Fresca's success, he says, the joint venture is developing other dairy products tailored to Hispanic tastes.

[20280032] |Jewelry Makers Copy Cosmetics Sales Ploys

[20280033] |FOR YEARS, costume jewelry makers fought a losing battle.
[20280034] |Jewelry displays in department stores were often cluttered and uninspired.
[20280035] |And the merchandise was, well, fake.

[20280036] |As a result, marketers of faux gems steadily lost space in department stores to more fashionable rivals -- cosmetics makers.

[20280037] |But lately, retailers say, fake has become more fashionable.
[20280038] |And jewelry makers are beginning to use many of the same marketing tricks honed in the aggressive world of cosmetics.

[20280039] |Last year, the total women's fashion jewelry business topped $4.9 billion, says Karen Alberg, editor of Accessories magazine.
[20280040] |And it's growing fast, with annual sales gains of more than 10%.

[20280041] |To increase their share of that business, jewelry makers such as Crystal Brands Inc.'s Trifari and Monet units and Swank Inc., maker of Anne Klein jewelry, are launching new lines with as much fanfare as the fragrance companies.
[20280042] |They're hiring models to stroll the aisles sporting their jewels, and they're even beginning to borrow a perennial favorite of the beauty business -- offering a gift when consumers make a purchase.

[20280043] |"We've started trying just about anything to keep sales moving in the stores," says Kim Renk, a Swank vice president.
[20280044] |But there are limits.
[20280045] |Ms. Renk says retailers nixed a promotion for pins with animal motifs.
[20280046] |Her idea: bring in live zoo animals.

[20280047] |Trifari, whose national ads earlier this year included paper cutouts of its costume finery, takes a tamer approach.
[20280048] |The company focuses on the how-to aspects, says Andrew E. Philip, president.
[20280049] |Trifari now trains sales help to advise customers on the best earring styles.

[20280050] |But cosmetics firms still have one big marketing edge: They motivate sales people with commissions.
[20280051] |Jewelry makers rarely pay commissions and aren't expected to anytime soon.

[20280052] |Odds and Ends

[20280053] |DESPITE GROWING interest in the environment, U.S. consumers haven't shown much interest in refillable packages for household products.
[20280054] |Procter & Gamble Co. recently introduced refillable versions of four products, including Tide and Mr. Clean, in Canada, but doesn't plan to bring them to the U.S.
[20280055] |Marketers believe most Americans won't make the convenience trade-off. . . .
[20280056] |Braumeisters Ltd. tests a beer brewed with oat bran, rather than rice or corn.
[20280057] |Called Otto's Original Oat Bran Beer, the brew costs about $12.75 a case.
[20280058] |No cholesterol, of course.

[20281001] |Northwest Airlines settled the remaining lawsuits filed on behalf of 156 people killed in a 1987 crash, but claims against the jetliner's maker are being pursued, a federal judge said.

[20281002] |Northwest, a unit of NWA Inc., and McDonnell Douglas Corp., which made the MD-80 aircraft, also are pursuing counterclaims against each other in the crash near Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

[20281003] |Terms of the settlements for the remaining 145 lawsuits against Northwest weren't disclosed.
[20281004] |A total of 157 lawsuits were filed on behalf of crash victims.

[20281005] |U.S. District Judge Julian A. Cook Jr. announced the settlements as the jury trial was to begin yesterday.
[20281006] |He reset opening arguments for today.

[20281007] |The jury will resolve the claims against McDonnell Douglas, Northwest's claim that a defect in the aircraft caused the crash, and McDonnell Douglas' claim that the plane was improperly flown.

[20281008] |The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that pilots failed to set the plane's wing flaps and slats properly for takeoff and failed to make mandatory preflight checks that would have detected the error.
[20281009] |Also, a cockpit warning system failed to alert the pilots the flaps and slats were not set for takeoff, the NTSB said.

[20281010] |The only passenger who survived the crash was Cecelia Cichan, then 4, of Tempe, Ariz., whose parents and brother died in the crash.
[20281011] |She now lives with relatives in Alabama.

[20282001] |Sun Myung Moon, the Korean evangelist-industrialist who in 1954 founded the Unification Church, remains the mystery man behind a multimillion-dollar political and publishing operation based in this country and catering to the American right.
[20282002] |But there may be less there than meets the eye.

[20282003] |Mr. Moon planned to convert millions of Americans to his unique brand of Christianity -- in which he plays the role of Old Testament-style temporal, political messiah -- and then to make the U.S. part of a unified international theocracy.
[20282004] |His original strategy (in itself a brilliant innovation for spreading a religion) was to create new economic enterprises each time he wanted to extend and fund his various religious missions.
[20282005] |Tax-exempt airport and street-corner solicitations were intended only to provide start-up funds.
[20282006] |More stable industries were to build an economically viable infrastructure for the Moon movement in North America, as they had in Japan and South Korea.
[20282007] |Then he would move his movement to Europe.

[20282008] |But that was not to be.

[20282009] |Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s spokesmen for both the Unification Church and its opponents in the anticult movement gave wildly exaggerated membership figures.
[20282010] |Their legacy lives on.
[20282011] |It is still common to read in the press that the church has 10,000 or more full-time American members and 25,000 "associates."
[20282012] |Some estimates have gone as high as 80,000 members.

[20282013] |But internal church documents clearly show that at its publicity-seeking heights, as when it organized a spectacular Yankee Stadium bicentennial rally in 1976, there actually were only about 2,000 full-time Unification Church members in the U.S.
[20282014] |Mr. Moon's support for a Watergate-beleaguered Richard Nixon, the Koreagate scandal, and his prison sentence for income-tax evasion did not help the church's recruitment efforts.
[20282015] |Defections, burnouts, and abduction "deprogrammings" kept member turnover high.
[20282016] |That the membership number has even kept close to its 1976 size is the result of the "graying" of the church.
[20282017] |Many of the enthusiastic young "Moonies" of the Nixon era who remained faithful to Father Moon are now parents, producing new members by procreation rather than conversion.

[20282018] |The reputed wealth of the Unification Church is another matter of contention.
[20282019] |For a while in the 1970s it seemed Mr. Moon was on a spending spree, with such purchases as the former New Yorker Hotel and its adjacent Manhattan Center; a fishing/processing conglomerate with branches in Alaska, Massachusetts, Virginia and Louisiana; a former Christian Brothers monastery and the Seagram family mansion (both picturesquely situated on the Hudson River); shares in banks from Washington to Uruguay; a motion picture production company, and newspapers, such as the Washington Times, the New York City Tribune (originally the News World), and the successful Spanish-language Noticias del Mundo.

[20282020] |Yet these purchases can be misleading.
[20282021] |Most were obtained with huge inputs of church money from South Korea and Japan, minimum cash downpayments and sizable mortgages.
[20282022] |Those teams of young fund-raisers selling flowers, peanuts or begging outright at traffic intersections brought in somewhere near $20 million a year during the mid-to-late 1970s, but those revenues were a pittance compared to the costs of Mr. Moon's lavish international conferences, speaking tours, and assorted land buys.
[20282023] |Only his factories in Japan and Korea, employing his followers at subsistence wages and producing everything from rifles to ginseng to expensive marble vases, kept the money flowing westward.

[20282024] |Virginia Commonwealth University sociologist David Bromley, who more than any other researcher has delved into the complex world of Unificationist finances, has concluded that profitable operations in the U.S. have been the exceptions rather than the rule.
[20282025] |Likewise, journalists John Burgess and Michael Isikoff of the Washington Post have estimated that at least $800 million was transferred from Japan to the U.S. to deal with the church's annual operating losses in this country.

[20282026] |Mr. Moon's two English-language U.S. newspapers illustrate the scope of this financial drain.
[20282027] |Start-up costs for the Washington Times alone were close to $50 million, and the total amount lost in this journalistic black hole was estimated at $150 million by 1984.
[20282028] |Since then, Moon's organization has inaugurated a pair of high-quality glossy opinion magazines, The World and I and Insight, which are a further drain.
[20282029] |Insiders say that not even their editors know for sure how much these show-piece publications, along with the newspapers, have cost Mr. Moon.

[20282030] |Many American church-owned businesses, such as a $30 million factory to build fishing vessels, are defunct.
[20282031] |Some components of the American church had their budgets cut in half last year and again this year.
[20282032] |The relatively small academic conferences that have attracted conservative guests -- and press scrutiny -- in recent years are much more narrowly targeted and austere than the thousand-person get-togethers in fancy digs and exotic locales of years past.
[20282033] |I attended several of these in the dual role as a presenter of research findings as well as an investigator of my hosts.
[20282034] |(Mr. Moon's Paragon House eventually even published three of my co-edited books on religion and politics.)

[20282035] |According to veteran watchers of Unificationist affairs, such as Dr. J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion, almost all operations are being drastically reduced as Mr. Moon now concentrates more on developing his empire in the Far East.
[20282036] |"Everything," one non-"Moonie" senior consultant to the Unification Church recently told me in an interview, "is going back to Korea and Japan."
[20282037] |(Europe had proved even less hospitable than North America.
[20282038] |European politicians were less reluctant to have their governments investigate and harass new religions.)

[20282039] |So Mr. Moon is in retreat, refocusing on the Far East.
[20282040] |South Korea and Japan continue to be profitable.
[20282041] |Moon's Tong'Il industry conglomerate is now investing heavily in China, where church accountants have high hopes of expanding and attracting converts even in the wake of the bloody massacre in Tiananmen Square.
[20282042] |Panda Motors is one such investment.

[20282043] |According to senior consultants to the church, Mr. Moon has successfully negotiated a joint venture with the Chinese government to build an automobile-parts plant in Guangdong Province, an area of China with a substantial Korean minority.
[20282044] |Mr. Moon has agreed to put up $10 million a year for 25 years and keep the profits in China.
[20282045] |In return, he has the government's blessing to build churches and spread Unificationism in that country.

[20282046] |Whatever respectability and ties to intellectuals and opinion-makers the publications and conferences bring really are salvage -- not the Rev. Moon's original final goals, but the ones for which he will have to settle.

[20282047] |Mr. Shupe is co-author (with David G. Bromley) of "`Moonies' in America: Cult, Church, and Crusade" and "Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare.

[20283001] |The Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust said it is considering several ways to ease a liquidity crunch that could include the sale of Manville Corp. to a third party.

[20283002] |In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the majority holder of Manville acknowledged that the cash portion of its initial funding of $765 million will be depleted next year, and that alternative sources of funds will be necessary to meet its obligations.
[20283003] |The trust, which was created as part of Manville's bankruptcy-law reorganization to compensate victims of asbestos-related diseases, ultimately expects to receive $2.5 billion from Manville, but its cash flow from investments has so far lagged behind its payments to victims.

[20283004] |Spokespersons for both the trust and the company refused to comment on whether any talks with a possible acquirer of Manville had actually taken place.
[20283005] |The trust is considering a sale of its Manville holdings, but Manville has the right of first refusal on any sales of its stock held by the trust.

[20283006] |Manville, a forest and building products concern, has offered to pay the trust $500 million for a majority of Manville's convertible preferred stock.
[20283007] |Manville and the trust are discussing the offer, but no decision has been made.

[20283008] |The filing also said the trust is considering a sale of Manville securities in the open market; an extraordinary dividend on the common stock; or a recapitalization of Manville.

[20283009] |The Soviet Union's jobless rate is soaring to 27% in some areas, Pravda said.
[20283010] |It said the situation is caused by efforts to streamline bloated factory payrolls.

[20283011] |Unemployment has reached 27.6% in Azerbaijan, 25.7% in Tadzhikistan, 22.8% in Uzbekistan, 18.8% in Turkmenia, 18% in Armenia and 16.3% in Kirgizia, the Communist Party newspaper said.
[20283012] |All are non-Russian republics along the southern border of the Soviet Union, and all but Kirgizia have reported rioting in the past six months.

[20283013] |The newspaper said it is past time for the Soviet Union to create unemployment insurance and retraining programs like those of the West.

[20283014] |Pravda gave no estimate for overall unemployment but said an "Association of the Unemployed" has cropped up that says the number of jobless is 23 million Soviets, or 17% of the work force.

[20283015] |An 11-week dispute involving Australia's 1,640 domestic pilots has slashed airline earnings and crippled much of the continent's tourist industry.
[20283016] |"The only people who are flying are those who have to," said Frank Moore, chairman of the Australian Tourist Industry Association.
[20283017] |He added: "How is a travel agent going to sell a holiday when he cannot guarantee a return flight?"
[20283018] |Transport giant TNT, which owns half of one of the country's two major domestic carriers, said the cost of the dispute had been heavy, cutting TNT's profits 70% to $12 million in the three months to Sept. 30.

[20283019] |Brazilian financier Naji Nahas, who was arrested on Monday after 102 days in hiding, is likely to be interrogated next week by the Brazilian judiciary.
[20283020] |Mr. Nahas, who single-handedly provoked a one-day closure of Brazil's stock markets in June when he failed to honor a debt of $31.1 million owed to his brokers, yesterday blamed his predicament on the president of the Sao Paulo stock exchange; a few days before Mr. Nahas's failure, the exchange raised the required margin on stock-margin transactions.

[20283021] |China's parliament ousted two Hong Kong residents from a panel drafting a new constitution for the colony.
[20283022] |The two, Szeto Wah and Martin Lee, were deemed unfit because they had condemned China's crackdown on its pro-democracy movement.
[20283023] |The committee is formulating Hong Kong's constitution for when it reverts to Chinese control in 1997, and Chinese lawmakers said the two can only return if they "abandon their antagonistic stand against the Chinese government and their attempt to nullify the Sino-British joint declaration on Hong Kong."

[20283024] |NUCLEAR REACTOR FOR ISRAEL?

[20283025] |Israeli officials confirmed that Energy Minister Moshe Shahal and his Canadian counterpart, Jake Epp, discussed a possible Israeli purchase of a $1.1 billion Canadian nuclear reactor for producing electricity.
[20283026] |However, a Canadian Embassy official in Tel Aviv said that Canada was unlikely to sell the Candu heavy-water reactor to Israel since Israel hasn't signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
[20283027] |Israel has been accused in the past of using subterfuge to seek elements needed to develop nuclear weapons.

[20283028] |The South Korean government is signing a protocol today establishing formal diplomatic relations with Poland.
[20283029] |The two are also signing a trade agreement.
[20283030] |South Korean government officials said they don't expect that Seoul can loan money to Warsaw, but it can "offer experience."
[20283031] |Poland is the second Communist nation to recognize the Seoul government; South Korea established diplomatic relations with Hungary in February 1989.

[20283032] |Venezuela will hold a debt-equity auction Friday, with 32 potential bidders participating.

[20283033] |Earlier this year, Venezuela announced it was opening up debt-equity swaps to foreign investors but said the program would be limited to a net disbursement of $600 million a year.
[20283034] |Friday's auction will be limited to $150 million disbursed by the Central Bank to potential investors.

[20283035] |The office of foreign investment has authorized some $1.78 billion worth of investment proposals, said Edwin Perozo, superintendent of foreign investment.
[20283036] |Most of the proposals are in tourism, basic industry and fishery and agro-industry projects, he said.

[20283037] |Under the debt-equity program, potential investors will submit sealed bids on the percentage of discount they are willing to purchase the debt at, and the bids will be allocated based on these discount offers.
[20283038] |The Venezuelan central bank set a 30% floor on the bidding.

[20283039] |A song by American singer Tracy Chapman praising jailed black leader Nelson Mandela was banned from South African state radio and television.
[20283040] |The South African Broadcasting Corp. said the song "Freedom Now" was "undesirable for broadcasting." . . .
[20283041] |Britain's House of Commons passed a law that will force English soccer fans to carry identity cards to enter stadiums.
[20283042] |The "anti-hooligan" law, which would deprive troublemakers of cards, must be ratified by the House of Lords and is expected to become effective early next year.

[20284001] |A federal judge ruled that Imelda Marcos wasn't brought to the U.S. against her will and that marital privileges, which protect spouses from incriminating each other, don't apply in her case.

[20284002] |As a result, Judge John F. Keenan of New York ordered Mrs. Marcos to turn over to the court all pleadings and documents she may have filed in foreign countries in opposition to U.S. requests for evidence.
[20284003] |Mrs. Marcos had claimed that she didn't have to turn over the documents because she was brought here involuntarily and because providing the materials would violate her marital privilege.

[20284004] |In 1988, a year and a half after Mrs. Marcos and her late husband, Ferdinand Marcos, the ousted president of the Philippines, fled the Philippines for Hawaii, they were charged with racketeering, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and mail fraud in a scheme in which they allegedly embezzled more than $100 million from their homeland.
[20284005] |Much of the money was fraudulently concealed through purchases of prime Manhattan real estate, federal prosecutors have charged.
[20284006] |Mrs. Marcos's trial is expected to begin in March.

[20284007] |U.S. law requires criminal defendants to turn over foreign documents such as those sought in the Marcos case.
[20284008] |The law is meant to overcome delays caused by defendants' use of foreign procedures to block U.S. requests for records, Judge Keenan said in his opinion.
[20284009] |For instance, the documents could involve foreign business dealings or bank accounts.
[20284010] |The U.S. has charged that the Marcoses' alleged crimes involved bank accounts in the Philippines, Hong Kong, the U.S. and other countries.

[20284011] |On the allegation of kidnapping, Judge Keenan wrote, "The suggestion that Mrs. Marcos was brought to this country against her will is unsupported by affidavit or affirmation."

[20284012] |The judge also said the two marital testimonial privileges cited by Mrs. Marcos don't apply.
[20284013] |The first one permits a witness to refuse to testify against her spouse.
[20284014] |But Judge Keenan said that privilege's purpose is "fostering harmony in marriage."
[20284015] |Because Mr. Marcos died Sept. 28, the privilege can no longer apply, the judge said.

[20284016] |The second marital privilege cited by Mrs. Marcos protects confidential communications between spouses.
[20284017] |But Judge Keenan said that privilege is meant to protect private utterances -- not litigation papers filed with foreign governments, as Mrs. Marcos's attorneys maintained.

[20284018] |Though Judge Keenan threw out most of Mrs. Marcos's objections, he agreed with one of her concerns: that turning over the foreign documents could violate the defendant's constitutional right against self-incrimination.
[20284019] |As a result, he said he will examine the Marcos documents sought by the prosecutors to determine whether turning over the filings is self-incrimination.
[20284020] |Judge Keenan also directed the prosecutors to show that Mrs. Marcos's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination won't be violated.

[20284021] |Mrs. Marcos's attorney in New York, Sandor Frankel, declined to comment on the ruling.
[20284022] |Mrs. Marcos hasn't admitted that she filed any documents such as those sought by the government.
[20284023] |Charles LaBella, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the Marcos case, didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

[20284024] |U.S. AND BRITISH LAW FIRMS announce rare joint venture in Tokyo.

[20284025] |Sidley & Austin, a leading Chicago-based law firm, and Ashurst Morris Crisp, a midsized London firm of solicitors, are scheduled today to announce plans to open a joint office in Tokyo.

[20284026] |The firms will be registered under Japanese law as foreign legal consultants and their practice with Japanese clients will be limited to advising them on matters of foreign law.
[20284027] |The office may also be able to advise foreign and multinational clients on international law and general matters.

[20284028] |The office will provide "one-stop shopping" for Japanese financial institutions and other clients seeking advice on access to the world capital markets, according to A. Bruce Schimberg, Sidley's senior banking specialist, who will move to Tokyo from Chicago to open the office next year.

[20284029] |The Sidley-Ashurst venture will also be staffed by another Sidley partner specializing in corporate law, a partner from Ashurst concentrating on acquisitions and a Japanese attorney.
[20284030] |The office will tap the resources of Sidley's 700 lawyers in the U.S., London and Singapore as well as the 400 Ashurst staff members in London and Brussels.

[20284031] |Ashurst is new to the Far East.
[20284032] |Sidley will maintain its association with the Hashidate Law Office in Tokyo.

[20284033] |THE UNITED AUTO WORKERS said it will seek a rehearing of a U.S. appellate court ruling against the union's claim that the state of Michigan engages in wage-discrimination against female employees.
[20284034] |A three-judge panel of the court in Cincinnati made the ruling Saturday.
[20284035] |The UAW is seeking a hearing by the full 14-judge panel.
[20284036] |The union sued the state in November 1985, alleging that it intentionally segregated job classifications by sex and paid employees in predominantly female jobs less than males in comparable jobs.
[20284037] |The UAW also charged that the state applied its own standards for determining pay in a discriminatory manner.
[20284038] |In November 1987, a district court judge in Detroit ruled against the UAW.
[20284039] |The union is the bargaining representative for more than 20,000 Michigan state employees.

[20284040] |NEW JERSEY MERGER:
[20284041] |One of the largest law firms in central New Jersey has been created through the merger of Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus, a 41-lawyer firm, and Manger, Kalison, McBride & Webb, a health-care specialty law firm with 14 lawyers.
[20284042] |Norris McLaughlin is a general-practice firm that has expanded recently into such specialties as banking, labor and environmental work.
[20284043] |The merged firm will carry Norris McLaughlin's name.

[20284044] |DRUG WARS:
[20284045] |A Texas legislator proposes color-coding drivers' licenses of some drug offenders.
[20284046] |The bill would authorize courts to order the licenses as a condition of probation.
[20284047] |State Senator J.E. "Buster" Brown, a Republican who is running for Texas attorney general, introduced the bill.
[20284048] |He said an altered license would be an "embarrassment" to teenagers and young adults and would act as a deterrant to drug use.
[20284049] |Richard Avena, executive director of the Texas Civil Liberties Union, called the proposal "political gimmickry," and said it fails to recognize the drug problem as a health issue.

[20285001] |The amendment, offered by Rep. Douglas Bosco (D., Calif.), was approved 283-132 during debate on a bill designed to strengthen the Transportation Department's authority in dealing with leveraged buy-outs of airlines.

[20285002] |The bill would require the agency to block the acquisition of 15% or more of an airline's stock if the purchase threatened safety, reduced the carrier's ability to compete, or put the airline under foreign control.
[20285003] |Debate on the legislation, which faces a veto threat from President Bush, is to continue today.

[20285004] |The amendment would require the department to block the purchase of a major airline by anyone who has run two or more carriers that have filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.

[20285005] |In 1983, Texas Air's Continental Airlines filed for bankruptcy.
[20285006] |Earlier this year, Texas Air's Eastern Airlines filed for bankruptcy.

[20285007] |"This ought to be subtitled the `Don't let Frank Lorenzo take over another airline' amendment," said Rep. James Oberstar (D., Minn.), chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, who argued that the provision was unnecessary because the bill already would give the department ample power to block undesirable deals.

[20286001] |For years, a strict regimen governed the staff meetings at Nissan Motor Co.'s technical center in Tokyo's western suburbs.

[20286002] |Employees wore identification badges listing not only their names but also their dates of hire.
[20286003] |No one could voice an opinion until everybody with more seniority had spoken first, so younger employees -- often the most enthusiastic and innovative -- seldom spoke up at all.

[20286004] |But in 1986, the badges and the "don't speak out of turn" rule were abolished -- early steps in a cultural revolution still rolling on with all the subtlety of a freight train.
[20286005] |In recent years, Nissan has instituted flex-time work schedules and allowed employees to dress casually, even in blue jeans.
[20286006] |A rule forbidding staffers to own competitors' cars has been lifted, and now many designers drive foreign cars to get useful ideas.
[20286007] |Nissan's decades-old corporate song filled with references to Mount Fuji has been scrapped in favor of a snappy tune sung by a popular Japanese vocalist.

[20286008] |And in a Japanese corporate first, Nissan recently opened the first coed company dormitory for single employees at the suburban Tokyo technical center.
[20286009] |"We had lots of internal debate about this one," concedes Tadahiko Fukuyama, a senior public-relations official.
[20286010] |"But in the end, top management decided to follow the voice of the younger generation."

[20286011] |This corporate glasnost is a big reason Nissan, after years of making lackluster cars and lousy profits, has loosened up its rigid ways and now is riding a string of hits, ranging from the sleek Maxima sedan and Porsche-like 300ZX to the whimsically nostalgic Pao, a minicar sold only in Japan.
[20286012] |The company's turnaround is far from complete; many crucial tests are just beginning.
[20286013] |But its surprising progress so far holds important lessons for companies in trouble.

[20286014] |The big one: A company's culture can't be radically changed unless top management first admits that things have gone badly awry and then publicly leads the charge.
[20286015] |Atsushi Muramatsu, Nissan's executive vice president for finance, helped set the tone in December 1986, when the company was heading toward the first operating loss by a Japanese auto maker since the nation's postwar recovery.
[20286016] |"This is a time of self-criticism to discover what is wrong with us," he said.
[20286017] |Yutaka Kume, who took the helm as Nissan's president in June 1985, added simply, "I am deeply disappointed."

[20286018] |No wonder.
[20286019] |Nissan, Japan's second-largest auto maker and the world's fourth-largest, was getting beat up not only by its bigger rival, Toyota Motor Corp., but also by Honda Motor Co., the most successful Japanese car company in the U.S. but a relative pipsqueak in Japan.

[20286020] |Nissan's market share in Japan had been dropping year by year since the beginning of the decade.
[20286021] |Its U.S. sales sagged, partly because of price increases due to the rising yen.
[20286022] |Worst of all, Nissan was preoccupied with management infighting, cronyism and corporate rigidity.

[20286023] |Consider the experience of Satoko Kitada, a 30-year-old designer of vehicle interiors who joined Nissan in 1982.
[20286024] |At that time, tasks were assigned strictly on the basis of seniority.
[20286025] |"The oldest designer got to work on the dashboard," she recalls.
[20286026] |"The next level down did doors.
[20286027] |If a new person got to work on part of the speedometer, that was a big deal."

[20286028] |This system produced boring, boxy cars that consumers just weren't buying.
[20286029] |Desperately hoping to spark sales, Nissan transferred 5,000 middle managers and plant workers to dealerships.
[20286030] |Meanwhile, President Kume ordered everyone from top executives to rookie designers to go "town watching," to visit chic parts of Tokyo to try to gain insights into developing cars for trend-setters.

[20286031] |Some town-watching excursions were downright comic.
[20286032] |One group of middle-aged manufacturing men from the company's Zama plant outside Tokyo was supposed to check out a trendy restaurant in the city.
[20286033] |But when they arrived at the door, all were afraid to go in, fearing that they would be out of place.

[20286034] |Other trips were more productive.
[20286035] |Mr. Kume himself visited Honda's headquarters in Tokyo's upscale Aoyama district.
[20286036] |He liked the well-lighted lobby display of Honda's cars and trucks so much that he had Nissan's gloomy lobby exhibit refurbished.
[20286037] |Later, Nissan borrowed other Honda practices, including an engineering "idea contest" to promote inventiveness.
[20286038] |One engineer developed a "crab car" that moves sideways.

[20286039] |Such sudden cultural shifts may come across as a bit forced, but they seem to be genuine -- so much so, in fact, that some older employees have resisted.
[20286040] |Nissan handled the die-hards in a typically Japanese fashion: They weren't fired but instead "were neglected," says Kouji Hori, the personnel manager at the Nissan Technical Center.

[20286041] |Despite the pain of adjusting, the cultural revolution has begun to yield exciting cars.
[20286042] |A year ago, the company completely revamped its near-luxury sedan, the $17,699 Maxima, which competes against a broad range of upscale sedans; it replaced its boxy, pug-nosed body with sleek, aerodynamic lines.
[20286043] |Since then, Nissan also has launched new versions of the $13,249 240SX sporty coupe and 300ZX sports car.
[20286044] |The restyled 300ZX costs as much as $33,000 and is squared off against the Porche 944, which begins at $41,900.
[20286045] |Besides new styling, the new Nissans have more powerful engines and more sophisticated suspension systems.
[20286046] |All three new models are outselling their predecessors by wide margins.

[20286047] |In its home market, Nissan has grabbed attention with limited-production minicars featuring styling odd enough to be cute.
[20286048] |One is the Pao, a tiny coupe with a peelback canvas top and tilted headlights that give it a droopy-eyed look.
[20286049] |Nissan initially planned to sell just 10,000 Paos, but sales have passed 50,000, and there's a one-year waiting list for the car.
[20286050] |Then, there's the S-Cargo, an offbeat delivery van with a snail-like body that inspired its name.
[20286051] |Nissan helped develop a Tokyo restaurant with both vehicles as its design theme.
[20286052] |The chairs are S-Cargo seats, and a gift shop sells such items as alarm clocks styled like the Pao's oversized speedometer.

[20286053] |All these vehicles have sharply improved Nissan's morale and image -- but haven't done much for its market share.
[20286054] |Nissan had 29% of the Japanese car market in 1980 before beginning a depressing eight-year slide that continued through last year.
[20286055] |Strong sales so far this year are certain to turn the tide, but even the 25% market share that Nissan expects in 1989 will leave it far below its position at the beginning of the decade.

[20286056] |Nissan concedes that it won't recoup all its market-share losses in Japan until at least 1995, and even that timetable might prove optimistic.
[20286057] |"Everyone else is going to catch up" with Nissan's innovative designs, says A. Rama Krishna, auto analyst at First Boston (Japan) Ltd.
[20286058] |Nissan's pace of new-model hits will slow, he adds, just as arch-rival Toyota unleashes its own batch of new cars.

[20286059] |Likewise, in the U.S., Nissan has grabbed 5.2% of the car market so far this year, up from 4.5% a year ago.
[20286060] |But even that brings Nissan only to the share it had in 1987, and leaves the company behind its high of 5.5% in 1980 and 1982.

[20286061] |Why?
[20286062] |So far, Nissan's new-model successes are mostly specialized vehicles with limited sales potential.
[20286063] |In compact and subcompact cars, the bread-and-butter sales generators for Japanese auto makers, Nissan still trails Toyota and Honda.

[20286064] |Nissan hopes that that will start to change this fall, with its new version of the Stanza compact sedan.
[20286065] |The Stanza has been a nonentity compared with Honda's hugely successful Accord and Toyota's Camry.
[20286066] |But this year, Honda has revamped the Accord and made it a midsized car.
[20286067] |Nissan instead has kept its new Stanza a bit smaller than that and cut the base price 6%; at $11,450, Stanza prices start $749 below the predecessor model yet have a more-powerful engine.
[20286068] |Accord prices start at $12,345.

[20286069] |Nissan's risk is that its low-base-price strategy might get lost amid the highly publicized rebates being offered by Detroit's Big Three.
[20286070] |But "on a new car, a rebate doesn't work well" because it cheapens the vehicle's image, contends Thomas D. Mignanelli, executive vice president of Nissan's U.S. sales arm.

[20286071] |Even if the new Stanza succeeds, Nissan will remain behind in the subcompact segment, where its Sentra doesn't measure up to the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.
[20286072] |Nissan will introduce a completely revamped Sentra next fall.

[20286073] |At the opposite end of the market, Nissan launches its luxury Infiniti division on Nov. 8 -- three years after Honda pioneered Japanese luxury cars and two months after Toyota's Lexus went on sale.
[20286074] |Nissan started advertising Infiniti fully eight months before the cars hit American showrooms.
[20286075] |The ads featured fences, rocks and pussy-willow buds -- almost anything but the cars themselves.
[20286076] |The ads have generated some laughs but also plenty of attention because they are so unlike any other U.S. auto advertising.

[20286077] |On the other hand, Nissan's sales goals for Infiniti are modest compared with Toyota's targets for Lexus.
[20286078] |Nissan will build only about 3,500 of the $38,000 Infiniti Q45 sedans each month, sending about 2,000 of them to the U.S. and keeping the rest for sale in Japan.
[20286079] |Toyota wants to sell about 49,000 Lexus LS400 sedans next year in the U.S. alone.

[20286080] |"When I saw the Lexus sales projections, I got worried," confesses Takashi Oka, who led the Infiniti development team.
[20286081] |But on reflection, Mr. Oka says, he concluded that Nissan is being prudent in following its slow-startup strategy instead of simply copying Lexus.
[20286082] |"Infiniti is Nissan's big business move for the 21st century, and we're in no hurry to generate large profits right away," Mr. Oka says.
[20286083] |Despite plans to add two new Infiniti models next year, bringing the total to four, Infiniti won't show profits for at least five years, he adds.

[20286084] |These days Nissan can afford that strategy, even though profits aren't exactly robust.
[20286085] |Nissan had record net income of 114.63 billion yen ($868 million) in the fiscal year ended last March 31, a remarkable recovery from the 20.39 billion yen of two years earlier, when the company lost money on operations.
[20286086] |Nissan has increased earnings more than market share by cutting costs and by taking advantage of a general surge in Japanese car sales.

[20286087] |But Nissan expects to earn only 120 billion yen in the current fiscal year, a modest increase of 4.7%.
[20286088] |The big reason: For all its cost-cutting, Nissan remains less efficient than Toyota.
[20286089] |In its last fiscal year, Nissan's profit represented just 2.3% of sales, compared with 4.3% at Toyota.
[20286090] |To help close the gap, Nissan recently established a top-level cost-cutting committee.

[20286091] |Nissan is the world's only auto maker currently building vehicles in all three of the world's key economic arenas -- the U.S., Japan and Europe.
[20286092] |That gives it an enviable strategic advantage, at least until its rivals catch up, but also plenty of managerial headaches.

[20286093] |For example, Nissan's U.S. operations include 10 separate subsidiaries -- for manufacturing, sales, design, research, etc. -- that report separately back to Japan.
[20286094] |And in July, Nissan's Tennessee manufacturing plant beat back a United Auto Workers organizing effort with aggressive tactics that have left some workers bitter.

[20286095] |"We are in a transitional phase from being a Japanese company to becoming an international company based in Japan," says Mr. Muramatsu, the executive vice president.
[20286096] |He promises that Nissan will soon establish a holding company overseeing all U.S. operations, just as it's doing in Europe.

[20286097] |Perhaps the biggest challenge, however, will be to prevent a return to its former corporate rigidity as its recovery continues.
[20286098] |Already, personnel officials are talking about the need for a "Phase Two" cultural-reform effort of some sort.
[20286099] |"We are still only half way through the turnaround of this company, and there are many more things to do," President Kume says.
[20286100] |He adds, however, that "the momentum we have generated is unstoppable.

[20287001] |As expected, Warner Bros. Records said it agreed to form a recorded-music and music-publishing joint venture with former MCA Records Chairman Irving Azoff.

[20287002] |Warner said it will provide financing for the venture, but didn't disclose terms.
[20287003] |Mr. Azoff hasn't named the company yet, but any records it produces will be distributed by Warner.

[20287004] |Warner is part of Warner Communications Inc., which is in the process of being acquired by Time Warner Inc.
[20287005] |Mr. Azoff resigned as head of MCA Records, a unit of MCA Inc., in September, and had been discussing a joint venture with both Warner and MCA.
[20287006] |In a statement yesterday, Mr. Azoff said he chose Warner, the largest record company, because "their standing in the entertainment industry is second to none.

[20288001] |President Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will hold an informal meeting in early December, a move that should give both leaders a political boost at home.

[20288002] |The White House is purposely not calling the meeting a summit so that there won't be any expectation of detailed negotiations or agreements.
[20288003] |Rather, senior administration officials said that the unexpected meeting was scheduled at Mr. Bush's request because of his preference for conducting diplomacy through highly personal and informal meetings with other leaders.

[20288004] |The two leaders will meet on Dec. 2 and 3, alternating the two days of meetings between a U.S. and a Soviet naval vessel in the Mediterranean Sea.
[20288005] |The unusual seaborne meeting won't disrupt plans for a formal summit meeting next spring or summer, at which an arms-control treaty is likely to be completed.

[20288006] |In announcing the meeting yesterday, Mr. Bush told reporters at the White House that neither he nor Mr. Gorbachev expects any "substantial decisions or agreements."
[20288007] |Instead, he said that the purpose is simply for the two to get "better acquainted" and discuss a wide range of issues without a formal agenda.

[20288008] |Despite the informal nature of the session and the calculated effort to hold down expectations, the meeting could pay significant political dividends for both leaders.
[20288009] |Mr. Gorbachev badly needs a diversion from the serious economic problems and ethnic unrest he faces at home.
[20288010] |American officials have said that a meeting with the leader of the U.S. could help bolster his stature among Soviet politicians and academics, whose support he needs.

[20288011] |For his part, Mr. Bush has been criticized regularly at home for moving too slowly and cautiously in reacting to Mr. Gorbachev's reforms and the historic moves away from communism in Eastern Europe.
[20288012] |A face-to-face meeting with Mr. Gorbachev should damp such criticism, though it will hardly eliminate it.

[20288013] |Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D., Maine), who has been the most prominent Democratic critic of Mr. Bush's handling of the Soviet relationship, praised the president for arranging the meeting.
[20288014] |But he added: "The mere fact of a meeting doesn't deal with the substance of policy."

[20288015] |Mr. Bush said that the December meeting, which was announced simultaneously in Moscow, will be held in the unusual setting of ships at sea to hold down the "fanfare" and force the two sides to limit participation to just small groups of advisers.
[20288016] |"By doing it in this manner we can have, I would say, more time without the press of social activities or mandatory joint appearances, things of that nature for public consumption," Mr. Bush said.

[20288017] |Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, at a news conference in Moscow, said, "As the two sides plan to hold a full-scale summit in late spring-early summer next year, they found it useful, I would say even necessary, to hold an interim informal meeting."
[20288018] |Although no specific agreements are expected, Mr. Shevardnadze said "that doesn't mean they will be without an agenda."

[20288019] |If the two leaders cover the subjects that have been featured in lower level U.S.-Soviet meetings, their talks would include human rights, Soviet reforms, regional disputes, relations with allies, economic cooperation, arms control, and joint efforts to fight narcotics, terrorism and pollution.

[20288020] |The president specifically mentioned U.S. economic advice to Moscow as a possible topic.
[20288021] |Mr. Gorbachev has for months been publicly urging the U.S. to drop its restrictions on Soviet trade.
[20288022] |He recently told a small group of American businessmen in Moscow that he hoped to sign a general trade agreement with the U.S., possibly at the 1990 summit.
[20288023] |The Soviets hope a trade agreement would give them Most-Favored Nation status, which would lower the tariffs on Soviet exports to the U.S.

[20288024] |In an unusually candid article about the latest economic woe -- unemployment -- Pravda yesterday reported that three million Soviets have lost their jobs as a result of perestroika and the number could grow to 16 million by the year 2005.
[20288025] |Economists in Moscow are now proposing that the state start a system of unemployment benefits.

[20288026] |But one Bush administration official knowledgeable about the summit plan cautioned against assuming that there will be bold new initiatives on the Soviet economy or other issues.

[20288027] |"Don't take this as some big opening for major movement on economic cooperation, or arms control, or the environment," he said.
[20288028] |"Those things will all come up, but in a fairly informal way."

[20288029] |Instead, this official said, "This is vintage George Bush.
[20288030] |This was George Bush's own idea.
[20288031] |It's George Bush wanting to meet a foreign leader and talk to him directly."

[20288032] |Aside from the Soviet economic plight and talks on cutting strategic and chemical arms, one other issue the Soviets are likely to want to raise is naval force reductions.
[20288033] |Western analysts say that, given the meeting's setting at sea, Gorbachev is unlikely to pass up the opportunity to press once again for negotiated cuts in the navies of both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact.

[20288034] |That theme has been a recurring one for Soviet military officials for much of this year.
[20288035] |They argue that as the Kremlin follows through on announced plans to cut land forces -- the Soviets' area of greatest strength -- the U.S. should show more willingness to cut sea forces -- Washington's area of greatest superiority.

[20288036] |One of the reasons Bush administration aides are anxious to insist that the coming meeting will be informal is to avoid comparisons with the last such loosely structured superpower gathering, former President Reagan's 1986 meeting with Mr. Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland.
[20288037] |That meeting sent shivers through the Western alliance because Mr. Reagan was pulled into discussing the possible elimination of nuclear weapons without consulting American allies.

[20288038] |Mr. Bush said that he initiated talks with the Soviets on the informal meeting by sending a proposal to Mr. Gorbachev last July, which the Soviet leader readily accepted.
[20288039] |But word of the possible session was closely held by the president and a handful of top aides, and word of it didn't reach many second-level officials until the past few days.
[20288040] |Indeed, many senior officials had been insisting for weeks that Mr. Bush wasn't interested in such an informal get-together.

[20288041] |Though President Bush's political critics at home have been urging him to open a more direct dialogue with Mr. Gorbachev, it actually was the arguments of leaders within the Soviet bloc itself that led the president to seek the December meeting.
[20288042] |Mr. Bush decided he wanted the meeting after talking in Europe in July with the leaders of Poland and Hungary, who urged him to support Mr. Gorbachev's efforts to transform the Soviet system and to urge him to loosen his grip on Eastern Europe, a senior aide said.
[20288043] |While flying home from those discussions, Mr. Bush drafted a letter to Mr. Gorbachev suggesting an informal get-together to precede their formal summit next year.

[20288044] |Peter Gumbel in Moscow contributed to this article.

[20289001] |Banca Nazionale del Lavoro said its potential losses from lending to Iraq could reach 1.175 trillion lire ($872 million), marking the bank's first quantification of potential costs of unauthorized lending by its Atlanta branch.

[20289002] |BNL previously reported that its Georgia branch had taken on loan commitments topping $3 billion without the Rome-based management's approval.
[20289003] |State-owned BNL, Italy's largest bank, has filed charges against the branch's former manager, Christopher Drogoul, and a former branch vice president, alleging fraud and breach of their fiduciary duties.

[20289004] |BNL also said that its board had approved "after an in-depth discussion," a letter to the Bank of Italy outlining measures the state-owned bank has taken or plans to take to improve controls on its foreign branches.
[20289005] |The central bank had ordered BNL to come up with a suitable program by yesterday.
[20289006] |Bank of Italy has also ordered BNL to shore up its capital base to account for potential foreign loan losses, and the Rome bank has outlined a 3 trillion lire capital-raising operation.

[20289007] |BNL was unable to elaborate on what measures were planned by the bank to improve controls on its branches abroad.

[20290001] |Hardly a day passes without news photos of the police dragging limp protesters from some building or thoroughfare in one of our cities.
[20290002] |Of recent note are the activities of the pro- and anti-abortionists, anti-nuclear activists, animal rights protesters, college students concerned about racism, anti-apartheid groups, various self-styled "environmentalists" and those dissatisfied with the pace of the war against AIDS.

[20290003] |Maybe he didn't start it, but Mohandas Gandhi certainly provided a recognizable beginning to non-violent civil disobedience as we know it today.
[20290004] |The Mahatma, or "great souled one," instigated several campaigns of passive resistance against the British government in India.
[20290005] |Unfortunately, according to Webster's Biographical Dictionary, "His policies went beyond his control and resulted . . . in riots and disturbances" and later a renewed campaign of civil disobedience "resulted in rioting and a second imprisonment."
[20290006] |I am not a proponent of everything Gandhi did, but some of his law breaking was justified because India was then under occupation by a foreign power, and Indians were not able to participate fully in decisions that vitally affected them.

[20290007] |It is difficult, however, to justify civil disobedience, non-violent or not, where citizens have full recourse to the ballot box to effect change.
[20290008] |Where truly representative governments are safeguarded by constitutional protections of human rights and an independent judiciary to construe those rights, there is no excuse for breaking the law because some individual or group disagrees with it.
[20290009] |There may be a few cases where the law breaking is well pinpointed and so completely non-invasive of the rights of others that it is difficult to criticize it.
[20290010] |The case of Rosa Parks, the black woman who refused to sit at the back of the bus, comes to mind as an illustration.
[20290011] |But most cases of non-violent civil disobedience are not nearly so benign.

[20290012] |The public has a tendency to equate lawful demonstrations with non-violent civil disobedience.
[20290013] |It is true that both are non-violent, but there is a fundamental difference between them.
[20290014] |Lawful demonstrations, such as peaceful picketing and other assemblages that do not disturb the peace or cause a public nuisance or interfere with the rights of others, are rights guaranteed by any truly free system of government.
[20290015] |Civil disobedience, violent or non-violent, is intentional law breaking.

[20290016] |The subject of this discussion is non-violent civil disobedience; but, before we get on with that, let me make just a few tangential remarks about lawful demonstrations.
[20290017] |They are useful to call public attention to grievances, but they have little value in educating anyone about the issues in dispute.
[20290018] |The delight of television in dramatic confrontation encourages overuse of slogans chanted through bullhorns, militant gestures, accusatory signs and other emotionally inspired tactics.
[20290019] |Civilized discourse and an environment where compromise can begin are lost in a hostile posture abetted by superficial media interviews.

[20290020] |At best, demonstrations are overused and boringly uninformative; at worst, they can become the stimuli that lead to law breaking.
[20290021] |Demonstrations are particularly apt to degenerate into criminal conduct when they leave the site of the grievance and become mobile.
[20290022] |Petty criminals and street people looking for excitement attach themselves like remora to the fringes of the crowd and use the protest as an excuse for rock throwing, auto trashing, arson, window breaking, looting, pocket picking and general hooliganism.
[20290023] |Soon the whole purpose of the demonstration is lost in mob mania.
[20290024] |There are better ways to promote a cause.

[20290025] |Where non-violent civil disobedience is the centerpiece, rather than a lawful demonstration that may only attract crime, it is difficult to justify.
[20290026] |Some find no harm in the misdemeanors of trespass, minor property destruction, blocking traffic and the like.
[20290027] |They say these are small prices to pay for galvanizing action for the all-important cause.
[20290028] |The crimes may appear small, but the prices can be huge.
[20290029] |Here are two cases to illustrate.

[20290030] |Assume a neighborhood demonstration to protest speeding on a certain road or a careless accident involving a police car.
[20290031] |The protesters lie down in the street, blocking traffic, and will not move until the authorities carry them away.
[20290032] |Assume that someone caught in the jam has a heart attack.
[20290033] |There is no way to get an ambulance in quickly to move him to a hospital.
[20290034] |He dies.
[20290035] |The demonstration was non-violent and involved only a simple misdemeanor, but its impact on that individual was violent and terminal.

[20290036] |Assume that a TV network is airing a celebrity interview program with a live audience.
[20290037] |The politician appearing is highly controversial and has recently generated a good deal of rancor amid certain groups.
[20290038] |In a planned protest against his appearance, several members of the studio audience chain themselves in front of the TV cameras in such a way that the program cannot continue.
[20290039] |The network must refund money to the advertisers and loses considerable revenue and prestige.
[20290040] |The demonstrators have been non-violent, but the result of their trespasses has been to seriously impair the rights of others unconnected with their dispute.

[20290041] |It might be alleged that TV has done more than its share to popularize and promote non-violent civil disobedience, so the second situation hypothesized above would be simply a case of "chickens coming home to roost."
[20290042] |Or maybe the TV network would lose nothing.
[20290043] |Geraldo or Phil would probably pull up another camera and interview the chained protesters.
[20290044] |Let us look for a moment at another type of non-violent civil disobedience that only harms other people indirectly, yet does irreparable damage to the nation as a whole.
[20290045] |I am referring to those young men who chose to disobey their country's call to arms during the Vietnam war and fled to Canada or some other sanctuary to avoid combat.
[20290046] |Their cowardly acts of civil disobedience, which they tried to hide under the cloak of outrage at a war they characterized as "immoral," weakened the national fabric and threw additional burdens on those who served honorably in that conflict.

[20290047] |Even more at fault are those leaders in and out of government who urged and supported their defections, thereby giving great help and comfort to the enemy propagandists.
[20290048] |It is amazing that the ensuing mass executions in Vietnam and Cambodia do not weight more heavily on minds so morally fine-tuned.
[20290049] |Worse, it remained to a well-meaning but naive president of the United States to administer the final infamy upon those who fought and died in Vietnam.

[20290050] |Under the guise of "healing the wounds of the nation," President Carter pardoned thousands of draft evaders, thus giving dignity to their allegations of the war's "immorality."
[20290051] |The precedent having been set, who can complain if future generations called upon to defend the U.S. yield to the temptation to avoid the danger of combat by simply declaring the war immoral and hiding until it is over?

[20290052] |Finally, I think it important to point out the extraordinarily high visibility of non-violent civil disobedience in these days of intensive media coverage.
[20290053] |Give television a chance to cover live any breaking of the law, and no second invitation will be required.
[20290054] |This brings into question the motives of those who lead civil disobedience demonstrations.
[20290055] |Do they want the spotlight for themselves or for their cause?
[20290056] |Here is a good rule of thumb: If the movement produced the leader, the chance that he is sincere is much greater than if the leader produced the movement.
[20290057] |In either case, ask yourself whether you have become better informed on the issues under protest by watching the act of civil disobedience.
[20290058] |If you have not, it is probable that a thorough airing of the dispute by calm and rational debate would have been the better course.

[20290059] |Mr. Agnew was vice president of the U.S. from 1969 until he resigned in 1973.

[20291001] |Gov. George Deukmejian and key legislators agreed to back a temporary one-quarter-cent increase in the state sales tax to raise $800 million for repairs and relief associated with last month's earthquake.

[20291002] |The tax increase, which will be considered at a special session of the state legislature that begins tomorrow, would cover only part of the estimated $4 billion to $6 billion in total damage caused by the Oct. 17 quake.
[20291003] |Aside from as much as $3.45 billion in recently approved federal aid, the state is expected to draw from a gubernatorial emergency fund that currently stands at an estimated $700 million.

[20291004] |"I am not aware that there is anything but bipartisan agreement for the general outline" of the revenue-raising plan, said a spokesman for the governor, after a Monday meeting with legislative leaders over the quake-relief question.

[20291005] |The tax increase -- on top of the current six-cent per dollar sales tax -- would become effective this Dec. 1 and expire Dec. 31, 1990.
[20291006] |The sales-tax plan was preferred over an alternative that would have boosted the state gasoline tax.
[20291007] |Some legislators expressed concern that a gas-tax increase would take too long and possibly damage chances of a major gas-tax-increasing ballot initiative that voters will consider next June.

[20292001] |Despite continuing problems in its newsprint business, Kimberly-Clark Corp. posted a 20% gain in third-quarter net income.

[20292002] |The consumer-products and newsprint company said net rose to $108.8 million, or $1.35 a share, from $90.5 million, or $1.12 a share, a year ago.
[20292003] |Sales rose 6.2% to $1.45 billion from $1.37 billion.

[20292004] |After a flat second quarter tied largely to lower newsprint earnings, Kimberly-Clark attributed the gain to improved results in its consumer businesses in North America, Brazil and Korea.
[20292005] |Those gains came from higher prices, particularly for disposable diapers and tissue products, and from increased sales, primarily for feminine-care products, the company said.
[20292006] |Newsprint results continued to be depressed, the company added, because of industrywide price discounting.

[20292007] |The quarter-to-quarter comparison was also enhanced by charges taken in the year-earlier period, including $11 million related to the modernization of a pulp and newsprint mill in Alabama.
[20292008] |In the 1989 period also, interest expense and tax rates were lower than a year ago.

[20292009] |In the first nine months, profit rose 10% to $313.2 million, or $3.89 a share, from $283.9 million, or $3.53 a share.
[20292010] |Sales rose 6.7% to $4.27 billion from $4 billion.

[20292011] |In New York Stock Exchange composite trading, Kimberly-Clark closed at $66.50 a share, up $1.50.

[20293001] |INTENSIVE AUDITS are coming to 55,500 taxpayers as research guinea pigs.

[20293002] |This is the year: Unsuspecting filers of 1988 personal returns are being picked randomly for thorough audits to help the IRS update its criteria for enforcement, audit selection, and use of resources.
[20293003] |The last Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program survey covered 1985 returns.
[20293004] |The 1988-return project starts Jan. 1 and is to be done by May 31, 1991.
[20293005] |Specially trained IRS agents will look for under-reported income and unsupported deductions and credits.

[20293006] |The agents will make more than routine inquiries about such items as marital status and dependents; they want to look at living standards and business assets.
[20293007] |But they also are to see that taxpayers get all allowable tax benefits and to ask if filers who sought IRS aid were satisfied with it.
[20293008] |Courts have ruled that taxpayers must submit to TCMP audits, but the IRS will excuse from the fullscale rigors anyone who was audited without change for either 1986 or 1987.

[20293009] |Rewards have been suggested -- but never adopted -- for filers who come through TCMP audits without change.

[20293010] |PENALTY OVERHAUL is still likely, congressional sources say.

[20293011] |Long-debated proposals to simplify the more than 150 civil penalties and make them fairer and easier to administer are in the House tax bill.
[20293012] |But they were stripped from the Senate bill after staffers estimated penalty revenue would fall by $216 million over five years.
[20293013] |Still, congressional aides say penalty reform is a strong candidate for enactment, even if not this time around, although some provisions may be modified.

[20293014] |Sen. Pryor (D., Ark.), a leader on the issue who generally backs the House plan, wants some changes -- for one, separate sanctions for negligence and large misstatements of tax owed, not a single penalty.
[20293015] |He would ease the proposed penalties for delayed payroll-tax deposits and for faulty Form 1099 and other reports that taxpayers correct voluntarily.
[20293016] |The General Accounting Office urges Congress to ensure that all penalties retain their force as deterrents.

[20293017] |TAXPAYERS' RIGHTS are defined by a growing number of states.

[20293018] |The 1988 tax act created a federal bill of rights spelling out IRS duties to protect taxpayers' rights in the assessment and collection of taxes.
[20293019] |States are following suit.
[20293020] |California enacted a rights law in 1988.
[20293021] |In 1989, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, Oregon and South Carolina have adopted rights laws, the Federation of Tax Administrators, a state officials' group, reports; the features vary.
[20293022] |And taxpayer groups are urging legislation in many other states.

[20293023] |One group is the Committee on State Taxation, which comprises 330 multistate corporations and advises the Council of State Chambers of Commerce.
[20293024] |The group's Mark Cahoon says its efforts begun in 1989 have led to the introduction of bills in Massachusetts, Minnesota and Colorado to establish evenhanded procedures affecting all kinds of taxpayers.
[20293025] |The group also seeks uniformity among states in provisions for taxpayers' rights.

[20293026] |This week, New York City announced a 10-point policy patterned on the federal bill of rights for taxpayers.

[20293027] |THE MILEAGE RATE allowed for business use of a car in 1989 has risen to 25.5 cents a mile for the first 15,000 from 24 cents in 1988, the IRS says; the rate stays 11 cents for each added mile.
[20293028] |Also unaltered: 12 cents for charitable activities and nine cents for medical and moving costs.

[20293029] |IRA BALANCES could be used to qualify for bank services under a bill entered by Reps. Chandler (R., Wash.) and Andrews (D., Texas).
[20293030] |The bill would thwart a recent Labor Department opinion that investing individual-retirement-account funds to earn free checking violates the law.

[20293031] |HUGO FELLED vast timberlands.
[20293032] |South Carolina's congressional delegation has entered Senate and House bills to provide special casualty-loss treatment and other tax relief for timber growers in the hurricane disaster areas.

[20293033] |HE RODE HIS HOBBY, but he couldn't milk it, the Tax Court says.

[20293034] |The court often weighs deductions of sideline-business costs: Do they stem from a profit-seeking activity or a nondeductible hobby?
[20293035] |But it's rare to see both functions in one case.
[20293036] |Charles O. Givens of Mount Vernon, Ind.-investment broker, ex-accountant, and son of a former stable owner-bred Tennessee Walking Horses for six years, raised cattle for four, and never made a profit on either.
[20293037] |He claimed losses totaling $42,455 -- and the IRS denied them all.

[20293038] |Special Judge Galloway noted that Givens managed horse-breeding in a businesslike way: He kept detailed accounts, practiced soil conservation, enhanced his experience by consulting experts, spent several hours a day doing chores, and dropped the sideline when his best brood mare died.
[20293039] |Yet he took little businesslike care with his cattle: He had no prior experience and didn't seek business counsel about them.

[20293040] |The judge said Givens may deduct his $30,180 of losses from horse breeding, but rejected the $12,275 in deductions from the cattle operation.

[20293041] |BRIEFS:
[20293042] |The IRS already is doing intensive TCMP audits of 19,000 returns for 1987 and fiscal 1988 filed by corporations with under $10 million in assets. . . .
[20293043] |President Bush says he will name Donald E. Kirkendall to the new Treasury post of inspector general, which has responsibilities for the IRS. . . .
[20293044] |The U.S. and Finland signed an income-tax treaty, subject to ratification.

[20294001] |An arbitrator awarded Eastern Airlines pilots between $60 million and $100 million in back pay, a decision that could complicate the carrier's bankruptcy-law reorganization.

[20294002] |Eastern, a unit of Texas Air Corp., said it is examining the ruling to determine if it can appeal.

[20294003] |It's unclear whether Eastern will succeed in overturning the arbitrator's decision, made in a long-simmering "pay parity" dispute that predates both the carrier's Chapter 11 petition and its 1986 acquisition by Texas Air.
[20294004] |All Eastern's previous court efforts to head off the pilots' demands have failed.

[20294005] |An Eastern spokesman said he doesn't expect that the arbitrator's ruling "will have any overall material effect on the company's strategic plan."

[20294006] |Bankruptcy experts said the law isn't clear on how such an arbitration ruling can affect a company's case.
[20294007] |Like any other creditor, the pilots will have to apply to the court for payment of their claim.

[20294008] |That may leave a lot of leeway for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton R. Lifland to decide what, if anything, the pilots actually collect.
[20294009] |In August, he issued the ruling that let the pilots pursue their back-pay grievance before the arbitrator.
[20294010] |The pilots' contract with Eastern calls for a mutually acceptable private arbitrator to resolve such grievances.

[20294011] |In a statement to employees, Eastern said the company was disappointed by the ruling.
[20294012] |"The obligation is totally unwarranted," the statement said.

[20294013] |James Linsey, a lawyer for the Air Line Pilots Association, said the pilots were extremely pleased.
[20294014] |"This is a blow not only to Eastern but to the creditors committee," he said.

[20294015] |Eastern's creditors committee, along with the company, has consistently opposed the pilots' claim, which if paid would have to come out of money both hope to use to pay off other bankruptcy claims.

[20294016] |Eastern and its creditors are in the final, delicate stages of negotiating a second reorganization plan to pay off the airline's debts.
[20294017] |An earlier plan, which had received the creditors' approval in July, fell apart when Eastern changed its business plan.
[20294018] |It isn't known whether the pilot claim was figured into either plan.

[20294019] |The dispute between Eastern and its pilots is over a "pay parity" clause in the pilots' contract.
[20294020] |The clause was part of an agreement in which pilots accepted a substantial pay cut as long as no other labor group got a raise.

[20294021] |Shortly after Texas Air took control of Eastern, some Machinists union supervisors received a 20% pay raise.
[20294022] |The pilots argued that this triggered a pay raise for them.
[20294023] |Eastern has disputed the claim, but a federal district court, an appeals court and now the arbitrator have all sided with the pilots.

[20294024] |The two sides don't even agree about how much money is at issue.
[20294025] |The pilots put the amount as high as $100 million, the company at $65 million.

[20294026] |Another arbitrator is hearing another pay parity case between Eastern and its pilots, resulting from a similar set of circumstances involving a separate pay raise granted another union.
[20294027] |A decision on that case isn't expected before mid-November.

[20294028] |Ironically, many of the pilots involved have left Eastern or are still striking the carrier, which filed for bankruptcy protection March 9.
[20294029] |About 800 have crossed the picket lines and returned to work.

[20295001] |Few people in the advertising business have raised as many hackles as Alvin A. Achenbaum.
[20295002] |The general public may not know his name, but he's famous -- make that infamous -- in advertising circles: A marketing consultant, he pioneered slashing ad agency commissions, to the delight of advertising clients and the dismay of agencies.

[20295003] |Now, after beating them, Mr. Achenbaum is joining them.
[20295004] |Backer Spielvogel Bates Worldwide named Mr. Achenbaum, 62, vice chairman of professional services, reporting directly to Carl Spielvogel, chairman and chief executive officer.
[20295005] |He joins Nov. 13, dissolving his consulting firm, Canter, Achenbaum Associates.

[20295006] |In years past, the ad industry's most distinguished executives didn't hesitate to excorciate Mr. Achenbaum.
[20295007] |They have since mellowed, although one senior Young & Rubicam executive, echoing others, said: "I think ad agencies owe Carl {Spielvogel} a vote of thanks for getting him out of the consulting business."

[20295008] |But industry executives also believe hiring Mr. Achenbaum is a shrewd move for Backer Spielvogel, a unit of Saatchi & Saatchi.
[20295009] |Mr. Achenbaum has counted among his clients some of the most visible blue-chip advertisers in the country, including Nissan, Toyota, Seagram and Backer Spielvogel clients Hyundai and J.P. Morgan.
[20295010] |At Backer Spielvogel, he will work with clients and potential clients on marketing strategies; aside from agency compensation issues, he helped Nissan, for example, come up with its positioning and pricing for its new Infiniti line.

[20295011] |His client contacts, meanwhile, could prove a gold mine for an agency that has had few new business wins of late.
[20295012] |"I've done over 40 ad agency searches {for clients}, so I have a pretty good notion of what clients are interested in when they look for an agency," Mr. Achenbaum said.
[20295013] |As a consultant, he has given seminars at agencies including Ogilvy & Mather on how to win new business.

[20295014] |Mr. Spielvogel said he hopes Mr. Achenbaum will do some strategic consulting at the agency for "non-clients, in hopes that they become clients."

[20295015] |At Backer Spielvogel, Mr. Spielvogel's hallmark has been personal involvement with all major clients.
[20295016] |He pampers them; he invites them to fabulous parties; he strokes them.
[20295017] |Mr. Achenbaum, too, delves into his clients' business.
[20295018] |"Carl has a much higher degree of intimacy with his clients than is ordinary for an agency his size.
[20295019] |And with Al's record of being a delver and a detail guy, you can see how the two fit," said Alan Gottesman, an analyst with PaineWebber.

[20295020] |Mr. Achenbaum's move follows the announcement last month that his consulting partner, Stanley Canter, 66, would retire.
[20295021] |When the announcement came out, "I picked up the phone and said, `Why don't you come to us?'" Mr. Spielvogel said.

[20295022] |Mr. Achenbaum, who had been considering paring down his firm or merging it with another small consulting outfit, soon agreed.
[20295023] |The two men are longtime friends and tennis partners, having met about 25 years ago.

[20295024] |Before becoming a consultant in 1974, Mr. Achenbaum was a senior executive at J. Walter Thompson Co.
[20295025] |He spent most of his career formulating marketing strategies, but became best-known for chipping away at ad agency compensation.

[20295026] |Ad agencies typically earned a straight 15% commission; if a client spent $100 million on TV time, the agency made $15 million.
[20295027] |But Mr. Achenbaum pioneered negotiated fees, which often worked out to less than 15%.
[20295028] |More recently, he negotiated "indemnification" clauses in which an ad agency in some cases must pay a client if it drops the account.

[20295029] |He ultimately became so well-known for cutting compensation, however, that clients didn't seek him out for anything else.
[20295030] |"I was very frustrated," he said.
[20295031] |"The fact of the matter is, I am a marketer.
[20295032] |That's another reason {for the Backer Spielvogel job}.
[20295033] |It struck me as a way to get back to what I really want to do."

[20295034] |Mr. Spielvogel added pointedly: "The pressure on commissions didn't begin with Al Achenbaum."

[20295035] |Mr. Spielvogel said Mr. Achenbaum will work with clients to determine the mix of promotion, merchandising, publicity and other marketing outlets, and to integrate those services.
[20295036] |He will concentrate on, among others, J.P. Morgan and Hyundai.
[20295037] |Mr. Achenbaum helped Morgan in its recent agency search, and he has a long relationship with Hyundai, which is having severe troubles, including declining sales.

[20295038] |"The trail of revenue is increasingly going away from pure advertising, and going towards other services," Mr. Spielvogel said.
[20295039] |Instead of being just an ad agency, he said: "We have redefined our mission here.
[20295040] |Our mission is to help our clients grow, and to use every tool of marketing communications to accomplish that."

[20295041] |Industry executives are wishing Mr. Achenbaum well.
[20295042] |Leonard Matthews, then-president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, called Mr. Achenbaum a "quisling" in an incendiary 1987 speech.
[20295043] |Yesterday, Mr. Matthews, now a consultant with the Stamford, Conn., firm Matthews & Johnston, quipped, "I think he'll be very good at that {new job}.
[20295044] |And much better at that than at {the price-cutting} he's been doing recently."

[20295045] |Cotton Inc. Campaign

[20295046] |Cotton Inc., the fiber company that represents cotton growers, will begin a new ad campaign, developed by Ogilvy & Mather, Thanksgiving Day.

[20295047] |J. Nicholas Hahn, Cotton Inc.'s president and chief executive, was an outspoken critic of WPP Group's acquisition of Ogilvy Group earlier this year.
[20295048] |During the takeover, Mr. Hahn said he would put his account up for review if WPP's bid were successful, but he didn't.

[20295049] |Cotton Inc.'s new $9 million campaign calls cotton the "Fabric of Our Lives."
[20295050] |The campaign replaces its "Take Comfort in Cotton" ads and marks the end of its national cooperative advertising efforts.
[20295051] |For years, the company's ads were tied in with pitches for Cannon sheets or Martex towels, for example, and an announcer at the end of the ads would tell customers where to "find the true performance label."

[20295052] |With the new TV spots, Ogilvy & Mather has opted for a family style with lots of laughter, hugs and tears.
[20295053] |"We're making a fairly obvious plea for some emotional reaction," says Tom Rost, creative director at Ogilvy & Mather.

[20295054] |Cotton Inc. will spend nearly $2 million on broadcasting on Thanksgiving Day alone, advertising on such programs as "Good Morning America," "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" and the NFL holiday game.

[20295055] |Frank Mingo Dies at 49

[20295056] |Frank L. Mingo, one of the pioneers of advertising targeted at black audiences, died at the age of 49 after a stroke.

[20295057] |Mr. Mingo was chief executive officer of the Mingo Group, which he founded in 1977 and which created ads for the black market.
[20295058] |Clients include Miller Brewing Co. and General Motors.
[20295059] |Mr. Mingo was hospitalized Sept. 23 and died Monday, according to Samuel J. Chisholm, the agency's president and chief operating officer.

[20295060] |Ad Notes. . . .

[20295061] |EARNINGS:
[20295062] |Omnicom Group Inc., New York, reported third-quarter net income rose 54% to $5.6 million, or 22 cents a share, from $3.6 million, or 15 cents a share, a year earlier.
[20295063] |Revenue increased 20% to $246.6 million from $204.8 million.

[20296001] |Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's leader and one of Asia's leading statesmen for 30 years, recently announced his intention to retire next year -- though not necessarily to end his influence.
[20296002] |The prime minister, whose hair is thinning and gray and whose face has a perpetual pallor, nonetheless continues to display an energy, a precision of thought and a willingness to say publicly what most other Asian leaders dare say only privately.

[20296003] |The 66-year-old Mr. Lee recently spent an hour discussing the state of Asia and the world with two Journal reporters in his plainly furnished, wood-paneled office.
[20296004] |The interview did not touch on Singapore's domestic affairs.
[20296005] |Skipping personal pleasantries, Mr. Lee picked up exactly where he left off several months earlier -- before the government crackdown in China -- when he had warned that the orthodox leadership in Beijing feared a plurality of views.
[20296006] |Excerpts follow:

[20296007] |On China's turmoil: "It is a very unhappy scene," he said.
[20296008] |"It took Zhao Ziyang (former premier and party chief) 10 years to build a team of economists who understood how the Western economies work and now that team is part in exile, part being rusticated and part missing."
[20296009] |Rebuilding that team, Mr. Lee predicted, will take another 10 years.
[20296010] |"That's very sad for China and for Asia because China could have been a good engine for growth, not just for Hong Kong and Taiwan but for Japan, Korea and the rest of Asia."

[20296011] |On similarities between China and the Soviet Union: "In important particulars, the Soviets are different from the Chinese.
[20296012] |They are already industrialized. . . .
[20296013] |Their problem is one of inefficiency of an industrial economy.
[20296014] |The Chinese problem is much greater -- it's how to industrialize to begin with."

[20296015] |Asked if the Soviets, like Chinese officials, won't one day face a similar conflict between the desire to liberalize economically and yet retain political control, Mr. Lee said, "I would think that the Soviets face a deeper dilemma because they have been more in blinkers than the Chinese -- I mean keeping their people cut off from the outside world."
[20296016] |Mikhail Gorbachev, he said, is ahead of China's leaders in his awareness of the world.
[20296017] |"But I think the Soviet peoples are more introverted than the Chinese."
[20296018] |Regardless, he said, he still believes the Soviet Union, while falling far short of the efficiency of a Western economy, may well manage to improve considerably.

[20296019] |On Asia-Pacific prosperity: "If America can keep up the present situation -- her markets open for another 15 years, with adjustments, and Japan can grow and not cut back, and so too, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand -- then in 15 years, the economies of these countries would be totally restructured to be able to almost sustain growth by themselves."
[20296020] |In such an arrangement, "all benefit," he said.
[20296021] |"And if the Europeans come in, they benefit too.
[20296022] |It's not a zero-sum game."

[20296023] |Asked about the possibility of greater economic cooperation among Asia-Pacific nations, which will be discussed Nov. 6 and 7 at a ministerial meeting in Canberra, Mr. Lee said the goal "is to have a free and open world trading system."
[20296024] |An Asian bloc isn't intended, he said.
[20296025] |"That's not possible."

[20296026] |On U.S.-Japan relations: "I'm encouraged.
[20296027] |I think the earlier strident notes struck by {U.S. Commerce Secretary Robert} Mosbacher and {U.S. Trade Representative} Carla Hills have been more rounded.
[20296028] |I believe the U.S. is becoming more patient and circumspect," he said.
[20296029] |"It's the total relationship that is important."
[20296030] |The total relationship, as Mr. Lee sees it, is "the flow of dollars to the U.S. to fund the deficits, the investments the Japanese are making in the U.S. in order to satisfy American demand that American products consumed in America should be made as much as possible in America by Americans with Japanese technology and capital."

[20296031] |Japan's recent political turbulence, Mr. Lee said, may mean Japan will slow market adjustments.
[20296032] |"They'll be more timorous in tackling their own voters, like opening up more to agricultural imports from America, hurting their farmers."

[20296033] |On U.S. military presence in Asia: Asked if his offer to allow the American military to use facilities in Singapore would help preserve America's presence in the region at bases in the Philippines, he said, "What we have done is make it easier for the Philippines to continue to host American bases without it being said they are lackeys of the imperialists and the only ones in Asia or in Southeast Asia.
[20296034] |We are willing to share the political burden of being host to America, an imperial power.
[20296035] |We think it isn't such a great burden, that it carries no stigma, and we are prepared to do it."

[20296036] |On U.S.-Philippine relations: "It's such a mixed-up relationship going back into history. . . .
[20296037] |I really do not understand how it is that Filipinos feel so passionately involved in this father figure that they want to dispose of and yet they need.
[20296038] |I just don't understand it.
[20296039] |My relationships with the British are totally different.
[20296040] |They lorded it over me.
[20296041] |They did me some good.
[20296042] |They did themselves even more good.
[20296043] |They let me down when the Japanese came down {during World War II}. . . .
[20296044] |I don't feel down or done in because I show British serials on my television network or read their books.
[20296045] |I mean it is a normal adult relationship.
[20296046] |"But the Filipinos and the Americans, when I talk to them, there's so much passion about Filipino manhood being diminished as a result of being squatted upon by the Americans and so on.
[20296047] |The occasional Englishman tries to put on airs but we let it pass. . . .
[20296048] |It's just comic when they try to pretend they're still the master race."
[20296049] |Mr. Lee added that the Filipinos are "making it very difficult" for the U.S. military presence to last beyond five or 10 years.

[20296050] |On military alternatives if the U.S. pulls back: "The Soviets already are present.
[20296051] |I suppose sooner or later, the Japanese would have to fill up a large part of the gap on the naval side.
[20296052] |Maybe the Chinese, maybe even the Indians."

[20296053] |On economic consequences of a diminished U.S. presence: "America is the only major power in recent history that has used its military might to sustain a system that enables all participants to equally benefit without her as the provider of the security taking royalties."
[20296054] |Asked why so few nations seem to share his views of America, he said, "Many people see it that way.
[20296055] |But they have just taken it for granted."

[20296056] |On Cambodia: "Let's assume that {former Cambodian leader Prince Norodom} Sihanouk does what the press wants him to do and joins up with {Vietnamese-backed Cambodian leader} Hun Sen.
[20296057] |Is the trouble over?
[20296058] |Can Sihanouk and Hun Sen knock off the Khmer Rouge still supported by China?
[20296059] |He can't.

[20296060] |"What is the way forward?
[20296061] |To get the Khmer Rouge as part of a process for elections.
[20296062] |And when they lose, then we can expect China to stop aid.
[20296063] |Let's put it bluntly.
[20296064] |The Chinese cannot be seen to have made use of the Khmer Rouge and then discard them."

[20296065] |Ms. House is vice president of Dow Jones International Group.
[20296066] |Mr. Wain is editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal.

[20297001] |Everything looked good as neurosurgeon Walter Levy and colleagues carefully cut away a woman's spinal tumor at the Cleveland Clinic in 1978.

[20297002] |Using small electrical shocks applied to her feet, they were able to monitor sensory nerves.
[20297003] |The shocks generated nerve impulses that traveled via spine to brain and showed up clearly on a brain-wave monitor, indicating no damage to the delicate spinal tissue.

[20297004] |Then, says Dr. Levy, "she woke up paralyzed."

[20297005] |The damage was to her motor nerves, which couldn't be monitored along with the sensory nerves, he explains.
[20297006] |The tragedy, he adds, "galvanized me" to look for a way to prevent similar cases.

[20297007] |Dr. Levy's answer may come with a new kind of magnetic brain probe, a device that he and dozens of U.S. researchers are studying with great hope.
[20297008] |Besides holding the promise of safer spinal surgery, the probe could improve the diagnosis of brain and nerve disorders such as strokes and multiple sclerosis.
[20297009] |Perhaps most exciting, the device is thrusting open a window to the workings of the brain.

[20297010] |The probe, which is painless, non-invasive and apparently harmless, employs strong magnetic fields to induce small whirlwinds of electricity within the brain.
[20297011] |If positioned over the brain's motor-control area, the hand-held electromagnets generate nerve impulses that zip down motor nerves and activate muscles, making, say, a finger twitch.
[20297012] |In principle, they will enable doctors to check the body's motor system the way an electrician tests a home's electrical circuits by running current through them.

[20297013] |"Until now, we've had no objective way of measuring motor function," says Keith Chiappa, a neurologist conducting clinical tests with the devices at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital.
[20297014] |"All we could do was tell a patient, `squeeze my fingers as hard as you can' or `raise your arm.'
[20297015] |" Under the best circumstances such tests are subjective; when a patient is unconscious, they don't work at all.

[20297016] |Magnetic brain tweaking started in the early 1900s, when researchers produced flashes of light in the visual field with magnets.
[20297017] |In the 1960s, Mayo Clinic researchers developed magnetic devices to stimulate motor nerves in the hand and other limbs.
[20297018] |But for brain tests, the unwieldy machines "would have required patients to stand on their heads," says Reginald Bickford, a researcher at the University of California at San Diego.

[20297019] |The field took off in 1985 after scientists at Britain's Sheffield University developed a handy, compact magnet for brain stimulation.
[20297020] |Since then, at least two commercial versions have been put on the U.S. market, and an estimated 500 have been sold.
[20297021] |In August, a Chicago conference on such devices attracted more than 100 researchers, who reported studies on everything from brain mapping to physical therapy.

[20297022] |"We don't feel we can use {the devices} routinely in surgery yet, but we're getting close," says Dr. Levy, who is now with the University of Pittsburgh.
[20297023] |A problem, he adds, is that anesthetized brains are more resistant to magnetic stimulation than awake ones.

[20297024] |The devices could help indicate when surgery would help, says Charles Tator, a University of Toronto neurosurgeon.
[20297025] |For example, paralyzed car-crash victims occasionally have some intact spinal tissues that, if preserved by emergency surgery, enable partial recovery.
[20297026] |But such operations typically aren't performed because there is no sign right after an injury that surgery would be beneficial.

[20297027] |"The cost {of magnetic stimulators} would seem like peanuts if we could retrieve limb function" in such people, Dr. Tator says.

[20297028] |Scientists caution there is a chance the magnet technique might spark seizures in epileptics.
[20297029] |But no significant problems have been reported among hundreds of people tested with the devices.

[20297030] |The main sensation, besides feeling like a puppet jerked with invisible strings, is "like a rap on the head," says Sam Bridgers, a neurologist who has studied the brain stimulators at Yale University.
[20297031] |One apparent side effect is a minor increase in a brain hormone.
[20297032] |And some doctors who have conducted hours of tests on themselves report temporary headaches.

[20297033] |At least two companies, Cadwell Laboratories Inc. of Kennewick, Wash., and Novametrix Medical Systems Inc. of Wallingford, Conn., now sell versions of the magnetic devices.
[20297034] |The machines, which at $12,500 are inexpensive by medical standards, haven't been approved in the U.S. for marketing as brain stimulators but are sold for stimulating nerves in the hand, legs and other non-brain areas.
[20297035] |Researchers can apply for permission to use the probes for brain studies.

[20297036] |At the University of Kentucky, a team led by Dean Currier, a physical therapy researcher, is testing the stimulators in conjunction with electric shocks to induce muscle contractions to help prevent wasting of thigh muscles after knee surgery.
[20297037] |Similarly, a Purdue University team led by heart researcher W.A. Tacker hopes to develop ways to magnetically induce cardiac muscle contractions.
[20297038] |The devices might someday serve as temporary pacemakers or restarters for stopped hearts, says Dr. Tacker, whose prototype was dubbed the "Tacker whacker."

[20297039] |The devices' most remarkable possibilities, though, involve the brain.
[20297040] |Probing with the stimulators, National Institutes of Health scientists recently showed how the brain reorganizes motor-control resources after an amputation.
[20297041] |Similar studies are expected to reveal how stroke patients' brains regroup -- a first step toward finding ways to bolster that process and speed rehabilitation.

[20297042] |Scientists also are exploring memory and perception with the new machines.
[20297043] |At the State University of New York at Brooklyn, researchers flash two groups of different letters on a computer screen in front of human guinea pigs.
[20297044] |Between flashes, certain areas in subjects' brains are jolted with a magnetic stimulator.
[20297045] |When the jolt is timed just right, the subjects don't recall seeing the first group of letters.

[20297046] |"Where does that first stimulus go?" exclaims SUNY neurologist Paul Maccabee.
[20297047] |"Trying to answer that is suggesting all kinds of theories," such as precisely where and how the brain processes incoming signals from the eyes.
[20297048] |He and others say that the machines are weak enough that they don't jeopardize the memory.

[20297049] |Both the SUNY team and researchers at the National Magnet Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., are working with more potent magnetic brain stimulators.
[20297050] |Among other things, the stronger devices may be able to summon forth half-forgotten memories and induce mood changes, neurologists say.

[20298001] |Du Pont Co., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Los Alamos National Laboratory said they signed a three-year, $11 million agreement to collaborate on superconductor research.

[20298002] |The collaboration will include at least 25 researchers and will be aimed primarily at developing thin films of high-temperature superconductors for use in electronics, the companies said.
[20298003] |The materials, discovered during the past three years, conduct electricity without resistance and promise smaller, faster computers and other new technologies.

[20298004] |Joint-research programs have proliferated as U.S. companies seek to spread the risks and costs of commercializing new superconductors and to meet the challenges posed by foreign consortia, especially in Japan.

[20298005] |The latest research pact bolsters Du Pont's growing portfolio of investments in superconductors.
[20298006] |The Wilmington, Del., chemicals concern previously signed research superconductor agreements with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and with Argonne National Laboratory.
[20298007] |Last year, Du Pont agreed to pay $4.5 million for rights to superconductor work at the University of Houston.

[20298008] |Hewlett-Packard is a Palo Alto, Calif., computer maker.
[20298009] |The Los Alamos laboratory is one of three U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories designed as pilot centers to foster joint industry-government programs to speed the transfer of new superconductors to the marketplace.

[20299001] |J.C. PENNEY Co., Dallas, said it issued $350 million of securities backed by credit-card receivables.
[20299002] |The offering was priced with an 8.95% coupon rate at 99.1875% to yield 9.19%.
[20299003] |The retailer said the securities are expected to be rated triple-A by Standard & Poor's Corp. and Aaa by Moody's Investors Service Inc.
[20299004] |They pay interest only for 115 months, with principal payments beginning thereafter.
[20299005] |The expected average life of the certificates is 10 years, with the final scheduled payment in October, 2001.
[20299006] |First Boston Corp. is sole underwriter.
[20299007] |As part of the transaction, J.C. Penney will sell a portion of its credit-card receivables to its JCP Receivables Inc. unit, which will then transfer them to a master trust.
[20299008] |The trust will issue the certificates.
[20299009] |Credit support will be provided by a letter of credit facility from Credit Suisse in favor of the trustee, Fuji Bank & Trust Co., for the benefit of the certificate holders.
[20299010] |J.C. Penney will continue to service the receivables.