October 14, 1997

Coca-Cola Co chairman-chief executive Roberto C Goizueta is in critical condition in intensive-care unit of Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, suffering from throat infection and fever contracted during treatment for lung cancer; Coke says Goizueta has informed company's board that he has asked M Douglas Ivester, president and chief operating officer, to stand in for him as chief executive officer at employee briefing to follow board meeting on Oct 16; photo (L)

Guinness PLC and Grand Metropolitan PLC say they will forge ahead with their $20 billion merger, this time with approval of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, which had said it would try to block the deal; LVMH's chief executive Bernard Arnault will gain control of most of drinks distribution network of new company, which will be known as GMG Brands, as well as a seat on its board; LVMH will also receive about $810 million, split evenly between cash and special dividend that will be distributed to all GMG shareholders (L)

Interview with Julie Traynor, director of The Lion King, which opens at New Amsterdam Theater in New York City; show is musical adaption of 1994 animated children's blockbuster; she insists that Walt Disney Co gave her complete freedom to present show as she sees fit; photo (L)

More than 2,000 public school students in Caldwell and West Caldwell were scheduled to attend school on Columbus Day holiday but received day off because of one-day walkout by local teachers' union (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Two decades after US Supreme Court reinstated death penalty, states are executing prisoners at steadily accelerating pace, with executions spreading nationwide away from traditional Southern base; of 38 states that allow death penalty, 29 states have had executions since 1976, and executions are at 40-year high, with 59 people executed thus far in 1997; within past year Oregon and Kentucky carried out first executions since 1962, and by end of 1998, Connecticut, Ohio, Tennessee and New Jersey are expected to follow suit; nationwide, Texas has accounted for 138, or about 1 out of 3, inmates executed since 1976, followed by Virginia, Florida, Missouri, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas, which together account for 337 of 417 executions; increase in executions attributed to new Federal laws curtailing appeals and financing for new defense lawyers; number of death row inmates nationwide has increased by almost 10 percent in past two years, to 3,269 in August; Colorado carries out its first execution in 30 years, putting Gary Davis, convicted rapist-murderer to death by lethal injection; photo (M)