February 8, 1998

Article evaluates Mercedes E320 station wagon; chart compares E320 with Volvo V70; photo (M)

More than 500 companies now have ethics officers to maintain employee, and even boardroom, rectitude, although enforcement varies; Nancy Higgins, sentinel at Boeing, reports to corporate responsibility board and is encouraged to contact directors when necessary; she notes steady rise in number of people willing to give names when calling ethics hot line; her photo; reality at other companies is less compelling than public face of virtue they assume; Shirley Peterson, formerly with Northrop, describes difficulties of wading into ethics controversies; examples from Boeing's ethics training program (M)

Profile of rock band Pearl Jam, whose new album, Yield, has just been released; band's efforts to pursue idealistic path and avoid excessive commercialism noted; photos of band members: Stone Gossard, Jack Irons, Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament and Mick McCready (L)

Chicago Bulls basketball player Michael Jordan, ill with respiratory ailment, misses NBA All-Star Game practice and may miss game; players comment; photos (M)

Asian students in United States colleges--from South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand--are feeling economic squeeze as currencies of those countries have fallen hard over several months; students see bank accounts halved, parents thrown out of work, family businesses dissolved; a number of students have merely toned down spending habits that had been fed by boom times at home; but others are struggling to stay in United States, where they have found broader range of programs in technology, business, science and the arts in a less stringent atmosphere than back home; photo (L)