November 13, 1999

Information from the flight data recorder of the EgyptAir flight that crashed showed that the plane's wild final maneuvers included a free fall and a shutdown of both engines, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said. Experts said many of the findings that were released could reflect an airplane that was in an emergency, yet still under control. But pilots experienced with the Boeing 767, the type of plane that crashed, said that they could not understand why the engines had been turned off.

New York Yankees all but complete new contract with Jim Leyritz; New York Mets continue to explore long-shot possibility of trading for Seattle's Ken Griffey Jr (M)

Pokemon craze is going strong, as animated film breaks box office records and sales of toy figures and related products boom; even those who are promoting the phenomenon, and reaping astonishing rewards, seem stunned by how deftly it has attached itself to hearts of millions of American children; photos (M)

Labor Department, in most comprehensive review of data to date, says there has been improvement in productivity because of computers and Internet, mainly in last four years; review, dating to 1959, comes attached to department's announcement that productivity rose in third quarter at annual rate of 4.2 percent; productivity figures for years 1959 to 1995 noted; graph (M)

Americans are buying Canadian companies at record pace, taking advantage of economy newly open to foreign investment and Canadian dollar trading near historic lows; KPMG Corporate Finance survey shows in first nine months of 1999, American companies bought 181 companies for $24 billion, double amount spent in year-earlier period; some recent acquisitions noted; American investors are also getting into Canadian stocks; in first seven months of year, Americans increased their Canadian stockholdings by $6.5 billion, sevenfold increase over corresponding period two years ago; Canadians are funneling their money in US; Statistics Canada says as of August, Canadians had, for first time on record, more money invested in foreign stock markets than in Canadian markets; Canadians, investing largely in American shares, now own at least $57 billion of foreign stocks; graph; photo (M)