October 21, 2000

Article discusses outlook for World Series between New York Yankees and New York Mets; photo (M)

Onel de Guzman, 24-year-old computer-knowledgeable Filipino, admits to creating computer viruses but claims uncertainty as to whether 'Love Bug' virus that plagued computers globally is one he designed; it has caused estimated $10 billion damage; Philippine authorities filed theft and other charges against de Guzman, but dropped them because of insufficient evidence; de Guzman says he no longer hacks, but he still practices 'cracking,' which he describes as gaining unauthorized access to passwords, serial numbers and other numeric codes so he can download unlicensed software from Internet, rather than paying for it; photo (M)

New study of International Monetary Fund concludes that recent deals it made with borrower nations carried excessive terms for borrower compliance; study was conducted with unpublished IMF data; article especially cites Fund's recent $40 billion assistance package to Indonesia, a deal in which IMF demanded Indonesia make 140 substantive changes to its current economic policies (M)

United Technologies' agreement to buy Honeywell International is broken by counteroffer from General Electric chairman John F Welch Jr; all parties decline comment at this time; article investigates possibility of other potential suitors for Honeywell component businesses and explores synergies between Honeywell units and those of GE and United Technologies (M)

Study by American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy shows that based on federal figures from 1997, New York State's residents and businesses use less energy per person, in proportion to state's population and its economy than any other state with exception of Hawaii; says New York State residents and businesses also burn fewer hydrocarbons like gasoline or natural gbas in proportion to gross state product than all other states but Connecticut and District of Columbia; energy experts say results are heavily skewed by huge impact of New York City itself, where mass transmit moves millions of people, thus saving uncounted gallons of gasoline that are burned in other metropolitan areas; map (M)