Car bomb kills two Israelis after it explodes near open-air market in Jerusalem, threatening early morning truce agreement between Israel and Palestinians; bombers flee on foot; site of bomb has been favorite target of Islamic groups during previous waves of terrorism; despite cease-fire pact, Palestinian gunmen open fire once more on Gilo, southeastern Jerusalem neighborhood, and Israeli troops return machine-gun fire toward shooting in Palestinian town of Beit Jala; 17-year-old Palestinian is shot dead in clash in village of Hizme near Jerusalem; Prime Min Ehud Barak of Israel calls Yasir Arafat, Palestinian leader, to express consolences; death toll from monthlong conflict rises to 168; photos; map (M)

Car Bomb Kills 2 Israelis and Threatens Truce Effort

Boots PLC, Britain's leading drugstore chain, posts small increases in pretax profit (2.3 percent) and sales (1.3 percent) for first half of year (S)

EARNINGS RISE AT BOOTS

Nacional Telefonas de Venezuela says third-quarter net income rose to $26 million from $4.7 million in third quarter last year (S)

PROFITS LEAP AT CANTV

South Korean banks are set to announce list of ailing companies that have been selected for closing, hoping this time to demonstrate their resolve to clean up bad loans that continue to undermine financial industry; new list might contain nation's largest construction company, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, which defaulted on $20 million payment earlier this week and still owes creditors $1 billion by end of year (M)

New List of Ailing Companies May Include Unit of Hyundai

Quaker Oats Co informally rejects $13.7 billion offer to be acquired by PepsiCo Inc; chart (M)

Quaker Oats Said to Refuse PepsiCo Bid

Giuliani administration will charge delivery trucks that are loading and unloading around Times Square as part of effort to ease Midtown Manhattan traffic congestion; experts say plan, which will go into effect on Nov 13, is first in nation to use congestion pricing to control commercial parking by varying rates depending on time of day; pilot plan, which will last for year and half, will use computerized parking meters; photos (M)

City to Charge Truck Drivers For Parking

Garry Kasparov's 15-year reign as world's greatest chess player ends with defeat to his former protege, Vladimir Kramnik, in 16-game championship sponsored by Brain Games Network; Kramnik, 25, gains half point he needs in 15th game of match, held in London; Kasparov plays sluggishly and tentatively throughout monthlong competition, often seeming not to know how to respond to Kramnik's aggressive maneuvers and implacable defenses; Kasparov concedes defeat with graciousness, but takes care to quash rumors that he has lost his fighting spirit; Kasparov took Kramnik on as student at his elite chess school in Moscow when Kramnik was 11; photo (M)

Protege Ends Kasparov's 15-Year Chess Reign

Autos on Friday article on MIT Energy Laboratory's two-year study comparing gas-powered sedan with some hybrid cars that may be feasible by 2020; DaimlerChrysler's lans for hybrid Dodge Durango also described; photo (M)

AUTOS ON FRIDAY/Technology; Hybrid Cars Show Up In M.I.T.'s Crystal Ball

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Arthur Levitt, is set to disclose new set of initiatives, the most important aimed at getting a system in place in options industry that will allow its customers to experience benefits of decimalization by trading in penny increments; these may be final initiatives of his term, and they are intended to signal to his successors the SEC's commitment to the primacy of the individual investor as being central to success of markets; photo (M)

When a Dime Matters: Levitt Goes After Option Markets

New York Knicks beat Atlanta Hawks, 94-69; photo (M)

Rout by Knicks Doesn't Wipe The Slate Clean

Japan's Yasuda Fire and Marine, Nissan Fire and Marine and Taisei Fire and Marine will merge to create Japan's second-largest casualty insurer with market capitalization of 612 billion yen ($5.7 billion) (S)

FIRE INSURERS CONSOLIDATE

Librarians, with limited resources, are spending more money on academic journals as average price of subscription price of journals has risen at expense of their spending on books; handful of companies led by Reed Elsevier have acquired bulk of science and technical journals and have aggressively raised subscription prices; Reed Elsevier in the last week agreed to pay about $3.5 billion for textbook business and roughly 500 journals owned by Harcourt General; deal, one of biggest in publishing's recent history, immediately drew fire from librarians' groups, which have railed for years against industry's consolidation; Association of Research Libraries has sent letters to Justice Department's antitrust office questioning Elsevier's acquisition; graph; photo (M)

As Publishers Perish, Libraries Feel the Pain; Mergers Keep Pushing Up Journal Costs

American Automobile Assn road reporter Bob Hawkinson is updating AAA's road maps in New Jersey and Connecticut; map; photo (M)

Bold Quest: Gas, Food and Lodging; Fact-Finder Plies Roads For Auto Club's Maps

European Central Bank leaves interest rates in 11 euro nations unchanged at 4.75 percent; graph (S)

RATES LEFT UNCHANGED

Vice Pres Al Gore seeks to heighten anxieties about Gov George W Bush by broadcasting tough new advertisement that bluntly questions whether Bush is 'ready to lead America'; new commercial, which criticizes Bush's Texas record, is scheduled to run often in all 17 battleground states where Gore is advertising; end-game maneuver comes on day when Gore draws largest crowd of his campaign at rally in Chicago, Democratic stronghold in state where race now seems to have tightened; Gore seeks to paint Bush as captive of special interests and portrays himself as fighter with backbone to stand up for working families; new advertising campaign comes after Gore strategists, and his running mate, Sen Joseph I Lieberman, conclude they must increase efforts to raise doubts about Bush; Gore, who pledged not to make personal attacks, has in past avoided directly questioning Bush's capacity to lead; photos (M)

IN STRATEGY SHIFT, GORE ADS QUESTION BUSH'S CAPABILITY

Buck Martinez is named manager of Toronto Blue Jays; Cincinnati Reds reject New York Yankees third-base coach Willie Randolph as manager; photo (M)

Reds and Blue Jays Reject Randolph as Manager

 Runway Is Focus of Inquiry  The Singapore Airlines jet that crashed in Taiwan on Tuesday, killing at least 81, may have been on the wrong runway and hit construction materials, officials said.   PAGE A16

INSIDE

State Sen Guy Velella, facing criminal investigation into whether he took money to help steer $33 million contract to Keystone Construction to paint Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, says he will spend final days of his re-election campaign focusing on issues that are vital to his district; Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani says he supports Velella (M)

Lawmaker Focuses on Re-election, Not Investigation

Royal Dutch/Shell Group reports third-quarter operating profits of $3.25 billion, increase of about 80 percent over year-earlier period; net income jumped 29 percent, to $3.06 billion (M)

Shell Posts 80% Jump In Earnings

New Jersey Democratic Senate candidate Jon S Corzine is spending $2 million on largest get-out-the-vote operation that his state has ever seen; one goal is to make sure that every registered Democrat gets telephone call at home with recorded reminder to vote; Corzine campaign will use thousands of college students and dozens of people from homeless shelters and drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinics in North Philadelphia as volunteers in its get-out-the vote effort; photo (M)

Biggest Voter Turnout Effort Corzine's Millions Can Buy

George Vecsey Sports of The Times column on Women's United Soccer Association; notes that it will commence next April and that Tony DiCicco is acting president of new league; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; Norwegians And Yanks Join Ranks

Third article in series Watching Movies With profiles Ron Howard, television child star who grew up to be major film director; Howard recalls 'magic' of Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, and discusses his own approach to filmmaking; interview; photos (M)

Here's to You, Mrs. Robinson

Gov George W Bush derides Vice Pres Al Gore's proposals for Medicare and prescription drugs as nostrums of man who likes federal regulation; Bush, campaigning in Wisconsin, in politically pivotal Midwest, delves into issue that is considered one of Democrats' strongest suits; Bush says his own prescription drug plan would give elderly new choices, while Gore's would give them new rules; Bush ties Gore to failed health care plan championed in 1993 by Hillary Rodham Clinton; Bush receives surprise endorsement from Ross Perot, whose candidacy in 1992 possibly spoiled re-election effort of Bush's father, Pres George Bush; Bush's day is jarred by news report of his 1976 arrest in Maine for driving under influence of alcohol; Bush confirms incident, expresses his regret, then questions why such information is coming out now, only five days from election day; photo (M)

Bush Assails Gore Proposals On Health Care

Spain's national carrier, Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA, is engaged in talks about possible merger with its smaller rival Air Europa SA (S)

SPAIN: AIRLINE MERGER TALKS

Astronauts from United States and Russia arrive at International Space Station and begin what they hope will be continuous habitation of expanding research platform 240 miles above Earth; their visit is scheduled to last four months; to reach this point, project has had to weather large cost overruns, questions about its scientific value, years of delays by financially strapped Russian space agency and delicate negotiating among nations involved; those on board are Russian astronauts, Lt Col Yuri P Gidzenko and Sergei K Krikalev, and American mission commander, Capt William M Shepherd; NASA is leading the project; photos; diagrams (M)

November 3, 2000

Headlines from November 3, 2000

Car Bomb Kills 2 Israelis and Threatens Truce Effort

EARNINGS RISE AT BOOTS

PROFITS LEAP AT CANTV

New List of Ailing Companies May Include Unit of Hyundai

Quaker Oats Said to Refuse PepsiCo Bid

Billboard 200

Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water

Rule 3:36

Country Grammar

Back For The First Time

Human Clay

Historical Context for November 3, 2000