November 7, 2000

Italy formally requests payment of guarantee Blu SpA posted to take part in auction of five wireless phone licenses; Blu's abrupt withdrawal from auction left sale in chaos, yielding half what government had expected; Blue is controlled by Autostrade SpA of Italy and British Telecommunications (S)

French literary honors are announced; Michael Ondaatje and Jamaica Kincaid are winners for best foreign novels, Ondaatje for Anil's Ghost, and Kincaid for My Brother; Boston University Art Gallery presents exhibition Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato's Photographs of China; photo; British actor, playwright and author Steven Berkoff to present one-man show Shakespeare's Villains: A Masterclass in Evil; Naples (Florida) Museum of Art opens to public; photo (M)

John Tierney The Big City column discusses various reasons why voters in New York City are so apathetic about 2000 elections; says most state legislators face no serious competition, presidential election contest is foregone conclusion in New York and Senate race did not turn out to be epic battle it once was thought to be (M)

Some of largest pharmacy chains and drug manufacturers begin withdrawing cold remedies and appetite suppressants with active ingredient phenylpropanolamine (PPA), which is linked to slight risk of stroke in young women, after Food and Drug Administration issues sweeping public health advisory and will ban its use in all products; agency warns consumers against taking any product containing it; asks manufacturers of all PPA products to stop making them voluntarily while regulators draft new rules that would effectively ban ingredient; warning covers 400 products, many staples of American medicine cabinets for decades; some noted; drug industry officials comment (M)

Amerada Hess Corp acquires Lasmo PLC, British oil exploration and production company, for $3.5 billlion in cash and stock (M)

Ford Motor Co will warn buyers of its sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks about limits on how much weight they can carry safely in their vehicles; but company says it has not linked overloading to crashes involving Ford Explorer sport utilities equipped with Firestone tires (M)

Regenerative medicine--teaching the body to heal itself and to grow new tissues and organs--is merely a concept for now, but its prospects look brighter with the tools of genomics and stem cell biology; there have been notable advances in understanding how the body repairs itself, especially its cell-to-cell signaling system; photos; drawings (L)

Rick A Lazio recruits Gov George E Pataki and Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani for final, frenzied pre-election blitz in Hudson River Valley and New York City's suburbs, saying he still feels like underdog but is confident he will come out on top; photo (M)

New York Giants coach Jim Fassel discusses team's first place position in NFC Eastern Conference; photo (M)

Ashanti Goldfields says it can now reduce its reliance on forward sales because transactions in its hedge book, which reflects such sales; at one point last year, Ashanti Goldfields' wrong-way bets on price movements, reflected in its hedge book, threatened to cost it about $550 million; Ashanti says its production costs declined 13 percent, to $254 an ounce, and output rose 18 percent in latest quarter (S)

Article discusses prosecution's case in capital murder trial of Rae Carruth, former Carolina Panthers football player; trial has begun in Charlotte, NC, with selection of jury; Carruth is charged in murder of his former girlfriend Cherica Adams (M)

Natalie Angier article in The Fat Epidemic series focuses on culture and status as it relates to weight; discusses program known informally as 'the obesity project,' which is designed to promote proper diet, exercise and weight loss among African-Americans, who have especially high rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and other chronic conditions; discusses how attitudes toward weight differ from culture to cultures and from one era to another; photo (L)