January 9, 2001

Minnesota Vikings players and coaches discuss preparations for playing New York Giants in National Football Conference championship game (M)

Forest Service administrator Mike Dombeck, in clear challenge to incoming Bush administration, issues policy statement barring cutting of old-growth timber on public lands; statement goes far beyond any other efforts to put oldest and biggest trees in nation's forests off limits from loggers and mills that prize them for commercial value; new policy would reduce by 50 percent amount of timber on federal lands, if allowed to stand, that is due to come up for auction; is seen as challenge for new administration that has signaled intent to take very different position on use of public lands; photo (M)

France's Lafarge, in transactiont that will create world's largest cement company, will pay $4.6 billion for British cement maker Blue Circle Industries; photo (S)

Discolored patches apparent when Guggenheim Museum opened in Bilbao, Spain, in Oct 1997 have spread and darkened, marring shimmering titanium surface; Frank O Gehry, who designed building, blames failure to clean building after construction was completed; says plan to use titanium in Manhattan building he designs for Solomon R Guggenheim Museum will probably be dropped as too costly; Bilbao museum plans to start removing marks in spring; photos (M)

Amazon Meets Sales Goal For 4th Quarter, but Barely Amazon.com said that it just barely made its sales targets for the fourth quarter, but it sacrificed its profit margins to do so. As the largest online merchant, Amazon is the most significant bellwether of e-commerce. Its announcement was consistent with other indicators that showed that online sales were up sharply but grew more slowly than expected. Amazon said its fourth-quarter sales were above $960 million, up 42 percent from a year earlier. Amazon met its sales goal of $950 million to $1.05 billion. But many analysts had been expecting $1 billion. [Page C4.]