March 10, 2001

Pres Bush isues executive order barring potential strike by mechanics at Northwest Airlines and says he will take 'necessary steps' to block walkouts at any major carrier this year; Bush's pledge comes as United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines are nearing end to contract negotiations, some of which have lasted for years; mechanics at Northwest, who are represented by Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn, have been seeking wage increase and new contract for more than four years; executive order requires that mechanics stay on job for 60 days while three-member emergency board is convened to make settlement recommendation (M)

William C Rhoden's Sports of The Times column on Boston College basketball Coach Al Skinner's leadership qualities; notes that Boston College defeated Seton Hall, 75-48, in Big East tournament semifinal game; photo (M)

News analysis of AIDS epidemic in Africa; says now that world's biggest pharmaceutical companies have been forced into painful negotiations over patient rights and price of medicines, question suddenly is no longer whether Africans will get life-saving drug cocktails, but how; many African nations are too poor to afford medicines, even at steeply discounted prices, and some lack infrastructure to deliver drugs and educate patients about how to use them (M)

Foreign winemakers are remaking Argentina's long-slumbering wine industry into potential export powerhouse; more than $250 million in foreign investment is plowed into new wineries, refurbishing old ones and joint ventures with undercapitalized Argentine companies; photos; list of international wine production and exports in 2000 (M)

Fourteen-year-old Lionel Tate is sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for murder of Tiffany Eunick; Tate was convicted in January for bludgeoning six-year-old girl to death in what he said was imitation of wrestling moves; Judge Joel T Lazarus of Broward County (Fla) Circuit Court, rejecting suggestions for leniency, denies requests for reducing charge for which boy was convicted, move that would have allowed him to avoid imposing mandatory life sentence for first-degree murder; Kathleen Grossett-Tate had earlier rejected several offers by prosecutors to have her son plead guilty to second-degree murder and accept sentence of three years at juvenile detention center and 10 years of probation; photos (M)