BP increases its stake in Russian oil company Sidanko to 25 percent from 10 percent; deal comes little more than two years after BP came close to scrapping its investment in Sidanco altogether during drawn-out legal battle over oil assets with two Russian companies that are now its partners in Sidanko; BP pays $375 million for 15 percent plus one share of Sidanko; transaction leaves BP's local partners, Alfa Group and Access/Renova with reduced, but still majority, stake (M)

BP Adds to Stake in Russia, Despite Earlier Legal Battle

Mexico and Microsoft Corp plan to announce agreement to develop digital community centers as part of broader 'eMexico' initiative meant to bring entire nation online by 2006; Microsoft will contribute software, consulting and training for centers, which are to be built in remote Mexican towns and villages to give residents free access to Internet; Microsoft will license its Windows, Office and Encarta software on same terms that colleges and universities use and will train 4,000 computer operator to run centers (M)

Microsoft And Mexico Aim to Put Nation Online

Statement issued in Rome says American cardinals have been summoned to Vatican not only to talk about sexual abuse involving priests but also to agree on guidelines for restoring 'sense of safety and tranquility to families and trust to clergy'; ambitious agenda suggests meeting was mapped out carefully as Vatican seizes initiative on scandal; Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, facing demands for his resignation, says he has met with pope and others who are aware of gravity of situation (M)

Among the Vatican Goals, Guidelines for Priests

Carrefour, Europe's largest retailer, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc will invest combined $57 million to open three outlets each in China's northeastern province of Heilongjiang amid mounting competition for consumer spending in mainland (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: China: Retailers Expand

 State to Take Over Schools  After years of failing test scores, the long-beleaguered Roosevelt school system in Nassau County is about to make history as the first district in New York to be taken over by the state, officials said.   PAGE B6    Balloon Ban Floated  A county legislator on Long Island wants to ban the intentional release of more than five helium-filled balloons at once.   PAGE B5

INSIDE

Andrew M Cuomo offers lacerating attack on George E Pataki's record of governor of New York as he begins three-day tour across state to formally promote his candidacy for governor; denounces Pataki's handling of upstate economy, conditions of public school system and what Cuomo describes as faltering effort to rebuild devastated site of World Trade Center; seeks to defect Republican effort to derail his candidacy by putting blame for state's problems on his father, Mario Cuomo; photo (M)

Cuomo Calls Pataki Record A Failure

NTL reaches agreement to reorganize by converting about two-thirds of its $17 billion in debts into equity and handing control of company to bondholders; several NTL holding companies will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in US; operating subsidiaries in Britain, Ireland and Continental Europe will not be part of bankruptcy proceedings and more than $6 billion in bonds and bank loans backed by these assets will remain outstanding; plan is subject to approval of NTL's bank lenders; executives of J P Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Scotland, among others, meet to discuss details (M)

Moving Fast, NTL Has Plan To Reorganize

Sec Colin Powell, nearing end of Mideast peace mission, takes pains to play down expectations of any last-minute surprise, although he says he hopes to further progress that has been made; warns that whatever is achieved it will fall short of cease-fire; Israel is on high alert for suicide bombers; Prime Min Ariel Sharon, in Independence Day radio interview, makes clear that Israeli dragnet for terrorists on West Bank is not over; reiterates that forces intend to pull out of Jenin and Nablus but will maintain tight ring around Palestinian cities to see whether 'terror resumes'; makes clear that army will remain in Bethlehem until 250 gunmen holed up in Church of Nativity surrender, and in Ramallah until two wanted men in Yasir Arafat's compound are arrested; vast majority of Israelis stay indoors on holiday, considering danger even greater following arrest of popular Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who Sharon says will be tried for 'horrendous acts of murder of hundreds of Israelis'; chances of holding of regional peace conference, perhaps at ministerial level, remain uncertain (M)

NEAR VISIT'S END, POWELL DAMPENS THE EXPECTATIONS

 G.M.'s Profit Drops 3.8% But Exceeds Expectations  The revival of General Motors continued as it reported a slight decrease in earnings, well above analysts' expectations, despite financial difficulties at its European unit. G.M. reported net income of $228 million, or 57 cents a share, with sales of $46.3 billion. That was down 3.8 percent from a year earlier. The company also raised its 2002 earnings estimate to $5 a share from $3.50. G.M.'s shares rose almost 5 percent, to $64.05. [Page C4.]    Bristol's Financial Officer Resigns  Bristol-Myers Squibb, struggling to recover from a series of disappointments, said that Frederick S. Schiff, its chief financial officer, would leave. Harrison M. Bains, vice president for tax and treasury, will serve as acting chief financial officer. [C2.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

Intel Corp reports profit of $936 million for first quarter on sales of $6.8 billion; chief executive officer Andy D Bryant says company is not seeing recovery in business; predicts that profit margins will improve slightly and issues sales forecast of $6.4 billion to $7 billion in current quarter, up from $6.3 billion (M)

Intel Meets Expectations For Earnings

Heart researchers urge change in emergency care of heart patients in response to findings that angioplasty, surgery to open clogged arteries, is superior to clot-dissolving drugs; view is that it may be better to take people with suspected heart attacks not to closest community hospital but to hospital where trained team can perform angioplasty immediately; study by Dr Thomas Aversano says angioplasty could be extended to community hospitals without heart surgery facilities, as now required, if team is extensively trained in procedure; Dr Christopher P Cannon, in editorial with AMA Journal report, explains plan to extend angioplasty availability to all hospitals in Boston (M)

A CALL FOR CHANGE IN CARDIAC CARE

Five current and former employees of Sights, strip club in Newark, say Mayor Sharpe James, who referred to club as 'den of iniquity' when it was raided by police in March, visited club in 2000 and spent about an hour watching stage show featuring women in various stages of undress; James, who is running for re-election, says he will not dignify allegation with an answer; club's owner, Moses Wilson Jr, was charged with running brothel, and more than two dozen women were arrested, including a 16-year-old; photo (M)

Strip Club Staff Says Newark Mayor Was a Patron

Federal Reserve is expected to hold steady on inteest rates it controls for next several months with new statistics providing further evidence that economy is on mend and that inflation remains under control; Fed chairman Alan Greenspan is expected to give investors some guidance about schedule for any rate increases that may be coming when he testifies before Joint Economic Committee of Congress; industrial production in March rose 0.7 percent, its biggest gain in nearly two years; Consumer Price Index for March rose 0.3 percent, in large part because of rise in oil prices; excluding food and energy costs, index rose 0.1 percent; Fed officials are expected to leave rates unchanged at their next meeting on May 7; graph; photo (M)

Fed Is Expected to Hold Steady On Rates for Next Few Months

Anthony Tommasini reviews concert marking end of 25th season by American Composers Orchestra, last one conducted by co-founder and music director Dennis Russell Davies (M)

True to His Mission, Davies Bows Out With Orchestra

Footlights: Dedication ceremonies for Austrian Cultural Forum in New York are set for April 18; Metropolitan Opera will open 36th season of free summer performances in tri-state area with Puccini's La Boheme in Central Park; New York Philharmonic will open 38th season of free summer concerts on July 24 in Central Park; Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company will perform Japanese fable at Kaye Playhouse; Smithsonian's Freer Gallery in Washington will exhibit nudes by James McNeill Whistler; photos (M)

Footlights

Montreal Canadiens prepare to face Boston Bruins in first round of Stanley Cup playoffs; photo (M)

Canadiens Find Inspiration

Record industry's legal victory over Napster last year has neither stopped trading of free music online nor halted slide in music sales; new generation of free music exchanges has blossomed in place of Napster, which was forced offline by California court in July and has yet to return; record companies have found themselves back in courtrooms worldwide and are facing more complicated set of legal questions; results have been mixed, with record companies applauding decision reached last week by Japanese court against Napsterlike service there called Japan MMO, but denouncing one last month in Netherlands, where court found that users, not music service, are to blame; music and movie industries are in Federal District Court in Los Angeles fighting Kazaa (whose software is distributed by Sharman Networks), Grokster and Morpheus, from StreamCast Media that can be used to exchange music, films and other digital media; tens of thousands of new users download free software each day; survey by International Federation of Phonographic Industry finds that revenue from global music sales fell 5 percent in 2001, to $33.7 billion (M)

Music Services Aren't Napster, But the Industry Still Cries Foul

Triumphs and sad decline of playwright Leonard Melfi recalled in light of mistakes that caused him to be buried New York City's potter's field on Hart Island; he achieved modest fame with offbeat plays like Birdbath only to succumb to alcoholism; his younger brother, John, has regained his brother's body and will have it buried in Binghamton, their hometown; is still angry at how his brother was treated at Mount Sinai Hospital and city morgue; photos (M)

For Once, Death Imitates Art; A Talented Playwright's Journey to a Pauper's Grave

Michael Kimmelman Critic's Notebook column on downfall of classical music programming on radio as more and more listeners switch to talk programs; holds public radio, particulary WNYC in New York, has dumbed down music while focusing on younger demographics; holds every community, not just New York, deserves station dedicated to serious music (M)

Lamenting The Fade-Out Of Classical Radio

Bush administration acknowledges that Asst Sec Otto J Reich telephoned Pedro Carmona Estanga, briefly Venezuela's president after coup against Hugo Chavez, to plead with him not to dissolve National Assembly because it would provoke outcry; officials cite call as evidence they tried to uphold democratic process, but disclosure raises questions as to whether Reich or others were stage-managing coup; Carmona did shut down Assembly and Supreme Court, igniting popular backlash that restored Chavez; Bush administration, which denies encouraging plotters against leftist president, told members of Congress Chavez had resigned and did not condemn coup until after angry protestoers forced Carmona out; White House spokesman Ari Fleischer insists US 'explicitly' told opposition leaders US would not back coup (M)

U.S. Cautioned Leader of Plot Against Chávez

British American Tobacco says sales volume in early months of 2002 is 'a little below expectations,' leading to drop of 2 percent to 3 percent; chairman Martin Broughton comments; photo (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Britain: Tobacco Sales Fall

Enron Corp employees are biding their time in wake of bankruptcy and federal investigations; some groups are busy, but some areas are relaxed enough to let people go to dance recitals, soccer games and football; Enron has 23,000 employees worldwide, down from 32,000 year ago; but having shed all its new-economy ambitions to trade everything from natural gas to electronic bandwidth, it is very different company, one whose future shape is still being determined; people who have remained at Enron still receive most of their old salaries, starting at about $150,000 to $200,000 for vice presidents and higher-level executives; some employees comment; photos (M)

Enron Staff Is Biding Time At a Company That Isn't There

Toyota Motor Corp plans to invest 3.6 billion rupees (73.5 million) in two auto parts manufacturing units to build transmission systems; two plants will be near Bangalore in southern India, and are expected to be operating by June 2004 (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: India: Toyota Parts Expansion

Roche Holding reports its first-quarter revenue was up 5 percent, to $4.4 billion, less than market expectations (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Switzerland: Poor Sales For Drug Maker

American goalkeeper Brad Friedel is star of English Premier League's Blackburn Rovers but hopes to start for US in World Cup; photos (M)

April 17, 2002

Headlines from April 17, 2002

BP Adds to Stake in Russia, Despite Earlier Legal Battle

Microsoft And Mexico Aim to Put Nation Online

Among the Vatican Goals, Guidelines for Priests

World Business Briefing | Asia: China: Retailers Expand

INSIDE

Billboard 200

Ashanti

A New Day Has Come

Southern Hummingbird

Now 9

O Brother; Where Art Thou?

Historical Context for April 17, 2002