August 16, 2002

Donald J Trump's $85 million conversion of Hotel Delmonico into expensive condominiums will retain original facade of 73-year-old Park Ave building; Costas Kondylis is architect; building will be renamed Trump Park Avenue; photos (M)

Local units of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are in trouble with Indian government after they covered mountainside in Himalayas with competing soft drink ads; India's Solicitor General Harish Salve says cleaning away signs with chemicals might compound environmental damage done by painting them; begins court proceedings against companies and calls for investigation by government research institute (S)

Germany's Commerzbank decides not to sell Jupiter International Group, its British asset management unit, because it is unable to get price it wants; will keep unit within Commerzbank Group for long term (S)

Justice Department is conducting criminal investigation into Metabolife International, leading manufacturer of herbal stimulant ephedra, to determine whether executives lied about what thty knew about safety of substance; Food and Drug Administration Deputy Comr Lester M Crawford says agency has asked Justice Department to pursue investigation because after years of seeking company reports on consumer complaints Metabolife has repeatedly refused to cooperate with FDA; in 1998, Michael Ellis, president of company at time, said in statement to FDA that company never received one notice from consumer that any serious adverse health event has occurred because of ingestion of Metabolife 356; company spokeswoman Jan Strode says Ellis has not made any false statements to FDA; Metabolife says it will release its record of consumer complaints; contends it has about 13,000 complaints, including some dated before Ellis's statement; about 80 mentioned serious injury or death, and 100 to 200 involved hospitalization (M)

Leading Republicans from Congress, State Dept and past administrations are breaking ranks with Pres Bush over his administration's high-profile planning for war with Iraq, saying administration has neither adequately prepared for military action nor made case that it is needed; say they favor eventual removal of Saddam Hussein, but that Bush is proceeding in way that risks alienating allies, creating greater instability in Middle East, and harming America's long-term interests; say administration has not shown that Iraq poses urgent threat to US; Brent Scowcroft, first Pres Bush's national security adviser, who helped build broad international coalition against Iraq in Persian Gulf War, writes opinion article in Wall Street Journal warning that attack on Iraq at this time would jeopardize, if not destroy, global counter-terrorist campaign; says attack might provoke Iraq to use chemicial or biological weapons in effort to trigger war between Israel and Arab world; Henry A Kissinger, in opinion article in Washington Post, makes long and complex argument about international complications of any military campaign; Sen Chuck Hagel, Republican who was among earliest voices to question Bush's approach to Iraq, claims CIA has 'absolutely no evidence' that Iraq possesses or will soon possess nuclear weapons (M)