September 16, 2002

New York Giants defeat St Louis Rams, 26-21; photos (M)

Reputation of John F Welch Jr, former chief executive of General Electric whose management style, swagger and acumen were once analyzed and idolized in business schools, has lost a good deal of luster as result of questions about company's accounting, eerie consistency with which profits rose during his tenure, company's weak stock performance since his departure and disclosure of details of his retirement package; business press will even include Welch's name in same paragraph with such dubious figures as Kenneth L Lay of Enron, Bernard J Ebbers of WorldCom and Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco International; Welch goes on Wall Street Week to defend retirement package and deplore its release; photos (M)

Seventeen survivors of anthrax attacks that began year ago remain ill with symptoms doctors are unable to explain, such as fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pains and memory loss; say they communicate very little with one another, most fighting battles alone; hold they are often confused and at times frightened; are of great scientific interest, especially those with inhaled form of illness since in past nearly everyone with inhalation anthrax died, and doctors have almost no information about recovery; only now is government beginning to study their progress, but experts say valuable information may have been lost; new studies of survivors by Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health discussed; photos (M)

Radio Sawa, new radio station that combines pop music with news snippets, is part of new United States State Department public relations campaign to convince skeptical young Arabs of America's good intentions; station currently broadcasts in five Arab nations, and is in addition to $25 million program set up to offer scholarships for university-age Arabs to study in US; efforts are being met with suspicion among Arabs who feel under assault by American policies on Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq; State Dept spokesman says public relations efforts are essential to combat misperceptions of American policy; Tony Sabbagh, veteran market researcher who is director of Middle East Marketing and Research, says hostility of young Arabs is based on policies not image and that unless Washington modifies stand on Israeli-Palestinian problem, and backs off unilateral action against Iraq, administration faces uphill sell; says while US diplomacy may be influencing some moderate governments, people remain unconvinced (M)

OPEC Watches and Waits Ahead of Its Meeting With the United States pushing for action against Iraq and oil prices rising on fears of war in the Persian Gulf, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is facing pressure to pump more oil. But as the cartel prepares to meet this week in Japan, members have indicated that OPEC will probably do nothing to rein in oil prices that hover around $30 a barrel. The cartel is grappling with the same uncertainty as the rest of the world and is taking a wait-and-see approach. [Section A.]