October 29, 2002

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji is hoping to persuade Asian leaders to set up regional free-trade agreement at economic meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, next week; China present free-trade plan to leaders of Association of Southeast Asian Nations to counter regional concerns that China's booming economy has drawn investment away from its neighbors; photo (S)

NBA season is underway, with eyes on last year's burgeoning clutch players like Sacramento Kings guard Mike Bibby and Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant; photos (M)

Philadelphia Eagles defeat New York Giants, 17-3; photos (M)

Law enforcement officials in at least four European countries are making steady progress in investigation into what they say are schemes in which deeply discounted HIV and AIDS drugs meant for poor and dying patients in Africa are resold in Europe at huge profits; police and other investigators from Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France are scheduled to meet at Europol, European police agency, to exchange documentation and other evidence indicating wide web of trafficking in gray-market AIDS drugs; European Commission will publish new enforcement guidelines that it hopes will put end to smuggling; drugs manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline arriving on flights from Africa were intercepted this month at airports in Paris and Brussels; Glaxo says it lost estimated 16 million euros ($15.75 million) in sales in last year from reselling (M)

Cleanup crew wearing hazard suits dismantles dust-covered sweaters and jeans from Chelsea Jeans near World Trade Center site, whose proprietor, David Cohen, enclosed them in glass as memorial to victims of Sept 11 when he reopened for business two months after attack; Cohen, who has just been forced to close store, estimates that hundrews of thousands of people visited store to see memorial; clothes are being transferred to New-York Historical Society; photos (M)