November 4, 2002

Former Prime Min Benjamin Netanyahu conditionally agrees to become Israel's foreign minister; says he will accept offer by Prime Min Ariel Sharon if government promises to call new elections soon and if he reaches understanding on three major issues; cites exile for Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, which he favors, establishment of Palestinian state, which he opposes, and location of new fence along boundary of West Bank; he would replace Shimon Peres, architect of Oslo accords and supporter of two-state solution to conflict with Palestinians; offer by Sharon is latest move to recruit allies and box in rivals to shore up his minority coalition government now that Labor Party has dropped out; collapse of 19-month-old unity government in budget dispute and political implications of overture to rival Netanyahu discussed; photo (M),

Turkish voters elect former Islamicist Recep Tayyip Erdogan to head new government, expelling ruling coalition led by Prime Min Bulent Ecevit; his Justice and Development Party wins 34.2 percent of vote, compared with 19.4 for closest rival; he quickly seeks to calm fears by emphasizing his support for moderate, secular Turkey, committed to joining European Union and continuing strong relations with US; map (M)

New York's selection as America's entry in global competition to hold 2012 Summer Olympics wins proud and enthusiastic toasts from city and state officials, from some of town's movers and shakers and from random sampling of ordinary people; photos (M)

Rapidly rising home prices have overwhelmed recent decline in interest rates making purchase of first home more difficult than in years for large numbers of young adults in many large metropolitan areas; many prospective homeowners find themsleves living odd inversion of American dream, earning considerably more money than parents did, but still struggling to own home; those who did not join ranks of homeowners in last decade face greatly diminished financial prospects, having missed out on home-price boom that adds tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars to other families' wealth; situation is made worse by fact that many renters invested in stock market in recent years to build up savings for down payment, only to lose money or earn meager return on investments, while homes they wished to buy have soared in value; house-price boom is creating significant new social divisions in metropolitan areas affected, separating younger families from older ones and making some towns less diverse; graphs depicting soaring home prices, 1990-2002, in 14 major metropolitan areas (M)

Some online marketers are beginning to promote their wares on file-trading services like KaZaA, which are typically used to obtain unauthorized copies of music, movies or software; marketers, ranging from independent bands to Microsoft Corp, hope to turn these 'hackers, thieves and pirates' into into customers; ertertainment industry officials say marketers are only giving support to services that encourage theft of other people's intellectual property; organizations promoting file-traders see this kind of marketing as way to lure people away from piracy by providing them with authorized material to download--and, in some cases, asking them to pay for it; photo (M)