Article on vipers, large, widely diverse family of snakes that includes rattlesnakes, coral snakes and black mambas and more than 200 other species dispersed everywhere except Australia; focuses on new illustrated book, Biology of the Vipers, in which several dozen herpetologists offer information, some surprising, amusing or cautionary, about vipers; photos (M)

Venomous and Sublime: The Viper Tells Its Tale

Footlights column: New Juilliard Ensemble, directed and conducted by Joel Sachs, presents premieres of works by Tajik composer Alisher Latif-Zadeh and Mongolian composer Sansar Sangidorj; exhibition of American documents and photographs, many never shown before publicly, is opening at New-York Historical Society; composer Tan Dun will make his conducting debut at Brooklyn Academy's New York premiere of his work, Water Passion after St Matthew; Bolshoi Ballet will complete current US tour with performances at Kennedy Center Opera House; photo (M)

Footlights

New York Mets introduce new pitcher Tom Glavine, who says Mets organization and owner Fred Wilpon made him feel like he was part of family; photo (M)

Glavine Says Wilpon Made Him Feel Like Family

New Jersey Nets defeat Phoenix Suns, 106-93; photos (M)

Kidd Puts Marbury And Suns Behind Him

World Business Briefing | Americas: Argentina: Banker Steps Down

Brazil's industrial production rose 8.9 percent in October, up from 1.7 percent in September; country is running $12 billion 12-month trade surplus (S)

World Business Briefing | Americas: Brazil: Industrial Output Rises

Clyde Haberman NYC column contends that winter weather brings abundance of journalistic hyperbole on television when reporters use countless cliches to exaggerate and form stories around snow fall and cold temperatures (M)

Clichés Nipping At Our Ears

Bush administration proposes sweeping new pension rules that will encourage companies to adopt type of retirement plan that has been under attack for three years for what critics call tendency to strip benefits from older employees; proposed rules, which are to be released by Treasury Department, describe steps for companies to avoid age-discrimination challenges when they convert their traditional pension plans into what are called cash-balance pension plans; cash-balance plans tend to benefit younger workers, often at expense of older workers, and are less costly for companies; employers are lauding new proposals, while worker-rights advocates are criticizing them, saying they permit reductions in value of employees' benefits (M)

Administration Proposes Rules That Can Alter Pension Plans

Man in the News profile of John W Snow, mew Secretary of Treasury; he was born Aug 2, 1939 (M)

UPHEAVAL AT THE TREASURY: THE NOMINEE -- Man in the News; A Pragmatist At Treasury

Article on long-term study conducted by Carnegie Mellon computer science Prof Manuel Blum and others on how to differentiate human from artificial intelligence; Yahoo and other portals now use simple vision and sound puzzles called Captchas (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) to prevent automated registrations at Web sites; future applications may include automated recognition of military targets or detection of trademark infringements on Internet; photos (M)

Human or Computer? Take This Test

Analysis of recent census data shows that alarmingly high percentage of lower- to middle-income single homeowners are spending more than 35 percent of income on housing in Brooklyn and Bronx (NYC); because so many homeowners are willing to pay high housing costs for relatively little space, many are saddled with unmanageable mortgages and struggle to make ends meet; photo (M)

New York Homeowners Paying a Record Share for Housing

World Business Briefing | Asia: Kazakhstan: Oil Conflict

Ben Brantley reviews musical Dance of the Vampires, directed by John Rando, music and lyrics by Jim Steinman and book by David Ives, Steinman and Michael Kunze; Michael Crawford and Rene Auberjonois star; photo (M)

It Ain't Over Till the Goth Vampire Sings

Interest in acquiring Bayer AG's drug business is diminishing; bankers say problem is that potential buyers are not convinced they can wrest from Bayer power to cut workers and otherwise reduce costs to make merger make sense; chief executive Werner Wenning seeks to quash that idea; adds Bayer remains in talks with potential partners, but declines to elaborate; graph; photos (M)1

Suitor Interest in Bayer Drug Unit Fades

New studies, to be published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, finds that when people are asked to make split-second decisions about whether black or white male figures in video game were holding guns, they were more likely to conclude mistakenly that black men were armed and to shoot them; findings mesh with other research indicating that unconscious biases can shape behavior; photos (M)

With Video Games, Researchers Link Guns to Stereotypes

Northrop Grumman's $7 billion bid for TRW Inc hits last-minute snag; Northrop and Justice Department, prodded by Lockheed Martin Corp and Defense Department, are in 11th-hour talks on consent decree to assure government that Northrop will not abuse its control over important, and often classified, satellite technology; at issue between Northrop and government are censors that go inside variety of satellites used for military and commercial purposes; combined Northrop-TRW, which both make censors, will have monopoly control on their sales after merger; photo (Market Place column) (M)

THE MARKETS: Market Place; Northrop-TRW Deal Hits a Last-Minute Snag

Profile of and interview with poet Ruth Stone, 87, who has won National Book Award for her collection In the Next Galaxy; photo (M)

Poetry That Captures A Tough 87 Years; For National Book Award Winner, Long-Ago Loss Tinges Achievements

 United Begins the Task Of Trying to Reorganize  Still grasping for a plan that would return itself to profitability, United Airlines became the biggest airline and one of the largest American companies ever to seek bankruptcy protection from its creditors. Under pressure from its lenders for quick action to cut costs, the company said its first step would be to turn once again to its workers for deep concessions.     The bankruptcy filing gives United more time to look for cures to its ills. But experts said the answers are no more obvious now than they have been since United's losses started mounting two years ago during a downturn that revealed just how unprepared traditional hub-and-spoke airlines were for the challenge from low-cost airlines. [Page A1.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

Wave of killings in Ciudad Juarez, Mex, has taken lives of at least 280 women and girls since 1993; women's leaders say many families, distrustful of local authorities, are afraid to report crimes to police and that total of women and girls killed or missing is closer to 600; Chihuahua State authorities say at least 76 victims fell prey to serial killers; most victims were between 15 and 25; deaths have drawn hundreds of protests and expressions of international outrage, but epidemic of violence against women continues; critics say investigations have been marred by official cover-ups and corruption; Pres Vicente Fox is resisting pleas from United Nations officials and others that he intervene in probe; says homicide is state crime, not federal one; American and Mexican experts on serial killings agree that violence in Juarez is not work of single psychopath, but they agree on little else; photos; map (M)

Wave of Women's Killings Confounds Juárez

 Governors Seek Bigger Role  The nation's Democratic governors told Congressional Democratic leaders they want a bigger role in formulating policy and making the party's case to voters.   PAGE A28    Military Talks With China  The Pentagon renewed high-level talks with the Chinese military on issues ranging from Iraq to Taiwan, in the latest sign of improved American-Chinese relations.   PAGE A15

INSIDE

United States takes possession of copy of Iraq's declaration of its weapons programs, after persuading four other permanent members of Security Council that US must see document immediately; all 15 Council nations decided on Dec 6 to hold off on receiving declaration until it is screened by United Nations experts for information that could be used to make nuclear weapon, but Secretary of State Colin L Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice later decided they did not want to wait; table of contents from Iraqi document suggests it includes much detailed technical information about Iraq's past secret efforts to build nuclear weapon; it also hints at information about countries that provided Iraq with equipment for its illicit nuclear effort; American diplomats at UN send Iraqi declaration to Washington, where copies of mountains of paper and CD-ROM's are being prepared for four other permanent members; France and Britain say they have received their copies; photo of table-of-contents page from Iraqi weapons declaration (M)

U.S. IS FIRST TO GET A COPY OF REPORT ON IRAQI WEAPONS

Arts in America column on new disco music exhibit at Robert Santelli's Experience Music Project in Seattle, Wash; photos (M)

Here's to Disco, It Never Could Say Goodbye

Producers report sales of more than $500,000 by 3 PM day after Broadway premiere of Puccini opera La Boheme; fans debate whether it would be classified as new musical or musical revival for possible Tony Award; show receives nearly unanimous raves from critics; director Baz Luhrmann comments; photo (M)

Italian Opera With Hollywood Heart Looks Like a Broadway Hit

Federal District Judge John D Bates throws out General Accounting Office's suit to require Vice Pres Dick Cheney's records of Bush administration's energy task force; judge makes no fundamental pronouncement on separation-of-powers issues that Cheney insisted were at heart of case, but ruling is major victory for him and serves as judicial validation for administration that has come under criticism as excessively secretive; ruling finds that Comptroller Gen David M Walker of GAO lacks standing to sue because he suffered no 'personal, concrete and particularized injury' and that institutional claim he made on behalf of Congress is flawed since neither house of Congress nor any Congressional committee sought records; appeal is almost certain; Judge Bates was appointed to bench year ago by Pres Bush; photo (M)

Judge Says Cheney Needn't Give Energy Policy Records to Agency

Many upscale merchants in New York City, expecting slow holiday shopping season as result of city's economic strain, are offering uncharacteristic bargains and incentives; some examples cited; possible reasons for disappointing sales discussed; photo (M)

Upscale Retailers Are Trying Downscale Tactics

Andres Küng was a Swedish journalist, writer, entrepreneur and politician of Estonian origin. He was born in Ockelbo in Gävleborg County to a family of refugees from Soviet occupied Estonia.

Andres Küng, Swedish journalist and politician (born 1945)

Andres_Küng

Edward Ian MacNaughton was a Scottish actor, television producer and director, best known for his work with the Monty Python team.

December 10, 2002

Headlines from December 10, 2002

Venomous and Sublime: The Viper Tells Its Tale

Footlights

Glavine Says Wilpon Made Him Feel Like Family

Kidd Puts Marbury And Suns Behind Him

World Business Briefing | Americas: Argentina: Banker Steps Down

Billboard 200

Up!

Now 11

8 Mile

The Last Temptation

The Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for December 10, 2002