Oil companies do not expect to reap benefits quickly if Saddam Hussein is ousted in Iraq; are eager to develop Iraq's reserves, second-largest in world, but believe Iraqis will deal with them only on toughest terms; will be reluctant to invest in Iraq unless they have wide range of guarantees because they question how stable Iraq would be after a war; photos (M)

Iraq Is Strategic Issue for Oil Giants, Too

Hans Blix, chief United Nations weapons inspector, demands that Iraq start destroying--within week--all its Al Samoud 2 missiles and any illegally imported engines designed for use in rockets, which United Nations experts say exceed allowed range of 92 miles; demand appears to set stage for diplomatic showdown over next two weeks that could determine whether Iraq faces war; photos of Pres Bush and Samoud missile (M)

INSPECTOR ORDERS IRAQ TO DISMANTLE DISPUTED MISSILES

Federal Emergency Management Agency announces it will not approve emergency plans at Indian Point nuclear power plant, pointing to lack of crucial information; will give New York State officials one more month to comply before sending report to Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must close plant if FEMA does not approve emergency plan (M)

FEMA Says It Can't Approve Emergency Plan For Indian Pt.

Sotheby's Holdings and its largest shareholder, A Alfred Taubman, agree to take auction house off the market after getting no firm bids in eight months; photos (M)

Bids Scarce, Sotheby's Takes Itself Off the Block

Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher and longtime associate Sandy Koufax severs ties with Dodger organization because of gossip story printed in New York Post that alleged he is homosexual; News Corporation owns both New York Post and Dodgers; New York Post issues apology for suggestion; photos (M)

Koufax Cuts Ties With Dodgers; Newspaper Retracts Gossip Item

George Vecsey Sports of The Times column contends that United States Olympic Committee needs complete structural overhaul, including appointment of new leader to replace Lloyd Ward; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; U.S.O.C. Must Put Reform First

 Girl Grave After Transplant  A day after a second heart and lung transplant, doctors said a 17-year-old girl had severe brain damage and little chance to live.   PAGE A11    Politicians in Black Robes  Federal courts are giving judges more leeway to be political in their private lives, but the trend has its critics.   NEWS ANALYSIS, PAGE B1

INSIDE

Profile of and interview with David Natanovich Bell, native of Houston, Tex, who has lived in Soviet Union since he was barely 10; Bell, now 81, is among last of small band of Americans and their kin who quit United States in depths of Great Depression and headed for Josef Stalin's socialist paradise; for acting on their convictions, many suffered grievously; some died, marooned in prison camps or worker to death building dams for greater Soviet glory; many others, including Bell's brother, sister and children, fled to America and Europe after Soviet Union's borders began to crack open; Bell chose to stay and live with his wife in Dubna, 80 miles north of Moscow; photo (L)

Exiled American Outlives Stalin's Shadow

Barge explosion at oil depot on shore of Staten Island (NYC) tests city's emergency response systems as police department, fire department, national guard and city officials collaborate to respond both at scene of fire and at number of vulnerable points throughout city, treating explosion as terrorist attack until it proved to be accidental; photo (M)

Shoreline Fire Tests Security Plan of a City on Edge

Barge sitting at oil depot on shore of Staten Island (NYC) explodes in morning, killing two barge crewmen and testing New York City's emergency response systems; investigations are ongoing but officials are confident explosion was result of accident, not terrorist attack; thinking explosion could be diversion for larger attacks on vulnerable locations throughout city, officials disperses emergency rescue workers, firefighters and police to secure city; Bouchard Transportation captain John Kyne is found dead in water and mate Ford Ebank is found in vessel; ExxonMobil employee Frank Scandariato is badly burned is in critical condition; photos (M)

Barge Blast In Staten Island Leaves 2 Dead

Legend Group, China's largest manufacturer of personal computers, plans big push into foreign markets soon, probably including forays into United States and Europe (M)

Chinese Computer Maker Plans a Push Overseas

Parents react to list of public schools throughout New York City that will not be subjected to curriculum overhauls with concerns that schools not on elite list will be forced to focus more on math and test scores and eliminate arts and talent programs that were reasons their children were enrolled in those schools; Chancellor Joel I Klein selected 209 schools that were deemed successful enough to control curriculum, and could try to implement uniform curricula in other schools; photos (M)

A Blank Page in Schools' Future; Many Strive to See Effects of a List of Top Performers

Illinois joins lawsuits against Wal-Mart Stores, Target, Office Depot and three smaller retailers, accusing them of failing to collect taxes on Internet and catalog sales; move comes as several states, facing severe budget shortfalls, are exploring way to collect tax revenue from online retailers (M)

Illinois Joins Suits To Collect Taxes On Internet Sales

FCC decision not to order thorough deregulation of local telephone business that was sought by its chairman, Michael Powell, raises question of whether he has political influence to push through deregulation of media industry; photos of Powell and commission member Kevin J Martin (M)

Policy Defeat Puts F.C.C. Chief in Awkward Spot

NASA releases document showing that during Columbia's liftoff, not one but three chunks of debris flew off 15-story external fuel tank and hit shuttle's left wing; previously, public inquiry into what caused craft to break up focused only on largest chunk; document is third in series of reports that analysts at Boeing, major shuttle contractor, prepared to help NASA judge if debris had endangered shuttle and its crew of seven astronauts; photo; drawing (L)

3 PIECES OF DEBRIS HIT SHUTTLE WING

Major League Baseball officials will meet with players association to discuss possible dangers of using dietary supplements including ephedra, which may have been responsible for death of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler (M)

League Executives Challenged On Ephedra

Most Eastern Europeans are looking forward to becoming full members of a European system that they hope will bring economic salvation and stability in a region scarred by memories of war and dictatorship.     But with the exception of eastern Germans, whose inspiration for revolution in 1989 came more from western Germany than across the Atlantic, they believe that only the United States can guarantee their security.  

Eastern Europe, On a New Stage

Rhode Island is small familial state, and people all across it know families who lost loved ones in fire at nightclub in West Warwick or families awaiting word on relatives in hospital; photos (L)

An Emptiness Made Crueler By Closeness

Adam Liptak News Analysis discusses potential conflict of interest that exists when state judges and judicial candidates participate in politicking; Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and other judges are of mindset that judges have same rights to free speech as any other political candidates, while opponents argue that judges are obligated to repress their own politics for benefit of judiciary and appearance of impartiality (M)

Judges Mix With Politics

College basketball has increasingly become stage for parity this season, with top ranked teams losing to lesser teams and once-dominating teams losing more games than in past years; photos (M)

Where Surprise Is Commonplace

Newly disclosed company documents indicate that some senior executives at Bayer were aware that their anticholesterol drug Baycol had serious problems long before company pulled it from market; documents, made public by lawyers suing Bayer, include e-mail messages, memos and sworn depositions of executives that suggest that Bayer promoted Baycol even as company analysis found that patients on Baycol were falling ill or dying from rare muscle condition much more often than patients on similar drugs; photo (M)

Papers Indicate That Bayer Knew Of Dangers of Its Cholesterol Drug

Washington Wizards defeat New Jersey Nets, 89-86; photos (M)

Jordan Is 40 And Fabulous Against Nets

Raging fire at rock concert rips through nightclub in West Warwick, RI, leaving at least 96 people dead and 187 injured; inferno at club called Station is deadliest nightclub fire in United States in 25 years and one of worst in country's history; fire begins when heavy metal band Great White lights pyrotechnic cones on stage minutes after its concert began around 11 pm; shower of white sparks appears to ignite foam sound-proofing material that lined walls near stage, and building is almost instantly engulfed in flames; patrons bolt for doorways and smash windows, some racing outside with their hair and flesh on fire; photos (L)

96 Dead in Fire Ignited by Band at Rhode Island Club

 Documents Indicate Bayer Knew of a Drug's Dangers  Newly disclosed company documents indicate that some senior executives at Bayer were aware that their anticholesterol drug had serious problems long before the company pulled it from the market.    The documents, made public by lawyers suing Bayer, include e-mail messages, memos and sworn depositions of executives that show that Bayer promoted the drug, Baycol, even as a company analysis found that patients on Baycol were falling ill or dying from a rare muscle condition much more often than patients on similar drugs. [Page A1.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

Randy Brinkley resigns as president of Boeing's satellite unit; Dave Ryan is named president (S)

February 22, 2003

Headlines from February 22, 2003

Iraq Is Strategic Issue for Oil Giants, Too

INSPECTOR ORDERS IRAQ TO DISMANTLE DISPUTED MISSILES

FEMA Says It Can't Approve Emergency Plan For Indian Pt.

Bids Scarce, Sotheby's Takes Itself Off the Block

Koufax Cuts Ties With Dodgers; Newspaper Retracts Gossip Item

Billboard 200

Get Rich Or Die Tryin'

Home

Cocky

Come Away With Me

Let Go

Historical Context for February 22, 2003