Summary of major developments in Iraq war (M)

Fall of a Northern City, Suicide Bombing on Marines, Killing of a Cleric

Pres George Bush and Prime Min Tony Blair use newly seized Iraqi state television facilities to send message to Iraqi people promising to help build 'government that protects the rights of all citizens'; message is opening salvo in Pentagon-devised media campaign intended to shape messages sent to Iraqi people and speed end of war; it is unclear how many people received broadcast because of widespread power failures; both governments also intend to publish newspapers; details of other information dissemination campaigns noted, including broadcast of American nightly news programs; photos (M)

A Media Campaign Is Intended to Speed End of War

Group of investors led by Wilbur Ross will sell substa2

World Business Briefing | Asia: Japan: Bank Sale

Heavy rains postpone opening round of Masters Tournament, moving golfers indoors; controversy over all-male membership at Augusta National Golf Club is not having much of impact on tournament; photos (M)

Golf Is Rained Out, but Burk Plays Through

World Business Briefing | Asia: South Korea: Fund Raises Industrial Stake

EchoStar will be hard put to continue to outperform DirecTV way it has for last 18 months in wake of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp's decision to acquire General Motors' Hughes Electronics and control of DirecTV satellite-television company; as cable television industry finally begins to deliver on promise of its long-lamanted digital upgrades and as DirecTV finally appears to be in hands of aggressive and capable media operators, EchoStar and its chairman Charles W Ergen appear to face biggest challenges in years; photo (M)

For EchoStar, the Real Challenge From DirecTV Begins

Spain's Telefonica plans to increase payments to shareholders in effort to raise investor confidence in company after its first loss ever last year; plans to pay its first dividend since 1998, buy back shares and spin off half of company's stake in Antena 3 (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Spain: Telecom Payout Planned

New York Yankees defeat Minnesota Twins, 2-0; photos (M)

Not Perfect, But Wells Is Almost Just as Good

 Shift Dooms Old Firehouses  A shift in population to the south of Brooklyn played a large role in the decision to shut some of the borough's historic firehouses to the north.   PAGE D1    Virus Carrier on 7 Flights  A man infected with a new respiratory disease traveled extensively by air, and Hong Kong health officials urged those on the flights to be checked.   PAGE A10

INSIDE

American marines at old airfield in Qalat Sukkar, two hundred miles south of Baghdad, wait for orders to fight or go home; they are somewhere between fighting and victory, and senior officers of artillery unit are intent on keeping then alert for battle; there remain several towns and small cities that allied troops bypassed and that intelligence reports now suggest may be dens of paramilitary activity; marines spend day doing maintenance work on their vehicles and otherwise relaxing; Col Ron Bailey, on brief visit with artillery battalion, says he is wary of paramilitary confrontations; urges marines to remain alert during current lull; photo; map (M)

Far From the Battle, Marines Wait to Fight or to Go Home

National Council of Women's Organizations chairwoman Martha Burk discusses genesis of campaign against Augusta National Golf Club's all-male membership, her affinity for media spotlight and dedication to women's issues; photos (M)

Burk Fights The Battle She's Given

Military officials say some of heaviest fighting in Iraq is in Qaim, on Syrian border, where American Green Berets and British commandos have been attacking units of Iraq's Special Republican Guard and Special Security Services for last three weeks; say Iraqi forces are defending large compound that includes phosphate fertilizer and water treatment plants; say sheer tenacity of Iraqi fighters has led them to suspect that they may be defending Scud missiles or other illicit weapons, or members of Iraqi leadership trying to flee to Syria; Qaim area was launching point for Iraqi ballistic missile attacks during Persian Gulf war; it was also home to plant used by Iraq in 1980's for uranium processing, and has been identified by American officials as possible site for any effort to revive Iraq's nuclear weapons program; Pentagon officials report making contact with one Iraqi commander in Qaim area in effort to negotiate surrender, but that attempt has failed (M)

Heavy Fighting For Desert Base At Syria Border

New York City police report breaking up drug ring that sold $10 bags of crack out of four apartment buildings on West 146th Street in Harlem; say ring operated like small corporation, providing employees with salaries, per diems and meal allowances and conducting drugs sales with efficiency of bank tellers; arrest 31 people and confiscate $100,000 in cash; name Miguel Hernandez as leader; photos (M)

38 Charged As Drug Ring Is Broken Up

Postal Service says it will be at least another year before workers can go back inside mail-sorting plant in Hamilton, NJ, which was contaminated by anthrax spores in Sept 2001; says machinery for producing chlorine gas that will be used to fumigate plant has not yet been disassembled from sorting plant outside Washington, where anthrax decontamination was recently completed; news of further delay disappoints Hamilton center's 500 workers, who now work at temporary center in Monroe Township; photo (M)

Anthrax Cleanup to Close Mail Center a Year More

World Business Briefing | Australia: Australia: Air Alliance Rejected

Bush administration says it will begin to identify civilian leaders to help run Iraq; tensions persist between State and Defense Depts over interim authority that would pave way for elected government in Iraq; Deputy Defense Sec Paul D Wolfowitz says regional public meetings will be held in Iraq beginning next week to seek out candidates for civilian leadership posts and elicit their views; says meetings will include civilians from all ethnic and religious groups, inside and outside Iraq; administration officials say they are appealing to allies for material help, including personnel to help keep order in postwar Iraq; emphasize that American and British military forces would play 'leading role' in setting up Iraqi government, and that United Nations would play 'vital' but decidedly advisory role limited to coordination of food, medicine and other relief supplies; still unresolved is what, if any, role will be played by Ahmad Chalabi, head of Iraqi National Congress; Wolfowitz as well as Vice Pres Dick Cheney and Defense Sec Donald H Rumsfeld are among his powerful allies; State Dept views him with skepticism because he has been in exile for so long (M)

U.S. to Recruit Iraqi Civilians To Interim Posts

 Halliburton Unit's Contract Is Worth Up to $7 Billion  The Pentagon contract given without competition to a Halliburton subsidiary to fight oil well fires in Iraq is worth as much as $7 billion over two years, according to a letter from the Army Corps of Engineers.    The contract also allows Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton division, to earn as much as a 7 percent profit. That could amount to $490 million. [Page B12.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

Baghdad is scene of widening anarchy as jubilation accompanying collapse of Saddam Hussein's rule gives way to spree of violence and looting; suicide bombing attack on checkpoint manned by American marines leaves at least four of them severely injured; Saddam Hussein, before his fall, had promised wave of suicide bombings against American forces; power vacuum in city appears almost complete, with no immediate prospect of new order rising from old; bands of looters have free run of wide areas on both banks of Tigris, breaking into at least six government ministries and setting several afire, and attacking luxurious mansions of Hussein's two sons and other members of his ruling coterie; looting is done in plain view of American units, without fear of any American response; American troops are kept busy battling pockets of resistance on Tigris's east bank, site of suicide bombing, as well as at house of senior Baath Party official and, farther north, in neighborhoods where pockets appear in control of paramilitary fighters still loyal to Hussein and Baath Party militia; photos (L)

Looting and a Suicide Attack As Chaos Grows in Baghdad

More than 5,000 Iraqi refugees who have lived in refugee camp in Rafha, Saudi Arabia, for last 12 years yearn to return home; they are mostly Shiite Muslims who fled southern Iraq when Saddam Hussein crushed Shiite uprising after Persian Gulf war of 1991; hundreds of children under age of 13 have never seen country their parents call home; Rafha refugees are among 400,000 officially recognized Iraqi refugees across Arab world and in Europe and United States; hundreds of thousands more are living in exile; now many thousands are preparing to go home; their return has become focus of United Nations High Commission for Refugees and other international organizations; at Rafha, desire to leave runs almost as deep as fear of going home to houses and towns that were obliterated and to graveyards that hold their relatives; across camp, small spontaneous celebrations break out as Baghdad falls into American hands; photos; map (M)

In Saudi Desert, '91 Iraqi Refugees Long to Return

Article on affordable second homes that Americans are finding in Nova Scotia, Canada; photos; map (M)

Bargains Across the Border

Study finds that 6,000 to 8,000 day laborers regularly congregate at 57 places in New York metropolitan area, earning average of $9.37 an hour in spring and summer and $7.61 an hour during slower winter months, well above minimum wage; three-quarters of them acknowledge that they are illegal immigrants, and more than 90 percent say they came from Latin American; they send, on average, $3,600 back to their families each year; 50 percent of them say they were not paid for their work one or more times, and 60 percent say that at times they have been paid less than agreed-upon wages; map shows where day laborers congregate (M)

Day to Day, but Making a Living; Immigrant Laborers' Wages Top Minimum, Study Finds

Corporations would find billions of dollars of pension shortfalls eliminated under legislation proposed by Reps Rob Portman and Benjamin L Cardin to address longstanding issue in pension accounting; legislation would create permanent replacement for 30-year bond in certain pension calculations; interim measure, allowing companies to use more favorable rate, is set to expire at end of year; proposal would use rate that is tied to high-rated corporate bonds and that is higher than both interim measure and rate that companies have traditionally used to measure their pension obligations; higher rate, known as discount rate, makes obligations to retirees look smaller, at least on paper; American companies had total pension shortfall of about $300 billion at end of 2002; many big companies, most notably General Motors, have said they must make billions of dollars of contributions to their plans in next few years to comply with funding requirements; company pension plans have weakened in last three years as stocks and interest rates have plummeted (M)

Plan to Alter A Yardstick For Pensions

This psych-out comedy threatens a high-concept peak: Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson nose to nose. Dave Buznik (Mr. Sandler), a mild-mannered ad executive — a man so soft-spoken he occasionally speaks as if he burned the roof of his mouth — is caught in the middle of a huge altercation and misunderstanding on an airplane. He's sentenced to anger management training, ordered by a judge to seek treatment from Dr. Buddy Rydell (Mr. Nicholson). After a few other mishaps, the court orders Rydell to move in with Dave. Rydell's manner — full of smooth, rational explanations that bubble into hostile eruptions of id in numbing alternation — is so disruptive that he seems as much like a doctor as Dr. Bombay from the old &quot;Bewitched&quot; series. He seems to be announcing to the world that he's a charlatan, though what is eventually announced is that the halfhearted &quot;Anger Management&quot; isn't much of a movie, despite a few awe-inspiring touches of absurdity in David Dorfman's script.  — Elvis Mitchell

Crazy Shrink Treats The Last Sane Man

Ben Brantley reviews Roundabout Theater's revival of Maury Yeston-Arthur Kopit musical Nine, directed by David Leveaux; photo; Antonio Banderas, Mary Stuart Masterson, Jane Krakowski and Chita Rivera star; photos (M)

Gals, Gams and Glamour

Nation's airlines, which blamed war in Iraq for plunge in business that forced layoffs of more than 10,000 employees and elimination of dozens of flights, are not expecting postwar era to be better; weak economy, continued fears of terrorism and complicating factor of mysterious illness SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, are likely to offset any increase in travel that could be expected once conflict in Iraq subsides; United Airlines executive vice president Douglas A Hacker says carrier does not expect any bounce back; Air Transport Association economist John Heimlich says short-term outlook is gloomy; association cites year-over-year 17.4 percent decline in overall travel for week ended April 6; domestic travel fell 14 percent, while Asia-Pacific region is off more than 25 percent; graph; photo (M)

Airlines Fear the Loneliness Will Persist

Cecil Howard Green was a British-born American geophysicist, electrical engineer, and electronics manufacturing executive, who trained at the University of British Columbia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

April 11, 2003

Headlines from April 11, 2003

Fall of a Northern City, Suicide Bombing on Marines, Killing of a Cleric

A Media Campaign Is Intended to Speed End of War

World Business Briefing | Asia: Japan: Bank Sale

Golf Is Rained Out, but Burk Plays Through

World Business Briefing | Asia: South Korea: Fund Raises Industrial Stake

Billboard 200

Meteora

One Heart

Now 12

Get Rich Or Die Tryin'

Come Away With Me

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for April 11, 2003