October 17, 2003

Elvis Mitchell reviews movie Pieces of April, directed by Peter Hedges; Katie Holmes stars; photo (M)

Woody Allen is reportedly near agreement to sell United States rights to memoir to Penguin for about $3 million, but he has made it clear to publishers that unless he receives truly enormous sum as advance for all the world rights, he will not deliver a book; deal with Penguin follows agreement with British division of HarperCollins, which committed to pay more than $1 million to publish book in other parts of English-speaking world; photo (M)

Missiles and ammunition are scattered around Iraq, much of it unguarded because United States does not have personnel to keep watch; Gen Robert L Davis, who is overseeing cleanup, acknowledges scope of problem, saying there are 105 large ammunition dumps as well as scores of smaller sites, not all of them guarded regularly; says recently deployed private civilian contractors have destroyed more than 2.5 million pounds of ammunition in past three weeks alone; at Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad, Iraqis wander around unguarded 15-foot-long missiles and antitank rounds at one of Saddam Hussein's defense factories; compound is rubble now, demolished by American bombs, but missiles are everywhere; it is impossible to know how much as been looted; photo; map (M)

German bank WestLB names former Deutsch

Floyd Norris comment on whether stock exchanges can regulate themselves in light of American Stock Exchange's decision to allow NASD, which regulates Nasdaq stock market, to take over its regulation; says American Stock Exchange's regulatory operation has done such horrible job that it is all but certain that some of its employee--and possibly exchange itself--will face disciplinary action by SEC (M)