World Business Briefing | Europe: Britain: Canary Wharf Deal

American International Group appoints Martin J Sullivan and Donald P Kanak as co-chief operating officers; Sullivan and Kanak will be in competition to succeed Maurice R Greenberg eventually as chief executive; Kanak will step into job of Edmund S W Tse, who will remain senior executive; photos (M)

Top-Level Reordering at A.I.G. May Set Up Succession

Christian Plaza, 5, is killed by car driven by Rosario Chauca as boy's mother walks him to school in Queens; photos (M)

Car Kills Boy, 5, as His Mother Takes Him to School

State lawmakers fail to resurrect law to control street vendors in crowed areas of New York City; Senate passes bill requested by city, but Assembly rejects provisions on fingerprinting, which was opposed by vendors who are immigrants or members of minority groups (M)

Albany Fails To Pass Bill To Regulate City's Vendors

Quarterly survey of corporate confidence shows that managers were more upbeat about Japan's economy in third quarter, sign that next week's Bank of Japan Tankan survey will show major gains; capital spending in quarter rose 1.5 percent compared with period year earlier (S)/

World Business Briefing | Asia: Japan: Business Confidence Rises

Article on Columbus, Ind, which was made into Mecca of modern architecture with help of Cummins Inc owner J Irwin Miller and family's Cummins Foundation; photos (M)

A Farmland Showcase For Modern Architecture

American commanders say people fighting them in Hawija, Iraq, seem more brazen recently, even circulating leaflets asking all Iraqis to join them; Iraqi man claiming to be former soldier describes what he says are operations of his cell, which he says consists of 15 men, mostly former soldiers, who take no direct orders from anyone but are in contact with other similar groups; says targets are set by those with more military experience; man's full story cannot be independently corroborated; some details given by him dovetail with comments from American military, although one American officer dismisses man's assertion that his cell has killed total of 500 Americans; says total of six Americans have been killed in area since late Mar; photos; map (M)

A Tale of War: Iraqi Describes Battling G.I.'s

Clyde Haberman column on concert by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel at Madison Square Garden; reports that songs hold up but that some references to New York City life are as dated as 50-something-year-old fans in audience (M)

50-Something, But Feelin' Forever Groovy

OPEC decides against reducing crude oil production at meeting in Vienna, but makes clear that it will remain vigilant about any price declines by considering output cuts as early as Feb 10; OPEC is already thought to be producing about million barrels per day more than its current production limit of 24.5 million barrels as its members seek to benefit from prices that have climbed above $28 per barrel, upper limit of its desired price range; Kuwait's Oil Min Sheik Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah says cut of at least 4 pecent is necessary, or about million barrels per day, when OPEC meets in February; graph (M)

OPEC Holds Steady on Output, at Least for Now

Growing group of talented Cubans, from surgeons to baseball players to musicians, are leaving their homeland in search of better lives; in Oct, Cervilio Amador and Gema Diaz became first dancers to defect during Ballet Nacional de Cuba's American tour; three more defected week later in New York; in Miami, where first two defected, Cuban defectors are portrayed as heroes who risk their lives to escape Fidel Castro's government; in Havana, they are depicted as ungrateful fools; defectors say they left for professional reasons, to have opportunity to dance elesewhere; say economics and politics weighed heavily in their choice to abandon Cuba and dance company, which they describe as financially strapped, losing its best people and controlled by aging leader unwilling to yield power to younger generation; since last Nov total of 20 dancers have defected in Mexico, Spain, Dominican Republic and, now, US; despite their privileged status, dancers are not immune to scarcities in Cuba or to capriciousness of its political system; photos (M)

Fleeing Cuba, Hoping to Soar On New Stage

Sixth article in series Re-examining Medicare on swelling vanguard of critics who say Medicare's payment system is fundamentally flawed; Medicare pays hospitals fixed sum to treat specific diagnosis or perform given procedure, regardless of quality of care they provide; hospitals that work to improve are are not paid extra, and poor care is frequently rewarded, because it creates need for more procedures and services; experts say Medicare legislation that Pres Bush is expected to sign does little to reverse financial disincentives to improving care; Medicare's top official Thomas A Scully agrees that payment system needs to be fixed; many experts say that rather than paying for more studies, as new Medicare bill does, Congress should start making significant changes to way doctors and hospitals are paid; Intermountain Health Care, network of 21 hospitals in Utah and Idaho, says it foregoes roughly $1 million a year in Medicare payments because it makes sure its doctors prescribe most effective antibiotic for pneumonia patients, for example, and thereby avoids complications that would call for more treatment; photos; graphs (L)

Hospitals Say They're Penalized By Medicare for Improving Care

 Powell Asks NATO for Help  Secretary of State Colin L. Powell urged NATO ministers to consider providing more help to stablize Iraq, the most pointed American appeal for aid since spring.   PAGE A22    U.S. Prosecutor Is Killed  The body of a federal prosecutor was found in a creek in a rural area of Pennsylvania, hours before he was to appear in court in the case of a violent drug ring.   PAGE A24

INSIDE

Hindu Temple Society of North America in Flushing, Queens, is divided over whether members of its board of trustees should be elected democratically or named by trustees themselves, as is now the case; state appeals court has sided with plaintiffs seeking elections; Dr Uma Mysorekar, temple's president for past nine years, says elections would turn temple into circus; at core of dispute is how temple spend its $3 million in annual revenues; photos (M)

A Hindu Temple of Discord; Amid Priests and Chants, a Bitter Campaign for Leadership

There is probably no director more obsessed with the complexity of patriotism  — an unusual subject to plumb in mainstream films — than Edward Zwick, who is driven to question the imperatives of an America that his protagonists both love and detest.  His movie falls squarely into the realm of the previous Zwick bedeviled-hero films, &quot;Glory,&quot; &quot;Courage Under Fire&quot; and &quot;The Siege.&quot; And I do mean squarely.  &quot;Samurai&quot; is a mythic western that combines a fish-out-of-water theme with an immersion in Japanese culture: John Ford's &quot;Lost in Translation.&quot; And this time, the can-do idol of millions, Tom Cruise, uses his polished chrome smile mirthlessly. The uneven &quot;Samurai&quot; is a can-do movie that's far more effective at communicating emotion in bigger scenes than in more intimate ones. Mr. Cruise plays the burnt-out former Army officer and Indian fighter Nathan Algren. He is hired by his former commander (Tony Goldwyn) who wants Algren to travel to Tokyo and train Japanese soldiers in the use of American tactics and rifles.  Algren is forced to send his nervous, underprepared imperial troops into battle too soon against an enemy of the Emperor, the samurai Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe). When a wounded Algren kills Katsumoto's second-in-command, he's captured by the invaders and, even more bewildering, cared for by Katusmoto's sister, Taka (Koyuki), the widow of the man Algren killed. Algren then learns the ways of the samurai with an alacrity that's expected of movie stars. — Elvis Mitchell

From the Wild West To the Honorable East

San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds testifies before grand jury in connection with Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative's development and marketing of previously undetectable steroid THG; photo (M)

Inquiry on Steroid Use Gets Bonds Testimony

Philippine exports rose 6.2 percent in October, to $3.2 billion, compared with year ago, led by rising shipments of semiconductors (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: Philippines: Exports Rise

Air Canada, which has operated under supervision of bankruptcy court since April, is expected to ask Ontario Superior Court judge on Dec 8 to approve agreement that would make Trinity Time Investments airline's largest shareholder; Trinity, controlled by Victor Li, son of Hong Kong magnate Li Ka-shing, would acquire 31 percent of airline's equity for 650 million Canadian dollars ($500 million); Air Canada struck deal with Li on Nov 8 after setting aside competing bid from Cerberus Capital; photo (M)

Investor Fight To Control Air Canada Goes to Court

Reed Elsevier Group says earnings growth will slow in 2004 in part because of flat outlook for ad revenue; expects profit to increase 5 to 10 percent next year, down from more than 10 percent in 2003; graph (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Britain: Publisher Cuts Outlook

Anthony Tommasini reviews concert version of John Adams's opera the Death of Klinghoffer, with Robert Spano conducting Brooklyn Philharmonic, part of Brooklyn Academy of Music's New Wave Festival; photo (M)

Giving Voice To an Act Of Terror

Euro trades at another record high against dollar; trades at high of $1.216 before falling to $1.205 in New York trading; European Central Bank leaves its benchmark interest rate unchanged and dampens speculation of radical change in policy to curb appreciation of euro; bank's president Jean-Claude Trichet insists commercial activity is reviving in Europe, and will turn into 'broader and strong upswing in course of next year'; professes bewilderment at report in Daily Telegraph of London that European Commission has studied capital controls as way to stem rally in euor; adds such proposal would not be in line with policies of monetary union; photo (M)

Euro Rises as Central Bank Stands Pat

Japan's top banking regulator Heizo Takenaka says government will explore ways to help shareholders of insolvent Ashikaga Bank, which has been nationalized; says regulators will try to minimize impact on shareholders, whose stock fell to zero after government took control of bank on Dec 1; photo (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: Japan: Aid In Bank Case

Harvey Araton Sports of The Times column suggests that New Jersey Nets could face possibility of trading star point guard Jason Kidd, not because he is struggling, but because new ownership might be forced to cut payroll; photos (M)

Sports of The Times; In Nets' World, Even Kidd Is Vulnerable

World Business Briefing | Europe: Britain: Bank Hires Executives

Article on Scott Chester of Brooklyn, who designs customized motorcycles; photos (M)

Couture Motorcycles

Tens of thousands of consumers who have switched mobile phone providers in last 10 days since new federal rules went into effect are encountering technical glitches and delays in making number transfers; customers have had to wait several days for their old numbers to work on their new phones and some have waited more than week, even though switch is supposed to take few hours; Federal Communications Commission sends letter to AT&T Wireless asking company to explain reasons for delays and what it is doing to remedy problem; AT&T Wirless says its automated number switching is failing about 60 percent of time, higher than industry average; preliminary figures suggest AT&T Wireless is losing more customers than other companies; analysts say Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile are gaining customers, while Sprint PCS, Nextel and Cingular Wireless are losing about same number of customers as they are gaining (M)

December 5, 2003

Headlines from December 5, 2003

World Business Briefing | Europe: Britain: Canary Wharf Deal

Top-Level Reordering at A.I.G. May Set Up Succession

Car Kills Boy, 5, as His Mother Takes Him to School

Albany Fails To Pass Bill To Regulate City's Vendors

World Business Briefing | Asia: Japan: Business Confidence Rises

Billboard 200

In The Zone

Beg For Mercy

Blink-182

The Black Album

Let It Be... Naked

Historical Context for December 5, 2003