December 19, 2003

Broadview International, boutique investment bank that specializes in technology mergers, is planning to announce that it has agreed to be sold to Jefferies & Co; terms of deal are not disclosed, but perhaps its most important term is that it may keep Broadview from becoming extinct; Broadview chairman-chief executive Paul F Deninger and Jefferies chairman-chief executive Richard B Handler comment (M)

Boston Red Sox say negotiations to acquire Texas Rangers shortstop Alex Rodriguez before deadline set by commissioner Bud Selig are dead, ending weeks of dealing and anxiety over prospect of signing Rodriguez to Boston contract; photos (M)

Photo of Julia Roberts and other actresses in new movie Mona Lisa Smile

New York City Mayor Michael R Bloomberg reaches agreement with city unions to cut $100 million in health care spending, which will allow city to increase employee benefit funds contributions; municipal workers will see increased co-pays and administrative fees to help increase fund benefits; graph (M)

Colgate-Palmolive Co acquires Swiss toothpaste maker Gaba Holding AG for as much as $830 million; graph (S)

New York City schools are complaining that they have not received checks from $40 million Snapple contract that made Snapple beverage company exclusive partners of city schools; schools are to use money for school athletic equipment and programs; photo (M)

CHRISTOPHER HEUNG arrives a marked boy. Not that he seems aware of it. As he nibbles on the oversize chocolate chip cookie he has started his dinner with, he exhibits no concern about defending his back-to-back national chess championships. Auburn crumbs accumulate on his black turtleneck. His legs dangle over the edge of his chair, his feet not yet able to reach the carpet. Christopher won the National Scholastic K-12/Collegiate championship as a first grader and again last year as a second grader. Now, having come to this suburban satellite of Chicago's O'Hare airport this past weekend to play for the third-grade title, Christopher arrives as the top-ranked 8-year-old chess player in America.

Shares of China Life Insurance Co rise 26 percent in their first day of trading, latest sign of strength in Hong Kong stock market as China's economy and local economy prosper; $3 billion initial offering is world's largest this year; American depository receipts of China Life started trading in New York on Dec 17, where they rose 30 percent; trading began in Hong Kong despite embarrassing mix-up that caused share allocations to be misprinted in newspapers, although correct allocations were posted on Web site of Hong Kong Exchange (M)

Poles support hard line taken by their leaders at European Union summit on new European constitution; Poland and Spain broke up meeting by refusing to yield to demands by France and Germany that they accept new, less favorable voting system for EU; now Europe's paymasters, led by France and Germany, are petitioning to freeze union's budget--move seen by some as form of payback to Poland, which expects to be prime recipient of European aid after it joins union in May; dispute centers on arcane question of how to apportion voting rights of different members of union; despite population of 39 million and largest economy in Central Europe, many Poles fear their country will not be treated as full partner in greater Europe; photo (M)

Federal appeals courts in New York and San Francisco reject Bush administration policy in two terror cases; New York court rules that Pres Bush lacks authority to detain indefinitely United States citizen arrested on American soil on suspicion of terrorism simply by declaring him 'an enemy combatant'; San Francisco court declares that administration's policy of imprisoning 660 noncitizens captured in Afghan war on naval base in Guantanamo Bay without access to US legal protections is unconstitutional as well as violation of international law; Supreme Court has agreed to hear case of detainees at Guantanamo and is widely expected to rule on case of American declared enemy combatant, Jose Padilla; court is expected to announce whether it will hear related case involving Yaser Esam Hamdi, who has been held alongside Padilla in naval brig in Charleston, SC; Hamdi is believed to be US citizen as well as Saudi; he was arrested in Afghanistan and is being held as enemy combatant; Padilla case drew wide attention in June 2002 when Atty Gen John Ashcroft said he was planning to explode radioactive 'dirty bomb' in US: majority of three-judge panel rules that Congress might have power to authorize detention of American, but president, acting on his own, does not; appeals court gives government 30 days to release Padilla or take some other action; White House spokesman Scott McClellan says administration would seek to have Padilla ruling overturned; San Francisco ruling on Guantanamo detainees comes after earlier ruling by federal appeals court in Washington which supported administration's position that detention camp in Cuba is out of reach of US law; photo; timeline of major events since capture of Padilla and detaining of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay (L)

Jennifer Connelly plays Cathy Nicolo, a recovering addict whose modest house on the California coast is seized by the county, and sold at auction to Massoud Behrani (Ben Kingsley), a former Iranian military officer living in gloomy exile with his family. Cathy's attempt to get back the house and Behrani's intransigent refusal to let go of it escalate toward a heavily foreshadowed catastrophe. The movie, adapted from a novel by Andre Dubus III, is the nearly flawed execution of a deeply flawed premise. The logic of the story seems to override the plausible motives of the characters, and you may feel the overwhelming force of the tragic ending without quite believing it. Ms. Connelly is a bit blank, her intelligence trapped by Cathy's passivity, but Mr. Kingsley, playing a patriarch in crisis, is superb. So are Ron Eldard, as the sheriff s deputy whose attempts to help Cathy accelerate the inevitable disaster, and especially Shohreh Aghdashloo, who plays Behrani's weary, good-hearted wife. Vadim Perelman, directing his first feature film, shows himself to be a filmmaker of impressive tact and restraint. The film's stately, classical rhythm is enhanced by Roger Deakins's rich and somber cinematography. — A. O. Scott

New York Yankees players Karim Garcia and Jeff Nelson and Boston Red Sox groundscrew member Paul Williams are charged with assault and battery for brawl in bullpen during Game 3 of American League Championship Series; photo (M)