Dan Barry About New York column discusses new one-woman service called The Perfect Stranger, which encourages New Yorkers to call 'Patti' for advice on myriad personal problems or just to talk for $5 per problem; Patti is not psychologist but prides herself on having experienced every kind of problem herself (M)

About New York; Problems? For $5, She'll Listen

Dow Jones shareholders will hear good news about company for first time in years at company's annual meeting on April 21; advertising linage has grown for three consecutive quarters after declines in previous 11, thanks to nascent recovery in financial advertising and increasing consumer advertising at flagship Wall Street Journal; representatives of restive union plan to be on hand to complain about their protracted and heated labor dispute with company; photo (M)

Dow Jones Sees Some Good News Amid the Shadows

 Arbitrators Find Merrill Was Biased Against Women  Merrill Lynch & Company, the nation's biggest brokerage firm, discriminated against women who worked as stockbrokers, according to a panel of arbitrators who awarded $2.2 million to one of them.      The decision was the first legal ruling to find that a Wall Street firm engaged in systematic discrimination. It could be used to bolster the claims of about 40 current and former Merrill brokers who have not settled their discrimination claims against the firm. Merrill has already paid out more than $100 million in class-action settlements. [Page A1.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

Shanghai Automotive Co, publicly traded unit of China's biggest carmaker, says first-quarter profit more than doubled as it sold more Buick and Sail cars made with its partner, General Motors Corp; net income increases to 710.7 million yuan ($86 million) (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: China: Profit In Auto Sales

Comment by two American generals that former Iraqi Baath Party members, including senior Army officers, should be accepted for government jobs noted

U.S. Generals Criticize

Alessandra Stanley reviews TV Land series TV Land Moguls, hosted by Merv Griffin; photo (M)

Without the Tycoons, There Wouldn't Be Stars

US track and field faces possibly damaging results of Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative investigation, which could add controversial wrinkle in formation of team that goes to 2004 Olympics if enough athletes are found to have used steroids (M)

U.S. Track Is Bracing For Fallout In Balco Case

Supreme Court appears distinctly unreceptive in oral arguments on Bush administration's claim that foreign detainees at Guantanamo naval base should not have access to federal courts; most of justices, hearing first of three cases on enemy combatants, seem to regard World War II-era precedent as ambiguous or irrelevant and even Solicitor General Theodore Olson's opening declaration that US 'is at war' appears to rankle, particularly when he acknowledges that government position does not depend on continued military conflict in Afghanistan; issue is whether some 600 prisoners can have access to federal court to file habeas corpus petitions; Court has combined two cases brought for 16 detainees who maintain they were innocent noncombatants; John J Gibbons, retired federal chief judge now in private practice, argues for detainees, drawing on own naval experience at Guantanamo to attest that base is under complete US jurisdiction; photo; Olson's discussion with justices on World War II case also quoted (M)

SUPREME COURT HEARS THE CASE OF GUANTÁNAMO

R W Apple Jr reports on conference in Great Milton, England, at which ranking chefs, food experts and others from United States are seeking to persuade their French and British counterparts that American gastronomy has come of age; says they have succeeded for most part; notes panel discussions on state of restaurant art on both sides of Atlantic and tasting food of chefs like Wylie Dufresne and Thomas Keller, with Alice Waters and Charlie Trotter still to come; gathering is brainchild of Raymond Blanc, French-born British chef; photo of Blanc with Daniel Boulud; other photos (M)

Europe Borrows A Cup of Inspiration

Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan roils financial markets by declaring that threat of deflation is 'no longer an issue' and that economy seems to be strengthening on many fronts; his brief but buoyant comments about economy, during testimony at Senate hearing, sends shivers through both stock and bond markets, as investors interpret his words as additional evidence that Federal Reserve will raise interest rates before end of year; photo (M)

Optimism By Fed Chief Stirs Markets

Michael Slackman Political Memo discusses New York City Mayor Michael R Bloomberg, who seems to be staking his re-election on his ability to improve public schools; with so many education issues permeating city's political landscape, including testing of third graders and city school system's deal with Snapple, much of administration's time and energy has been devoted to education, prompting Bloomberg to recently urge voters in 2005 mayoral election to blame him if schools are not improved (M)

Political Memo; Mayor Determines Focus of 2005 Race: Schools

Rockefeller family cattle farm at Pocantico Hills, NY, has been transformed into Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, working organic farm, agricultural education center and upmarket restaurant called Blue Hill at Stone Farms; founders say center is meant to connect people with food they eat and to prove that stunning restaurant and superb food can be part of such a lofty goal; photos (M)

Dine at the Rockefellers', Get in Touch With the Earth

Dave Anderson Sports of The Times column discusses sports performance coach Jim Fannin, whose clients include New York Yankees infielder Alex Rodriguez; Fannin insists that superstars like Rodriguez do not let no hits in 16 at-bats rattle them; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; It's About Finding a Zone, Not Zen, for Rodriguez

Arbitration panel rules that Merrill Lynch discriminated against its female stockbrokers and orders $2.2-million payment to one of them, E Hydie Summer, which could bolster claims of some 40 other women; firm has already paid more than $100 million to hundreds of other women who joined class-action suit more than five years ago; Merrill and Smith Barney are settling mass claims of sex discrimination filed in late 1990's; panel also rejects Merrill's explanations for dearth of women in senior positions (M)

Merrill Lynch Firm Is Told It Must Pay In Sexual Bias Case

Janus Capital Group says that its chief executive, Mark B Whiston, is resigning and that he will be succeeded by chairman, Steven L Scheid; company, which is struggling to stanch billions of dollars in redemptions by investors in its mutual funds, says Whiston's departure is not part of discussions with regulators about settling their investigation into market timing abuses at fund company; photo of Whiston (M)

Chief Executive of Janus Capital Steps Down

Russian government says it and not private oil companies will build pipeline between Tayshet in Irkutsk region, former gulag hub in Siberia, and to Nakhodka, port on Sea of Japan, bringing much-needed oil to countries in East Asia; pipeline represents far more than $10 billion deal between Russia and Japan, which could take until end of decade to complete pipeline of 2,500 miles; Kremlin is reasserting its control over Russia's oil exports; decision to build pipeline to Japan instead of China is seen as largely political; photo; map (M)

Russia to Run 2,500-Mile Oil Pipeline In East Asia

Karen Jurgensen, top editor of USA Today since 1999, resigns abruptly, citing her failure to intercept apparent fabrications in articles by Jack Kelley; her photo; publisher Craig Moon makes terse announcement after receiving report from three outside journalists on how Kelley's deceptions went undetected; executive editor Brian Gallagher will run paper for now; Kelley apparently fabricated at least eight major articles in last ten years; other reporters question why editors who directly supervised Kelley, such as managing editor Hal Ritter, have not been forced out (M)

Editor of USA Today Resigns; Cites Failure Over Fabrications

Government forges agreement with NextWave Telecom Inc that will free valuable airwave licenses vital to improving nation's cellphone system and provide windfall potentially worth billions of dollars to NextWave, which has been in bankruptcy protection since 1998; NextWave will return to FCC 75 percent of licenses it won in 1996 auction but never paid for, but will be allowed to keep some of the most valuable of disputed licenses in largest cities; government will also receive $1.1 billion on top of $500 million down payment it received years ago from NextWave; licenses returned to FCC, which have never been used, will be reauctioned (M)

NextWave Pact With F.C.C. Ends Airwave Dispute

Thomas Lopez-Pierre is managing partner of Harlem Club, which introduces single, professional, good-looking and under 35-year-old African-American men and women to each other for purpose of potential relationship matches; club's exclusivity and seemingly superficial standards have raised eyebrows in New York City's black community, but scores of applications have been sent in; photo (M)

Only the Gorgeous and Smart; Club's Rules Amplify Buzz on Race and Relationships

Akzo Nobels reports first-quarter profit of 133 million euros ($159.9 million), down 4.3 percent from year-earlier period (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: The Netherlands: Profit At Akzo

Alitalia, Italy's flagship air carrier, which is hovering near bankruptcy, gives some hints of turnaround plan that it refers to as 'hypothesis,' as government considers offering tax breaks to entire airline industry; Prime Min Silvio Berlusconi weighs decree to offer tax breaks to all airlines operating in Italy; photo (M)

Italy Considers Tax Breaks as Way to Help Ailing Alitalia

Article on Congo River, symbol and substance of country trying to knit itself back together after years of war; Congo government authority has yet to reach pockets of warlords and rebels and most everything, from schools and hospitals to courts and trains, has stopped working, so that mythic river coursing 2,700 miles is principal highway for people and trade; photos; map; barges crawling up and down are most vivid symbols of slow reawakening between Kinshasa and Kisangani, where river is lined with monuments to Mobuto Sese Seko's meglomania; new unified army, centerpiece of peace deal, is being cobbled together with Belgian help, although gunmen still prowl along river extracting hard-earned produce from villagers (M)

Hopes and Tears of Congo Flow in Its Mythic River

Sport utility vehicle driver Vernon Ketcher dies when he drives SUV into van carrying children to soccer practice on Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont (NY); two children are killed and six people are seriously injured in violent collision that likely occurred because Ketcher, who is 82, fell ill at wheel; photo (M)

Man and 2 Children Are Killed as Vehicle Hits a Team's Van

Summary of some major stories on inside pages

INSIDE

German government is expected to nominate Axel A Weber, academic economist with no party or central banking experience, as president of Bundesbank, moving quickly to get past scandal that forced resignation of Ernst Welteke; photo (M)

Bundesbank Likely to Get A Professor At the Helm

On 21 April 2004, a series of large car bomb explosions ripped through Basra, Iraq. Seventy-four people died and more than 100 were injured. The attacks were some of the deadliest in southern Iraq since the fall of President Saddam Hussein.

Five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160.

April 21, 2004

Headlines from April 21, 2004

About New York; Problems? For $5, She'll Listen

Dow Jones Sees Some Good News Amid the Shadows

BUSINESS DIGEST

World Business Briefing | Asia: China: Profit In Auto Sales

U.S. Generals Criticize

Billboard 200

Confessions

Now 15

Damita Jo

In This Skin

Feels Like Home

Historical Events

Historical Context for April 21, 2004