July 18, 2004

As Gaza Grows Unruly, Premier Offers to Quit The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, submitted his resignation, but officials said Yasir Arafat rejected it. The political drama came after a tumultuous day of kidnappings in Gaza that demonstrated the absence of law and order there and the growing challenge to Mr. Arafat's dwindling authority. PAGE 4 Ambassador Is Low Key The new American ambassador to Iraq, John D. Negroponte, emerged in Baghdad but did his best not to make news, instead deferring to the authority of the new Iraqi government. In and around the capital, at least six Iraqis were killed in two car bombings. PAGE 14

Frank Rich article on current network news programs that he says are as farcical as fictional news show in film Anchorman; says real on-air news people are as concerned with their image and popularity and as little interested in real news as Will Ferrell's character Ron Burgundy in film; discusses change in network focus from hard news to development of morning programs in which news has become soft-edged family entertainment; photos (M)

Median home prices in New York City metropolitan area have appreciated more, 1950-2000, adjusted for inflation, than national rate of 168.5 percent, while gains in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in general have lagged or barely exceeded national median; Manhattan, with region's highest gain, rose 721 percent; map and graph of regional gains; photos (M)

Conditions are still miserable in and around Nyala, Sudan, two weeks after Sec of State Colin L Powell and UN Sec Gen Kofi Annan visited that part of Sudan in hope that glare of diplomatic shame might arrest human crisis; days after diplomats end their tour, gunmen storm girls' school in desert region of Darfur, chain group of students together and set building on fire; charred remains of eight girls are still in shackles when military observers from African Union arrive on scene; Sudanese government promised diplomats it would rein in Janjaweed militias, but killing and raping continue, and health conditions are more dangerous; photos; map (L)

Amount of money American workers receive in their paychecks is failing to keep us with inflation; three years of job losses have left large worker surplus, which reduces pressure on wage growth; some economists say that even though economy has been adding hundreds of thousands of jobs almost every month this year, stagnant wages could put dent in prospects for economic growth; say that if incomes continue to lag behind increase in prices, it could hinder ability of ordinary workers to spend money at healthy clip; graphs; photo (L)

Many companies are using handwriting analysis as part of hiring process, supplementing traditional interview and reference checks; photo (M)

Top-tier venture capital funds, including Sevin Rosen, has started raising new funds in recent months after hiatus, and some are turning away hundreds of millions of potential investments; venture capitalists seen bit nervous about climbing inventories and assortment of other bad news that portend harder times; Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers rejected more money that it accepted when it closed on $400 million fund earlier this year; question is what will happen to all those millions that do not get into top-tier funds--money that plenty of other venture capitalists would be happy to accept but would not necessarily be able to invest effectively, given limited pool of bankable ideas; Paul G Koontz of Foundation Capital comments; photos (M)

Mass media have been telling Martha Stewart and Kenneth L Lay stories in same terms even though their cases are very different; Watergate scandal left its harrowing imprint on nation's psyche, and media have been reenacting same story ever since; contention of author Suzanne R Garment is that Watergate established assumption that cover-up is worse than crime; photo (M)

Sen John Kerry heads to Boston trying to duplicate Bill Clinton's success at 1992 presidential nominating convention; polls show Kerry tied with Pres Bush, but Americans do not seem overly enthused about him; he has been unable to take advantage of abundant evidence that Americans are looking for change in White House; nominating convention has faded since Clinton put it to such effective use; broadcast networks have whittled down their primetime coverage and television viewership has declined; photo (M)

Disastrous fire in Kumbakonam, India, exposes problems with India's drive to modernity; illegal thatched roofs on popular private school caught fire, endangering lives of 870 students whose families have given up on country's decrepit public education system; teachers with little training in how to respond to fire apparently panicked, fleeing school and abandoning as many as 190 elementary school students, trapped in second-floor classroom; firefighters arrived quickly, but 90 children have died or are dying; Indian fire, health and education officials failed for years to conduct proper inspections of school; residents say they doubt that fire will result in serious effort to end India's continuing problem of lax enforcement of government standards; while country's high technology economy surges ahead, inefficient--and in some ways, weak--federal, state and local governments, as well as poor public education system, threaten to slow country's development; photo (M)

Scott Robson article on confusion of writers, producers and executives about what they can and cannot say and show on TV; says some network officials contend that election-year posturing in Washington is resulting in most conservative television environment in years, while others say they barely feel the chill; holds Congress is considering legislation that could raise penalty for indecency against networks from four-figure maxmimum for each violation to $3 million a day, while Federal Communications Commission is trying to enforce standard that does not exist; some network writers, producers and executive comment; drawinhg (M)

Ten older American soldiers are among nearly 900 American soldiers who have died fighting in Iraq; some died of medical ailments that might have excluded them from earlier conflicts, others under fire in heat of battle; their deaths have created different landscape of grief since men leave behind total of 11 grandchildren, 21 decades of marriage, years of service to communities, mortgages nearly paid off and long careers that were already pointed toward retirement; table show all 10 casualties, showing age, rank, armed forces unit, date and place of death, and cause of death; photos (L)