September 20, 2004

Three children whose father is accused of kidnapping after killing their mother are found safe in Valhalla, New York, about 12 miles from abduction site in Mamaroneck; father, Clifford Bonner, who apparently killed himself, is found later in wooded area; photos (M)

George M Sape, new chairman of James Beard Foundation, says former president Leonard F Pickell Jr misused hundreds of thousands of dollars through undocumented or unjustified expenses last year; Pickell resigned this month just before release of audit; he defends spending; many in food world says changes at board do not go far enough; James Beard photo (M)

Union workers at major airlines in financial distress face conundrum: they could lose their jobs even if they do agree to concessions; more than 100,000 airline workers at US Airways, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines face uncertainty about their futures; previous generation's hard-line stance against concessions was contributing factor when major lines such as Pan American folded; but recent bankruptices at US Airways and United Airlines came even after workers cooperated; this has strengthened resolve of labor groups to resist further cuts; if US Airways does not survive, it would throw 28,000 more workers, many of them in New York, Philadelpha and Washington, into markets already crowded with former airline employees, including pilots, flight attendants and maintenance workers; photos; chart (M)

Military command in charge of one of highest priority missions in Iraq, training and equipping Iraqi security forces, has fewer then half of its permanent headquarters personnel in place, three months into its new mission; military officials say effect of headquarters' shortages on actual training of Iraqi forces is hard to measure, but gaps do mean fewer people to lobby Washington for resources, coordinate with Iraqi officials and get money and equipment into hands of trainers around country; delay in filling headquarters jobs said to stem from Pentagon's methodical approach to establishing new organization with extremely complex mission of preparing more than 250,000 members of Iraqi police, border patrol, national guard and army units for duty; group's commander Lt Gen David H Petraeus is taking steps to ensure that training and equipping Iraqi forces continues smoothly; has borrowed top lawyers, training experts and other specialists from Pentagon, West Point, American commands worldwide and even from British forces in Iraq to tide him over until permanent staff arrives (M)

Nineteen seventy-two was the year George W. Bush dropped off the radar screen. He abandoned his once-prized status as a National Guard pilot by failing to appear for a required physical. He sought temporary reassignment from the Texas Air National Guard to an Alabama unit but for six months did not show up for training. He signed on as an official in the losing campaign of a Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, and even there he left few impressions other than as an amiable bachelor with a good tennis game and a famous father.

William C Rhoden Sports of The Times column discusses New York Giants' first victory under coach Tom Coughlin, which may soften tensions between Coughlin and some of veteran players, or could embolden Coughlin to come down even harder on his team; photo (M)

Kelefa Sanneh reviews Fugees reunion concert at block party in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, organized by Dave Chappelle and filmed by director Michel Gondry; photos (M)

New York Italian-Americans whose families came from regions where final vowels are often dropped have reinforced that dialect in America, mangling words, especially food-related words, in ways painful to some purists; photos; Ann Gustafson, whose food-centric Italian comes from Sicilian grandmother, notes that Italians, unlike the French, accept varieties; linguists Stefano Albertini, Liliana Dussi and Gregory Pell explain correct modern pronunciations (M)

New York Jets defeat San Diego Chargers, 34-28; photos (M)

Four former senior and midlevel executives with Merrill Lynch and two lower-level Enron executives are set to go on trial on fraud and conspiracy charges in first criminal trial stemming from financial deals at Enron; charges that defendants conspired to structure bogus 1999 sale of interest in Nigerian electricity-producing barges owned by Enron, deal that inflated Enron's earnings by just $12 million, reflect similar charges that have been brought in virtually every Enron indictment to date; at issue is whether Enron itself guaranteed Merrill against loss, meaning deal should not have been reported as sale; investment fund managed by Enron chief financial officer Andrew S Fastow, one of executives structuring deal, later repurchased barge investment from Merrill; range of evidence in case points up challenges faced by prosecutors and defense; defendants are Daniel Bayly, James A Brown, Robert S Furst and William Fuhs of Merrill and Dan Boyle and Sheila Kahanek of Enron; photo (M)

Yukos Says It Will Cut Oil Shipments to China The Russian oil giant Yukos said that it would immediately reduce some of its rail exports of crude oil to China. It appears to be the first time that Yukos's ability to transport oil has been affected by its tax dispute with the government, which has frozen most of its bank accounts. An unnamed Yukos spokesman told Interfax, the government-controlled news agency: ''Yukos will resume its exports to China fully the moment it regains access to its accounts, frozen by the Justice Ministry. We hope that the Russian government correctly understands the great importance of Russian oil exports to the world market and will take measures to ensure uninterrupted supplies of oil to our Chinese partners.'' [Page C10.]

Anne Midgette reviews opening night of Miller Theater's season featuring George Steel conducting Gotham City Orchestra in selection of works by Leonard Bernstein; photo (M)