September 22, 2004

Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria will buy south Texas banking group Laredo National Bancshares, heating up race by global banks to serve Hispanics living in US; Banco Bilbao says $850 million purchase will give it access to potential market of some five million Hispanics in south Texas; Banco Bilbao's chairman-chief executive Francisco Gonzalez comments; photos (M)

Article on Steve Stoute, former record executive who formed Pass advertising agency in 1999 in partnership with Peter Arnell and who has become one of Madison Avenue's bridges between bevy of blue-chip companies and trend-setting youth market, particularly hip-hop style; photos (M)

Government Accountability Office report shows federal government is paying hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary subsidies to student loan companies even though Bush administration has authority to cut them off immediately; student loans companies for last two years have been taking advantage of loophole in federal law to receive big subsidies that Congress tried to retire more than decade ago; as lenders have stepped up practice, billing government for more than three times as much as they did three years ago, Education Department has maintained that there is little it can do to stop them soon; subsidies could cost government nearly $1 billion that many lawmakers should go directly to students (M)

Pres Bush, in fourth annual address to UN General Assembly, tells skeptical foreign envoys that Iraq is on its way to stability and democracy and calls for 'new definition of security' allowing nations to act together to extend freedom to countries in grip of tyranny; photos; defends US war with occasional defiant edge, rebutting Sec Gen Kofi Annan's assertion that war violated international law by referring to Security Council resolution that threatened 'serious consequences' if Saddam Hussein did not disarm, disclose weapons and permit inspections; Bush, repeating campaign position, describes Iraq as success story to audience of sober diplomats who remain mostly mute; Bush meets briefly with Iraqi Prime Min Ayad Allawi and lunches with other world leaders; speech's central theme is praise of democracy as best way to fight terrorism; Bush calls for permanent peacekeeping force for global conflicts, demands Sudan admit African peackeepers and, at end, rebukes Palestinian leadership and repeats calls for Israel to freeze settlements and end 'daily humiliation' of Palestinians (M)

New International House of Pancakes in Harlem, only IHOP in Manhattan, ranks 14th in sales among 1,167 IHOP franchises in 48 states and Canada after being open for only a week; photos (L)