Boston Red Sox on- and off-field chemistry is helping to lead them through American League division series against Anaheim Angels; photos (M)

The Red Sox Are Passing Baseball's Chemistry Test

Anthony Tommasini reviews Carnegie Hall's gala 114th season opening concert by Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach; photo (M)

The Quixotic Smile of Strauss

European Central Bank leaves interest rates unchanged at 2 percent as rising oil prices cast shadow over Europe's economic recovery; photo (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Interest Rate Unchanged

Students and parents say anxiety level over choosing public high school in New York City is even higher than usual because of missteps by Education Dept; say it has scheduled school information fairs later than usual and that high school directory that usually goes out every Sept has not yet been distributed; problems this year come at time when demand for information about schools is greater than ever, given Bloomberg administration's recent opening of 53 new small schools as part of aggressive push to create more and better choices at high school level; shortage of seats in desirable high schools is one of school system's most acute problems; Schools Chancellor Joel I Klein says it will take some years to fix it; school officials say directories will be sent out in time for first fair (M)

Delays Deepen Stress of Picking a High School in New York City

Initial public offering of 60 million shares of Thai Oil, largest oil refiner in Thailand, sells out to individual investors in four hours; company plans to raise as much as $700 million by selling 900 million shares over next few days; most of shares belong to creditors that took them in lieu of $900 million in debt as part of restructuring deal in 2000 (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: Thailand: Refiner Sells Shares

Only nine companies in European Union are considering registering as European entities and attaching to their names the letters SE, for Socieatas Europaea in Latin, and only two have taken any real steps toward such registration, which becomes possible for first time on Oct 8; only 6 of 25 countries have passed laws required to make idea of truly European company a reality in three years since European government agreed to it; European company status is supposed to save billions of euros in administrative costs for companies doing business across borders (M)

Slow Start for Effort to Shift Europe Inc. to Europe S.E.

Explosions at three Egyptian Sinai resorts popular with vacationing Israelis kill at least 30 people, including 12 Egyptians; Israeli officials blame terrorist bombs; early reports suggest truck bomb was driven into Taba Hilton, just across border from Israeli town of Eilat, followed by explosions in resort villages of Ras al-Sultan and Nuweiba; Hilton is badly damaged by blast and ensuing fire; 10 floors in complex collapse, and there are reports of people buried in rubble; vacationing Israelis had ignored warning last month from Israeli intelligence to keep out of Sinai desert, citing vague but solid information about possible attacks; no definitive claims of responsibility are publicized; panicked Israelis rush border post, trying to flee Egypt, telling border guards in Arabic that their belongings and documents are still in burning hotel; guards shut post temporarily and roads are blocked, leaving vacationing Israelis at other hotels trapped; Israeli television shows scenes of ambulances arriving at Eilat hospitals and unloading wounded, many of them bandaged and bloody; Israeli officials suggest that attack of this magnitude would have been planned carefully from within Egypt; say it is not tied to Hamas, which would not want to embarrass Egypt and jeopordize its improving relations with Cairo; photos; map (M)

Death Toll Is Uncertain After 3 Explosions Strike Resort Towns

Report by American arms inspector Charles A Duelfer describes how Saddam Hussein exploited United Nations oil-for-food program to buy arms from six governments and private companies willing to ignore sanctions prohibiting arms sales to Iraq; says purchases, which included components of long-range missiles, were not enough to allow Hussein to significantly rebuild Iraq's conventional military or create viable chemical, biological or nuclear weapons program, but relative ease with which he was able to buy weapons from governments of Syria, Belarus, Yemen, North Korea, former Yugoslavia and possibly Russia, as well as from private companies in Europe, Asia and Middle East, would seem to justify his boast in Jan 2000 that he could buy whatever he wanted, in spite of embargo; report shows that negotiations over arms purchases and technical advice continued until just days before United States-led invasion in Mar 2003 (M)

U.S. Report Says Hussein Bought Arms With Ease

New York City Health Dept issues scathing portrait of its oversight of 9,400 day care centers in city two months after baby at one center in Queens suffocated under pile of toys in crib while two city inspectors ignore muffled noises; report calls its Bureau of Day Care bureaucratic maze riddled with problems that spell potential dangers for children; says it must expand its staff, raise training standards, tighten inspections and improve communications among its own people as well as with day care operators, parents, and array of city and state agencies trying to enforce bewildering labyrinth of regulations; report was commissioned by Health Dept Comr Thomas R Frieden after he learned of baby's death in Queens more than month after it occurred; Frieden fired director of Bureau of Day Care Donald Nolte and appointed Linda Vassall as acting director; Mayor Michael R Bloomberg declines to comment directly on report before reading it, but notes day care centers are governed by complex array of city and state rules and contracts (M)

Report on Day Care Death Finds Flaws in System

Regulators in Japan file criminal complaint against UFJ Bank and suspend corporate lending in Tokyo and Osaka branches for half a year for concealing extent of its bad loans from inspectors; criminal penalties that UFJ would face upon conviction are relatively light, but UFJ is in negotiations to be acquired by Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group, and threat of criminal prosecution could reduce price it receives in deal; UFJ reiterates pledge to strenghten its compliance system; photo of UFJ executives (M)

Japan Penalizes Big Bank for Obstructing Inquiry

New York Yankees prepare to face Minnesota Twins in third game of American League division series; photos (M)

Yankees Still Pondering the Enigmatic Brown

Article on white-water kayaking in Clear Fork of Trinity River in Fort Worth, Tex; list of other urban white-water kayaking spots; photos (M)

Big City, Big Water

Clyde Haberman NYC column says it is no coincidence that Dr Richard Axel, winner of Nobel Prize for his research on odors, grew up in New York; says smells go far to define this city (M)

A Fitting Nobel for the Nostrils of New York

Atlanta Braves defeat Houston Astros, 4-2, in extra innings to tie National League division series, 1-1; photos (M)

Furcal Shows No Leniency for Astros

Initial public offering of 10 percent stake in India's largest power producer, National Thermal Power Corp, sells out within 15 minutes of its opening; will raise $1.2 billion for government, which will then hold 89.5 percent of company (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: India: Utility's Shares Sell Out

Article on hiking during leaf-peeping season in Mount Washington State Forest in southwestern Massachusetts; photos; maps (M)

Leaf Season: Chasing the Peak

New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter helps lead Yankees to 7-6 win over Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of American League division series, coming through in clutch as usual; photos (M)

If It's October, It Must Be Jeter Time

George Vecsey Sports of The Times column contends that this is year for Boston Red Sox to win World Series, to finally bring some closure to decades-long drought and to give nation of sympathizers some much-needed rest from impassioned rooting and ultimate despair (M)

Dear Boston Red Sox: Win Already. Now. Please?

Shubert Organization, Broadway's biggest theater owner, says it would rename two of its theaters after its late president Bernard B Jacobs and its current chairman Gerald Schoenfeld; plan draws some criticism across Broadway, where theaters have typically been named for playwrights, composers, showmen and even critics, but never executives; photo (M)

Shubert to Change Two Marquees to Honor Corporate Executives

Floyd Norris column says post-Enron morality is being applied to pre-Enron practices, with banks and Wall Street firms being held accountable for financial wizardry they once worked to make companies look better than they really were; cites Parmalat's lawsuit against Bank of America over $80 million loan and prosecution of four Merrill Lynch executives over Nigerian barge deal with Enron; graph (M)

A New Morality Makes Old Deceptions Expensive

Canadian dollar is at 11-year high against its US dollar, pushing 80-cent threshold in US currency after having risen 23 percent in last 18 months; rise makes imports and foreign travel less expensive for Canadians, but hurts exports and businesses that depend on American visitors; companies are forced to make adjustments; many economists say new valuation is due less to strengthening of Canadian dollar than it is to weakening of American dollar; photo; map (M)

Canada's Dollar Is Up a Lot. That's Also the Bad News.

Millhouse Capital regains controlling stake in Russian oil company Sibneft in first step of cancellation of Sibneft's merger agreement with Yukos, another russian oil company (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Russia: Oil Merger Unwinds

Unilever will close its Birds Eye plant in Grimsby, England, cutting 600 jobs (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Britain: Food Plant Closing

Federal Court Judge Thomas F Hogan holds New York Times reporter Judith Miller in contempt of court for refusing to reveal her sources to prosecutors investigating disclosure of identity of covert CIA agent; Miller published no articles about agent, Valerie Plame, but judge notes that she contemplated writing article and had conducted interviews for it; he sentences her to jail for as long as 18 months, then suspends sanction until planned appeal is concluded; prosecutors have relied on secret filings in case to explain to judge why Miller's testimony is required; they have not disclosed filings to Miller and her lawyers; judge rejects request from one of Miller's lawyers, Floyd Abrams, to see summary of filings to allow her to rebut them; New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr says Miller's pending imprisonment is attack on ability of all journalists to report on actions of governments, corporations and others (M)

Reporter for Times Is Facing Jail Time

Bombardier will lay off 2,000 workers at factories in Montreal area and Belfast, Northern Ireland, because of decreasing demand for small airliners that it makes; share price graph (S)

World Business Briefing | Americas: Canada: Cuts At Aircraft Maker

James Clarke Chace was an American historian, writing on American diplomacy and statecraft. His books include the critically acclaimed Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World (1998), the definitive biography of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson. In a debate during the 2000 presidential primary, George W. Bush referred to Chace's Acheson as one of the books he was reading at the time.

October 8, 2004

Headlines from October 8, 2004

The Red Sox Are Passing Baseball's Chemistry Test

The Quixotic Smile of Strauss

World Business Briefing | Europe: Interest Rate Unchanged

Delays Deepen Stress of Picking a High School in New York City

World Business Briefing | Asia: Thailand: Refiner Sells Shares

Billboard 200

American Idiot

Suit

Be Here

Sweat

Live Like You Were Dying

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for October 8, 2004