October 19, 2004

New York City education officials seeking to stem violence in 16 of city's most troubled schools are loosely imitating Police Dept's successful style of combating neighborhood violence; new approach blends attention to detail with influx of police officers, school safety agents and other disciplinary and support staff; preliminary statistics show 48 percent decrease in major crime in last school year at targeted schools; teachers' union president Randi Weingarten lauds plan, but not everyone is convinced; data city has released is scant, and city has not said how much program is costing; some critics wonder whether focus on 16 schools is prudent when so many other schools in city are struggling with crime and other problems; photo (M)

Bundesbank says Germany's growth in three months ended Sept 30 fell from 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter rate in second quarter (S)

Workers at General Motors' Opel assembly plant in Bochum, Germany, refuse to work for third day, just days after GM announces deep jobs cuts in Europe; GM begins talks with IG Metall union representatives at all its European plants over cost-cutting plan that is aimed at saving 500 million euros ($623 million) per year in labor costs, and could result in reduction of up to 12,000 jobs, most in Germany; Bochum workers are demanding that GM guarantee it will not lay off workers or shut factory; photo (M)

Marie Saint Cyr runs Iris House, one-stop support center in Harlem for women with HIV and AIDS; she describes her 11-year-old organization as nation's first community-based group to provide women and their families with everything from counseling and housing to medical help and custody planning; she sees what some politicians apparently cannot, that HIV and AIDS have increased to crisis proportions among African-American and Hispanic women; photos (M)

Clyde Haberman, in NYC column, contends that early release of former State Sen Guy J Velella and his partners in crime Hector Del Toro and Manuel Gonzalez from prison is graphic example of how New York politics can be mutual protection society (M)

China's Chery Automobile Co plans to assemble cars in Malaysia; move is likely to generate new controversy about Chinese protection of intellectual property; Chery has been at center of disputes with General Motors and Volkswagen over whether it has copied their vehicle designs, accusations that Chery has repeatedly denied; GM responds within hours to news of Chery's Malaysian plans by saying it will fight to prevent violations of its intellectual property rights wherever they might occur; Alado Corp, with links to BSA International, says it will import and later assemble Chery QQ subcompact car and Chery B14 minivan in partnership with Chery; vehicles are to be sold in Malaysia and distributed across Southeast Asia; photo (M)

BEFORE, it was a nuisance. Now, it has become a downright menace to the Yankees. Before, it was a swarm of gnats. Now, it is a phalanx of mosquitoes, bearing the West Nile Virus of baseball, a massive shift in momentum. The Red Sox are alive, alive and swarming. They outlasted the Yankees, 5-4, in 14 innings last night, in the longest game played in postseason baseball, 5 hours 49 minutes of hope and futility, trial and error.

Nicolai Ouroussoff reviews new 74-acre Ashar Park in Cairo's old Islamic quarter; photos (M)

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co will spend 27 billion yen ($247 million) to build industrial park in Hangzhou, China, that contribute about half of company's home appliance sales in China after it opens in October 2005 (S)/

Article on Broadway: The American Musical, six-hour PBS documentary hosted by Julie Andrews that will be shown over three nights; creators Michael Kantor, filmmaker, and Laurence Maslon, professor at New York University's Tishman School of Arts, comment; photos (M)

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CIA documents show billions of dollars of Iraqi opil has been sold under United Nations program--and food and other goods bought iwth proceeds--when Saddam Hussein decided in 2000 that he personally wanted bigger cut of action and that Coastal Corp acceded to that demand, paying surcharges that kept oil flowing ; action by Coastal Corp, which was founded by Texas entrepreneur and oilman Oscar S Wyatt Jr, is detailed in formal Iraqi government tally of secret payments made from September 2000 to December 2003, when steps were taken by American and British officials to stop surcharges; Coastal, only publicly traded American oil company on list, is shown as having paid $201,877 in surcharges, small part of $228 million in surcharges on oil sales that Hussein collected, largely from Russian companies; Wyatt says through spokeswoman that he has no knowledge of Coastal's paying any surcharges; El Paso Corp, which acquired Coastal in 2001, declines to comment, citing grand jury subponea company received from federal court in New York; charts; photos (M)