December 24, 2004

The Dollar Continues To Slip Against the Euro The dollar touched a record low against the euro yesterday, with traders betting that it would fall further. The dollar has fallen about 7 percent against the euro since President Bush was re-elected, and investors have become worried about the trade deficit and the government's need to borrow money. PAGE C1 Democrats Reassess Abortion Democratic leaders say that their party needs to de-emphasize the issue of abortion rights, concerned that Republicans have hurt the Democratic Party by portraying it as an uncompromising champion of abortion. PAGE A15 Murder Rate Falls Again Homicides in New York City are down more than 5 percent as the year draws to a close, continuing a 14-year decline and causing some to ask if they have hit bottom. PAGE B1 Giuliani-Era Lawsuits Add Up Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City has spent close to $2 million to settle lawsuits accusing the Giuliani administration of retaliation for the exercise of free speech or other rights. PAGE B1 Medicare's Antismoking Plan The Bush administration said Medicare would soon pay for counseling to help beneficiaries stop smoking, a major expansion of the services covered by the program. PAGE A16

Sanofi-Aventis, the drug maker, said shareholders approved the last step of its merger with Aventis and the takeover will be complete on Jan.1. In a special meeting in Paris, almost all of Sanofi's shareholders approved the absorption of Aventis. Sanofi-Aventis will operate jointly at the start of next year, the chairman, Jean-François Dehecq, above, said at the meeting. Mr. Dehecq oversaw the purchase of Aventis in part to reduce Sanofi's dependence on its best-selling drug, Plavix, whose patents are being challenged in the United States. Sanofi-Aventis, as the company has been called since Aug. 20, is counting on new products, including its experimental appetite suppressant, Acomplia, to increase earnings.

A federal judge yesterday cleared Jermaine O'Neal to return from his suspension and play in the Indiana Pacers' game on Christmas in Indianapolis against the Detroit Pistons -- and possibly for good. As a stormy wind howled through an open window, Judge George B. Daniels of United States District Court in Manhattan granted the N.B.A. players' association's request for a temporary restraining order to halt the league's 25-game suspension of O'Neal for his role in the Nov. 19 brawl during a game against the Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The dollar hit another record low against the euro on Thursday, and sank against other major currencies, in what analysts said was a growing unease about the ballooning trade and budget deficits in the United States. The euro briefly traded at $1.35 against the dollar, with traders around the world betting that the dollar would fall further next year.

Israel and Jordan expanded a 1995 trade agreement between the countries to eliminate duties by 2010, the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Israel said. The accord will go into effect at the beginning of next year, cutting Jordanian duties on imports from Israel by a third and duties on Jordanian exports to Israel by half, the minister of industry and trade, Ehud Olmert, said. The duties will continue to decline until they are eliminated in 2010, the ministry said.

So many jobs have been cut by the auto parts giant Delphi that workers sound almost existential about their future. ''I think about it,'' said Robert Pepin, 47, a forklift driver walking to his car after his shift on a recent frigid afternoon at the Delphi East plant in Flint, Mich. ''It worries me. But, hey, the sun comes up, the sun goes down.''

Julie Cervinka, a 23-year-old legal secretary, had been eager for doctors at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan to implant an artificial disk called the Charité in her spine since the Food and Drug Administration approved the device on Oct. 26. Last week, Ms. Cervinka got her wish. She was too deeply anesthetized to be aware of what she endured in her latest effort to escape the often disabling lower back pain she had suffered since age 9.

In ''The Woodsman,'' Nicole Kassell's lean, disturbing first film, Kevin Bacon plays Walter, who has just been released from prison after serving 12 years for molesting young girls. This subject matter, and the moral puzzle of Walter's character, present an enormous challenge to Mr. Bacon, to the director (who collaborated on the script with Steven Fechter) and, above all, to the audience. How much sympathy can we extend to a man who has done the things Walter has, and who may still be capable of doing them? To its credit, ''The Woodsman'' does not try to force too much compassion on us, or to advance any plea on Walter's behalf apart from the recognition of his humanity. For some viewers -- as for some of Walter's co-workers and family members -- this may be too much to ask. But the movie, neither excusing nor exploiting him, instead regards him with wary, ambivalent curiosity, placing him at the center of a modest, frayed drama that feels both understated and generous.

Article on mid-December one-night trip from London to Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland to meet Santa Claus; photos; map (M)

The Knicks received devastating news yesterday when they learned that Jamal Crawford, their second-leading scorer, will be out three to six weeks because of an injury to his right big toe. Team doctors diagnosed a soft-tissue injury, commonly known as turf toe. Crawford, a 24-year-old guard who was the Knicks' prime off-season acquisition, will receive treatment from the training staff and will be placed on the injured list Sunday.

The cotton was always waiting for him, exploding in tufts of white. Eugene Upshaw would go to the field every day and work his way up and down the stalks, filling his bags with the lifeblood of Robstown, Tex. For 100 pounds, he made $1.25. On good days, he pulled in $5. He was 7 years old when he started.

Pres Bush says he will renominate 12 candidates to federal appeals courts who were denied confirmation in his first term; announcement is in ilne with princiapl campaign theme for him and Vice Pres Cheney, that he would battle Democratic opposition to his judicial choices; it is at odds with his post-election pledge to reach out to opponents; Senate Democrats are expected to wage another bitter fight over what they see as Bush's efforts to shift courts in markedly more conservative direction; Bush, in his statement, also calls for renomination of eight candidates for federal district courts; announcment produces expressions of dismay from not only Senate Democrats but also Sen Arlen Specter, Republican who is expected to become chairman of Judiciary Committee after surviving challenge from some conservative Republicans who opposed his ascension to chairmanship; photos of Bush's nominees for appeals court judges (L)