February 21, 2005

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez arrives at spring training and talks to media about comments from other players that he is not true Yankee; photos (M)

Article on role of William Huff in effort by Time Warner chairman and chief executive Richard Parsons to acquire Adelphia Communications; Huff, whose firm, W R Huff, manages more than $15 billion in junk bonds and other investments, is never afraid to use his financial muscle to push for what he thinks he deserves, no matter how long it takes; Huff has not disclosed how much of Adelphia's debt he owns; he and other creditors of Adelphia will have final say on any offer for company; photos (M)

Three States Are in Talks With Aon to Settle Inquiry The attorneys general in New York, Connecticut and Illinois are in talks with Aon, the insurance broker, to settle investigations into whether it received improper payments from insurance companies that increased costs for its customers, some of the officials said. The talks have been under way for several weeks and could conclude with an agreement as early as this week, according to people who have been briefed on the case. [Page C2.] Blogs Monitor the Press in Europe In Europe, the Web has spawned a new breed of self-appointed cybermonitors of the conventional news media. One example is Bildblog, a media monitor that was created last summer and dissects the tabloid reports of Bild, Germany's leading daily. Christoph Schultheis, above, is one of the founding members of the blog. [Page C7.] New Wave of Telecom Deals Seen The merger wave in the telecommunications industry may soon hit the equipment makers that supply the big carriers. Investors are increasingly talking about potential deals between Motorola, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and possibly European manufacturers like Alcatel. The rationale is simple: When carriers merge, they cut their capital spending budgets. To survive, their suppliers have to merge to keep revenue growing and expand into new product areas. New Economy. [C4.] Pop-Up Company Tries a New Path The Claria Corporation, which has recently collected enemies among Internet users and publishers, is ready to play nice. The company, formerly known as the Gator Corporation, built a business covering consumer desktops and publisher Web sites with pop-up ads. But last week it announced a new advertising service that rejects pop-ups and seeks to make business partners of publishers. Bob Tedeschi: E-Commerce Report. [C3.] Post Office Drops Two Airlines Add the United States Postal Service to the list of disgruntled airline customers. Exasperated by frequent delays that caused first-class mail to arrive late, the post office has stopped using American Airlines and US Airways. [C2.] Glitch Enables Illegal Downloads It was clear last week that Napster, which sells legal music downloads, still has less-than-perfect controls over illegal copying. [C6.] Advertising for Peace in Middle East The chief executive of Publicis Groupe, an advertising company, is leading an effort to develop a public service campaign promoting the idea of peace. It would run in Arabic and Hebrew, aimed at Israelis, Palestinians and -- perhaps eventually -- a wider audience. [C6.] Spears Takes On Magazine In an interview in the March issue of Details, Britney Spears referred to the influential Jann Wenner, publisher of US Weekly and editor of Rolling Stone, in unflattering terms. Ms. Spears has been the subject of a string of embarrassing articles in US Weekly over the last year. Adding fuel to the fire, a recent issue of US Weekly featured pictures that the magazine purchased Ms. Spears and Kevin Federline on their honeymoon. [C6.] Financial Markets Closed Financial markets in the United States are closed today for the Presidents' Day holiday.

Article on unpredictability of relationship between video game publishers and Hollywood movie industry; blockbuster movies have not always made for blockbuster games and many game makers are weighing licensing deals far more carefully; since major games typically cost around $10 million to develop, they generally have to sell more than 500,000 copies to be profitable and marketing costs and advances must be considered; photos (M)

USA Next, conservative lobbying group, hires consultants who advised Swift boat veterans last year to orchestrate attacks on AARP for opposing Pres Bush's plan to revamp Social Security; USA Next says it will spend $10 million on commercials and other tactics assailing AARP, which sent mailings to its 35 million members and spent $5 million on print advertisements opposing private investment accounts at center of Bush's plan; several huge business lobbies, like Business Roundtable, have assembled coalitions to promote Bush's proposals across country; but USA Next, which portrays AARP as liberal organization out of step with Republican values, claims it is not part of White House effort; photo (M)

East defeats West, 125-115, to win NBA All-Star Game; photos (M)

Janet Maslin column reviews current books with snob appeal: Snobs by Julian Fellowes, French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Giuliano, Ross Gregory Douthat's memoir Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class, Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep, The Perfect Hour by James L W West 3rd, Koren Zailckas's memoir Smashed, Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh, Karen Quinn's The Ivory Chronicles, James Patterson's Honeymoon and Front Row, Jerry Oppenheimer's biography about Anna Wintour; photos (M)

US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, is set to hear oral arguments in suit brought by Public Knowledge, digital-rights advocacy group, and others against Federal Communications Commission challenging new regulation aimed at preventing illegal file-sharing of digital broadcast content over Internet; rule, effective on July 1, would require that all new consumer electronics equipment capable of receiving over-the-air digital signals must include technology that will recognize 'flag' that would protect broadcast stream and prevent content from being distributed to other devices unless they, too, are flag-compliant; diagram (M)

Harvey Araton Sports of The Times column discusses route to NBA, which sometimes includes college and sometimes does not, as league prepares to renegotiate collective bargaining agreement and ponders instituting age limits (M)

The Marine division that led the assault that retook Falluja from insurgents says it has now started an offensive in Ramadi. Page A10.

Health Comr Thomas R Frieden's announcement of discovery of possibly new and deadly HIV strain in New York City is met with wide skepticism; one group of scientists dismisses news as isolated to one man and unworthy of alarm or say not enough research has been done to warrant public health announcement; gay activists fear Frieden's use of announcement to emphasize safe-sex practices would set up gay men as culprits; ViroLogic, which did some of testing in case for Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, is accused of using case to promote its testing services; Dr David D Ho, one of doctors at Diamond Center who handled case, serves on scientific advisory board of ViroLogic; Dr Frieden says his actions were necessary given potential public health effects (M)

New York City prepares for arrival of International Olympic Committee and for chance to earn right to host 2012 Olympics; photo (M)