April 9, 2005

THE traffic stuttered north on Centre Street in Lower Manhattan. A blue S.U.V. parked in front of a court building joined the stop-and-go, pulling alongside a blue station wagon. Then came contact: either the wagon's side-view mirror scratched the S.U.V., or the S.U.V. dragged itself along the wagon's mirror. A scratch. That was all it took to alter lives in the big city.

Death toll in Angola from epidemic caused by Marburg virus rises to 174 as aid workers in Uige report that terrified people had attacked them and number of health workers had fled out of fear of catching the disease; international health officials say epidemic, already largest outbreak of Marburg virus, shows no signs of abating; World Health Organization dispatches surveillance teams to country's northern provinces; there is no cure or vaccine for highly contagious Ebola-like virus; photo (M)

Drug wholesalers McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen receive subpoenas from New York State Atty Gen Eliot Spitzer that appears to signal broad inquiry into behind-the-scenes market in which pharmaceuticals are purchased and resold, sometimes, several times, before they reach consumers; many of drugs trade in secondary market from overstocked warehouses; critics of system say discounted prices wholesalers obtain through secondary system are rarely passed to consumers; say secondary market creates gaps in supply-chain integrity, providing openings for counterfeit drugs; photo (M)

Ford Motor Co lowers its earnings forecast for year, citing higher gas prices and rising health care costs; says it will abandon its goal of $7 billion in pretax profit by 2006, cornerstone of turnaround plan that its chief executive William Clay Ford Jr put in place after he took control in 2001; photo (M)

THE CONCLAVE -- The funeral began nine days of spiritual mourning and a time of subtle campaigning before the cardinals gather to elect a successor. PAGE A8 THE FAITHFUL -- Listening to Catholics among the 10,000 people who gathered nearly two miles from the funeral to watch a telecast of it is to understand both the church's strengths and its vulnerabilities as it sets off on a future without John Paul. PAGE A10 THE TV WATCH -- If anything brought home the stature of John Paul II, it was the sight of all the major networks covering his funeral live at 3:30 a.m. -- and keeping their anchors off camera most of the time. PAGE A11