Sunday, October 27, 2002

Priceline.com Announces Expansion. NORWALK, Conn. (AP) -- Priceline.com, the name-your-own price Internet company, announced Friday the expansion of its hotel service to major cities in China, Singapore and Thailand. By The Associated Press. 11:31:26 PM

France Seeks EU Telecom Rescue Plan. BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- French President Jacques Chirac called Friday for a rescue plan for the European Union's heavily-indebted telecom companies. By The Associated Press. 11:31:25 PM

Barnes & Noble.com Tops Expectations. NEW YORK (AP) -- Barnes & Noble.com said Friday that losses in the third quarter fell by more than half, beating analysts expectations. By The Associated Press. 11:31:22 PM

Dell Says PDA Coming Soon but No Growth Driver Yet. TOKYO (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp Chief Executive Michael Dell said on Monday the company would launch a personal digital assistant (PDA) in the United States soon but saw limited near-term growth opportunities in that market. By Reuters. 11:31:21 PM

Recycling Phones to Charities, Not Landfills. SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - With customers methodically switching mobile services and upgrading to newer models, discarded cell phones are hitting incinerators and landfills in record numbers, contaminating the environment. By Reuters. 11:31:20 PM

Focus on Antigua Passport. ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, Oct. 27 The prime minister of Antigua, Lester Bird, named a task force today to investigate how John Allen Muhammad, an American citizen being held in the sniper killings, obtained an Antiguan passport. By The New York Times. 11:31:12 PM

A Politician in the White House (Gasp!) Hits His Stride. Ken Mehlman, the White House political director, is a busy man these days. By Elisabeth Bumiller. 11:31:10 PM

Mexico Tells Bush It Won't Support Iraq Resolution U.S. Favors. President Bush left a summit conference on Sunday without a pledge from Mexico to support the American resolution in the United Nations Security Council to disarm Iraq. By Tim Weiner. 11:31:07 PM

New Arbiters of Auditing. William H. Webster and the new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board face politically sensitive issues. By Floyd Norris. 11:31:06 PM

Reserve Call-Up for an Iraqi War May Equal 1991's. If President Bush orders an attack against Iraq, the Pentagon has plans to mobilize roughly as many reservists as it did during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. By Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt. 11:31:04 PM

Looking for Answers, Workers Reconstruct Flight of Plane. The investigation of the plane crash that killed Senator Paul Wellstone and seven others reached a "very difficult stage," on Sunday. By John W. Fountain. 11:31:03 PM

Bush Juggles the Roles of Leader and Cheerleader. President Bush will spend the next several days dealing with two political battles at once: the election and the struggle over an Iraq resolution. By David E. Sanger. 11:31:02 PM

In the Story of Caviar, All Is Not Wine and Roses. Inga Saffron gives us an affecting account of the sturgeon's plight, a history of caviar and its culinary peregrinations, and some reportorial asides about poachers, DNA experts and caviar dealers. By Michiko Kakutani. 9:31:08 PM

Light-Emitting Silicon Shines Much Brighter in New Invention. STMicroelectronics has a breakthrough in light-emitting silicon that could lead to more powerful computing processors. By John Markoff. 9:31:08 PM

What I Learned in Bosnia. History will look back on the United Nations engagement in Bosnia and Herzegovina as the first faltering step toward a doctrine of international community. By Paddy Ashdown. 8:32:38 PM

A Voting Bloc Without a Party. Gov. George E. Pataki is not a flashy politician and his campaign this year is hardly high voltage, but he is working a quiet revolution among New York's Latino voters. By Tamar Jacoby. 8:32:37 PM

'In Material Breach'. If the U.N. Security Council fails to adopt a resolution holding Iraq "in material breach" of its many disarmament agreements, that refusal will have consequences for the U.N. and several of its member nations. By William Safire. 8:32:36 PM

Saturated With Violence. We don't know what to do about all the violence in America. We don't know how to process it. We don't even know how to cover it. We sensationalize it, glamorize it, eroticize it. By Bob Herbert. 8:32:33 PM

Gasoline Tax Zones. Gasoline Tax Zones To the Editor:. 8:32:32 PM

The Sounds of War. The Sounds of War To the Editor:. 8:32:31 PM

Election Wonders. Election Wonders To the Editor:. 8:32:31 PM

A Nuclear Nightmare. A Nuclear Nightmare To the Editor:. 8:32:30 PM

Iraq's Jails, and Ours. Iraq's Jails, and Ours To the Editor:. 8:32:28 PM

Chevy Gets the Faith. Chevy Gets the Faith To the Editor:. 8:32:27 PM

Vulnerable Buildings. Vulnerable Buildings To the Editor:. 8:32:26 PM

Bishops and the Vatican. Bishops and the Vatican To the Editor:. 8:32:25 PM

Lessons in Hatred. Lessons in Hatred To the Editor:. 8:32:23 PM

Government Spin: The Word Is Out. Government Spin: The Word Is Out To the Editor:. 8:32:22 PM

How to Fix the Nursing Shortage. How to Fix the Nursing Shortage To the Editor:. 8:32:21 PM

State Comptroller. With New York State facing grim financial realities, the state comptroller's job will be crucial in the years to come. 8:32:21 PM

Fair Trials in Security Cases. The Bush administration finds itself in a bind in its cases against the accused terrorists Zacarias Moussaoui and Jose Padilla. 8:32:20 PM

More Hormone Perplexities. By the end of a conference last week held by the National Institutes of Health, it seemed clear that women are faced with even more perplexing choices about hormone replacement therapy than anyone had realized. 8:32:18 PM

The Slaughter in Moscow. In the years they have wrestled over control of Chechnya, the Russian government and Chechen rebels have reached a new low with their deadly showdown at a crowded Moscow theater. 8:32:17 PM

Concrete Dreams: Actual Museums With Virtual Art. Two organizations the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Labs and Eyebeam, an independent high-tech arts center in New York City are working on museums for virtual art. By Matthew Mirapaul. 8:32:15 PM

British Firms Join Up to Lead in Floppy TV Screens. AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Two British companies said on Monday they would join forces to become a world leader in the technology of glowing plastics, which by 2005 should yield the first roll-up computer screens and TVs. By Reuters. 8:32:13 PM

CUNY Getting Money to Nurture High-Tech Firms. The State Assembly will give the City University of New York $7.5 million to create a network of incubators for small, high-technology businesses. By Karen W. Arenson. 8:32:12 PM

Scolded, Microsoft Takes Blame for Swarms of Butterfly Decals. The New York City Transportation Department has done in a day what the United States Justice Department could not do for years: made Microsoft say it's sorry. By David W. Dunlap. 8:32:11 PM

A New Company Tries to Sort the Web's Chaos. Grokker software, which is intended to allow personal-computer users to visually make sense of collections of thousands or hundreds of thousands of text documents, is creating a buzz. By John Markoff. 8:32:11 PM

Name That Tune, From Your Cellphone. Shazam Entertainment, a British start-up, is attracting attention with a music-searching service that runs on cellphones. By David F. Gallagher. 8:32:09 PM

Improvements in Bra Technology. A Bronx company received a patent for a new type of bra underwire -- one that is supposed to not poke through fabric. By Teresa Riordan. 8:32:09 PM

EchoStar Agrees to Yield Frequencies to Save a Deal. In a last-ditch attempt to rescue its proposed acquisition of DirecTV, Echostar has tentatively agreed to transfer dozens of communications frequencies and three satellites to Cablevision. By Seth Schiesel. 8:32:07 PM

Palm Plans to Offer 2 New Products. The hand-held computer maker Palm, seeking to bolster market share, plans to announce two new devices aimed at corporate users. By Matt Richtel. 8:32:06 PM

Ad-Free Site From the Masters of the Web Hard Sell. MyWay.com has introduced an Internet portal where people could check their e-mail messages and read news without flashing advertisements. By Saul Hansell. 8:32:04 PM

Nonprofit to Create Open Source Software. Mitch Kapor, a software industry pioneer, has started a nonprofit group to create open-source software applications. By Lawrence M. Fisher. 8:32:03 PM

Pet Supplies Find Sales on Internet. There are signs of life in the online pet supply business. The traditional pet supply companies say their businesses have been helped by the Internet. Yet their praise is often faint. By Bob Tedeschi. 8:32:02 PM

I.B.M. Weathers Tech Storm. Since he took over as I.B.M.'s chief, Samuel J. Palmisano, has moved to cut costs. He sees companies buying computing services as needed, something like electricity. By Steve Lohr. 8:32:01 PM

Light-Emitting Silicon Shines Much Brighter in New Invention. STMicroelectronics has a breakthrough in light-emitting silicon that could lead to more powerful computing processors. By John Markoff. 8:32:00 PM

A TV House Divided. The future of television has finally arrived really. Now haggling over who gets control has begun inside AOL Time Warner. By David D. Kirkpatrick. 8:31:59 PM

Latinos Are Focus of New Brand of Ads. Candidates in the nation's largest states are spending record sums for political commercials that speak directly to Spanish speakers. By Lizette Alvarez. 8:31:57 PM

Mexico Plans Deal With Tokyo. Japanese and Mexican trade officials said on Sunday that they were prepared to open free trade negotiations. By The New York Times. 8:31:56 PM

Iraq Offers West's Reporters a Kinder, Gentler Face. The Information Ministry began what amounted to a charm offensive to persuade reporters that Iraq is not hostile to Western news coverage. By John F. Burns. 8:31:54 PM

Pain-and-Suffering Awards Let Juries Avoid New Limits. As all sorts of limitations have recently been placed on punitive damages, creative lawyers have shifted their attention to pain and suffering. By Adam Liptak. 8:31:51 PM

EchoStar Agrees to Yield Frequencies to Save a Deal. In a last-ditch attempt to rescue its proposed acquisition of DirecTV, Echostar has tentatively agreed to transfer dozens of communications frequencies and three satellites to Cablevision. By Seth Schiesel. 8:31:49 PM

What's on Tina Brown's Mind? British Are Finding Out. Tina Brown, who made a name in Britain as a wickedly amusing writer before being appointed editor of Tatler magazine, is writing a column for The Times of London. By Sarah Lyall. 8:31:46 PM

Name That Tune, From Your Cellphone. Shazam Entertainment, a British start-up, is attracting attention with a music-searching service that runs on cellphones. By David F. Gallagher. 8:31:45 PM

Turkey, in the Middle, Grows More Worried Every Day About a U.S. Attack on Iraq. Barely a day goes by without Turkey's prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, saying just how little he wants a war with his neighbor Iraq. By Ian Fisher. 8:31:44 PM

Alina Pienkowska, a Force Behind Solidarity, Dies at 50. Alina Pienkowska, a soft-spoken nurse whose impassioned words turned a strike in Gdansk, Poland, into a nationwide movement called Solidarity, died on Oct. 17 in Gdansk. By Michael T. Kaufman. 8:31:43 PM

Holding Swing Vote, Mexico Tells Bush It Won't Support Iraq Resolution U.S. Favors. President Bush left a summit conference on Sunday without a pledge from Mexico to support the American resolution in the United Nations Security Council to disarm Iraq. By Tim Weiner. 8:31:43 PM

Music and Victory in the Streets of Brazil. SÌO PAULO, Brazil, Oct. 27 With the unmistakable scent of victory still in the air, tens of thousands of supporters of Luiz In[omega]cio Lula da Silva rushed out onto S--o Paulo's beloved main boulevard, the Avenida Paulista, into a sea of red flags fluttering to celebrate what many hope will be a new start for Latin America's largest and potentially richest country. By Tony Smith. 8:31:41 PM

The Survivors Dribble Out, All With a Story to Tell. The survivors told their stories as they began to trickle out of Moscow hospitals on Sunday. By Sabrina Tavernise with Sophia Kishkovsky. 8:31:40 PM

Official Silence on Gas Raises Vexing Questions. Of the 117 hostages confirmed dead so far, all but one appear to have died from the effects of the gas, according to the Health Committee of Moscow. By Steven Lee Myers. 8:31:38 PM

Afghans Lead World Again in Poppy Crop. Opium production in Afghanistan soared to near-record levels in 2002, making the war-ravaged country again the world's leading producer of the drug. By David Rohde. 8:31:37 PM

Mexico Plans Deal With Tokyo. Japanese and Mexican trade officials said on Sunday that they were prepared to open free trade negotiations. By The New York Times. 8:31:36 PM

Harry Potter's Sorcerer Lived Here! He Really Did. A restaurant in the oldest house in Paris originally belonged to the alchemist Nicolas Flamel whose name was used for one of the characters in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." By Elaine Sciolino. 8:31:34 PM

Southeast Asia Remains Fertile for Al Qaeda. The terrorist network that Osama bin Laden has stealthily built up in Southeast Asia over the past decade is largely intact, and it may even have become more deadly and anti-American. By Raymond Bonner. 8:31:33 PM

Showdown Over Japanese Banking Reform. Will Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dare to pursue the aggressive banking reforms he announced, or will he back off? By Howard W. French and Ken Belson. 8:31:32 PM

Hostility in Canada's West Threatens Climate Policy. Opposition from several provinces and business groups threaten ratification of the Kyoto climate control protocol even if it is endorsed by Parliament. By Clifford Krauss. 8:31:31 PM

Iraq Offers West's Reporters a Kinder, Gentler Face. The Information Ministry began what amounted to a charm offensive to persuade reporters that Iraq is not hostile to Western news coverage. By John F. Burns. 8:31:30 PM

Pacific Summitry in an Age of Peril: The U.S. Is Mr. Big. The leaders of 21 nations ended the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation talks on Sunday with formal statements on counterterrorism. By Tim Weiner. 8:31:29 PM

Reserve Call-Up for an Iraqi War May Equal 1991's. If President Bush orders an attack against Iraq, the Pentagon has plans to mobilize roughly as many reservists as it did during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. By Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt. 8:31:27 PM

Hostage Toll in Russia Over 100; Nearly All Deaths Linked to Gas. More people succumbed on Sunday to the effects of a debilitating gas that Russian forces used as they stormed a Moscow theater being held by Chechen guerrillas. By Michael Wines. 8:31:26 PM

Leftist Handily Wins Brazilian Presidential Race. Brazil took a decisive turn to the left on Sunday, electing as its new president Luiz Ign[omega]cio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party. By Larry Rohter. 8:31:23 PM

A Shot at Celluloid Immortality for Doomed Houses. Officials are letting filmmakers use ill-fated buildings for free in an attempt to keep Hollywood from forsaking California. By Dean E. Murphy. 8:31:22 PM

New Arbiters of Auditing. William H. Webster and the new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, face politically sensitive issues. By Floyd Norris. 8:31:21 PM

The Angry Appeal of Eminem Cuts Across Racial Lines. Eminem was derided as "the Elvis of hip-hop" just three years ago. Now his songs are finding an audience beyond suburban white teenagers. By Lynette Holloway. 8:31:20 PM

Latinos Are Focus of New Brand of Ads. Candidates in the nation's largest states are spending record sums for political commercials that speak directly to Spanish speakers. By Lizette Alvarez. 8:31:19 PM

Veteran Battles Charge He's Soft on Defense. Senator Max Cleland, Democrat of Georgia, has found himself accused of being soft on national defense, and the attack may be working. By David M. Halbfinger. 8:31:17 PM

A Politician in the White House (Gasp!) Hits His Stride. Ken Mehlman, the White House political director, is a busy man these days. By Elisabeth Bumiller. 8:31:16 PM

Bush Juggles the Roles of Leader and Cheerleader. President Bush will spend the next several days dealing with two political battles at once: the election and the struggle over an Iraq resolution. By David E. Sanger. 8:31:14 PM

G.O.P. Candidate Is Treading Warily After Months of Attacking Incumbent. Following the death of Senator Paul Wellstone, his opponent, Norm Coleman, must somehow re-engineer a campaign without offending grieving voters. By Jodi Wilgoren. 8:31:13 PM

Looking for Answers, Workers Reconstruct Flight of Plane. The investigation of the plane crash that killed Senator Paul Wellstone and seven others reached a "very difficult stage," on Sunday. By John W. Fountain. 8:31:12 PM

Mondale Expected to Enter Campaign. Walter Mondale, the former vice president, will almost certainly take Senator Paul Wellstone's place on the Minnesota ballot. By Adam Nagourney. 8:31:11 PM

In Trail of Red Flags, an Ex-Friend's Warning to the Authorities Stands Out. A former friend of John Allen Muhammad said on Sunday that she drove him to a backyard gunsmith last fall to have a semiautomatic rifle made shorter and silent. By Charlie Leduffand Dean E. Murphy. 8:31:10 PM

Co-Owner of Caprice Has No Knowledge of Shootings, Lawyer Says. The co-owner of a Chevrolet Caprice that the authorities believe was used in the Washington-area sniper attacks remained in federal custody on Sunday. By Al Baker. 8:31:10 PM

Serial Killing's Squarest Pegs: Not Solo, White, Psychosexual or Picky. If anything is clear from the sniper attacks, it is that all serial killers have their own idiosyncrasies and twisting plot lines. By N. R. Kleinfield and Erica Goode. 8:31:09 PM

Election Officials Are Braced for Big Problems at the Polls. Two years after hanging chads alerted the world to major flaws in how Americans vote, the states have made little progress in overhauling their election systems. By Katharine Q. Seelye and David E. Rosenbaum. 8:31:08 PM

Purchase of Civil War Site Saves It for History. A preservation group is expected to announce on Monday that it will buy the site of the decisive engagement in Gen. Stonewall Jackson's capture of Harper's Ferry in 1862. By The New York Times. 8:31:07 PM

Reserve Call-Up for an Iraqi War May Equal 1991's. If President Bush orders an attack against Iraq, the Pentagon has plans to mobilize roughly as many reservists as it did during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. By Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt. 8:31:05 PM

Court to Hear Arguments in Groundbreaking Case. An American-born Saudi Arabian who was captured in Afghanistan has emerged as a central figure in a legal clash between national security and civil liberties. By Katharine Q. Seelye. 8:31:03 PM

Pain-and-Suffering Awards Let Juries Avoid New Limits. As all sorts of limitations have recently been placed on punitive damages, creative lawyers have shifted their attention to pain and suffering. By Adam Liptak. 8:31:03 PM

Evidence Shows Teenager Was Gunman in a Sniper Death. Prosecutors in Virginia said that they had evidence that the 17-year-old charged with an adult in the attacks was the gunman in at least one shooting. By Jayson Blair with Eric Lichtblau. 8:31:02 PM

Palestinian Subdued and Shot, Yet His Bomb Kills 3. A Palestinian suicide bomber killed three Israelis and himself with an explosion that came after the man was first subdued and then shot by soldiers. By James Bennet. 7:31:17 PM

Silva Wins Brazil Election. Former union boss Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won Brazil's presidential election runoff by a landslide. Ruling party candidate Jose Serra conceded defeat Sunday night. By The Associated Press. 7:31:16 PM

The Week's Economic Events. MONDAYNone. 7:31:15 PM

Week's Schedule of Bond Offerings. The Treasury's schedule of financing this week include today's regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and a four-week bill to be auctioned tomorrow. 7:31:14 PM

Equity Offerings Set for This Week. The following equity and convertible debt offerings are expected this week:. 7:31:14 PM

Coke Sign Goes Dark in the Heart of Times Sq.. After 11 years of teasing parched New Yorkers, the animated Coca-Cola sign is being taken down. By The New York Times. 7:31:13 PM

Stunt-Filled `Jackass' a Surprise No.1 at Box Office. "Jackass the Movie," a big-screen version of the MTV cult hit, was cheaply made and narrowly marketed, yet it topped the box office this weekend. By Rick Lyman. 7:31:13 PM

A Shot at Celluloid Immortality for Doomed Houses. Officials are letting filmmakers use ill-fated buildings for free in an attempt to keep Hollywood from forsaking California. By Dean E. Murphy. 7:31:13 PM

New Breed of Live Albums. Live albums were once a staple of the music charts. Today, live albums do not have the same hit-making power. Yet they are proliferating. By Chris Nelson. 7:31:12 PM

Bank of America Chooses Interpublic. The Bank of America, concluding a review of its estimated $170 million advertising account, has awarded most of the business to agencies owned by the Interpublic Group. By Stuart Elliott. 7:31:12 PM

What's on Tina Brown's Mind? British Are Finding Out. Tina Brown, who made a name in Britain as a wickedly amusing writer before being appointed editor of Tatler magazine, is writing a column for The Times of London. By Sarah Lyall. 7:31:11 PM

Magazines Push to Raise Revenue. With advertising in deep distress, magazine publishers are consider an end to the era of cheap subscriptions. By David Carr. 7:31:11 PM

ABC-CNN Talks Could Leave CBS the Odd Network Out. An ABC News - CNN joint news operation would make CBS News the last old-line, network news unit without a cable partner. By Jim Rutenberg. 7:31:11 PM

Finance Chief Is Leaving McCann. Salvatore LaGreca, the vice chairman and chief financial officer at the McCann-Erickson World Group in New York, has decided to step down, effective in the first quarter of 2003. By The New York Times. 7:31:10 PM

Schwab Ads Take Swipe at Big Firms. The last set of ads from Charles Schwab made Wall Street brokerage executives angry. Schwab's new tack is to flaunt the customers it has stolen away. By Patric K Mcgeehan. 7:31:10 PM

Sorting Out Citigroup's Leadership Puzzle. Some analysts think pressure will soon be put on Sanford I. Weill, the chief of Citigroup, to do what he has long resisted: name a successor. By Riva D. Atlas. 7:31:09 PM

Improvements in Bra Technology. Last week, a Bronx company received a patent for a new type of bra underwire -- one that is supposed to not poke through fabric. By Teresa Riordan. 7:31:09 PM

Eat, Drink and Bid: Wine Auction Finds a Menu for Success. Zachys re-entered New York's wine auction arena over the weekend in an inaugural sale whose form could reshape America's commercial wine auctions. By Howard G. Goldberg. 7:31:09 PM

Palm Plans to Offer 2 New Products. The hand-held computer maker Palm, seeking to bolster market share, plans to announce two new devices aimed at corporate users. By Matt Richtel. 7:31:08 PM

Light-Emitting Silicon Shines Much Brighter in New Invention. STMicroelectronics has a breakthrough in light-emitting silicon that could lead to more powerful computing processors. By John Markoff. 7:31:08 PM

Name That Tune, From Your Cellphone. Shazam Entertainment, a British start-up, is attracting attention with a music-searching service that runs on cellphones. By David F. Gallagher. 7:31:07 PM

Nonprofit to Create Open Source Software. Mitch Kapor, a software industry pioneer, has started a nonprofit group to create open-source software applications. By Lawrence M. Fisher. 7:31:07 PM

Ad-Free Site From the Masters of the Web Hard Sell. MyWay.com has introduced an Internet portal where people could check their e-mail messages and read news without flashing advertisements. By Saul Hansell. 7:31:06 PM

Pet Supplies Find Sales on Internet. There are signs of life in the online pet supply business. The traditional pet supply companies say their businesses have been helped by the Internet. Yet their praise is often faint. By Bob Tedeschi. 7:31:05 PM

I.B.M. Weathers Tech Storm. Since he took over as I.B.M.'s chief, Samuel J. Palmisano, has moved to cut costs. He sees companies buying computing services as needed, something like electricity. By Steve Lohr. 7:31:05 PM

The Angry Appeal of Eminem Cuts Across Racial Lines. Eminem was derided as "the Elvis of hip-hop" just three years ago. Now his songs are finding an audience beyond suburban white teenagers. By Lynette Holloway. 7:31:04 PM

A TV House Divided. The future of television has finally arrived really. Now haggling over who gets control has begun inside AOL Time Warner. By David D. Kirkpatrick. 7:31:03 PM

New Arbiters of Auditing. William H. Webster and the new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, face politically sensitive issues. By Floyd Norris. 7:31:03 PM

Location of Sniper Trial Remains Uncertain. Officials said today that the decision will come down to which jurisdiction can promise the toughest penalty. By The Associated Press. 3:31:01 PM

Pacific Rim Leaders Promote Counter-Terrorism Plan. On the final day of their summit, leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation agreed to adopt anti-terrorism proposals. By Reuters. 12:31:06 PM

Brazilian Voters Set to Usher in Leftist Candidate. Brazilians streamed to the polls today set to propel Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva into the presidency. By Reuters. 11:31:16 AM

Health Official Says Gas Killed 115 Hostages in Moscow. A Moscow doctor said 115 hostages in the siege died from a gas used to disable guerrillas holding hundreds hostage. By Reuters. 10:31:06 AM

France Is Set to Offer U.N. Its Own Resolution on Iraq. In a bold diplomatic challenge to the U.S., France announced on Saturday that it may formally introduce its own resolution on disarming Iraq. By Elaine Sciolino. 9:31:11 AM

Lack of Cockpit Voice Recorder Might Hamper Investigation. Federal investigators sorted through the wreckage of a plane crash that killed Senator Paul Wellstone and seven others. By John W. Fountain. 9:31:10 AM

Lack of Cockpit Voice Recorder Might Hamper Investigation. Federal investigators sorted through the wreckage of a plane crash that killed Senator Paul Wellstone and seven others. By John W. Fountain. 9:31:08 AM

Four Die as Israelis Try to Thwart Suicide Bomber. A Palestinian suicide bomber blew up today, killing three people, after he was grabbed by bystanders and shot by Israeli soldiers. By Reuters. 8:31:02 AM

Okla. Teen Shooter Kills 2, Hurts 7. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A teenager apparently angered by a neighbor went on a shooting spree Saturday in eastern Oklahoma that left two people dead and at least seven injured, authorities said. By The Associated Press. 2:31:02 AM