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today's papersVioxxxBy Eric UmanskyPosted Friday, Nov. 19, 2004, at 1:29 AM PT
USA Today leads with a FDA drug-safety researcher telling a Senate committee that the agency is too cozy with drug makers and "virtually defenseless" against dangerous drugs on the market, such as, apparently, Vioxx. As yesterday's Washington Post detailed, that's a long-standing problem. The Los Angeles Times has a similar lead but focuses on the researcher and others saying the Vioxx risks have been known or least strongly suspected for years. The New York Times leads with Sen. Arlen Specter winning support from fellow Judiciary Committee Republicans for the chairmanship after he promised to ignore—or not use a "litmus test" on—court nominees' stances on abortion. The pro-choice Specter has faced heat for his post-election comments that the Senate probably wouldn't confirm a pro-life Supreme Court nominee. The Wall Street Journal tops its world-wide newsbox (online) with a congressional roundup, including Specter, as well as Congress increasing the debt limit by $800 billion.
The Post leads with word that Secretary of State Powell's recent warning, about Iran designing missiles for nukes, was based on an "unvetted, single source." Alone among the papers, yesterday's Post led with Powell's Iran scuttlebutt—and unlike the LAT—it didn't note that Powell himself acknowledged the info wasn't confirmed. Today's Post says the original tip came from a guy who, unsolicited, handed over about 1,000 pages of supposed docs on Tehran's nukes operation. The LAT also fronts a followup on the Powell zinger, citing a "senior State Department official" who tried to play the whole thing down, arguing that the comment was off-the-cuff and the intel weak. Whatever the case, the paper says, the comment "appeared to catch the Bush administration and its European allies off guard."
Saying the FDA's slacker habits might result in the "single greatest drug safety catastrophe in the history of this country or the history of the world," the agency researcher named five other drugs on the market that don't have sufficient warnings or should just be pulled: Crestor, Bextra, Meridia, Serevent, and acne drug Accutane. The NY Times does a good run-down on the drugs and their risks, most of which have been reported before.
The FDA's top drug review doc, a civil servant, said the researcher's claims "constitute junk science." But the LAT notes that two medical profs who've looked into all this on behalf of the Senate said the researcher's charges are basically on the mark.
Nobody fronts Iraq, where the NYT says a "wave of assaults continued" in the center and north of the country. Insurgents mortared the governor's compound in Mosul, killing one of his bodyguards and wounding four. A GI was also killed in town. The Boston Globe's Thanassis Cambanis seems to be the only Western reporter filing from Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and has been giving a strong sense of the barely controlled chaos there.
Elsewhere, six Iraqis were killed by bombings in the north; a bomb in Baghdad killed two civilians; there was heavy fighting in Ramadi; and another GI was killed in Fallujah, where there are still some holdouts. The Post details one family's escape from town and stay at an ill-equipped refugee camp.
USAT teases on Page One: "INSURGENCY BROKEN, U.S. SAYS."
USAT CREDULOUS, TP SAYS.
The paper's report is based on the top Marine commander in Fallujah saying the offensive there has "broken the back of the insurgency." The other papers aren't impressed. In the newspaper version of a smackdown, the NYT notes that the commander's comments "appeared optimistic, given the fact that Abdullah Janabi, the leader of Fallujah's mujahedin council, was still operating in the city."
The commander also said troops have discovered a house that appears to have been a command center for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network. That's the Iraq news most of the papers headline, an interesting (aka: bad) choice for a few reasons, one being that the insurgency doesn't appear to have a consolidated command structure. Meanwhile, relying on an unnamed intel source, the Post deflates the excitement a bit, saying—down in a piece that is itself buried—Zarqawi "apparently did not use Fallujah as his base of operations."
The military said 51 American troops have been killed in the Fallujah offensive and 425 wounded.
The Post also notices that continuing a recent trend, the U.S. has arrested another firebrand cleric, while the appointed Iraqi government warned clerics against "incitement."
The NYT teases a U.N. report concluding that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has reached "the highest levels in the country's history and in the world."
The Post notes that an important American artifact is now safely ensconced at the Smithsonian: Seinfeld's Puffy Shirt. Eric Umansky writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@hotmail.com.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2109964/
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Bush Seeks Backing on N. Korea at Summit
Fri Nov 19, 3:53 PM ET
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
SANTIAGO, Chile - President Bush (news - web sites) is trying to build international pressure on North Korea (news - web sites) to return to high-stakes nuclear talks at the same time he reassures Asian leaders about the tough U.S. approach.
AP Photo
Reuters
Slideshow: APEC Protesters Arrested in Chile

Bush will talk here on Saturday with the leaders of China, Japan, South Korea (news - web sites) and Russia, his partners in negotiations to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. After three rounds of inconclusive talks, North Korea refused to attend a scheduled fourth session in September, reportedly because it wanted to see who would win the U.S. presidential election.
The North Korea discussions will take place on the sidelines of the annual 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (news - web sites) summit, a group whose far-flung membership ranges from Asia to New Zealand to the Americas. Thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Santiago Friday in protest of the summit, the presence of Bush and the war in Iraq (news - web sites).
In the 21-nation summit, Bush hopes to build on last year's pledges from regional leaders to intensify their crackdown on terror groups and curb the spread of unconventional weapons. Freer trade and less government corruption also will get attention at Bush's meetings.
North Korea, along with Iran and pre-war Iraq, is part of what Bush has called an "axis of evil." North Korea has accused Washington of having a hostile policy and says it wants economic aid and U.S. guarantees of nonaggression in return for giving up its nuclear program. Bush has maintained a no-concessions strategy for the resumption of talks.
Iran's nuclear ambitions also are a matter of heightened concern and will be a subject of Bush's conversations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) and others, National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said. Facing a Monday deadline to stop all work related to uranium enrichment, Iran is racing to convert tons of ore into a dual-use gas that could then be processed to make nuclear weapons, diplomats told The Associated Press in Vienna, Austria.
On North Korea, Bush is looking to his four partners in the talks to reinforce their demand for a nuclear-free peninsula and a resumption of disarmament talks.
"I think our focus again is going to be on convening a new round of six-party talks," said McCormack. "All the five parties are on board with that idea — actively support moving forward." He said there was no word from North Korea about returning.
China and South Korea have expressed reservations about the talks or the direction of U.S. foreign policy. While supporting the U.S.-led war on terror, China worries about Washington's heightened presence in Central and South Asia, concerned that it threatens Chinese ambitions to be the region's undisputed military power.
South Korea, meanwhile, is intent on continued engagement with the North and is nervous about U.S. pressure on the Pyongyang government.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, speaking in Los Angles this month, warned that "a hard-line policy will have very grave repercussions and implications for the Korean peninsula." Still, he said the world should not tolerate the development of nuclear weapons by North Korea.
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November 19, 2004THE CITY LIFE
The Sinister Sound of Water in the NightBy BRENT STAPLES
he Brooklyn neighborhoods that lie just across the harbor from Lower Manhattan were laid out well before the Civil War. The 19th-century row houses so often featured in guidebooks have been kept new through constant renovation. But the ancient pipes, sewers and water mains that run beneath the surrounding streets are another matter. Cranky and ancient, they often wreak havoc when the city digs down to repair them.
My block has experienced many soggy nights since the city graced us with a new sewer line two years ago. As the earth moved and the pavement sank, ruinous pressure was put on the pipes that connected individual homes to the city's water main. The breaks - most of them repaired at the homeowners' expense - began while the contractors were still at work and accelerated after the trench was closed and the crew disappeared. Recently, my water pipe became the eighth to pop like a balloon.
I was still in my bathrobe on a Saturday morning when an impatient New York City inspector arrived at the front door. Water was pouring into a neighbor's basement, he said, and it seemed to be coming from the line that connected my house to the city's water main. We rushed to the basement, and he placed his ear to the water line.
"Man, this line is screamin','' he said. "I hate to tell you this, but your water line is broken."
The inspector explained that leaks skipped around in maddening ways underground. The water pressure pushed my leak uphill to the west, invading the basement next door. Downhill, on the east side, the rushing water skipped seven houses but crept into the eighth through the underground conduits that carry power lines.
My water line cost $3,000 to replace. I had three business days to do it, the inspector said, or the city could shut off the water. The Yellow Pages offered false hope. I stopped dialing after the companies that promise "emergency service, seven days a week, 24 hours a day" told me unapologetically that they didn't work weekends.
When a crew finally arrived on Monday, the water was percolating up through the pavement and rushing in torrents down the street. The workers used jackhammers to break through the pavement, dug down five feet and yanked out a lead pipe, much like the ones in the ruins of Pompeii.
Watching the crew work, it occurred to me that plumbing had changed little since the Romans - that water is impervious to the technologies that permit us to manipulate information and electricity. If you're looking for leaks, you do what that city inspector did: put your ear to the pipes and try to guess from the noise where the trouble lies.
The theory that the broken pipe makes the loudest noise worked fine at my house. But the leaks have sometimes mocked the inspectors, causing the crews to dig trench after trench for days before finding the problem.
Mercifully, the pipe at my house took only a day to fix. But my heart sank when a water worker told me that situations like the one on my block sometimes ended with every single water line needing to be dug up and replaced. With eight lines down and dozens to go, we will keep pumps, mops and buckets at the ready - and our ears peeled for that sinister burble of water in the night.
BRENT STAPLES
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November 15, 2004
Big-Name Wall St. Analysts Emerge From Scandal to Tout the MarketBy LANDON THOMAS Jr.
or the Internet analyst, happy days are here again. As the stock prices of companies like Google and eBay soared this year, two of the biggest cheerleaders on Wall Street, who four years ago were derided as false prophets too eager to put the commercial interests of their firms ahead of investors, are basking in a renewed glow.
Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley - who was celebrated and then disparaged as the "queen of the Net" - is once more out on the stump, extolling the commercial opportunities of the Internet, churning out comprehensive reports and using her still considerable sway to help land Wall Street's biggest investment banking deals - like Google's public offering - for her firm.
Over at Goldman Sachs, Anthony J. Noto, who during the Internet boom became known for his aggressively optimistic research in support of now-bankrupt clients like eToys, Webvan and Planet Rx, was recently awarded perhaps the most coveted prize on Wall Street: a Goldman Sachs partnership. While it is too early to get a precise reading on what bonuses Ms. Meeker and Mr. Noto might receive for 2004, some of their fellow analysts estimate that each will be paid $3 million to $5 million.
That Ms. Meeker and Mr. Noto have again seen their careers prosper underlines how much Wall Street loves a second act, especially one that promises rich returns. Both analysts survived investigations by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of New York into research abuses because they held stubbornly true to their beliefs, even as their stocks plunged in value.
That resilience is now paying off: the Internet stocks they follow are on the upswing, and the prospects for new investment banking deals have caused Mr. Noto's and Ms. Meeker's own stock to rise.
Their resurgence also demonstrates how Wall Street still values the influence of equity analysts, even after a $1.4 billion settlement growing out of federal and state investigations sought to seal them off from the banking business. Will Ms. Meeker and Mr. Noto be pitching deals to clients in Silicon Valley? Certainly not. Under the settlement's guidelines, research analysts are barred from soliciting investment banking deals or even from discussing transactions with their banking colleagues.
But there is no law that prevents analysts from developing relationships within companies, even those that their firms do business with. And in today's toned-down deal-making environment, investment bankers and analysts say, an analyst's influence can be implicitly leveraged by bankers without relying on the kind of crass quid pro quos that prevailed during the Internet bubble.
"These people are still bankers in analysts' clothing," said Andy Kessler, an author of books on Wall Street and a former hedge fund manager who once worked with Ms. Meeker at Morgan Stanley. "This quid pro quo is now just a wink and a nod. If these guys were truly independent, you would see hold ratings after big deals. But with Google, all we have seen are across-the-board buys."
Ms. Meeker, who declined to be interviewed for this article, has a friendly relationship with the founders of Google. And although she had no active role in bringing Google's business to Morgan Stanley, her positive rating a few weeks after the offering is likely to have helped an already rising stock price.
Mr. Noto has cultivated ties with perhaps the most influential investor in Internet and media stocks, Gordon Crawford of Capital Research and Management, who calls him "the most effective large-cap Internet analyst on Wall Street." And Mr. Noto has also become more discerning in his coverage, writing skeptical reports about companies like DoubleClick that have banking relationships with Goldman Sachs.
Asked about Mr. Noto's past support for companies like eToys and Webvan, Mr. Crawford said, "That's ancient history." Mr. Crawford, who gives Mr. Noto credit for his recommendations of Yahoo and eBay, added, "We all did stupid things in 2000."
Still, despite the better times of late, some legal and regulatory headaches linger for the firms of the two analysts.
Last month, Morgan Stanley disclosed in a regulatory filing that the Securities and Exchange Commission was still investigating its failure to adequately supervise its research analysts and investment bankers before the settlement, which was announced in April 2003. If an action is forthcoming, outside lawyers say, it would most likely be directed at current and former executives of Morgan Stanley who had supervisory roles over analysts like Ms. Meeker, rather than for Ms. Meeker herself.
As for Mr. Noto, his Pollyanna-like research reports in support of eToys, an online toy retailer that went bankrupt in 2001, two years after Goldman Sachs took it public, could again be on display this spring. EToys' creditors have sued Goldman Sachs, accusing the firm of having violated its fiduciary duty by underpricing the public offering. Goldman has vigorously disputed this, though in May it lost on a motion to dismiss the case and has appealed.
But Mr. Noto and Ms. Meeker can be comforted by the knowledge that they are genuine survivors. Henry Blodget, the former Merrill Lynch Internet analyst, is now reinventing himself as a journalist for Slate.com, and Holly Becker, once of Lehman Brothers, was recently cleared by the S.E.C. after an insider trading investigation and is now a full-time mother.
For the surviving analysts, life remains very much the same. Ms. Meeker still works at a flat-out pace, delivering her rousing big-picture speeches, often about her faith in Internet stocks.
"The enthusiasm was well placed; it just got ahead of itself in many respects," Ms. Meeker said at a conference earlier this month.
Mr. Noto, who was a star linebacker for West Point in 1990 and an Army Ranger, has worked relentlessly to restore his tattered reputation and this year was awarded a coveted No. 1 ranking in Institutional Investor magazine's yearly investor poll, beating Ms. Meeker by a significant margin. Both analysts' stock-picking skills have improved.
In the last three years, the stocks Mr. Noto recommended - which now include media and entertainment companies - have outpaced the indexes, going up 23 percent, according to Investars, a stock-performance tracking service. For the same period, Ms. Meeker's picks, which were not weighed down by laggards like Time Warner, are up 72 percent.
In the late 90's boom, Ms. Meeker's prowess as an analyst with a fervor to involve herself deeply in the work of Morgan Stanley bankers was well documented. But Mr. Noto's eagerness to tout the prospects of some of Goldman Sachs's more dubious investment banking clients is not as well known. To be sure, Mr. Noto did take his lumps for his unflagging support of Internet bombs like Homestore, Asford.com and eToys.
On CNBC, he was jokingly referred to as Anthony Don't-Know, a nickname that circulated within the ranks of Goldman's research department as well. In the charged environment of the Internet crash, such public ribbing is less than surprising.
While acknowledging that he has made some bad investment calls, Mr. Noto says that those mistakes were the result of faulty analysis and not pressure from investment bankers.
"My ratings and views on stock were based on my fundamental analysis and valuation conclusions," he said in an interview. "I recognize that I have made mistakes. I regret that and I have learned from them."
Some of those mistakes were noticed by Goldman Sachs's own technology bankers, who made tough-minded critiques of Mr. Noto in an evaluation of his work from August 1999 to July 2000, a period that included the early months of the Nasdaq collapse. In the evaluation, a managing director in Goldman's corporate finance division said that "Anthony undermines his credibility by appearing as more of an advocate/defender (or at worst a company spokesman) for his companies' success rather than as an unbiased analyst." Mr. Noto declined to comment on the evaluation.
The managing director said that Mr. Noto "has an upbeat spin no matter what the news" and added that "while supporting our issuer clients is obviously helpful, in these types of markets it tends to undermine GS' credibility."
In a recommendation for "actionable areas of development," another investment banker who had worked with Mr. Noto said that he "must sometimes push back on banking if he feels that some of his companies are not GS caliber."
Despite these stinging remarks, Mr. Noto's banking peers lauded his hard work, his "thought leadership" and his management skills. "He is always willing to share information with bankers," one banker said, before bestowing on Mr. Noto the ultimate Goldman accolade that foreshadowed his partnership stake: "strong culture carrier in this respect."
Partnerships at Goldman are given out every two years and are generally awarded to the firm's top income producers, who tend to be investment bankers or traders. Indeed, of the 99 partners named this year, only 3, including Mr. Noto, are working research analysts, and the two others have at least 10 years' experience at the firm. Mr. Noto joined Goldman in 1999, making his ascent to partner an unusually rapid one.
All the same, even his fans acknowledge that they have only recently been converted.
"Look, Anthony Noto was created by investment bankers," a prominent hedge fund manager who has closely followed Mr. Noto's career said, adding: "But give him credit. At some point, the light bulb went off, he got rid of all the dogs and now he has been doing the best analysis on the Street."
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Oil prices soar as supply worries emerge again
The Associated Press
Crude oil futures prices soared to near $49 a barrel Friday as concerns about tight winter fuel supplies were stoked by a refinery outage in Venezuela and speculation that rising oil inventories could prompt OPEC to scale back output.
The growing quantity of crude reaching U.S. shores has helped to push oil prices 12% lower since late October despite stubbornly low level of distillate fuel, which includes heating oil, diesel and jet fuel.
But traders are beginning to wonder if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, worried about potentially oversupplying the market, might consider informally trimming production at its next meeting in December.
"If not announce a production cut, OPEC could pull back a bit from the all-out production that we're seeing right now," said John Kilduff, senior analyst at Fimat USA Inc. in New York.
Representatives for Iran and Venezuela have suggested such a cut may be necessary to prevent prices from plummeting.
Societe Generale Paris-based economist Deborah White said OPEC production cuts "are both imminent and inevitable, and the market will be feeling their effects by January, if not earlier."
"Let us hope," she added, "that OPEC does not cut too deeply, because that would mean losing a valuable opportunity to let this over-heated market cool down."
There was plenty of heat in the market on Friday.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery was up $2.68 to $48.90 a barrel in afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Nymex crude futures are about $6 cheaper than the peak closing price of $55.17 set twice in late October. Oil prices would have to surpass $90 a barrel to meet the inflation-adjusted peak set in 1980.
Robert W. Baird oil analyst George Gaspar said there is currently no "glut" of oil on the market, despite what bullish energy traders might say. Gaspar added that OPEC may not need to pump as much oil beginning early next year if world demand growth slows as expected.
"It's too soon to make that assessment," Gaspar said. "After all, they have consistently said that oil prices are too high."
The more immediate concern, Gaspar said, is the tight supply of heating oil.
Indeed, heating oil futures climbed for the third straight day on Friday, rising 4 cents to $1.47 per gallon, as traders continued to fret supply data released Wednesday by the Energy Department. The agency reported that the nation's supply of distillate fuel had fallen for the ninth consecutive week, leaving inventories at 114.6 million barrels, or 14% below year ago levels.
With supplies tight and prices high, the Energy Department has warned homeowners that use heating oil to expect to pay 37% more for fuel this winter. Natural gas customers should expect to say 15% more to heat their homes, the agency said.
The report of a refinery outage in Venezuela served as a further catalyst for the market on Friday, sending gasoline futures up 6.5 cents to $1.3035 per gallon.
Dow Jones reported Friday that the Curacao Isla refinery, owned by Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, shut down completely Thursday morning due to a power failure and still remains inactive.
Also on Friday, Russia moved ahead Friday with plans to break up Yukos, announcing it would auction off a majority stake in its main production unit. The bidding in the Dec. 19 auction will start at $8.6 billion — lower than even the most conservative independent valuation.

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Diplomats: Iran Is Readying Nuke Processes
13 minutes ago
By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria - Iran is spending the last few days before it must stop all work related to uranium enrichment converting tons of ore into a dual-use gas that could then be processed to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Friday.
Reuters
Slideshow: Iran Nuclear Issues

Iran recently started producing uranium hexafluoride at its gas processing facilities in Isfahan, the diplomats told The Associated Press. When introduced into centrifuges and spun, the substance can be enriched to low levels for use as fuel to generate electricity or to levels high enough to make weapons-grade uranium that forms the core of nuclear warheads.
A diplomat familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency — the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency — said the Iranians apparently were in the process of converting 22 tons of uranium into gas before Monday's deadline. Iran was doing this either as a precursor to producing uranium hexafluoride or actually producing it.
Iran is not believed to have enriched substantive amounts of uranium hexafluoride.
Iran has insisted it wants to produce uranium hexafluoride for enrichment to generate electricity. The United States — which once labeled Iran part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea (news - web sites) and prewar Iraq (news - web sites) — believes Iran is trying to make atomic bombs.
On Friday, Iran dismissed as "baseless" Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites)'s claims that he had seen intelligence indicating that Iran "had been actively working on delivery systems" for a nuclear weapon.
Iran last week agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and all related activities in a deal worked out with Britain, France, Germany and the European Union (news - web sites). The deal, which takes effect Monday, prohibits Iran from all uranium gas processing activities.
But the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tehran was exploiting the window until Monday to produce uranium hexafluoride at its Isfahan plant in central Iran.
Asked about quantities, one diplomat said "it's not little," but he declined to elaborate.
Iran has huge reserves of raw uranium and has announced plans to extract more than 40 tons a year.
That amount, converted to uranium hexafluoride and repeatedly spun in centrifuges, theoretically could yield more than 200 pounds of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, enough for about five crude nuclear weapons.
Iranian officials say the Isfahan plant can convert more than 300 tons of uranium ore a year.
Iran is not prohibited from making uranium hexafluoride until the deal takes force. But its decision to carry out uranium processing right up to the freeze deadline was expected to disappoint the Europeans — and give the United States ammunition in its push to have the U.N. Security Council examine Tehran's nuclear activities.
Washington says Iran wants to enrich uranium to make weapons. Tehran says it is interested only in low-grade enriched uranium for nuclear power.
Iran announced suspension of enrichment last week, and the agency said it would police that commitment starting next week, ahead of the Nov. 25 IAEA board meeting.
Although the deal commits Iran to suspension only while a comprehensive aid agreement with the EU is finalized, the pledge reduced Washington's hopes of having the IAEA board refer Iran to the Security Council when the board meets Thursday.
By opting to freeze — and not scrap — the program, Tehran has not dropped plans to run 50,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for what it says will be the fuel requirements of a nuclear reactor to be finished next year.
It currently possesses less than 1,000 centrifuges. But even with 1,500 centrifuges, experts say, Iran would be able to make enough weapons-grade uranium for about a bomb a year.
Iran, meanwhile, dismissed Powell's remarks about its nuclear program as "baseless," adding that he should review his intelligence sources.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was reacting to Powell's comments on claims by the Iranian dissident group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, which alleged that Tehran was secretly running a program intended to produce nuclear weapons by next year.
Powell said Wednesday he had seen intelligence that partially confirmed the claim, including some indicating that Iran "had been actively working on delivery systems" for a nuclear weapon.
"There is no place for weapons of mass destruction in Iran`s defense doctrine," Asefi said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Asefi suggested that U.S. officials "reconsider their intelligence sources."
On Thursday, Asefi dismissed the claims of the Iranian dissident group, which the United States and the European Union consider to be a terrorist organization.
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November 19, 2004
Holtz Is Retiring, and Spurrier Will Take Over Job
By PETE THAMEL

outh Carolina Coach Lou Holtz will retire at the end of the football season, opening the way for Steve Spurrier, the former Florida coach, to take the job.

An athletic department official at South Carolina confirmed Holtz's impending retirement late last night. He said Holtz, 67, would coach tomorrow's game against Clemson and the Gamecocks' bowl game.

Holtz told his players before practice yesterday that he was retiring, The Associated Press reported.

Spurrier, 59, will sign a contract with South Carolina early next week, a friend said last night. He will be returning to the Southeastern Conference, the same conference as Florida.

He won the Heisman Trophy with the Gators in 1966 and coached them to the 1996 national championship.

The main appeal of the South Carolina job, the friend said, was for Spurrier to return to the SEC. Spurrier won six conference titles as Florida's coach from 1990 through 2001.

Spurrier built his reputation in Gainesville with a high-octane offense, a sharp wit and lopsided scores. He left after the 2001 season to coach the Washington Redskins.

Spurrier was widely regarded as a failure as a pro coach, going 12-20 in two seasons. Holtz also failed in his foray in the N.F.L., going 3-10 with the Jets in 1976.

He made his name in college, winning 249 games with six teams to rank eighth in career college football coaching victories. He guided William & Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Minnesota and Notre Dame before South Carolina. Holtz led the Irish to a 12-0 record and the 1988 national championship.

Holtz's final stop at South Carolina was not as glamorous but was ultimately successful.

He lured better recruits, raised the program's profile with more nationally televised games and led the Gamecocks to back-to-back New Year's Day bowl games in 2001 and 2002.

Heading into tomorrow's game against Clemson, Holtz is 33-36 in his six seasons at South Carolina. He has a 1-4 record against the rival Tigers.

Holtz will be leaving the program in the hands of a friend. Spurrier helped Holtz's wife, Beth, get medical help at the University of Florida in 1999 when she had throat cancer.

This is shaping up as a volatile year for college football coaches. It started in late October, when Florida fired Ron Zook, effective at the end of the season.

Many speculated that Spurrier would jump at that job, but he felt he had accomplished all he could with the Gators.

The Florida job remains open, and Utah Coach Urban Meyer is considered the top candidate. Florida's president, Bernie Machen, said after the news conference to announce Zook's departure that no job search would be complete without Meyer.

Another high-profile job, at Washington, has also been open for weeks.



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November 19, 2004
U.S. and Iraqi Troops Storm Baghdad MosqueBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:41 p.m. ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. soldiers, stormed one of the major Sunni Muslim mosques in Baghdad after Friday prayers, opening fire and killing at least three people, witnesses said. In the battle for control of Mosul, Iraqi forces raided several areas overnight, killing 15 insurgents, Iraqi and U.S. military officials said.
At least 13 other insurgents were captured in Mosul, authorities said.
About 40 people were arrested at the Abu Hanifa mosque in the capital's northwestern Azamiyah neighborhood, said the witnesses, who were members of the congregation. Another five people were wounded.
It appeared the raid at Abu Hanifa mosque, long associated with anti-American activity, was part of the crackdown on Sunni clerical militants launched in parallel with military operations against the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
On Thursday, the Iraqi government warned that Islamic clerics who incite violence will be considered as ``participating in terrorism.'' A number of them already have been arrested, including several members of the Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars, which spoke out against the U.S.-led offensive against Fallujah.
``The government is determined to pursue those who incite acts of violence. A number of mosques' clerics who have publicly called for taking the path of violence have been arrested and will be legally tried,'' said Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's spokesman, Thair al-Naqeeb.
U.S. troops also raided a Sunni Muslim mosque in Qaim, near the Syrian border, a cleric said, calling it retaliation for opposing the Fallujah offensive. Imam Maudafar Abdul Wahab said his mosque was gathering food and supplies to send to Fallujah, and U.S. troops took about $2,000 meant for repair of his mosque.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber rammed into a police patrol, killing one policeman and injuring as many as 10 other people, including policemen, authorities said.
At the Abu Hanifa mosque, U.S. troops were seen securing the outer perimeter and sealing it off. Some American soldiers also were seen inside the compound.
Witnesses heard explosions coming from inside the mosque, apparently from stun grenades. Inside the office of the imam, books, including a Quran, and a computer were found scattered on the floor, and the furniture was turned upside down.
At least 10 U.S. armored vehicles were parked at the mosque, along with two vehicles carrying about 40 Iraqi National Guards, witnesses said.
Abu Hanifa mosque has long been associated with anti-American agitation. Saddam Hussein was seen in the area as the city fell to American forces in April 2003, and U.S. Marines battled Saddam loyalists around the mosque on April 10, 2003, the day after the ousted ruler's statue was hauled down in Firdous Square.
In western Mosul, Iraqi National Guard and a special police force raided several areas Thursday night, killing 15 insurgents and capturing 10 others, Deputy Gov. Khasro Gouran said.
Three policemen also were killed Thursday when masked gunmen set up a checkpoint in eastern Mosul and shot them when they displayed identification, Gouran said.
A car bomb attack on a U.S. patrol in the northeastern Sukar neighborhood of Mosul injured one U.S. soldier, the military said.
A raid overnight at a hospital allegedly used by insurgents in Mosul -- Iraq's third-largest city -- led to the arrests of three suspected terrorists, the military said.
Iraqi commandos with the Ministry of the Interior's Special Police Force, backed by U.S. troops, raided the al-Zaharawi hospital after getting information that insurgents were treating their wounded there, said Lt. Col. Paul Hastings with Task Force Olympia.
Pictures were taken in the morgue of 23 bodies believed to have been those of terrorists, Hastings said.
U.S. and Iraqi forces began a major military operation Tuesday to wrest control of Mosul after gunmen last week attacked police stations, bridges and political offices in apparent support of Fallujah guerrillas.
On Friday, three of the city's five bridges were reopened to traffic and most of the city remained calm, though U.S. forces came under some ``indirect fire'' that caused no injuries, Hastings said.
During a routine patrol, U.S. forces also found burned ballot materials inside a Mosul warehouse after a tip by an Iraqi security officer. Efforts are under way to replace the materials for the January elections.
Iraq is slated to hold national elections by Jan. 31 to elect a 275-member assembly in what is expected to be a major step toward building democracy.
In Fallujah, battles flared as troops hunted holdout insurgents, and one U.S. Marine and one Iraqi soldier were killed, U.S. officials said.
U.S. troops sweeping through the city west of Baghdad found what appeared to be a key command center of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, along with a separate workshop where an SUV registered in Texas was being converted into a car bomb and a classroom containing flight plans and instructions on shooting down planes.
The vehicle was surrounded by several bags of sodium nitrate, which can be used to make explosives. The vehicle had no license plate, but 15 plates were inside. Several bodies were found nearby.
The U.S. troops came across a large house with a sign in Arabic that said ``Al-Qaida Organization,'' according to footage from a CNN crew embedded with the U.S. Army. Inside the imposing structure with concrete columns, soldiers found documents, old computers, notebooks, photographs and copies of the Quran. Several bodies also were found.
There also were two letters, one from al-Zarqawi giving instructions to two of his lieutenants. Another sought money and help from the terrorist leader.
Iraqi authorities have acknowledged that al-Zarqawi and other insurgent leaders escaped the invasion of Fallujah.
``We feel right now that we have, as I mentioned, broken the back of the insurgency. We've taken away this safe haven,'' Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said at a base outside Fallujah.
The U.S. casualty toll in the Fallujah offensive stood at 51 dead and about 425 wounded. An estimated 1,200 insurgents have been killed, with about 1,025 enemy fighters detained, the military said.
Al-Zarqawi's group, Al-Qaida in Iraq, is blamed for dozens of car bombings and the beheadings of foreign hostages, including three Americans. Washington has offered $25 million for information leading to his capture.
In other developments:
-- U.S. troops were conducting an offensive in the northern Iraqi town of Hawija after a recent escalation of violence in the Sunni stronghold injured three American soldiers and 10 Iraqi National Guards, the U.S. military said.
-- Iraqi authorities said they arrested 104 suspected insurgents in a raid in Baghdad, including nine who had fled Fallujah.
-- Insurgents struck back in the volatile Sunni area of Haditha, northwest of Fallujah, blowing up the mayor's office and the police command center. Leaflets warned that anyone wearing a police uniform or reporting to a police station ``will be killed.''
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Associated Press Military Writer Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.
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