Web companies hellbent on getting rich quick - "Many Internet companies sermonize that, because they are in their formative evolutionary stages, making money is secondary--if not further down the priority list. Profits would be the wrong emphasis, they contend..."

 'You will die with honor'
"School officials reversed the suspension of a 9-year-old boy for writing a fortune-cookie message considered threatening..."

 Oswald Files Called a Breakthrough
"Documents given by Boris Yeltsin to President Clinton on Sunday could shed light on whether Lee Harvey Oswald schemed to kill President Kennedy while he was an American defector living in the Soviet Union, assassination researchers said..."

 Train Hopping Serial Killer
The thought that a train-hopping serial killer may have passed through the area at least twice last week has many residents taking stock of their security measures. New lights. Locked doors. Guns...

 Net e-commerce taxes called inevitable
More than six months after Congress banned e-commerce taxes for three years, the advisory panel formed to decide what happens when the moratorium runs out will hold its first meeting Monday...

 Candidates fighting it out in cyberspace
Eighteen months before the next presidential election, long before the various candidates even begin registering in most voters' minds, a crowded, noisy campaign is raging in cyberspace...

 LOW INTENSITY NUCLEAR WAR
With NATO air-strikes entering their third month, a new stage of the War had unfolded...

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 Ala. To Vote on Interracial Marriage
Alabama voters will have the opportunity to end the nation's last remaining ban on interracial marriages...

 Dead Man Blamed in Wash Rampage
Authorities on Saturday were still trying to understand what sent a man on a killing spree, but first they had to tally the dead and wounded: his mother and nephew stabbed to death, a woman fatally beaten, another woman critically injured, a motorcyclist run over and a sheriff's deputy shot...

 Free Associations: Christopher Hitchens: Part One
An interview with the Nation columnist. In this half-hour, Mr. Hitchens and Danny Postel discuss the 1996 U.S. elections. [in RealAudio]

 Louisiana Mulls Internet Voting
"Louisiana Republicans, planning to leap ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire with next year's first presidential preference vote, are also considering a leap technologically - Internet balloting..."

 Train Accident Victim Dies
The 10-year-old Ecuadorean boy who was struck and gravely injured by a train that killed his mother and three brothers died...

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 Nightmare on eStreet
All it takes is one e-commerce goof to shut down your business.  And that same goof however minor can haunt your reputation as an e-business reseller forever...

 Blacks closing PC, Net gaps
"Despite impressive gains by black Americans, white Americans are still more likely to own a home computer, to have access to the Net and to have used the Web. And at lower income levels, the gap is increasing..."

(Real Audio Enabled)

 Bill, Melinda Gates donate $5 billion to foundation
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have poured another $5 billion into one of their charitable foundations, doubling its assets and moving it into the top tier of philanthropy...

 Supermarket Rampage Leaves Four Dead -

 Bill, Melinda Gates donate $5 billion to foundation
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have poured another $5 billion into one of their charitable foundations, doubling its assets and moving it into the top tier of philanthropy...

 Doctors Revolting Against HMO Decree
"For years, heath maintenance organizations have been telling you to see your primary-care doctor for nearly all of your medical needs. Now, some of the nation's biggest HMOs are restricting the primary-care doctor's role in one of the most sensitive places - the hospital..."

 Details Given in School Killing Plot
Four middle school students plotted to force their principal at gunpoint to call an assembly, then massacre those at the gathering, several classmates testified...

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 Police Get Personal in Online Crime
Go for a walk, drive a car or dance in the moonlight and chances are, no one notices. Journey on the Internet and a trail is left...

 Informix chief blames Microsoft for the rise of Linux
The Linux revolution is being fuelled by delays and reliability problems plaguing Microsoft's Windows NT, according to a top Informix spokesman...

 Malicious worm spreading through e-mail systems
"Virus writers have managed to combine the reproductive capabilities of the Melissa worm with the destructive force of the Chernobyl virus..."

 Streets no match for Info Highway
As if driving and walking in congested downtowns weren't maddening enough, telecommunications companies now are tearing up pavement to install thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable underground, turning streets and sidewalks into obstacle courses...

 Mormon Site Is Online Family Tree
Did your ancestors include pioneers or immigrants, villains or soldiers, princesses or tailors? A Web site that officially kicks off Monday and offers access to the largest collection of genealogical data in the world may help you find out... 

 Swiss Conductor Paul Sacher Dies
Swiss billionaire industrialist and symphony conductor Paul Sacher has died after a long illness, the pharmaceutical giant Roche announced Wednesday. He was 93. Sacher was reportedly one of the world's richest men...

 China - Espionage
China has made little use of the information, probably because it never had any intention of entering an arms race with the United States...

(Click Here for the News archives)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Alabama voters will have the opportunity to end the nation's last remaining ban on interracial marriages.  Alabama's constitution, written in 1901, contains a prohibition against a black person - or any descendant of a black person - marrying a white person. A proposed amendment that would remove that language was approved by the state House in April and by the Senate on Tuesday without a dissenting vote.

It now goes before Alabama voters in a statewide election Oct. 12, along with a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize a state lottery. ``It sends a good message across the nation that Alabama is moving into the 21st century,'' said the bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Alvin Holmes. In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law banning interracial marriages. Since then, laws such as Alabama's have been unenforceable.

South Carolina voters approved removing an interracial marriage ban from their constitution in November, and the state Legislature ratified the action in February. That left Alabama as the only state that retained the remnant of segregation.

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CLEVELAND (June 28, 1999 6:38 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - A new study suggests that the unenviable task of bearing bad news is easier - and the information gets delivered more accurately - when done by e-mail rather than face-to-face or on the telephone.

"People don't sugarcoat. They don't sweet talk it. They just tell it like it is" when using e-mail, said Stephanie Watts Sussman, a co-author of the study.

There are some cases where face-to-face communication is preferable, the study says. For instance, there are times when delivering bad news in person is a sign that the news is important and the deliverer cares about the recipient.

It's important to examine how bad news gets delivered because receiving accurate information - even if it's negative - can be the first step toward helping an organization or an individual improve, the authors said.

The study was published in the June issue of Information Systems Research, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

Copyright © 1999 Nando Media
Copyright © 1999 Associated Press

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HUDSON, Ohio (AP) - School officials reversed the suspension of a 9-year-old boy for writing a fortune-cookie message considered threatening. During a class assignment to write a fortune-cookie message that was positive and fun, Karl Bauman wrote: ``You will die with honor.''

The suspension was overturned Monday because Karl didn't receive written notification of the punishment, as required by state law, officials said. Karl served the two-day punishment last month, but now it will be removed from his record. Karl's parents and the American Civil Liberties Union, had planned to appeal the suspension. Jean Bauman said her son thought his message was positive. She said he picked the phrase up from a computer game he plays that says: ``Congratulations. You have died an honorable death.'' Superintendent Joseph Siegferth said Tuesday that the reversal was granted on a technicality and ``does not change or alter in any way the reason for suspension.''

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NPR's Mike Shuster reports the Cox committee report on two decades of Chinese espionage says that Beijing acquired valuable secrets about US thermo-nuclear weapons and missiles. But according to the intelligence community and non-governmental experts, China has made little use of the information, probably because it never had any intention of entering an arms race with the United States.

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BASEL, Switzerland (AP) - Swiss billionaire industrialist and symphony conductor Paul Sacher has died after a long illness, the pharmaceutical giant Roche announced Wednesday. He was 93. Sacher was reportedly one of the world's richest men. He and other family members controlled Roche Holding AG, and had a joint fortune estimated at $17 billion to $20 billion.

He used his wealth to become one of the world's most influential arts patrons and inspiration to countless contemporary composers.  Benjamin Britten, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky and Bela Bartok - to name but a handful - were all proteges of Sacher.  Born the son of a cargo forwarding agent in Basel on April 28, 1906, Sacher first started playing the violin at age 6.

He was educated at the Conservatoire of Basel, giving extra lessons to younger pupils to finance his passion.  Sacher's life changed in 1934 with his marriage to Maja Hoffmann-Stehlin, a sculptor and recent widow of one of the founders of pharmaceuticals giant Hoffmann-La Roche.  While Maja channeled her fortune into sponsoring artists, Sacher soon developed a reputation as a generous music patron.   In 1973, he set up the Paul Sacher Foundation - housing priceless manuscripts and letters from dozens of composers - in a 16th century building in the shadow of Basel cathedral.  Sacher conducted concerts throughout Europe, although he rarely visited the United States.

His longtime friend, the famed cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, joined him as soloist for Sacher's 106th - and final - serenade in August 1996 at the music festival in Lucerne, central Switzerland.  Sacher took seriously his responsibilities in the company management. He served on the board of directors for 60 years until 1996, when he became an honorary member.  His shares will be taken over by the Hoffmann and Oeri-Hoffmann families, the company said, so that the family would keep its majority stake of voting shares in Roche.

A Roche spokeswoman said there would be a private family funeral. In addition to his two stepchildren from Maja's first marriage, Sacher had an 18-year-old illegitimate son. Maja died in 1989.

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