THE BUFFALO EXPOS?(SPORTS)

Byline: HAL BODLEY USA Today

With labor problems resolved and contraction on hold until at least 2007, the Montreal Expos' fate is the big headache.

This much is certain: They won't move to Washington for the 2003 season.

Commissioner Bud Selig and the owners are prepared to leave the Expos in Montreal next year, even though it will cost the other 29 teams about $500,000 each.

The Expos are operated by Major League Baseball, which bought the team from Jeffrey Loria before this season. Bob DuPuy, MLB's president and chief operating officer, is devoting most of his time to the Montreal problem.

Average attendance in decrepit Olympic …

GORBACHEV CLINGS TO HIS ROOTS.(Perspective)

Byline: David Remnick

M OSCOW - "The past is never dead," William Faulkner said. "It's not even past."

Mikhail Gorbachev has always seemed to understand that and has steadily opened the gruesome chapters of Soviet history for a painful national reading. But until an extraordinary speech this month, he has described his own past only reluctantly. And when the time came to speak frankly, the revolutionary used the moment to underscore the limits of his rebellion.

"Look at my two grandfathers," Gorbachev told a gathering of intellectuals. "One was denounced for not fulfilling the sowing plan in 1933, a year when half the family died of hunger. They took him away to Irkutsk to a timber-producing camp, and the rest of the …

Agents search office of lawyer suspected in fraud

Federal agents spent the night searching the law offices of a high-profile South Florida attorney suspected in a massive fraud scheme.

A spokesman for law firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler says firm officials cooperated with FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents during the Thursday morning search.

The investigation focuses on 47-year-old attorney Scott Rothstein, who is suspected of …

Syrian-Iraq Relations to Resume

BAGHDAD, Iraq - After nearly a quarter-century of severed ties, Iraq on Tuesday resumed diplomatic relations with neighboring Syria - a move seen as a possible step toward stemming some of the unrelenting violence, which claimed another 100 lives.

The Iraqi and Syrian presidents also received invitations from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a weekend summit in Tehran to tackle the chaos in Iraq, Iraqi lawmakers said. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's spokesman said his boss would attend but that Syrian President Bashar Assad would not. The invitation was thought to be an attempt by Iran to counter U.S. influence in the region.

The announcement of restored …

FordDirect.com's challenges.(Brief Article)

Many states require dealers to offer advertised prices to all customers.

Many automotive Web sites post special prices for online …

Expansive glazing brings nature inside.

Staff

Designed to mediate between urban and natural, the Lakeside Nature Center in Kansas City, Mo., brings the look and feel of a forest to its inner-city surroundings. Floor-to-ceiling glazing rises 28 feet to enhance the feeling of being in nature. Clerestory windows, shaped by the heaving wedges of the wood roof, simulate the effect of diffused light …

2 MEAT PLANTS CLOSED FOR `MAD COW' VIOLATION.(MAIN)

Byline: -- Associated Press

LONDON -- The government said Monday it had closed two meat plants suspected of violating an export ban on British beef imposed during the ``mad cow'' crisis.

``Evidence is coming to light that some U.K.-based companies may have been exporting U.K. beef,'' Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham said. ``I am determined to crack down hard on anyone who runs risks with public safety.''

He said he had ordered the two plants shut down immediately following ongoing investigations by ministry officials and the anti-fraud unit of the …