The joint venture between America Online ( AOL ) and Bertelsmann AG has formed a new company to sell advertising space on AOL in Europe , a Bertelsmann official said on Tuesday .


The new company is called AdOn GmbH and is located in Hamburg , Bernd Schiphorst , president and chief operating officer of Bertelsmann 's New Media business division said on the sidelines of an AOL news conference at the CeBIT Home consumer electronics fair in Hanover .


Jan Buettner , managing director of AOL Germany , said AdOn was in the formation phase and would " get off the ground next year , bringing in advertising from around Europe . "


He would give no forecasts on advertising revenue .


AOL is the leading global commercial online service with some six million subscribers worldwide .


It has around 200,000 subscribers in Europe , with two thirds of that number in Germany alone .


In Europe , the service is available in Germany , France and Britain .


It will be available in Austria and Switzerland later this year and in Scandanavia and the Benelux countries next year .


-- William Boston , CeBIT newsroom , 0172 6736510


All passengers freed from Sudanese hijack plane .


All passengers held hostage aboard a hijacked Sudanese Airways plane diverted to London 's Stansted airport carrying 199 passengers and crew have been freed , an airport spokeswoman said on Tuesday .


Eyewitnesses said six crew members had also been allowed to leave the aircraft .


Airport spokeswoman Rona Young confirmed that all the passengers had left the aircraft .


Police said a number of crew members had left the aircraft and said details would be given at a news conference expected to be held in the next few minutes by the local police chief .


The passengers were released in batches during the course of the morning after the Airbus A310 landed at Stansted , having been diverted from Cyprus .


The aircraft was hijacked on a flight from Khartoum to Amman by six or seven men , who police say may be Iraqis .


Swiss Bank Corp sets warrants on DTB-Bund-Future .


Swiss Bank Corp says it has issued 60 million American-style call and put warrants , in six equal tranches , on the DTB-Bund-Future March 1997 .


WARRANTS STRIKE ISS PRICE PREMIUM GEARING


DBRS confirms Power Corp , Power Financial ratings .


Dominion Bond Rating Service said on Tuesday it confirmed the ratings on Power Corp of Canada 's senior debt and preferred shares at A ( high ) and Pfd-2 , respectively , with stable trends .


DBRS said it also confirmed Power Financial Corp 's senior debentures , cumulative preferred shares and non-cumulative first preferred shares , series B , at AA ( low ) , Pfd-1 and Pfd-1 ( low ) , all with stable trends .


Turkey 's Kurd rebels kill two , take three hostage .


Kurdish guerrillas killed two people and took three hostage after stopping two intercity buses at a roadblock in eastern Turkey , security officials said on Tuesday .


They told reporters a group of Kurdistan Workers Party ( PKK ) guerrillas stopped the buses at a roadblock on the road linking the eastern provinces of Erzincan and Sivas on Monday night and forced the passengers to get out .


The rebels killed one of the drivers and a passenger after checking the identities of the passengers , they said .


The officials said the rebels set ablaze two buses and released all but three passengers .


More than 20,000 people have been killed in the 12-year-old conflict between Turkish troops and PKK guerrillas fighting for autonomy or independence from Turkey .


Egypt confiscates paper for " mad rulers " article .


Egypt has banned and confiscated 10,000 copies of the Cyprus-based Arabic monthly newspaper al-Tadamun because of an editorial suggesting mental health tests for Arab leaders , the editor-in-chief said on Tuesday .


Mohamed Abu Liwaya , said Information Ministry censors had told him to send all the copies of the August edition back to Cyprus at his own expense .


He told Reuters the reason was his own front-page editorial , entitled " A Chronic Mental Illness " in which he attacks compliant Arab leaders for serving U.S. and Israeli interests .


" The Arabs demand that our Arab leaders undergo a compulsory examination by a team of psychiatrists to see how sound their mental capacities are , " the editorial said .


" Because our leaders have started to behave with extreme hostility towards the interests of their peoples to court the goodwill of the Americans and the Zionists , " he added .


The censorship office denied they had confiscated the newspapers but declined to say when they could go on sale .


IPO FILING - Transkaryotic Therapies Inc .


Company Name Transkaryotic Therapies Inc


Lead Underwriter Morgan Stanley and Co Inc


Underwriters over-allotment 375,000 shrs Shares to be purchased by Hoechst Marion Roussel Inc 357,143 Business : developed two proprietary technology platforms , gene activation and gene therapy .


Use of Proceeds : Research , preclinical and clinical product development , and general corporate purposes .


AMTRAK train hits truck , derails in Vermont .


An Amtrak train struck a logging truck early on Tuesday and derailed , Vermont state police said .


A state police spokeswoman said there were reports of minor injuries as a result of the derailment near Roxbury , a small town on the edge of the Northfield Mountains some 15 miles southwest of Montpelier , the state capital .


Further details were not immediately available .


Wife of gun victim Brady praises Clinton .


Sarah Brady , whose Republican husband was severely disabled in an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan , took centre stage at the Democratic National convention on Monday night to praise President Bill Clinton 's gun control efforts .


With her husband James sitting in a wheelchair to the side of the podium , Mrs. Brady called the handgun control bill that a Democratic Congress passed and Clinton signed in 1994 a major step in controlling firearm violence in the United States .


The Bradys walked on to the stage , he on her arm and with the aid of a cane , to a rousing reception from the convention .


Their teenaged son sat in a VIP box with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and watched as his father returned to his wheelchair .


" Jim , we must have made a wrong turn .


This is n't San Diego ( site of the Republican convention ) , " Mrs. Brady joked to her husband , who was serving as Reagan 's press secretary when he was shot .


" Sarah , I told you this is the Democratic convention , " he responded to his wife , who before the shooting had worked for two Republican congressmen and the Republican national party .


" Since the Brady Law went into effect on February 28 , 1994 ( it ) has stopped more than 100,000 convicted felons and other prohibited purchasers from buying a handgun .


Today , and every day , the Brady Law is stopping an estimated 85 felons from buying a handgun , " Mrs. Brady said .


We should , as President Clinton proposed today , stop people convicted of domestic violence from buying a handgun .


Jim and I join with you tonight in saluting the great job that President Clinton has done in fighting crime and gun violence . "


" He 's a hunter and a sportsman , but he understands the difference between a Remington rifle and an AK47 .


And he knows that you do n't go hunting with an Uzi .


Mr. President you deserve our thanks . "


Jim Brady then gave a big thumbs to the audience .


was shot in the head in 1981 by gunman John Hinckley , who tried to kill Reagan in a deranged bid to impress Jodie Foster , an actress he never met but with whom he was obsessed .


The Brady bill , calling for a waiting period before someone could buy a gun so a background check could be made , was first introduced in Congress in 1987 but it took seven years to pass because of opposition from the National Rifle Association gun lobby .


Latest opinion polls on German political parties .


Here are the latest opinion polls tracking national support for Germany 's main political parties :


AUGUST 1996 CDU / CSU SPD FDP Greens PDS


OFFICIAL RESULTS OF THE OCTOBER 16 , 1994 GENERAL ELECTION :


NOTE : Elect Res = Electoral Research Group ( Forschungsgruppe Wahlen )


Most hostages freed from hijacked Sudanese plane .


Armed hijackers believed to be Iraqis released 140 people on Tuesday from a Sudan Airways plane carrying 199 passengers and crew that landed in London after being diverted on a flight from Khartoum to Amman , police said .


Police spokesman Roger Grimwade said the six or seven hijackers remained on board the aircraft , which arrived from Cyprus at 4.30 a.m. ( 0330 GMT ) .


He said they had made various requests to police negotiators but stepped back from earlier suggestions that the hijackers had asked to speak to a British-based Iraqi police named as Mr Sadiki .


The hijackers , who have said they want to seek asylum in Britain , are believed to be armed with grenades and possibly other explosives , according to police .


They earlier threatened to blow up the aircraft .


The Airbus A310 was diverted first to Cyprus , then to Britain .


British Data in merger talks with Mentmore .


Mentmore Abbey said on Tuesday that merger discussions were taking place with the board of British Data Management , an information resource management and archive storage company .


But it noted in a brief statement : " However , it is too early to say at this stage whether or not terms can be agreed . "


Mentmore Abbey , the UK stationery and housewares business formerly known as Platignum , said it was making the statement in response to recent newspaper articles linking the two groups .


Shares in Mentmore Abbey edged two pence higher to 81.5 pence , valuing the group at just under 30 million stg .


British Data Management 's shares slipped 0.5 pence to 179.5p , valuing that company at around 45 million stg .


Hijacked Sudan plane lands at a London airport .


A hijacked Sudan Airways plane carrying 199 passengers and crew landed at Stansted airport just outside London early on Tuesday morning after flying from Cyprus , eyewitnesses said .


The Airbus 310 Flight 150 , which was hijacked on Monday evening on its way from Khartoum to the Jordanian capital Amman , landed at 4.30 a.m. ( 0330 GMT ) after a flight of more than four hours .


At least one of the unidentified hijackers was apparently armed with grenades and TNT and threatened to blow the plane up in Cyprus unless it was refuelled so they could fly to Britain to claim political asylum .


" They will surrender the passengers there and surrender themselves , " police spokesman Glafcos Xenos told reporters at Cyprus 's Larnaca airport .


Security was tight at Stansted airport , which is about 30 miles ( 50 km ) northeast of the capital .


Stansted has been designated as the preferred option for handling hijackings in southern England because it is more remote than Heathrow and Gatwick , London 's two major airports , and handles less air traffic .


Hijacked Sudan plane expected at London 's Stansted .


A hijacked Sudan Airways plane with 199 passengers and crew on board was expected to land at London 's Stansted airport later on Tuesday morning , a police spokeswoman said .


That is where the plane is being directed to , " Ruth Collin of Essex police , the force responsible for Stansted , said .


Stansted , London 's third-busiest airport after Heathrow and Gatwick , is located about 30 miles ( 48 km ) northeast of the capital .


British officials said they would much prefer to deal with a hijacking at Stansted because of its relatively remote location and because air traffic would be less badly disrupted there than at Heathrow or Gatwick .


They said police and the emergency services were implementing a well-rehearsed contingency plan to handle the hijacking .


The armed hijackers of the Airbus 310 Flight 150 , which is expected to arrive about 4 a.m. ( 0300 GMT ) , have said they intend to surrender and seek political asylum in Britain .


The plane was hijacked on its way from Khartoum to the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday evening and landed at Larnaca airport in Cyprus to refuel .


The identity and number of the hijackers was not known .


One of them negotiated through the pilot in English .


The pilot said several hijackers appeared to be placed around the plane .


Painted parrot scam lands Australian in jail .


A conman who painted common Australian parrots with dye to make them look like rare birds worth thousands of dollars was jailed for fraud on Tuesday .


Denham Peiris painted six green parrots , worth about A$ 100 ( US$ 79 ) a pair , with a cinnamon hair dye and traded them as Indian Ringneck Parrots , valued at A$ 14,000 a pair .


Peiris , 32 , of Perth , was sentenced in the Western Australian District Court to two years in jail for fraud after trading three pairs of impostor birds for 21 parrots worth a total of A$ 28,000 .


" Everyone was fooled , " said pet shop owner Shane Drew , who unknowingly traded the disguised birds .


" I 'd already had three local breeders have a look at them and sent photos and videos of the birds to the eastern states for authentication -- they said they 're nice birds , " Drew told reporters outside court .


" After I was told they were dyed , I checked them over again .


It was a perfect paint job except for one feather under a wing of one bird that was only half dyed , " Drew said .


Drew said Peiris , a bird enthusiast , would have succeeded with the fraud if he had not tried to trade a fourth pair of bogus birds after an associate had told police of the scam .


If not for the informant , the painted parrots ' true colours would not have been known for six months , he said .


" They moult in the summer , so five or six months down the track , I would have looked like the guilty party , " Drew said .


NZ motorist 's arrest brings free flight to Tonga .


A New Zealand motorist got an unexpected free flight to Tonga on Tuesday after being caught drinking and driving .


The man drew attention to himself in the North Island town of Tauranga while trying to reverse his car out of a pothole on Saturday night .


He spun the wheels so much that the tyres caught alight and smoke began pouring from under the bonnet , the New Zealand Press Association reported .


Police arrested the man and charged him with drink-driving , but then iscovered he was wanted by the Immigration Service as an overstayer .


The man was due to catch a flight to Nuku'alofa in Tonga later on Tuesday .


The following is the result of central bank securities ( SBPUs ) auction on Tuesday at 0800 GMT :


Total ( in billion rupiah ) 38.43 218.50


Seoul embassies warned of terrorist attacks .


South Korea has told its overseas missions to step up security since its embassy in the former Yugoslavia received a threat over Seoul 's crackdown on radical students , the foreign ministry said on Tuesday .


A letter to the Belgrade embassy on Monday under the name of the Macedonian Communist Party demanded South Korea release detained student leaders , a ministry spokesman said .


" The letter said the party would assault the embassy , other South Korean-related facilities and Korean nationals unless our authorities released arrested students , " he said .


Nearly 400 members of an outlawed student group were arrested after violent protests demanding reunification with communist North Korea were crushed by riot police at a Seoul university this month .


Authorities branded the violence , in which a police officer was killed , as an act of terror .


" The ministry has ordered the embassy to take urgent security measures against possible terrorist attacks , " the official said , asking not to be named .


It had called for similar precautions at other overseas missions , including those in Canada and Bangladesh where leftist groups have staged protests over the crackdown .


Nuclear pact will be a step to disarmament-China .


China on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for a global nuclear test ban treaty blocked by India last week , saying the pact would be an important step in achieving total nuclear disarmament .


" Although the final draft of the treaty probably did n't totally satisfy any country , it was in general balanced , " the official People 's Daily newspaper said in a commentary .


India blocked the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ( CTBT ) at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva , saying the pact did not contain a clause committing the five declared nuclear powers to a timetable for nuclear disarmament .


New Delhi 's stance , which was seen as effectively thwarting 2-1/2 years of negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament , drew widespread but generally muted foreign criticism .


India has also pledged to oppose any forwarding of the draft treaty to the United Nations General Assembly .


China said many countries had compromised to complete the treaty and that the issue of a disarmament schedule could be discussed in future negotiations .


" The completion of the test ban treaty would be an important and practical step in the gradual process of achieving total nuclear disarmament , " it said .


China has pledged support for the pact since reaching a deal with the United States that made international inspections of nuclear sites more difficult than in earlier drafts of the accord .


The newspaper said China advocated the complete ban and destruction of nuclear weapons but that there was little hope other nuclear powers would soon adopt the same stance .


" Some nuclear powers stubbornly uphold policies of nuclear deterrence based on first use of nuclear weapons , " it said .


China held on July 29 what it said would be its last nuclear test before a self-imposed moratorium that took effect the following day .


China was the last declared nuclear power to announce a halt to testing .


Japan declares food poisoning threat receding .


The government said on Tuesday that the threat from a mysterious killer germ , while still requiring vigilance , appears to be receding in the western Japan city of Sakai , where the epidemic hit the hardest .


The food poisoning epidemic caused by the O-157 colon bacillus in Sakai appears to be " settling down " , Health Minister Naoto Kan was quoted by a government spokesman as telling the cabinet .


The O-157 colon bacillus has been found responsible for a widespread food poisoning epidemic that has killed 11 people and made over 9,500 ill this year .


Sakai , near the regional commercial centre of Osaka , has been hit hardest by the deadly bacteria , with nearly 6,500 , mostly schoolchildren , affected by the disease .


Two children in Sakai have died from complications associated with the bacteria .


Kan told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that no new victims have been reported since August 8 , indicating that the peak has passed , at least for Sakai .


Sakai officials agreed with the assessment , but said it was too early to feel relieved .


" There are still patients hospitalised and problems which must be dealt with , " a city spokesman said , citing the issue of whether to allow children infected with the bacteria but not showing symptoms to attend school from September .


Health authorities believe school lunches were the source of the food poisoning in Sakai , but researchers have been unable to pinpoint the exact source of the infection .


The outbreak has prompted authorities to tighten sanitary standards at slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants and sparked calls for an overhaul of the nation 's school lunch programme .


The ministers agreed at Tuesday 's cabinet meeting to step up inspection measures for school lunches in September and October , when schools around the country resume .


Japan 's Agriculture Ministry also announced that it will compile hygiene guidelines based on U.S. government methods of checking the safety of farm produce to prevent another outbreak of the epidemic .


As of Monday , 31 children were still hospitalised in Sakai city , of whom six were in serious condition .


Japan aluminium shipments surge 8.9 pct in July .


Japanese shipments of aluminium mill products in July surged 8.9 percent over the same month last year to 224,609 tonnes , while production rose 6.4 percent to 222,457 tonnes , according to preliminary data released on Tuesday by the Japan Aluminium Federation .


The surge reflected strong demand from the beverage can and housing construction sectors , federation officials said .


Figures released two weeks ago from Japan 's seven largest mills already showed that Japan 's can sheet output reached its highest monthly level ever in July , reflecting above-average temperatures that sparked a jump in beer consumption .


A federation official added that the half-year through September 1996 also appeared likely to set a new record for can production , despite cooler temperatures in August .


July inventories stood at 75,632 tonnes , down 2.6 percent from the prior month .


July foil output was off 0.2 percent year-on-year at 11,525 tonnes , while foil shipments fell 0.8 percent to 11,244 tonnes .


June mill output data were revised slightly downward to 210,622 tonnes from the preliminary 210,683 , while shipments were revised marginally upward to 213,989 tonnes from 213,845 .


Final figures for June pegged can stock shipments at 40,144 tonnes , up 2.4 percent year-on-year .


Shipments to the auto sector fell 5.5 percent to 15,286 tonnes , while the construction sector rose 2.4 percent to 79,390 tonnes .


Exports dipped 3.7 percent to 18,867 tonnes .


China thanks Gabon for support on human rights .


China has publicly thanked Gabon for its strong support at the United Nations Human Rights Commission , where Beijing has come under attack from Western nations for its human rights record .


China 's President Jiang Zemin offered his gratitude in a meeting on Monday with visiting Gabon President Omar Bongo , the official Xinhua news agency said .


Jiang also acknowledged the Central African nation 's support for China 's stance on Taiwan , which Beijing views as a renegade province , while Bongo was quoted as thanking China for economic and technological aid , the agency said late on Monday .


In April , China quashed a draft resolution by the U.N. Human Rights Commission expressing concern over continuing reports of Beijing 's violations of fundamental freedoms .


After the defeat of the resolution , drafted by the European Union and the United States , China 's Foreign Ministry thanked 26 countries for backing its motion for " no action " on the document .


It was the sixth year in a row that China avoided censure at the U.N. 's main human rights forum .


China has been accused of a wide range of human rights abuses , often in violation of its own legal code , in an effort to silence dissent .


A Xinhua commentary earlier this year said a plot by the West to force its human rights standards and values on other countries was doomed to failure .


Taiwan 's Cooperative Bank cuts prime lending rate .


Cooperative Bank of Taiwan , one of the island 's leading state-run banks , said it was cutting its prime lending rate by 0.05 percentage point , effective on Tuesday .


The bank said in a statement it was cutting its prime lending rate to 7.35 percent from 7.40 percent .


It also would cut its three-month-to-three-year time deposit rates by between 0.05 and 0.10 percentage points .


The moves made Cooperative the first major bank to cut rates in response to a call on Friday from central bank governor Sheu Yuan-dong .


In the central bank 's latest bid to jumpstart Taiwan 's sluggish economy , Sheu ordered a reduction of up to a half-percentage point in banks ' reserve requirements and called on commercial banks to pass on the savings in the form of interest rate reductions .


Palestinians to strike over Jerusalem demolition .


Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem called on Tuesday for a two-hour strike to protest what they called Israel 's war on Arab East Jerusalem after police demolished a building there .


Israeli police demolished a 10 metre ( yard ) by 20 metre structure in Jerusalem 's Old City they said had been built with funding from the Palestinian self-rule Authority for use as a social club .


Police used a huge crane to lift a bulldozer over the Old City 's walls to reach the building amidst narrow alleys , witnesses said .


Bystanders at the scene said work had begun on the building in 1991 and it had yet to be completed when the Israeli police bulldozed it .


The Palestinian Authority was set up under the 1993 PLO-Israel interim peace deal .


" There has been a call for a general strike between one ( 1000 GMT ) and three o'clock , " Palestinian lawmaker Ahmed Hashem Zighayer told Reuters .


" This is a war that has been declared on us and we want our people to come and see the site where they declared the war . "


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's government , which took office in June , has said it will not allow the Authority , set up under a 1993 interim peace deal to control parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank , to operate in Jerusalem .


Israel 's previous government held the same position but in general turned a blind eye to Palestinian Authority activity in the city .


Tuesday 's demolition came a day after PLO officials said they had bowed to Netanyahu 's demand they close offices in Jerusalem .


They said two of the three offices Israel wanted closed had been shut .


Netanyahu has made closure of the three offices a condition for resuming peace negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organisation ( PLO ) .


Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it .


It says it will never cede any part of the city .


Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of a future state .


The city is up for negotiation at final peace talks which have yet to resume under Netanyahu .


SEC adopts rules to improve investor access to best stock prices .


The Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday approved rules designed to give stock market investors a better chance at getting the best price available for their orders .


The so-called order handling rules , which were proposed last September , were approved in a 4-0 vote .


The new rules will require specialists at stock exchanges and market makers on Nasdaq to allow customers to view price quotes from other electronic trading systems that may not be readily available to them .


The rules will also require that customer limit orders be displayed with prices better than those available in quotes publicly available at the time .


Specialists and market makers are companies or individuals recognised as qualified to maintain an orderly market in a stock .


In a limit order , investors specify the price at which they are willing to buy or sell , as opposed to a market order executed at prevailing prices .


" These rules are intended to empower all investors , by allowing their orders to compete on a level playing field , and by providing the disclosure they need to make informed decisions , " said SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt .


The SEC 's goal , he added , was to create " one system where one price could be available to everybody . "


The director of the SEC 's division of market regulation , Richard Lindsey , said Wall Street firms will probably need to spend about $ 7 million to carry out the improvements called for by the new rules .


In proposing the rules last year , the SEC noted that while technology has improved , commonplace practices still existed that worked against investors ' best interests .


It noted that customers whose orders were not displayed lost the chance of getting the best possible price available in the market .


It also cited the potential problem of a two-tiered market in which market makers quote one price to public investors while quoting better prices in private systems , thus robbing investors without access to " hidden " quotes the benefit of the best available prices .


Earlier this month , the SEC settled charges of alleged malpractices on Nasdaq when the parent of the Nasdaq market , the National Association of Securities Dealers , agreed to spend $ 100 million over five years to upgrade its oversight of brokers ' trading practices .


The SEC dropped a third proposal that would have allowed investors with market orders to trade at a better price if there were shifts in prices before their orders were executed .


The agency said it would monitor effects of the two new rules before considering the " price improvement " proposal again .


The agency also proposed rule changes that would require continuous " bid " and " ask " quotations from exchange specialists and market makers who trade more than 1 percent of a stock during any quarter on Nasdaq .


The SEC 's limit order display rule will mean a major change for Nasdaq , where such orders have never been displayed .


The president of the Nasdaq , Alfred Berkeley , was to hold a news conference Wednesday afternoon to elaborate on the new rules ' effects on the market , the second largest in the world .


ITALIAN CABINET APPROVES TELEVISION DECREE .


The Italian cabinet on Wednesday granted a reprieve for media mogul Silvio Berlusconi 's Mediaset television empire with a decree extending the current legal framework for television stations until January 31 , 1997 .


The decree plugs a legal void in which magistrates could have forced the former prime minister to take one of the three stations he controls off the air because of a court ruling that no single proprietor should be allowed to keep three channels .


Passengers injured in train collision in Linz .


A passenger train collided with a locomotive at a main railway station in Linz on Wednesday and police said around 10 people were injured .


Austrian television reported earlier that more than 20 had been hurt in the accident at the station in Linz , 300 km ( 180 miles ) west of Vienna .


" One locomotive was stationary and the passenger train collided into the back of it , " a police spokesman in Linz told Reuters by telephone .


The express passenger train travelling from Steyr , southeast of Linz , with around 80 people on board , hit the back of a service locomotive used to shunt wagons into sidings .


The police spokesman said he was not sure whether any more passengers were still trapped in the wreckage .


Doctors and medical staff from a hospital across the road from the station were at the scene of the accident within minutes and were able to treat the injured quickly , he added .


Greater damage was averted as the driver of the passenger train had time to apply his emergency brakes before the collision occurred , a state railways spokesman told Austrian news agency APA .


Saskatchewan Wheat Pool eyes hog market .


Canada 's largest grain handling firm said Wednesday it expects to forge a partnership with hog farmers by 1997 with a view to expanding the company 's scope into pork production .


" Saskatchewan is well positioned to take advantage of growing world markets for pork , " Saskatchewan Wheat Pool chief executive Don Loewen said in a company statement .


SWP said it was analyzing potential partnerships with hog farmers and expected the first deal to be in place in 1997 .


The end of Canada 's rail freight subsidy last year caused a shift in feed grain production to the eastern Prairie .


Analysts said livestock production would likely shift to the eastern Prairie rather than feed grains being shipped to the western Prairie .


SWP said it may develop pork production systems that provide farmers with large integrated units , and it may consider contracting programs between producers and packers which would operate within the existing hog market framework .


Saskatchewan Pork International Marketing Group has an export monopoly but some Saskatchewan farmers earlier this month called for an open market in hogs .


ATHLETICS - ROVERETO INTERNATIONAL MEETING RESULTS .


international athletics meeting on Wednesday :


1. Ludmila Ninova ( Austria ) 6.72 metres


1. Chandra Sturrup ( Bahamas ) 11.34 seconds


1. Sergey Makarov ( Russia ) 85.26 metres


1. Osmond Ezinwa ( Nigeria ) 10.13 seconds


1. Davis Kamoga ( Uganda ) 45.15 seconds


1. Mariacarla Bresciani ( Italy ) 3.85 metres


1. Ana Fidelia Quirot ( Cuba ) 1 minute 58.98 seconds


1. Wolfgang Kreissig ( Germany ) 2.20 metres


2. Kostantin Matusevitch ( Israel ) 2.20


1. Oksana Ovchinnikova ( Russia ) 58.94 metres


2. Natalya Torshina ( Kazakhstan ) 55.99


2. Alessandro Lambruschini ( Italy ) 7:47.78


GOLF - BRITISH MASTERS FIRST ROUND SCORES .


first-round scores in the rain-affected British Masters golf


championship at Collingtree Park on Wednesday ( Britain unless


69 Jose Coceres ( Argentina ) , Raymond Russell , Robert Allenby


( Australia ) , David Gilford , Stuart Cage , Mike Clayton


( Australia ) , Mark Roe , Emanuele Canonica ( Italy )


70 Francisco Cea ( Spain ) , David Howell , Peter Hedblom


71 Steven Bottomley , Ove Sellberg ( Sweden ) , Joakim Haeggman


( Sweden ) , Stephen Ames ( Trinidad and Tobago ) , Klas Eriksson


( Sweden ) , Roger Chapman , Mark Davis , Pierre Fulke ( Sweden ) ,


Martin Gates , Anders Haglund ( Sweden )


72 Niclas Fasth ( Sweden ) , Michael Jonzon ( Sweden ) , Chistian


Cevaer ( France ) , Thomas Bjorn ( Denmark ) , Tony Johnstone


( Zimbabwe ) , Padraig Harrington ( Ireland ) , Pedro Linhart


73 Ross McFarlane , Domingo Hospital ( Spain ) , Seve Ballesteros


( Spain ) , Paul Broadhurst , Greg Turner ( New Zealand ) , Mike


Harwood ( Australia ) , Brenden Pappas ( South Africa ) , Peter


Teravainen ( U.S. ) , Jean Van de Velde ( France ) , Oyvind Rojahn


( Norway ) , Stephen McAllister , Neal Briggs


Note : 77 players to complete their first rounds on Thursday


CYCLING - KELLY WINS WORLD TIME TRIAL TITLE .


Shane Kelly of Australia retained the world one-kilometre time trial title at the world track championships on Wednesday , with a track record time of one minute 2.777 seconds .


Kelly averaged 57.345 kph to beat Soren Lausgberg of Germany by eighteen hundredths of a second .


The bronze medal went to another German , Jan Van Eijden , in 1:04.541 .


CYCLING - VAN HEESWIJK WINS SECOND STAGE OF TOUR OF NETHERLANDS .


the 195-km second stage of the Tour of the Netherlands between


1. Max van Heeswijk ( Netherlands ) Motorola 4 hours 39 minutes


3. Sven Teutenberg ( Germany ) U.S. Postal


7. Michel Zanoli ( Netherlands ) MX Onda


10. Kaspars Ozers ( Latvia ) Motorola all same time


Leading overall placings after two stages :


8. Gianluca Corini ( Italy ) Aki same time


10. George Hincapie ( U.S. ) Motorola same time


CYCLING - VAN HEESWIJK WINS TOUR OF NETHERLANDS SECOND STAGE .


Leading results and overall standings after the 195 kilometre second stage of the Tour of the Netherlands between Haarlem and Almere on Wednesday .


1. Max van Heeswijk ( Netherlands ) Motorola 4 hours 39 minutes six seconds .


10. Kaspars Ozers ( Latvia ) Motorola all same time .


Leading overall standings after second stage .


10. George Hincapie ( U.S. ) Motorola same time .


world track cycling championships on Wednesday :


Chris Boardman ( Britain ) 4:13.353 seconds ( world record ) caught


Boardman 4:14.784 caught Edouard Gritson ( Russia )


Francis Moreau ( France ) 4:16.274 beat Heiko Szonn ( Germany )


Andrea Collinelli ( Italy ) 4:17.551 beat Michael Sandstod


Alexei Markov ( Russia ) 4:19.762 beat Mariano Friedick ( U.S. )


1. Shane Kelly ( Australia ) 1 minute 02.777 seconds


7. Dimitrios Georgalis ( Greece ) 1:05.022


10. Graham Sharman ( Australia ) 1:05.406


13. Christian Meidlinger ( Austria ) 1:05.850


14. Darren McKenzie-Potter ( New Zealand ) 1:06.289


15. Masanaga Shiohara ( Japan ) 1:06.615


16. Jean-Pierre Van Zyl ( South Africa ) 1:07.258


1. Marty Nothstein ( U.S. ) , last 200 metres in 10.982 seconds .


1. Silvio Martinelli - Marco Villa ( Italy ) 34 points , in a


2. Scott McGrory - Stephen Pate ( Australia ) 25


3. Andreas Kappes - Carsten Wolf ( Germany ) 23


4. Kurt Betschart - Bruno Risi ( Switzerland ) 22


5. Gabriel Curuchet - Juan Curuchet ( Argentine ) 15


6. Peter Pieters - Tomas Post ( Netherlands ) 14


7. J immi Madsen - Jens Veggerby ( Denmark ) 14


8. Isaac Galvez-Lopez - Juan Llaneras ( Spain ) 11


9. Wolfgang Kotzmann - Franz Stocher ( Austria ) 5


10. Christophe Capelle - Jean-Michel Monin ( France ) 2


CYCLING - BOARDMAN FULFILS WORLD RECORD PREDICTION .


Britain 's Chris Boardman fulfilled his prediction that he would break the world 4,000 metres world record in the world track cycling championships on Wednesday .


Boardman clocked four minutes 13.353 seconds to slice more than six seconds from the previous world mark of 4:19.699 set by Olympic champion Andrea Collinelli of Italy in Atlanta in July .


Collinelli qualified in second place , also beating his old record in 4:17.696 .


" I was very nervous before the start but then I was amazed by the speed of my ride , " Boardman said . "


Who knows what will happen in the later stages ? "


Boardman , 28 , did not contest the Olympic pursuit because of its proximity to the Tour de France in which he led the French GAN team .


However , he took a bronze medal in the Olympic road time-trial and then returned home to prepare for the world track series in the Manchester indoor velodrome .


He adopted the " superman " riding position with arms at full stretch perfected by fellow Briton Graeme Obree , the 1995 world champion , and taken up in Atlanta by Collinelli .


Obree was forced to pull out of his title defence because of a viral infection .


Qualifiers for Wednesday evening 's quarter-finals :


7. Michael Sandstod ( Denmark ) 4:24.427


CYCLING - BOARDMAN BREAKS WORLD 4,000 METRES RECORD .


Britain 's Chris Boardman broke the world 4,000 metres cycling record by more than six seconds at the world championships on Wednesday .


Boardman clocked four minutes 13.353 seconds in the qualifying round of the individual pursuit event to beat the previous mark of 4:19.699 set by Andrea Collinelli of Italy at the Atlanta Olympics on July 24 .


SOCCER - ENGLISH FIRST DIVISION RESULTS / STANDINGS .


Standings ( tabulated under played , won , drawn , lost , goals


CRICKET - ENGLISH COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP SCORES .


day of four-day English County Championship cricket matches on


At Portsmouth : Middlesex 199 in 60 overs ( K. Brown 57 ;


At Chester-le-Street : Glamorgan 73-3 v Durham .


SOCCER - FOWLER AND MCMANAMAN OUT OF ENGLAND SQUAD .


England soccer manager Glen Hoddle confirmed on Wednesday that the Liverpool pair of Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler would miss England 's World Cup qualifying match against Moldova on Sunday .


The two men , both suffering from back injuries , joined the England squad at training but it was soon clear they had no chance of making the flight to Kishinev on Friday .


" They had some scans and X-rays yesterday and they 're out , " said Hoddle .


" The more important thing for me was to get them down here and have a chat .


To go another five weeks without that chance would have been foolish , " he added .


Hoddle , who has already lost the services of midfielder Darren Anderton and defender Steve Howey , delayed naming any replacements .


There was also concern over injuries to Paul Gascoigne , Les Ferdinand and David Batty .


HORSE RACING - JOCKEY WEAVER RECEIVES 21-DAY BAN .


Leading rider Jason Weaver received a 21-day ban from the disciplinary committee of the Jockey Club on Wednesday .


Weaver had been reported after being found guilty of irresponsible riding at the provincial track of Pontefract 10 days ago .


It was his fourth riding offence this season .


Although five days of the ban were suspended until January 1 , Weaver will miss next month 's big St Leger meeting , including the ride on top stayer Double Trigger in the Doncaster Cup .


Weaver shot to prominence in 1994 when he won the English 2,000 Guineas on Mister Baileys in his first ride in a classic .


ROWING - REDGRAVE MAY SEEK FIFTH OLYMPIC GOLD .


Britain 's Steven Redgrave said on Wednesday he might change his mind and go for a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal at the 2000 Games in Sydney .


Redgrave is one of only five athletes who have won gold medals at four successive Olympics .


He shared victory with Matthew Pinsent in the coxless pairs at the Atlanta Games and said at the time that would be his last shot .


But he has had second thoughts since then . "


Some say that 's too old for an athlete , " he said .


" But I 'll be 38 by Sydney and that 's not too old .


It 's whether I have got the enthusiasm for the training over the next four years .


CRICKET - BOTHAM DISMISSES GATTING IN FIRST CLASS DEBUT .


Liam Botham demonstrated his father Ian 's golden touch on Wednesday shortly after making his county debut for Hampshire .


Botham dismissed Mike Gatting with his seventh ball when the former England captain pushed a half-volley to square-leg on the first day of the four-day match against Middlesex at Portsmouth .


Earlier Botham arrived in Portsmouth from Southampton only to be told his services would not be required .


He then drove 40 kms back to play for the second XI to learn that John Stephenson had dropped out of the Middlesex match in the meantime with a shoulder injury .


Botham dashed back to Portsmouth and took the field as the thrid over began .


Ian Botham began his test career in 1977 by dismissing Australian captain Greg Chappell with a long hop and went on to become his country 's most successful all-rounder ever with 5,200 runs , 383 wickets plus 120 catches in 102 tests .


RUGBY UNION - CARLING LEFT OUT OF ENGLAND TRAINING SQUAD .


Former England captain Will Carling along with Jeremy Guscott , Rory Underwood and Dean Richards have been left out of England 's first training squad of the season .


The quartet , who possess 244 international caps between them , were also omitted from a summer training camp but will still be in contention when the northern international season starts later this year .


" Their qualities are well known to the selectors and they will , of course , be considered when the season gets underway , " the Rugby Football Union said in a statement on Wednesday .


Hideo Nomo allowed a run in seven innings for his fifth win in seven road starts and Greg Gagne capped a three-run fourth with a two-run homer as the Los Angeles Dodgers claimed a 5-1 victory the Montreal Expos on Tuesday .


With their fifth straight win , the Dodgers moved a half-game ahead of the Expos at the top of the wild card hunt behind Nomo ( 13-10 ) , who allowed six hits and walked four with six strikeouts .


In San Francisco , Mike Williams allowed two runs in 7-1/3 innings and Benito Santiago and Ruben Amaro had RBI hits in the first inning as the Philadelphia Phillies edged the San Francisco Giants 3-2 .


Williams ( 5-12 ) , who snapped a personal three-game losing streak , allowed five hits , walked two and struck out five .


It was also Williams ' first win in three career decisions against San Francisco .


In Pittsburgh , Al Martin 's run-scoring single snapped a fifth-inning tie and Denny Neagle outdueled John Smoltz as the Pittsburgh Pirates edged the Atlanta Braves 3-2 .


The Braves led 2-1 entering the fifth , but the Pirates pushed across two runs against Smoltz ( 20-7 ) .


Neagle ( 14-6 ) beat the Braves for the third time this season , allowing two runs and six hits in eight innings .


In St Louis , Gary Sheffield and Devon White each drove in two runs and Mark Hutton scattered four hits over six innings to lead the Florida Marlins past the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3 .


White added a solo homer , his 11th , off reliever Mark Petkovsek with one out in the fifth , giving the Marlins a 6-0 lead .


In New York , Steve Finley 's three-run homer capped a four-run eighth inning and gave the San Diego Padres a 4-3 victory over New York , spoiling Bobby Valentine 's debut as Mets ' manager .


The rally made a winner out of reliever Willie Blair


Tony Gwynn and Wally Joyner had two hits apiece , helping the Padres to their third straight win .


First-place San Diego has won seven of its last eight games and improved to 34-20 against NL East opponents .


In Houston , Tony Eusebio 's eighth-inning sacrifice fly capped a comeback from a five-run deficit that gave the Houston Astros a 6-5 victory over the Chicago Cubs .


The Astros trailed 5-0 after three innings , but scored three runs in the fourth and one in the sixth before taking the lead in the eighth .


In St Louis , Gary Sheffield and Devon White each drove in two runs and Mark Hutton scattered four hits over six innings to lead the Florida Marlins past the St. Louis Cardinals , 6-3 ,


Sheffield , who was benched Monday , delivered a double down the left-field line in the first , scoring Luis Castilla and Alex Arias to put the Marlins ahead to stay .


At Colorado , Hal Morris and Eric Davis each homered and John Smiley scattered six hits over 6 2/3 innings as the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Colorado Rockies 4-3 , snapping a four-game losing streak .


The Reds took a one-run lead in the second inning when Morris led off with his 10th homer off starter Armando Reynoso ( 8-9 ) .


They increased their bulge to 4-0 in the third when Barry Larkin drew a one-out walk , Kevin Mitchell singled and Davis launched his 22nd homer over the right-field wall .


RUGBY UNION - NEW ZEALAND RECALL MEHRTENS FOR FINAL TEST .


The New Zealand rugby selectors recalled fly-half Andrew Mehrtens on Wednesday when they announced their team for the third and final test in Johannesburg on Saturday .


He returns in place of Simon Culhane who broke a wrist in the All Blacks ' series-clinching victory in Pretoria on Saturday .


Mehrtens played in the last TriNations test in Cape Town but missed the first two tests in the current series after tearing a cartilage in his knee while training , an injury which needed a small operation .


Lock Ian Jones and wing Jeff Wilson have also been named in the team despite doubts over their fitness .


Jones has a knee injury while Wilson is suffering from a viral infection .


Blair Larsen or the uncapped Glenn Taylor are on standby to replace Jones and , with Jonah Lomu out of action with a shoulder injury picked up in Tuesday 's drawn match against Griqualand West , Eric Rush is favourite to play should Wilson fail to recover .


15 - Christian Cullen , 14 - Jeff Wilson , 13 - Walter Little , 12 - Frank Bunce , 11 - Glen Osborne ; 10 - Andrew Mehrtens , 9 - Justin Marshall ; 8 - Zinzan Brooke , 7 - Josh Kronfeld , 6 - Michael Jones , 5 - Ian Jones , 4 - Robin Brooke , 3 - Olo Brown , 2 - Sean Fitzpatrick ( captain ) , 1 - Craig Dowd .


HOCKEY - BONNET TAKES OVER AS SOUTH AFRICAN COACH .


Former South African captain Giles Bonnet was named by the South African Hockey Association on Wednesday as the new coach of the men 's national side .


Bonnet , who has been coaching the Kwazulu-Natal provincial team , takes over from Englishman Gavin Featherstone who took South Africa to 10th place in the Olympic Games in Atlanta .


Featherstone , a former Britain captain , has accepted a coaching position with a women 's team in Ireland .


CRICKET - GIBBS GETS INTERNATIONAL CALL UP .


Western Province batsman Herschelle Gibbs was the only uncapped player in South Africa 's 14-man squad named on Wednesday for a quadrangular one-day series in Kenya next month .


Kenya , South Africa , Pakistan and Sri Lanka will take part in the series .


National coach Bob Woolmer said Gibbs , 22 , had been rewarded for a tremendous tour of England with the South African A team earlier this year .


" I 've known Herschelle since he was 11 years old and he showed in England how he has matured .


His 170 against the MCC was an innings of supreme class against the best bowling attack we faced all tour , " Woolmer told a news conference .


" We were not able to consider Jacques Kallis , Paul Adams and Shaun Pollock due to injury and the replacements have all come from the A tour and it 's great that they are all in form . "


Spin-bowling all-rounders Nicky Boje and Derek Crookes replace Pollock and Adams , while Gibbs comes in for his Western Province colleague Kallis .


Squad : Hansie Cronje ( captain ) , Craig Matthews ( vice-captain ) , Dave Richardson , Brian McMillan , Gary Kirsten , Andrew Hudson , Pat Symcox , Jonty Rhodes , Allan Donald , Fanie de Villiers , Daryll Cullinan , Derek Crookes , Herschelle Gibs , Nicky Boje .


BASKETBALL - OLYMPIAKOS BEAT RED STAR 71-57 .


Olympiakos of Greece beat Yugoslavia 's Red Star 71-57 ( halftime 40-34 ) in the first match of an international club basketball tournament on Wednesday .


Partizan ( Yugoslavia ) , Alba ( Germany ) , Dinamo ( Russia ) and Benetton ( Italy ) are also taking part in the event which continues until Saturday .


SOCCER - RUSSIA AND BRAZIL DRAW 2-2 IN FRIENDLY .


( halftime 1-0 ) in a friendly soccer international on Wednesday .


Russia - Yuri Nikiforov ( 18th minute ) , Vladislav Rodimov


Brazil - Donizetti ( 47th ) , Ronaldo ( 85th )


SQUASH - HONG OPEN FIRST ROUND RESULTS .


Kong Open on Wednesday ( prefix denotes seeding ) :


2 - Rodney Eyles ( Australia ) beat Zarak Jahan Khan ( Pakistan )


4 - Peter Nicol ( Scotland ) beat Julian Wellings ( England ) 15-8


Derek Ryan ( Ireland ) beat 5 - Simon Parke ( England ) 15-11 15-11


7 - Chris Walker ( England ) beat Julien Bonetat ( France ) 15-12


Jonathon Power ( Canada ) beat Ahmed Barada ( Egypt ) 11-15 8-15


Amr Shabana ( Egypt ) beat John White ( Australia ) 10-15 15-9


Paul Johnson ( England ) beat Tony Hands ( England ) 12-15 15-11


Zubair Jahan Khan ( Pakistan ) beat Faheem Khan ( Hong Kong ) 12-15


BASKETBALL - FORMULA SHELL WIN GAME ONE IN PHILIPPINES .


Result of game one of the Philippine Basketball Association second conference finals on Tuesday :


Formula Shell beat Alaska Milk 85-82 ( 36-46 )


( Formula Shell leads best-of-seven series 1-0 )


SOCCER - ISRAELI FIRST DIVISION RESULTS .


soccer matches played over the weekend and Tuesday :


Hapoel Kfar Sava 0 Hapoel Zafririm Holon 1


Hapoel Ironi Rishon Lezion 3 Hapoel Taibe 1


Hapoel Beit She'an 0 Hapoel Beit She'an 1


TENNIS - SELES HAS WALKOVER TO U.S. OPEN THIRD ROUND .


Second seed and co-world number one Monica Seles advanced to the third round of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships without hitting a ball on Wednesday .


Seles , the 1991 and 1992 champion who dropped just one game in her opening match , was scheduled to play Laurence Courtois of Belgium Wednesay night .


But tournament officials announced about four-and-a-half hours before the match that Courtois had pulled out due to a left knee bone inflammation , moving Seles into the next round on a walkover .


TENNIS - SERIOUS MEDVEDEV IS HAVING FUN AGAIN .


Outspoken Andrei Medvedev exchanged his reputation as the clown prince of tennis on Wednesday for a new no-nonsense attitude that has made life on the courts fun again .


" I think I 'm much more focused on what I have to do , and that 's playing tennis , " Medvedev said after routing Frenchman Jean-Philippe Fleurian 6-2 6-0 6-1 in the opening round of the U.S. Open .


It was Medvedev 's sixth victory in a row after winning his first tournament of the year last week at the Hamlet Cup .


" I realised this year , that without putting 99.9 percent of your mind into tennis , I do n't think you can successful , " said the 22-year-old Medvedev .


" The whole day I 'm thinking abnout tennis .


I felt that all the other things I was doing the years before , they were distracting me , they were not helping me at all . "


For Medvedev that meant confining his post-match comments to tennis and not going off on tirades about about peripheral issues such as the poor quality of food in the players lounge , an entertaining rant that took his mind off the task at hand .


" I know what I 'm here for , " said Medvedev , who lost in the second round of the Open the last two years after reaching the quarters in 1993 , the same year he tried his hand as a restaurant critic .


" I 'm not here to fight the press or talk about the food or entertain the people off the court .


I have much more fun on the court , " he said .


Just three years ago Medvedev was one of the world 's best , with a ranking of six after reaching the French Open semifinal and winning three tournaments .


But Medvedev 's ranking slowly began to drop last year as he struggled with a wrist injury .


The Ukrainian finally hit a low of 44th two months ago .


" It 's somewhere where I would n't like to stay very long , " Medvedev said of his current ranking of 36 . "


It 's a part of the penalty that I have to accept . "


As part of his new businesslike approach , Medvedev hired Australian coach Bob Brett at the start of this year and the partnership is beginning to pay off .


" At the beginning of the year we started from zero , " said Medvedev . "


Winning in Long Island ( last week ) was like winning for the first time . "


While Medvedev 's 77-minute romp past Fleurian was rather ordinary , the fact that the two were playing each other was rather remarkable .


In the original draw , Medvedev and Fleurian were slotted to play each other .


When controversy forced the draw to be done over -- against odds of 151-to-1 -- Medvedev and Fleurian drew each other a second time .


" When I saw the new draw I did n't have to change my preparation , " Medvedev said . "


I think it 's destined that it turned out for me . "


TENNIS - WEDNESDAY 'S RESULTS FROM THE U.S. OPEN .


Results of Wednesday 's matches in the U.S. Open Tennis Championships at the National Tennis Centre ( prefix number denotes seeding ) :


15 - Gabriela Sabatini ( Argentina ) beat Ann Grossman ( U.S. ) 6-2 6 - 3


Irina Spirlea ( Romania ) beat Maria Jose Gaidano ( Argentina ) 6-1 6-2


8 - Lindsay Davenport ( U.S. ) beat Henrietta Nagyova ( Slovakia ) 6- 0 6-4


Anne-Gaelle Sidot ( France ) beat Wang Shi-Ting ( Taiwan ) 6-4 3-6 6-3


Sandrine Testud ( France ) beat Cristina Torrens-Valero ( Spain ) 6 - 2 6-1


Andrei Medvedev ( Ukraine ) beat Jean-Philippe Fleurian ( France ) 6-2 6-0 6-1


David Nainkin ( South Africa ) beat 9 - Wayne Ferreira ( South Africa ) 6-4 6-4 2-6 7-5


David Rikl ( Czech Republic ) beat Hicham Arazi ( Morocco ) 6-4 7-5 6-2


Andrea Gaudenzi ( Italy ) beat Shuzo Matsuoka ( Japan ) 7-6 ( 7-4 ) 6 - 2 6-3


Jonas Bjorkman ( Sweden ) beat Karol Kucera ( Slovakia ) 6-2 5-7 7- 6 ( 7-3 ) 7-5


Amanda Coetzer ( South Africa ) beat Mariaan de Swardt ( South Africa ) 6-2 7-5


Linda Wild ( U.S. ) beat Kristie Boogert ( Netherlands ) 5-7 6-3 6-3


Kimberly Po ( U.S. ) beat Kristina Brandi ( U.S. ) 6-1 6-4


Helena Sukova ( Czech Republic ) beat Paola Suarez ( Argentina ) 6- 4 7-6 ( 7-2 )


2 - Monica Seles ( U.S. ) beat Laurence Courtois ( Belgium ) by walkover ( knee injury )


Dally Randriantefy ( Madagascar ) beat Jane Chi ( U.S. ) 6-3 6-1


Ines Gorrochategui ( Argentina ) beat Aleksandra Olsza ( Poland ) 6 - 1 6-1


Sjeng Schalken ( Netherlands ) beat Gilbert Schaller ( Austria ) 6- 3 6-4 6-7 ( 6-8 ) 6-3


Michael Tebbutt ( Australia ) beat Richey Reneberg ( U.S. ) 3-6


Paul Haarhuis ( Netherlands ) beat Michael Joyce ( U.S ) 6-7


Barbara Rittner ( Germany ) beat 13 - Brenda Schultz-McCarthy (


Guy Forget ( France ) beat Grant Stafford ( South Africa ) 3-6 2-6 6-4 7-6 ( 7-2 ) 6-3


Lisa Raymond ( U.S. ) beat Sarah Pitkowski ( France ) 6-2 6-0


Asa Carlsson ( Sweden ) beat Barbara Schett ( Austria ) 6-2 3-1 retired ( Thigh injury )


BASEBALL - MAJOR LEAGUE STANDINGS AFTER TUESDAY 'S GAMES .


standings after games played on Tuesday ( tabulate under won ,


lost , winning percentage and games behind ) :


BASEBALL - MAJOR LEAGUE RESULTS TUESDAY .


Baseball games played on Tuesday ( home team in CAPS ) :


TENNIS - GRAF WORKS HARD FOR FIRST-ROUND WIN .


It was n't supposed to be this hard for defending champion Steffi Graf to win her opening match at the U.S. Open on Tuesday night .


But the script that called for the usual first-round demolition by the top-ranked top seed was rewritten by 29th-ranked Indonesian Yayuk Basuki playing with nothing to lose abandon .


Graf , of course , prevailed 6-3 7-6 , but not before some tense moments that even had the German superstar thinking the match was going three sets .


" I won the second set , which I did n't think I would do , being down 5-2 and the chances she had at 6-5 , " Graf recalled .


Several of the other women 's seeds eased into the second round with more typical Graf-like efficiency Tuesday .


As afternoon turned to evening , fourth-seeded Spaniard Conchita Martinez took apart Romanian Ruxandra Dragomir in 58 minutes with the loss of just two games , one more than second seed Monica Seles , who opened the second-day programme by crushing American Anne Miller 6-0 6-1 .


Third seed Arantxa Sanchez Vicario , the 1994 champion , and eighth-seeded Olympic gold medalist Lindsay Davenport dropped three game each en route to the second round .


But the day was not without its seeded casualties on the women 's side .


Fifth-seed Iva Majoli of Croatia was picked off by Austrian Judith Wiesner and Wimbledon semifinalist Kimiko Date of Japan , the 10th seed , fell 6-2 7-5 to 53rd-ranked American Kimberly Po .


Date 's defeat left no other seeded players in Seles 's quarter of the draw , which lost Anke Huber ( 6 ) and Maggie Maleeva ( 12 ) on Monday .


But Graf , winner of 20 Grand Slam titles , was not about to join that list .


" At some points I felt a little nervous , " she admitted . "


When it came down to the important points , I felt more confident . "


Basuki , a first-round loser here for the fifth consecutive year , was clearly going for winners , hitting the lines and running Graf around the court as she broke the top seed twice in the second set to grab that shocking 5-2 lead .


Graf ran off the next three games to restore some semblance of order .


But Basuki , her long black ponytail flying as she raced for shots , held her serve and twice had set point on Graf 's serve at 6-5 before the German unleashed a forehand pass to force the tie-break .


" I lost the moment , " lamented Basuki , who has reached the fourth round at Wimbledon four times and was a semifinalist in Montreal earlier this month .


Still , the feisty Indonesian got off to a 3-0 lead in the tie-breaker before a pair of costly double faults gave Graf her chance to avoid a third set .


" Usually in the first one or two matches , you want to find your rhythm and want to get into it , " said Graf , who won seven of the last eight points in the breaker .


" To be in that situation today , a couple of times having to play well , get down and play point-by-point , definitely is a good start . "


BASEBALL - SOSA HAS SURGERY , OUT UP TO SIX WEEKS .


Chicago Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa underwent surgery on Monday to remove a fractured bone from his right hand and will miss four to six weeks , the club announced Tuesday .


Sosa , a leading candidate for National League Most Valuable Player honours , was injured August 20th when he was hit by a Mark Hutton pitch in the first inning of an 8-1 victory over the Florida Marlins .


The 27-year-old Sosa leads the league with 40 homers and is tied for 10th with 100 RBI .


The loss of Sosa , who appeared in all 124 games this season , is a huge blow to the Cubs ' playoff hopes .


SOCCER - MARCELO HAT-TRICK KEEPS PSV AT TOP OF DUTCH LEAGUE .


Brazilian striker Marcelo scored a hat-trick as PSV Eindhoven maintained their 100 percent record and stayed on top of the Dutch first division with a 3-1 win at Volendam on Wednesday .


PSV 's main rivals for the title , defending champions Ajax Amsterdam , celebrated the novelty of having the roof of their new 51,000 seat stadium closed against the rain , with a 1-0 win over AZ Alkmaar .


Ajax were missing six first-team players but Frank de Boer shot home the winner from a 20-metre free kick in the 30th minute of a dull game .


Marcelo , signed in close season to replace compatriot Ronaldo who left to play for Barcelona , opened the PSV scoring in the 19th minute when he fired home after good work from Rene Eijkelkamp .


The Brazilian found the mark again two minutes after halftime and again in the 56th minute before midfielder Pascal Jongsma scored a consolation goal for Volendam five minutes from time .


Feyenoord Rotterdam suffered an early shock when they went 1-0 down after four minutes against de Graafschap Doetinchem .


The equaliser came in the 73rd minute when Swedish international Henke Larsson scored from close range and 10 minutes later Jean-Paul van Gastel gave Feyenoord a 2-1 victory from the penalty spot .


After three matches PSV lead the first division with nine points , three points clear of fifth-placed Ajax .


SOCCER - ROBSON WINS FIRST TROPHY WITH BARCELONA .


Former England manager Bobby Robson enjoyed his first success in charge of Barcelona as his team weathered 90 minutes of non-stop Atletico Madrid pressure to win the Spanish Super Cup 6-5 on aggregate on Wednesday .


Barcelona had won the first leg 5-2 but the second leg was a different story .


Atletico came within a whisker of taking the Cup on the away-goal rule but squandered several chances after going 3-1 ahead 15 minutes from the end .


Juan Lopez gave Atletico the lead midway through the first half after Barcelona fullback Albert Ferrer and substitute goalkeeper Julen Lopetegui failed to clear a Milinko Pantic cross .


Barcelona 's Hristo Stoichkov made his only significant contribution of the evening 10 minutes after halftime when Sergi Barjuan broke down the right to set up the fiery Bulgarian with a simple equaliser .


But Atletico struck back almost immediately through new signing Juan Eduardo Esnaider and then Serbian set-piece specialist Pantic made it 3-1 with a superb free-kick in the 75th minute .


Robson praised Atletico after the game , which was played in the Community of Madrid athletic stadium because of pitch problems at the Vicente Calderon ground .


The venue of Atletico 's first league game , scheduled for Sunday , is still in doubt with the Real Madrid 's Santiago Bernabeu a distinct possibility .


Summary of the Spanish Super Cup , second leg , played on Wednesday :


Atletico Madrid 3 ( Juan Lopez 28th minute , Juan Esnaider 58th , Milinko Pantic 75th ) Barcelona 1 ( Hristo Stoichkov 55th ) .


SOCCER - BARCELONA WIN SPANISH SUPER CUP .


Result of the Spanish Super Cup , second leg , played on Wednesday :


SOCCER - AJAX SIGN ARGENTINE STRIKER GABRICH .


Argentine striker Iwan Cesar Gabrich signed a five year contract with Dutch champions Ajax Amsterdam on Wednesday .


The 24-year-old Gabrich , who signed for an undisclosed fee from the Argentine side Newell Old Boys , is set to join Dutch international Patrick Kluivert in the Ajax forward line .


He is Ajax 's sixth new signing this year , joining midfielder Richard Witschge , defenders John Veldman and Mariano Juan and strikers Tijjani Babangida and Dani .


SOCCER - PARMA , ROMA AND UDINESE OUT OF ITALIAN CUP .


UEFA Cup hopefuls Parma and Roma , under new coaches this season , crashed out of the Italian Cup to second division opponents on Wednesday while league champions Milan could only draw 1-1 at humble Empoli .


Wealthy Parma , now coached by the former Italian international Carlo Ancelotti , were without new striker Enrico Chiesa and went down 3-1 at serie B club Pescara in their second round clash .


Pescara 's Ottavio Palladini shattered Parma with goals in the second and fourth minutes .


Midfielder Marco Giampaolo made it 3-0 in the 38th minute and Parma 's Alessandro Melli pulled back a late goal six minutes from time .


The second round was the entry point for the bulk of the serie A sides with the winners going through .


The later stages of the cup are played over two legs .


Parma 's defeat was a repeat of last season 's fiasco when they lost their opening cup match 3-0 to Palermo .


Roma , now coached by Argentine Carlos Bianchi and watched by Italian national coach Arrigo Sacchi , lost 3-1 to Cesena -- another repeat of last season when the Rome club also went out at the first hurdle .


Udinese , with Germany 's Euro ' 96 hero Oliver Bierhoff in their lineup , completed the hat-trick of beaten serie A sides when they went under 2-1 to newly relegated Cremonese .


Milan 's new Uruguayan coach Oscar Tabarez avoided the nightmare of defeat but faces a replay at home next Sunday .


Cup holders Fiorentina easily beat Cosenza 3-1 while European Cup holders Juventus also cruised through with a 2-0 win at small southern club Fidelis Andria .


Two other serie A sides lost at the weekend -- Piacenza and last year 's losing finalists Atalanta .


Two cup matches could not be played on Wednesday due to argument over first round results .


Lecce 's 3-0 weekend defeat of Genoa was expected to be overturned by a sporting judge on Thursday after the home club fielded an ineligible player .


That would set Genoa up for a second round match against local rivals Sampdoria .


Nocerina 's 4-3 defeat of Piacenza was also subject to a complaint , later removed , that forced their second round match against serie A newcomers Perugia to be delayed .


SOCCER - BAYERN HIT FOUR TO TAKE BUNDESLIGA TOP SPOT .


Goals from Thomas Helmer and Juergen Klinsmann helped Bayern Munich to a 4-2 home win over Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday and powered them to the top of the Bundesliga .


The comfortable victory gave Bayern 10 points from their first four games , a point ahead of second-placed Stuttgart , who have a game in hand .


Brazilian midfielder Paulo Sergio put Leverkusen ahead in the 25th minute but Alexander Zickler equalised just a minute later .


A header from Helmer and an acrobatic strike from Klinsmann gave Bayern a two-goal cushion at halftime .


But the pick of the 13-times champions ' goals came from Ruggiero Rizzitelli , who beat three defenders to put Bayern 4-1 up .


Markus Feldhoff hit a consolation goal for Leverkusen .


Hansa Rostock brought Cologne 's 100 percent record to an end with a 2-0 win over the Rhineside club while a Sean Dundee hat-trick inside seven minutes stood out in Karlsruhe 's 4-0 demolition of St Pauli .


SOCCER - ITALIAN CUP SECOND ROUND RESULTS .


SOCCER - GERMAN FIRST DIVISION SUMMARIES .


Bayern Munich 4 ( Zickler 26th , Helmer 37th , Klinsmann 44th ,


Rizzitelli 48th ) Bayer Leverkusen 2 ( Sergio 25th , Feldhoff


Cologne 0 Hansa Rostock 2 ( Akpoborie 5th and 59th ) .


Arminia Bielefeld 1 ( Von Heesen 56th ) Duisburg 1 ( Hirsch 65th ) .


SOCCER - LEADING FRENCH LEAGUE SCORERS .


first division after Wednesday 's matches :


3 - Anton Drobnjak ( Bastia ) , Vladimir Smicer ( Lens ) , Miladin


Becanovic ( Lille ) , Alain Caveglia ( Lyon ) , Xavier Gravelaine


( Marseille ) , Robert Pires ( Metz ) , Thierry Henry ( Monaco )


2 - Christopher Wreh ( Guingamp ) , Marc-Vivien Foe ( Lens ) , Enzo


Scifo ( Monaco ) , James Debbah ( Nice ) , Patrice Loko ( PSG ) ,


SOCCER - SMICER 'S LAST-GASP GOAL KEEPS LENS IN THE LEAD .


Euro 96 star Vladimir Smicer of the Czech Republic scored at the last second for Lens , allowing them to retain the lead in the French soccer league on Wednesday .


Smicer pushed the ball home in injury time to lead his team to a 3-2 victory over Montpellier , who were leading 2-1 until Cameroon 's Marc-Vivien Foe equalised on a header in the 85th minute .


The win was the fourth in as many matches this season for Lens , who lead the table on 12 points .


In-form Paris St Germain , who dismissed Nantes 1-0 , are second with 10 points .


Along with Smicer , Robert Pires was the star of the night in France , scoring the first hat-trick of the league season in Metz 's 3-1 home victory over neighbouring Strasbourg .


Pires , one of the most promising strikers in the country , was called up for the first time this week by French manager Aime Jacquet for a friendly against Mexico on Saturday at the Parc des Princes .


Pires scored first with a powerful shot in the 35th minute before striking again from close range just before the break .


A solitary raid allowed him to score his third in the 74th .


Smicer 's goal was as hard-won as his team 's victory .


Spurred by Foe 's leveller five minutes before , Lens pressed hard and Foe hit the crossbar in the dying seconds on another header .


The ball bounced back to Smicer 's feet and he scored .


Montpellier seized an unexpected lead thanks to Kader Ferhaoui in the fourth minute after a blunder from Lens goalkeeper Jean-Claude Nadon .


The side from northern France , forced to fight an uphill battle from then on , pulled level thanks to Tony Vairelles in the eighth minute but young striker Fabien Lefevre made it two for Montpellier five minutes later .


League favourites PSG scored a convincing 1-0 win over Nantes and confirmed they would again be the team to beat this season .


Ironically , PSG 's victory owed a lot to two former Nantes players , striker Patrice Loko , who scored on a brilliant shot in the 33rd minute , and defender Benoit Cauet , who started the one-two which allowed Loko to score .


The Parisians , who have yet to concede a goal , were without Brazil 's Leonardo and Panama 's Julio Cesar Dely Valdes , both called up by their national sides .


For Nantes , who shocked PSG to win the league crown two years ago , the fall is very painful .


The Canaries , who lost most of their key players within two years , have yet to win a match this season .


Reigning champions Auxerre had to settle for a goalless draw against Marseille on Tuesday .


SOCCER - DUTCH FIRST DIVISION SUMMARIES .


Willem II Tilburg 1 ( Van Hintum 69th penalty ) RKC Waalijk 2


( Schreuder 39th , Van Arum 76th , 83rd ) .


Vitesse Arnhem 1 ( Vierklau 85th ) Sparta Rotterdam 1 ( Gerard


Groningen 1 ( Gorre 66th ) Roda JC Kerkrade 1 ( Vurens 3rd )


Feyenoord 2 ( Larsson 73rd , Van Gastel 83rd penalty ) Graafschap


Volendam 1 ( Jongsma 85th ) PSV Eindhoven 3 ( Marcelo 19th , 47th ,


Ajax Amsterdam 1 ( Frank de Boer 30th ) AZ Alkmaar 0 .


Fortuna Sittard 2 ( Jeffrey 7th , Roest 33rd ) Heerenveen 4


( Korneev 15th , Hansma 24th , Wouden 70th , 90th ) .


SOCCER - GERMAN FIRST DIVISION RESULTS / STANDINGS .


Standings ( tabulated under played , won , drawn , lost , goals


Le Havre 1 ( Samson 24th ) Caen 1 ( Etienne Mendy 4th ) .


Lyon 2 ( Caveglia 23rd , Giuly 30th ) Nancy 0 .


Nice 1 ( Chaouch 64th ) Guingamp 2 ( Rouxel 10th , Baret 89th ) .


Paris St Germain 1 ( Loko 33rd ) Nantes 0 .


Rennes 1 ( Guivarch 27th ) Bordeaux 1 ( Colleter 86th ) .


division after Wednesday 's matches ( tabulate under played , won ,


drawn , lost , goals for , against , points ) :


ATHLETICS - CHRISTIE AND JOHNSON ASKED TO JOIN OWENS ' TRIBUTE .


Organisers hope to persuade Britain 's former Olympic 100 metres champion Linford Christie to join a " Dream Team " sprint relay in a special tribute to Jesse Owens at Friday 's Berlin grand prix .


Christie , who is retiring from international competition at the end of the season , was not due to compete in the German capital but Berlin promoter Rudi Thiel said : " We are still hopeful of getting him to come . "


Thiel has managed to get most of the Olympic 100 metres champions since 1948 to attend the meeting , which is being held in the stadium where Owens won four gold medals 60 years ago at the Berlin Olympics .


Canada 's Donovan Bailey , the Olympic 100 metres champion and world record holder , and Namibian Frankie Fredericks , the silver medallist at the recent Atlanta Games , have already agreed to run in the 4X100 metres team .


Thiel said on Wednesday that he had also asked Olympic 200 and 400 champion Michael Johnson to run as well as Christie .


" Most of the Olympic champions of the past are coming including Britain 's ( 1980 champion ) Allan Wells .


My minimum would be that he just ran the relay , " he said .


The 36-year-old Briton is still considering the offer and is expected to announce his decision later on Wednesday .


Owens 's widow Ruth is not well enough to attend but a message from her will be read out during the meeting and one of the sprinter 's relatives is expected to attend .


The relay race , which will include squads from Africa , the United States and Europe as well as the Owens ' quartet , will be held at the end of the meeting .


Organisers had hoped to include 1984 and 1988 champion Carl Lewis in the squad but he injured himself in Brussels last Friday .


CRICKET - NEW CAPTAIN TENDULKAR UPSTAGED BY 120 FROM JAYASURIYA .


Sachin Tendulkar marked his debut as Indian captain with a patient 110 on Wednesday , but was upstaged by dashing Sri Lankan opener Sanath Jayasuriya whose 120 steered the world champions to a nine-wicket Singer Cup win .


Sri Lanka , playing in front of their home crowd for the first time since winning the World Cup last March , comfortably passed India 's modest 226-5 from 50 overs in 44.2 overs .


The devastating opening pair of Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana shared a fine first wicket stand of 129 to the delight of the 25,000 fans .


Jayasuriya , whose first 50 included three sixes and three fours , went on to an unbeaten 120 and the man-of-the-match award .


Kaluwitharana , slow in comparison , was bowled by Tendulkar for 53 , but Aravinda de Silva with 49 not out helped see Sri Lanka home .


Earlier , Tendulkar completed his ninth century in one-day cricket , taking 138 balls to do it before being run out .


The rest of the Indian batting was generally tied down by brilliant fielding and some fairly tight bowling , although ex-captain Mohamed Azharuddin chipped in with 58 , adding 129 with Tendulkar off 28 overs , before being stumped .


The next match in the four-nation tournament is on Friday when Sri Lanka play Australia in a repeat of the World Cup final in Lahore where Sri Lanka won by seven wickets .


CRICKET - SRI LANKA BEAT INDIA BY 9 WICKETS IN ONE-DAY MATCH .


Sri Lanka beat India by nine wickets in the second match of the Singer World Series one-day ( 50 overs ) cricket tournament on Monday .


Scores : India 226-5 in 50 overs , Sri Lanka 230-1 in 44.2 overs .


CRICKET - INDIA V SRI LANKA SCOREBOARD .


World Series cricket match between India and Sri Lanka on


M. Azharuddin st Kaluwitharana b Jayasuriya 58


Did not bat : A. Kumble , N. Mongia , V. Prasad , A. Kapoor .


Bowling : Vass 9-2-35-0 , Pushpakumara 6-0-23-0 , Dharmasena


10-0-59-1 Muralitharan 10-0-42-0 , Jayasuriya 10-1-39-1 , de Silva


Total ( for one wicket - 44.2 overs ) 230


Did not bat : Arjuna Ranatunga , Asanka Gurusinha , Hashan


Tillekeratne , Roshan Mahanama , Kumara Dharmasena , Chaminda Vaas ,


Muthiah Muralitharan , Ravindra Pushpakumara


Bowling : Kumble 10-1-40-0 , Prasad 6-0-47-0 , Srinath


CRICKET - INDIA WIN TOSS AND BAT AGAINST SRI LANKA .


India won the toss and elected to bat against Sri Lanka in the second day-night limited overs cricket match of the Singer World Series tournament on Wednesday .


India - Sachin Tendulkar ( captain ) , Anil Kumble , Ajay Jadeja , Sourav Ganguly , Mohamed Azharuddin , Vinod Kambli , Rahul Dravid , Nayan Mongia , Javagal Srinath , Venkatesh Prasad , Ashish Kapoor .


Sri Lanka - Arjuna Ranatunga ( captain ) , Sanath Jayasuriya , Romesh Kaluwitharana , Asanka Gurusinha , Aravinda de Silva , Hashan Tillekeratne , Roshan Mahanama , Kumara Dharmasena , Chaminda Vaas , Muthiah Muralitharan , Ravindra Pushpakumara .


These are the leading stories in the Angolan press on Wednesday .


Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy .


- Princeton Lyman , the U.S. Under-Secretary of State for International Organisations , will on Wednesday continue his work in Angola visiting Bailundo , where he should be received by Jonas Savimbi , leader of Unita .


On Tuesday Lyman participated in a meeting of a joint-commission where he considered that the Angolan politicians should advance faster and find a way to cooperate .


In his opinion the quartering of Unita forces must be concluded in all the Angolan territory and the troops must be selected and integrated in the armed forces , the government forces must be concentrated in the principal units and the free circulation of people and goods must be reality in all the country .


S.AFRICAN TRUTH BODY TO SUMMON APARTHEID POLICE .


South Africa 's Truth and Reconciliation Commission said on Wednesday it would subpoena persons accused of human rights violations to appear before it .


" We can subpoena anyone we want to , even the president of the country , " spokesman John Allen told Reuters . "


Subpoenas are due to be served on a number of people this week . "


Media reports have speculated that the commission , which is trying to heal the wounds of apartheid by confronting the past , could subpoena apartheid-era President P.W. Botha and former police generals Basie Smit and Johan Van Der Merwe .


In submissions last week to the commission National Party leader and former president F.W. De Klerk said he had received no co-operation from Botha in compiling his party 's report .


Since it began work in April the commission has been hearing harrowing tales from the victims of apartheid-era abuses , by both the white minority regime and its opponents .


It also wants to hear from those who committed the abuses , to whom it can offer amnesty in return for frankness .


Hopes that reformed perpetrators would come forward voluntarily have faded but the commission has the legal power to force them to appear .


Allen declined to give say who would be subpoenaed .


" At the moment we have a preliminary list of less than 10 people , but this is just the beginning , " he said .


The commission was set up last year to probe 30 years of human-rights violations during the apartheid era .


It is chaired by Nobel Peace winner , retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu .


Allen said the commission could announce the names of subpoenaed persons on Monday next week .


TURKISH AIRPLANE LANDS IN SOFIA ON BOMB THREAT .


A Turkish airliner on flight from Istanbul to Vienna on Wednesday landed in emergency at Sofia airport after receiving a bomb threat , said an airport official .


" The plane landed at Sofia airport at 1503 ( 1203 GMT ) after receiving a signal that there is an explosive on board , " the official , who declined to be named told Reuters .


The plane , surrounded by 11 fire-engines , is being checked for explosives at the moment .


Nothing has been found so far , added the official .


In March a Turkish Cypriot airliner hijacked while on a flight from northern Cyprus to Istanbul landed in Sofia airport to refuel before landing in Munich , where the hijacker was arrested .


Arch Alberta well tests 1,100 bbl / day .


Arch Petroleum Inc said Wednesday an exploratory well in Alberta 's Morinville area tested in excess of 1,100 barrels daily and will begin production immediately .


The company said the 90 percent owned Trax et al Morinville 10-23 logged 28 feet of productive Leduc Reef at 5,350 feet .


Reserve estimates from this well are at 250,000 gross barrels of oil .


The Trax well is one of the prospects developed by Arch through its early 1996 purchase of Trax Petroleums Ltd , the company said .


It said another , the Cometra et al Morinville 11-13 , has logged 128 feet of productive Leduc Reef at 5,400 feet and is flowing water free at the rate of 590 barrels of oil per day on a 15 / 64ths-inch choke .


Arch owns a 16 percent working interest in this well with most of the rest held by the privately owned operator .


Arch said full production has begun and initial estimates of gross reserves attributable to this well range up to one million barrels of oil .


A third well drilled in this area , the Trax et al Morinville 2-25 , encountered the Leduc Reef but tested wet .


At the company 's Nordegg prospect , the Apache et al Saunders 14-28 , has reached total depth in the Leduc Reef at approximately 3,800 feet and has been abandoned , Arch said .


It said this acreage earning well brought an interest in an additional 5,120 acres , building the company 's gross land position in this area to 8,320 acres .


At the Butte prospect , the Garrington 4-8 has reached total depth of 11,500 and has logged 278 feet of Leduc Reef .


Testing has begun and results will be announced within the next several days , Arch said .


Including the costs of the two abandoned wells , the company said , these first prospects have added to reserves at a finding cost of about U.S. $ 2 per barrel of oil equivalent .


U.S. judge orders Biogen , Berlex officials deposed .


In order to help him decide whether he should hear the case , a U.S. District Court judge Wednesday ordered the legal counsels of Biogen Inc and Berlex Laboratories , a subsidiary of Schering AG , deposed .


The tempest beyond the test tube involves allegations that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration violated the Orphan Drug law by allowing Biogen the right to sell its multiple sclerosis drug Avonex .


Berlex also charges that Avonex is so similar to its MS drug , Betaseron , that it is a patent infringement .


One analyst said sales of Avonex had already cut into Betaseron market share .


BioVest Research , Inc 's analyst Eddie Hedaya said , " Berlex sales are losing share like mad ...


my understanding of the marketplace is that they 're below expectations . "


He added Chiron Corp reported its sales of inventory to Berlex was down .


Chiron makes Betaseron ; Berlex markets it , he said .


Biogen , in its Securities and Exchange Commission quarterly report for the period ending June 30 , said it had earned $ 6.1 million from Avonex sales during the drugs first six weeks on the market .


When it approved Avonex in May , the FDA said both Biogen 's product and Betaseron were developed under the incentives of the Ophran Drug Act which provides seven years of marketing exclusivity for products that treat rare diseases .


Avonex " has been allowed to enter the market because it differs from interferon beta-1b ( Betaseron ) ..


Now , U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf has ordered the chief counsel for Biogen , Michael Astrue , and Robert Chabora , his counterpart at Berlex be deposed about a May 21 meeting the two men attended to help him determine whether the lawsuit filed by Biogen against Berlex should be heard in Massachusetts .


Berlex filed a lawsuit against Biogen in U.S. District Court in Newark , N.J. in July , but Biogen had already filed a suit against Berlex in Massachusetts in May .


Wolf ordered the depositions to determine if he or U.S. District Judge John Bissell of Newark should preside over the case .


U.S. Treasury balances at Fed rose on Aug 27 .


U.S. Treasury balances at Federal Reserve based on Treasury Department 's latest budget statement .


COMEX copper ends higher after late recovery .


COMEX copper ended higher after a late , modest recovery dragged the market from the lows , but traders shrugged-off an imminent strike at Codelco 's Salvador mine in Chile .


The market was also waiting for Friday 's LME stock report which will include figures delayed from Tuesday because of the U.K. public holiday on Monday when the LME was closed .


" We are in the late stages of the weaker period of the market , and as we get to the post Labor Day market we will start to see more consumer interest and the demand side of the market will start to firm prices up , " said William O'Neill of Merrill Lynch .


December COMEX settled 0.35 cent higher at 90.20 cents , traded 90.50 to 89.40 cents .


September went out 0.05 cent lower at 91.05 .


The August contract expired at 0.85 cent down at 90.85 cents .


Workers at Salvador voted to strike from Saturday , and it was not clear when further talks between the unions and management would take place .


" Salvador is a small facility , and the prospects are that if there will be a strike , it will not be a long strike , " O'Neill said .


-- Huw Jones , New York Commodities 212-859-1646


U.S. copper service center shipments stable - CBSA .


Average daily shipments from U.S. copper service centers in July fell three percent from the previous month , but were higher than in July 1995 , the Copper and Brass Servicenter Association reported .


" July was still above the historic average for that month , " the CBSA said .


In the first seven months of 1996 , shipments of copper sheet , coil and strip were 2.2 percent ahead of the same period last year .


Alloy shipments , however , were 7.5 percent down .


" Several service centers indicated that while their volume of orders remains constant , the size-per-order continues to be smaller than what was realised during the first five months of the year , " the CBSA said .


Service centers continued to lower their inventories in July when total copper stocks were off two percent and alloy products down 1.9 percent .


Chile 's ENAP buys Oriente , Escravos crude for Oct .


Chile 's state oil company Empresa Nacional del Petroleo ( ENAP ) bought a second spot cargo of Oriente and nearly one million barrels of Escravos in a recent tender , traders said Wednesday .


A 400,000 barrel cargo of Ecuadorian Oriente and 960,000 barrels of Nigerian Escravos was awarded in a tender for Oct 15-18 late last week , but price information remains vague .


" The Oriente will be supplied by the same seller at a small premium to formula , " a trade source said , referring to the first October cargo sold two weeks ago at Petroecuador 's sale formula plus five cents fob .


Escravos was sold on a Dated Brent related basis , with premiums for the light grade seen in the low 50-cent range .


The next purchase tender from ENAP is expected for late October or early November crude , traders said .


Reuters historical calendar - September 4 .


Following are some of the major events to have occurred on September 4 in history .


1241 - Alexander III , King of Scotland , born .


King from 1249-1286 , he consolidated royal power , leaving Scotland united and independent .


1260 - The Ghibellines retook the city of Florence from the Florentine Guelfs at the battle of Monte Aperto .


1768 - Francois-Rene ( Vicomte de ) Chateaubriand born .


He was a politician , one of the first French romantic writers and ambassador to the British court .


He wrote " Rene " , a seminal work in the French romantic movement and a famous autobiography " Memoires d'Outre Tombe " .


1781 - Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers and named " El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles " ( The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels ) .


Austrian composer and organist , he wrote nine symphonies on a huge scale and three grand masses in the romantic tradition .


1870 - In France , the Second Empire was ended and Napoleon III was deposed after his surrender two days earlier in the Franco-Prussian war .


1886 - At Skeleton Canyon in Arizona , Geronimo , Apache chief and leader of the last great Red Indian rebellion finally surrendered to General Nelson Miles .


1892 - Prolific French modernist composer Darius Milhaud born .


He wrote a jazz ballet " La Creation du Monde " and scores for many films including an early version of " Madame Bovary " .


1906 - German-born U.S. biologist Max Delbruck born .


Winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for work on the genetic structure of viruses that infect bacteria .


1907 - Edvard Grieg , Norwegian composer best known for his " Peer Gynt Suite " and his Piano Concerto , died in Bergen .


1908 - U.S. film director Edward Dmytryk born .


Best known for his films " Crossfire " - one of Hollywood 's first attempts to deal with racial discrimination and " Farewell My lovely " .


1909 - The world 's first Boy Scout Rally was held at Crystal Palace near London .


1944 - Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium were liberated by British and Canadian troops in World War Two .


1948 - Wilhelmina , Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 and throughout World Wars One and Two abdicated in favour of her daughter Juliana .


1963 - Robert Schuman , French statesman , Prime Minister 1947-48 and Foreign Minister 1948-52 , died .


He was responsible for the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community .


1964 - The Forth Road Bridge in Scotland , measuring 6156 ft , and with a centre span of 3300 ft , was opened by Her Majesty the Queen .


1965 - Albert Schweitzer , theologian , philosopher and organist died in Gabon where he had set up a hospital in 1913 .


Acclaimed for his interpretations of J.S. Bach 's works , he also won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of the " Brotherhood of Nations " in 1952 .


1972 - At the Olympic Games , U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz won his seventh gold medal , a record for a single Olympiad .


1974 - East Germany and the United States established formal diplomatic relations for the first time .


1977 - E.F. ( Fritz ) Schumacher , economic guru and author of the best seller " Small is Beautiful " , died on his way to a conference in Switzerland .


1989 - Georges Simenon , writer of 84 books based on the detective character Inspector Maigret , died .


1992 - Bulgaria 's former Communist leader Todor Zhivkov , deposed in 1989 , was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of embezzling state funds .


1995 - Declaring " united Jerusalem is ours " , Israel launched a 15-month celebration of the 3,000th anniversary of King David 's proclamation of the city as the capital of the Jewish people .


1995 - The Fourth World Conference on Women , the biggest U.N. gathering in history , began in China 's Great Hall of the People with a U.N. declaration that sexual equality was the last great project of the 20th century .


UK lowers noise limits for three London airports .


The British government on Wednesday lowered the noise limits for London 's Heathrow , Gatwick and Stansted airports and announced it would make a bigger effort in detecting and fining violators .


The limits , effective from January 1 , 1997 , are reduced as much as possible while still complying with international obligations , a spokesman for the Department of Transport said .


The maximum noise level during the day is trimmed by three decibels to 94 , while the night time level is reduced by two decibels to 87 .


" It is a smaller reduction in terms of loudness than was sought by local people .


Nevertheless I am satisfied that the overall benefits will be worthwile , " Lord Goschen , minister for aviation , said in a statement .


The ministry said it believed the new limits could be met with existing aircraft . "


They can be flown in quieter ways , " a spokesman said .


The reduction in noise levels is the same as proposed in a consultation paper which was published in October 1995 .


The present noise levels have applied at Heathrow , one of the world 's busiest airports , since 1959 and at Gatwick since 1968 .


The number of monitors will be increased and some will be repositioned to detect noisy planes .


Tennis - Philippoussis beats Woodforde in U.S. Open .


Mark Philippoussis beat fellow Australian Mark Woodforde 6-7 ( 6-8 ) 6-3 6-3 6-3 in a men 's singles first round match at the U.S. Open on Tuesday .


The two Davis Cup team-mates were pitted against each other after last week 's controversial redraw of the men 's singles competition .


Philippoussis is on course for a third round meeting with world number one Pete Sampras of the United States , whom he beat at the Australian Open last January .


Rugby union-England given final chance to stay in Five Nations .


England have been given a final chance to remain in the Five Nations ' championship despite striking an exclusive television deal with Rupert Murdoch 's Sky television .


In a statement on Wednesday , the Four Nations TV Committee said dates had been set for a competition involving Scotland , Wales , Ireland and France next year .


" Between now and then , discussions will take place in one final attempt to persuade the Rugby Football Union to save the Five Nations ' championship in its current form , " the statement said .


No further details were immediately available .


England infuriated their championship colleagues when they decided to sign a 87.5 million pounds sterling ( $ 135.8 million ) deal giving Sky television exclusive rights to rugby union matches in England .


The present contract with the British Broadcasting Corporation was shared between the four home nations while France have their own television deal .


Last month Five Nations ' committee chairman Tom Kiernan said England would be thrown out of the competition " unless circumstances change in the near future " .


Cricket - NZ face tough schedule at home and abroad .


World Cup cricket champions Sri Lanka will play two tests and three one-day internationals in a tour of New Zealand next March , officials said on Wednesday .


New Zealand Cricket said the Sri Lankans would play tests in Hamilton and Wellington and one-dayers in Auckland , Christchurch and Dunedin , following hard on the heels of a tour by England .


New Zealand will also line up against Sri Lanka and Pakistan this November in a one-day champions trophy competition in Sharjah .


The team will go one to tour Pakistan , playing two tests and three one-day internationals .


Soccer - Burundi disqualification from African Cup confirmed .


The African Football Confederation ( CAF ) on Wednesday formally confirmed Burundi 's disqualification from the African Nations Cup following the team 's inability to travel for a qualifier against Central African Republic .


The Burundi team were unable to leave their troubled country for a preliminary round first leg match in Bangui earlier this month because of an air ban imposed in a recent set of internationally-sponsored sanctions .


The Central African Republic qualified on a walkover to play in group four with Guinea , Sierra Leone and Tunisia .


" After examining the dossier of the Burundi-Central Africa match , we decided ...


to disqualify the national team of Burundi from the 21st African Cup of Nations ...


as a result of the absence of this team from the match , " CAF said in a statement .


Cricket - India 226-5 in 50 overs v Sri Lanka .


India scored 226 for five wickets in their 50 overs against Sri Lanka in the second day-night limited overs match of the Singer World Series tournament on Wednesday .


Canada fast-tracks Chinese asylum-seekers - report .


Canada is fast-tracking immigration applications from Chinese dissidents in Hong Kong before the British colony reverts to China 's control next year , the Vancouver Sun reported on Wednesday .


The applications are being " fast-tracked in the sense that we are processing them and the ones who have been referred to us have been interviewed , " the newspaper quoted Garrett Lambert , Canada 's high commissioner in Hong Kong , as saying .


" A small number already have preliminary indications as to what the disposition of their cases are and so I suppose in that sense , I guess we have given them some preferential treatment , " Lambert said .


He declined to say how many people were being considered for asylum .


Canada 's ministry of foreign affairs in Ottawa had no immediate comment on the report .


About 80 Chinese dissidents are believed to be living in exile in Hong Kong .


Their fate after the territory reverts to Chinese rule is unclear .


Britain hands Hong Kong back to China at midnight on June 30 , 1997 , after 150 years of colonial rule .


Canada 's Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy said after meeting Hong Kong Gov .


Chris Patten last month that Canada may grant asylum to dissidents who have fled to Hong Kong from China .


Chinese officials have said such dissidents may not become Hong Kong permanent residents since they entered the territory illegally but have also said their status would be decided by the post-1997 local Hong Kong administration .


Ivorian journalist held , asked to reveal source .


An Ivorian journalist spent a third day in custody on Wednesday and investigators were demanding that he reveal the source of an official document published in his newspaper , colleagues said .


Raphael Lapke , publication director of Ivorian newspaper Le Populaire , was taken in for questioning on Monday over an article about the public prosecutor and has been detained since then .


Colleagues said he had been charged with theft of administrative documents . "


He is being asked for the source of his information and who gave him this confidential document , " one colleague told Reuters .


Three journalists from the Ivorian opposition daily La Voie are serving two-year prison terms for insulting President Henri Konan Bedie .


A court sentenced two in December and the third in January .


La Voie published an article suggesting the presence of Bedie had brought local team ASEC bad luck during their defeat by Orlando Pirates of South Africa in the final of the African Champions Cup in December .


The United States embassy in Abidjan and international press organisations denounced the sentences as excessive .


Last year , Bedie pardoned four journalists jailed for the same or similar offences .


They included one of the three La Voie journalists .


Bedie pardoned two other journalists jailed for incitement to disturb public order .


Village attack kills 38 in eastern Sierra Leone .


Sierra Leonean rebels killed 31 villagers and seven soldiers in an attack on the eastern village of Foindu , Eastern Region Brigade Commander Major Fallah Sewa said on Wednesday .


Sewa said the rebels overran Foindu despite the presence of government troops in the village on the highway between Mano Junction and the diamond town of Tongo Field .


An army spokesman in Freetown said Monday night 's attack was the third on a military post in the past week .


Rebels of the Revolutionary United Front agreed a ceasefire in April .


Continuing attacks are generally ascribed to renegade soldiers or uncontrolled bands of rebels and refugees displaced by the fighting starting to return to their homes .


Peace talks in Ivory Coast began in February .


Diplomats say they are deadlocked over the RUF 's insistence that foreign troops helping the government army should leave , and that they should have some say in the allocation of budget spending .


Aid agency says Sudan missionaries released .


An aid agency said six Roman Catholic missionaries , including three Australian nuns , were freed by rebels in southern Sudan on Wednesday after being held for nearly two weeks .


But Catholic church officials said they had no confirmation of the report and would have to wait until Thursday to be sure .


Zambia 's Chiluba shuffles cabinet to fill vacancy .


Zambian President Frederick Chiluba shuffled his cabinet on Wednesday to fill a vacancy left after the sacking of Legal Affairs Minister Remmy Mushota .