El Paso Times from El Paso, Texas • 23

CO EiPasoTres 1 i I BUSINESS Paso Times 7 Ann Sumitomo Trust and Banking works on merger to dodge red ink OR By Omar Sharif and Tannah Hlrsctt Question Neither vulnerable, as South you hold: 5 0 AK876 A 10843 Partner opens the bidding with one club. What do you respond? 2 30 What action do you take Q6: As South, vulnerable, you hold: K7 0 AKQ8542 A The bidding has proceeded: SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST 10 Pass Pass Dbl What do you bid now? Look for answers on Monday. BRIDGE Q4 A83 0 A9862 A74 The bidding has proceeded: NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST Pass 20 Pass 3 Pass What do you bid now? Q4: As South, vulnerable, you hold: J4 AK6 0 AJ98 QJ63 Your right-hand opponent opens one diamond. What action do you take? Q5: Both vulnerable, as South you hold: K76 9852 0 J5 J9763 The bidding has proceeded: NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST Pass Pass Dbl SALES The Automotive Marketplace To Subscribe call 546-6300 Today Japan after Bank of Tokyo-Mit subishi Ltd. "We made this decision aiming to become a global player and a more powerful bank," Sumitomo Trust President Atsushi Taka-hashi told reporters Friday in Tokyo.

The bank aims to put together a deal within one year. Long-Term Credit Bank is the 22nd-largest bank in the world, according to Forbes magazine. For the past two weeks, the bank has been rumored to be on the verge of collapse. It is saddled with more than $10 billion in bad loans, and its share prices have become worthless overnight. "We have to work towards making a strong and more competitive bank," LTCB President Katsunobu Onogi told reporters.

Though bank officials referred to the deal as a merger, the scant details of the plan released Friday indicated Sumitomo would buy out LTCB's sound loans and leave its problem debts. News reports said a proposed govern LORRAINE WARDY 1998 SZmme Saturday June 27, 9am-7pm Sunday June 28, 1 1am-5pm After Season Collections Fabric Trim Samples El Paso Jean Co. Smoking Jackets LEASE AWARDS: DATE: TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1998 TIME: 10:00 A.M. PLACE: OFFICES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SYSTEM, AUSTIN, TEXAS Ann Landers Give my blood to the teen-ager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play. Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist.

Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk. Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, some day, a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window. Burn what is left of me, and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow. If you must bun- something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all prejudice against my fellow man.

If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked. I will Hve forever. Dear Ann Landers: I hope I'm not too late to get into vour discussion about spatially" impaired people those whose Saturday. June 27.

1998 ment-run "bridge bank" would take over much of the bad debt. "The Finance Ministry has to act to prevent a crisis of confidence and we are in somewhat of a crisis of confidence now," said James Fiorillo, an analyst at ING Barings. Japan's government is pushing banks to write off bad loans they amassed in the late 1980s. The government also is scrambling to set up the emergency bridge bank to provide loans to cash-strapped companies ignored by private banks now unwilling to loan them more money. i But investors are concerned the government may be willing to let some weak institutions go under in order to strengthen the overall financial system.

That concern began to focus on LTCB last week, after Moody's Investors Services lowered the bank's credit rating and sent its share prices plunging. 12C dumped, but when it changes to a gaseous form, you can inhale it and it gets into the lungs and is passed along to your internal organs," Espino said. The amount in fluorescent lamps is relatively low, Kincaid said. About 11,000 normal four-four lamps would be required to produce a pound of mercury. And that amount would fit in a little vial you could hold in your hand, Espino said.

But it would take 100,000 Alto lamps to contain that much mercury, said Philips sale representative Frank Shopteese, who works with Wesco in El Philips is a huge corporation based in the Netherlands, while Wesco is a large private company with 4,705 employees nationwide. Wesco doesn't currently sell stock but could go public, Kincaid said. Health legislation topic of discussion The Business Healthcare Alliance of the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce and the Texas Association of Business and Chambers of Commerce will be the hosts of a discussion on health legislative issues from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Camino Real Hotel.

Panelists will include Randy McGraw of FHP, Irene Chavez of Sierra Providence and U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes. Cost: $20 for chamber and TABCC members, $25 for nonmembers. Information: 534-0505.

In other news: TOKYO A two-year investigation by Japan's Fair Trade Commission into the country's photo film business found no unfair trade practices hindering foreign access to the market, Kyodo News agency reported Friday. The commission said some business practices targeted for criticism have been voluntarily abolished by photo makers such as Fuji Photo Film the nation's top maker of photosensitive materials, Kyodo reported. Such practices included subsidies paid by Fuji to distributors for handling only Fuji Photo products, the report said. MOSCOW Russia is confident that it will obtain a new International Monetary Fund loan and that negotiations can be wrapped up in a month, Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais said Friday. "There is no super-difficult problem with the IMF," Chubais said.

"That is why we will try to speed up the process, not in two months as was announced before, but in one month." Russia is seeking $10 billion to $15 billion. BRIDGEPORT, Conn. Remington Products will shut down its shaver assembly operations here by October and move them to China, cutting 220 jobs, or nearly half its local work force. The Bridgeport assembly operation now accounts for only about 25 percent of the company's electric shavers. ACREAGE OFFERED (NO NOMINATIONS REQUIRED): HAW i sense of direction is so poor that they get lost in their own homes.

The columns you have printed have had special meaning for me because I am one of those who can never find his way around. That, however, is not why I am writing. I wanted to let you and your readers in on a secret that has been closely guarded by NASA for several years. In spite of anything government officials might tell you, the real reason that today's teams of astronauts include women is that someone has to stop and ask for directions when spaceships get lost. Lester J.

Pourciau, director of libraries, University of Memphis Dear Lester in Memphis: I'm printing your letter knowing I shall incur the wrath of several thousand male readers. But what you've written has more than a germ of truth in it. Few men ask for directions when they are lost. Many times, the wife sits there, silent and steaming, while he continues on his muddled way, turning left and right and sometimes winding up on the same street. Thanks for saying it in a way guaranteed to bring a smile.

Write Ann Landers, El Paso Times, Creator's Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Suite 700, Los Angeles CA 90045. 1C using television during the 10 p.m. newscast. By February, 1998, the share had eroded to 18.

Channel 9 started 1997 with a 23 share, went up to a 28 and then started coming down to a 25 share by February 1998. Associated Press TOKYO Sumitomo Trust and Banking Corp. is considering a merger with the debt-plagued Long-Term Credit Bank that would probably leave the bank's huge bad-loan portfolio to a public bailout and provide a crucial first test of the government's resolve to stabilize its financial system. Sour bank loans have been blamed as a major cause for Japan's deepest recession in 50 years, and the merger is an opportunity for Japan to prove that it is serious about its recent pledge to clean up Japanese banks' $550 billion in bad debt. An agreement also would help Sumitomo Trust and Long-Term Credit compete in an age of increased foreign competition as the country introduces its much-vaunted "big bang" deregulation measures.

The combined bank would be the second-largest in Lights Continued from 12C than conventional ones. "It can cost from 35 cents to $2 a lamp to dispose of higher-mercury lamps, when you figure the machinery, bookkeeping and other expenses," Gomez said. Many companies have been facing using a special machine to crush the lamps, then put them in drums that must be disposed of as hazardous waste, said Tom Kin-caid, Wesco branch manager. Besides doing away with some of that expense, sales also have been helped by the lamps costing no more than conventional fluorescent lamps, he said. Although the lamps are patented, a number of competitors are developing similar products Q2: Neither vulnerable, as South you hold: AK10973 A 0 AK7 982 The bidding has proceeded: EAST SOUTH WEST NORTH IV Dbl Pass 29 What do you bid now? Q3: Both vulnerable, as South you hold: brilliantly choreographed summerlong show of dance, song and colorful costumes." Southern Living presents TexasVacations, SpringSummer 1998 SOUTHWEST ARLMES A SYMHIIL l)f i'KlbUOM flk CONTINUED FROM 289,823 acres in Hudspeth County LEASE TERMS: 10-year primary term; Minimum bonus $2acre (rounded up to the next $1 .00 per tract); 31 6 royalty increasing to 15 at the end of the primary term BID FORMS, TRACT LISTS, AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM: UNIVERSITY LANDS OIL, GAS AND MINERAL INTERESTS P.O.BOX 553 MIDLAND, TEXAS 79702-0553 Phone: (915)684-4404 Fax: (915)682-7456 WgbSjie: http:www.utlands.utsystem.eduogminextsale.html For newsletter information, write Goren Bridge Letter, P.O.

Box 4426 Orlando, FL 32802-4426. mes JCPenney Experience four centuries of Paso's history in the idyllic outdoor to capture a share of the market. Richard Bond of Summit Electric Supply, a Wesco competitor, said Philips "has done a good marketing job with the Alto and capitalized on it and made good money on it." Summit is a Sylvania lamp distributor, he said. Sylvania's stance has been that the environmental people are going to ban any mercury in the dumps eventually, so ultimately any mercury lamp will have to be recycled anyway, he said. But he said Sylvania also has developed a competitive product so that it won't be left behind.

The problem with mercury is in its vapor form, said Frank Es-pino, regional manager for Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. "We frequently run across (liquid) mercury here that has been BID OPENING; DATE: TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1998 TIME: 10:00 A.M. PLACE: CENTER FOR ENERGY AND ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION (CEED), MIDLAND, TEXAS (located between Midland and Odessa on Highway 191) CONTINUED FROM McKeHgon Canyon Amphitheater. Classified advertising 546-6200 Retail advertising 546-6237 to Nielsen Media Research. Television news audiences have been fluctuating up and down over the past year.

KVIA started out strong in February 1997 with a 28 share or 28 percent of the households I i BIGGEST SAVINGS IN THE STORE ARE IN THE TENT Saturday, June 27. 1998 Old essay Dear Ann Landers: One of my favorite high school teach-j died recently. Among her papers was an essay you had printed in your eol-i back in 1991. 1 I found it very moving and hope you will print it again. 'Thank vou.

John in North-' ridge. Calif. Dear John: It's one of my favorites, too. Thank you for asking. I should tell you, al-' so, that it is one of the most frequently requested by my To Remember Me by Robert N.

Test The day will come when my (, body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under four corners of a mattress located in a hospital busily occupied with the living and the dying. At a certain moment, a doc-tor will determine that my 3 brain has ceased to function 'Mand that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped. When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don't call this my death-r' bed. Let it be called the Bed of Life, and let my body be taken from it to help others lead full-" er lives.

Give my sight to the man Who has never seen a sunrise, a ('baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman. i Give my heart to a person viwhose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain. Nielsen "Continued from 1C newscast with better local coverage and better stories than some of the other newscasts in town," said Zoltan Csanyi-Salcedo, KINT news director. Channel 26 said its new weekend news program launched the first weekend of the ratings period also is gaining viewers. Channel 14-KFOX news executives were pleased with the progress the station's 9 p.m.

newscast is making against tough primetime entertainment programming and news magazines. The station's newscast had a 6 share, compared with a 25 share for KTSM, a 14 share for KVIA, an 11 share of KDBC and an 8 share for KINT in the same time period. "We'll take steady growth anytime," said Teresa Burgess, KFOX general manager. "We built on our set numbers and saw good consistency week to week. We are continuing to grow with every book." Burgess contends her station is now the No.

3 late news in the market when the ratings are broken down by different age groupings. "Our 18 to 49 and 25 to 54 demographic ratings put us in that position," Burgess said. For the noon slot, Channel 4 had a 17 share, the highest household rating. That means 17 percent of households with a television set are tuned in to that show at that specific time. No other station offers a noontime newscast.

At Channel 4, general manager Dan Krieger put an optimistic lining on his station's progress in the ratings. "Overall, we're pretty happy. We're a solid No. 2 in primetime. We made some major gains on the weekend newscasts and we're No.

1 at noon again," Krieger said. Channel 4 already shifted veteran weather anchor Gene Savard to the morning slot, hoping a familiar face will help attract more viewers to the morning news show. The station also is working on improving the content of its news product to see if that will influence the ratings. Channel 4 brought in a new anchoring team that included El Paso mainstays 1 Raymond Mesa and Suzanne Michaels a year ago. But apparently the talent alone has not been enough to help the station retain its ratings gains.

"We're looking to present more appealing newscasts, still get hard news in there but improving the content, more of the kinds of stories that people want to see," news director Udell Vigil said. "We want to be more responsive to what the viewers have to say." In the El Paso market, there are an estimated 264,210 households with televisions, according TEN STRAIGHT DAYS OF INCREDIBLE SAVINGS I iw-wj 1 jr 1 ji ft mtnn. 51 vfwmfww yww- r-r ft. I IT wuml iHlhrtillrialtjr.iital aft im-psfeHWrti jaissaL -iTlsJlK1sl 1 I 1 f-i- 1 --m 1 S-: I 4 i rvwHf 3fmmmmmmmimtmmmmmmmJ'' I -''j n. 1 a pnpiwiwws F1 a vU 5 pve-Bfvxm mwwrrf IS cr 7, It'S RegiS-Bernard's Big Top Sale! Here's a rare opportunity for incredible savings at Regis-Bernard.

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