Countries

To represent their countries in baseball's first World Cup, players will have to pass Olympic-style drug tests far stricter than the ones owners have lobbied the players' union to approve for use in the major leagues. Under an agreement announced Monday, players will be subject to random, round-the-clock testing for steroids during the World Cup. They also will be tested for other substances banned under international rules but permitted under major league rules.

Sacre bleu! A weak euro coupled with a healthy Southern California economy helped propel the Golden State past France to rank as the world's fifth-largest economy if it were a separate nation, according to a report released this week. Figures from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. placed the 2000 gross state product at $1.33 trillion, just ahead of France at $1.28 trillion, and behind the United Kingdom at $1.42 trillion. In 1999, France ranked No.

Pakistan's brief period as a destination for adventurous investors seems over for now, as the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto brings fresh instability to an already volatile nuclear-armed nation. "This is the worst possible scenario for foreign investment," said Luis Costa, head of emerging debt at Commerzbank in London. "Probably there are many months of volatility ahead and this environment of chaos is perfect for Islamic militants."

IF you are one of the millions of Americans heading overseas this summer, you may find confusion rather than acceptance when you try to use your credit card. And it will be up to you to set recalcitrant clerks straight. The confusion stems from mandates by governments to card issuers (including American Express, MasterCard and Visa, both credit and debit cards) in foreign countries to adopt the "smart card," also known as "chip and PIN" technology, for credit cards issued in that country.

WASHINGTON -- With the war in Iraq a fresh memory, majorities of citizens in seven of eight Islamic countries surveyed in a new poll -- including longtime U.S. military ally Turkey -- said they fear a U.S. military attack.

From the world's farthest corners, Argentina and Australia are in. But Arab powers and former partners Egypt and Syria are out. And front-line states Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have a foot in each camp. Seven years after the Persian Gulf War, the United States this week put finishing touches on a new coalition supporting the use of military force against Iraq if Baghdad continues to block United Nations inspectors from seeking out weapons of mass destruction.

Gabriela Villegas scrolled through the online profiles, searching for a photo and description that appealed to her. She wasn't surfing for a date or networking for new friends. She was on the Kiva website, reading through stories of impoverished entrepreneurs in developing countries, trying to decide to which venture she would extend a $25 business loan. "Twenty-five dollars -- that's probably how much I spend on just one meal," said Villegas, 25, of Manchester, Conn.

Cinema turned 100 last year and the British, who believe in doing things properly, wanted to give the movies a present. But what can you possibly give the medium that has done it all? "I hesitated for eight months because I couldn't think of how to do it," says Colin MacCabe of the British Film Institute. "The cinema is so enormous, so vast, how could you turn out something that would show its range?" Then Florence Dauman, a Los Angeles-based producer, had a thought.

Amid all the talk of gloom and doom in the United States, with the stock market's near-crash and the renewed threat of a double-dip recession, it is worth pausing to remember that the United States remains the greatest country on Earth. It is also the country with the most promising future. I make these assertions not as a matter of national pride, but as an analytical conclusion. This is not to discourage serious attention to deficit reduction, economic renewal and political reform — all of which we greatly need — or to trivialize the country's admittedly serious problems.