leads with the rebuke to Iraq likely to come from the U.N., which is also the top national story at the Los Angeles Times. The New York Times leads with Kodak’s decision to cut 10,000 jobs, the biggest layoff at any American company this year. The company has been hurt by continued unimpressive digital camera sales. A late-breaking story, which likely will dominate everybody’s later editions, the gunning down of four Americans in Karachi, Pakistan this morning, leads at the early edition of the Washington Post available to “Today’s Papers” prior to the column deadline.
The Post says the Karachi police believe the shootings may have been carried out by an extremist group in retaliation for Monday’s conviction in Virginia of a Pakistani national in the CIA murders case. The four victims, reports the paper, worked as auditors for Union Texas Petroleum Co.
USAT reports that the U.S. appears to have accepted a milder U.N. resolution against Iraq than it originally hoped for, largely because France and Russia wouldn’t go for stronger language. Instead of threatening “serious consequences” if Iraq doesn’t cease its interference with the operations of U.N. weapons inspection teams, it merely refers to possible “further measures.” The resolution, which could come up for a U.N. Security Council vote today, also imposes a foreign travel ban on culpable Iraqi officials. The LAT, in its front-page piece, has this too but adds the detail that, at the insistence of Egypt, the U.S. has also accepted language in the resolution affirming the territorial integrity and independence of Iraq. USAT notes these indicators of U.S. military preparations: the crew of the aircraft carrier Nimitz, stationed in the Persian Gulf, is on “high alert,” and both Defense Secretary Cohen and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs canceled overseas trips. The NYT also gives Iraq front-page play. But the Post puts it on p. A18.
In its front-page business and financial news box, the Wall Street Journal flags a story describing how Microsoft is now mounting a broad campaign to counter its critics, both in real court and in the court of public opinion. The piece claims that the company has hired a politically well-plugged-in Washington law firm and held a conference call recently with the Washington state congressional delegation, all towards playing catch-up in an area that, the Journal says, has historically not been a company strong suit–inside-the-Beltway influence.
The USAT front section cover story limns a low-profile but active fault line in the American workplace–that between workers with children and those without. With all the emphasis employers have been putting on meeting the extra-vocational needs of workers with kids, it seems that many childless employees have had to pick up the slack. The working assumption at many companies, the paper says, is “if you don’t have children, you don’t have a life and are available to stay late and take the business trips from hell.” There’s a suggestion in the piece for how a childless employee can create a little more equity: put a photograph of a pretend toddler on your desk, and take a day off once in a while because they have a cold.
The NYT runs a piece inside reporting that 50 pediatricians specializing in child abuse have signed a letter criticizing the use of medical evidence by the defense in the au pair trial. The doctors state that the prosecution’s evidence “overwhelmingly supported” a finding that there was a violent shaking episode involving the baby when he was in the sole custody of Louise Woodward.
Maureen Dowd opines that Bob Dole has had a face lift and she thinks she knows why: “Because he really, really wants to be First Lady.”
