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Long ago and far away is where most stories start; but this one begins in my own life. One day when I was 16, I came home from school very [...]

Responding to a great crisis of the Jewish people about two thousand years ago, the rabbis transformed the ways in which Pesach had been celebrated up until then and shaped [...]

The article focuses on Cynthia Carroll, chief executive officer at Anglo American Plc. and the mining company which has operations in South Africa. Carroll comments on costs in the mining industry. Anglo American's stake in a Shaanxii Province coal mine, relationship with China Development Bank, Anglo's position in South Africa during apartheid, and Black Economic Empowerment are mentioned.

The article looks at problems with church finance within the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. On a household basis, Catholics donate less than half as much to their parishes as Protestants. The pool of almost-free labor--priests and nuns taking poverty-level salaries--is drying up, forcing the hiring of more salaried lay workers. In the view of many, the Church's inept supervision of the pedophilia cases exemplifies problems throughout the dioceses: arrogance, secrecy, poor judgment bordering on corruption, lack of accountability and oversight. A group of Catholic businesspeople led by Geoffrey T. Boisi are asking for a reorganization of how the Church is run, from requiring annual reports and five-year strategic plans in each parish to teams of lay accountants, lawyers, psychologists and consultants to deal with crises and other management problems. For an organization as hierarchical as the Church, run by a man who is infallible, the talk about "customers" borders on heresy. INSET: ONE CHURCH, TWO VISION.

This article discusses how Alain J.P. Belda, CEO of Alcoa, is developing new growth initiatives around the world for the aluminum giant. Alain J.P. Belda had just taken over as chairman at Alcoa--and he was plenty miffed. For more than 40 years Alcoa had enjoyed a critical partnership with WMC, which shared its massive bauxite deposits and let the U.S. company in on the world's cheapest production of alumina, the powdery substance that is smelted into aluminum. By the time he became chairman in 2001, Belda was already lining up new deals around the world to help Alcoa cut costs and find new resources, production capacity and markets. Graduating with a degree in business administration from Brazil's MacKenzie University, a Presbyterian college in São Paulo, Belda joined Alcoa in 1969 already able to speak five languages. A year after the opening of a new headquarters, and assured he was next in line to succeed O' Neill, Belda moved to an Alcoa office in New York City.

The article presents facts about diamonds. Some diamonds are more than 3 billion years old, two-thirds the age of the Earth. The majority of diamonds were formed more than 100 miles below the surface of the Earth, some as deep as 400 miles down. A law in 13th century France decreed that only royalty could wear diamonds. Diamonds can withstand extremely high temperatures and that makes them ideal for use in windows, in industry and in space probes, including the 1978 Pioneer space probe to the surface of Venus.

The article focuses on Lev Leviev, a billionaire with an intense hatred of DeBeers SA, which is the miner and marketer of diamonds known as the "Syndicate." Leviev has taken significant business away from DeBeers in Russia and Angola, two of the world's largest producers of rough diamonds in terms of value. Leviev has not humbled the once-mighty Syndicate alone. But his defiance has inspired others, like Rio Tinto, owner of Australia's Argyle mine, which bypassed De Beers for the first time in 1996 to sell its 42 million carats directly to polishers in Antwerp.

The article focuses on businessman Ralph Lauren, his clothes fashion business and his company's performance in the capital market. As he expanded into clothes for men, women and kids and moved into perfume, luxury house-wares and other items in 60 hues spanning thousands of products, the designer answered to no one. He pocketed almost half a billion dollars in an initial public offering, plus a further $230 million for his company, selling a stake in Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. in 1997. Lauren basked in praise of his 30-year record. Then his stock went public at $26, peaked a day later at $32 and then began a long, down-ward slide--and still has not fully recovered.

The article discusses the practice of vulture investors to invest in companies that file bankruptcy and in risky stocks. Topics covered include the experiences of ICO Global Communications and Iridium leading up to their bankruptcy, the re-entry of banker Leon Black into the mutual fund market, and the precarious situation of vulture investors in investing in bank debt. Also mentioned is the practice of Credit Suisse First Boston manager David Matlin of investing in many junior unsecured bonds.