●＄52B deal build s cable giant
（updated on Dec．19，2001）
By David Lieberm an，USA TO- DAY
NEW YORK—It's over．Comcast won．
After a six-month fight， AT ＆T directors voted unanimously late Wednesday to merge their No．1 cable company，AT ＆T Broad-band，with the No．3 operator．They'll create a new giant，AT＆ T Comcast，that would have ＄19 billion in annual revenue and 22.8 million subscribers clustered in major markets， including Phila-delphia，Detroit，Boston，Chicago and San Francisco．
The stock deal values AT ＆T Broadband at ＄52billion．In addi- tion，AT＆T Comcast will take over ＄20billion in AT＆T debt．
●UN's sets up fund for Afghanistan
The United Nations has established a fund to finance Afghanistan's new interim government．The agency now says it is seeking US＄ 20m to pay for a wide variety of activities from teachers'salaries to repairing offices．The new administration，with a 30-mem ber Cabinet led by Hamid Karzai，will take power for six months under a UN-brokered aGREement signed by four Afghan factions on December 5near Bonn，Germany．（FromThe Times）
●Finding Bin Laden“will be tough”
Finding and dealing with Osam a bin Laden and his top lieutenants will be“tough，dirty， hard work，US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says．Rumsfeld says that despite the military successes enjoyed by the US so far，BinLaden and other senior al-Qaida and Taliban leaders remain on the loose，although more prisoners have been taken．“We have reduced the number of areas within Afghanistan where they are likely to be，Rumsfeld said at Nato headquarters in Brussels．He said attacks were continuing．（From The Times）
●Floyd out as Bulls coach
By Nancy Arm our，The Associated Press
DEERFIELD，Ill．—Tim Floyd resigned as coach of the Chicago Bulls on Monday（Dec．24，2001）as the team stum bled through its fourth straight rebuilding season of the post-Michael Jordan era．
●U．S．to remain on high alert till March 11
WASHINGTON（AP）—The government has called on law enforcement personnel across the nation to remain vigilant against domestic terrorism until March 11，extending a standing alert through the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City．
●Bush signs education bill
HAMILTON，Ohio—President Bush signed into law Tuesday a sweeping education bill that will require reading and math tests， seek to close the education gap between rich and poor students and raise teacher standards．（FromUSA TODAY）
●Euro debut milestone in history
BERLIN：Europe made history yesterday（Jan．1，2002）with the midnight launch of euro single currency notes and coins for more than 300 million people，completing an unprecedented monetary union aimed at securing peace and GREater prosperity．
The coinage of the millennium was wiped out as currencies of the 12 euro zone countries began being swapped for what will be the most widely-used common money since the Roman Empire．（From China Daily）
●Going weak at the knees
Dolly the sheep—the world's first clone of an adult animal—has arthritis，her creator lan Wilmut announced on Jan．4，2002．Dolly，created by Wilmut and his team of genetic scientists at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh in 1996，has arthritis in her left hind leg at the hip and the knee．（From China Daily）
