Beenhakker takes voluntary role at Feyenoord

Poland national team coach Leo Beenhakker said Friday he has accepted a voluntary position as technical adviser with struggling Dutch club Feyenoord.

Beenhakker will combine his duties as Poland coach with the unpaid role, which will last at least until the end of the season. It will be the 66-year-old Dutchman's fourth spell at the club he coached to its last Dutch league title in 1999.

"I've never made a secret of the fact that Feyenoord is in my blood," said the coach who was born in Rotterdam. "That's why it never occurred to me to say no."

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Fidelity Investments coming back from crash

BOSTON Fidelity Investments, one of the nation's best-knownfund managers, is putting "Black Monday" and the $10 billion inmanaged funds it lost behind it as it holds a steady course towardbetter days.

The flow of investment dollars into money market funds after theOctober crash forced Fidelity to fire about 800 employees - some 10percent of its work force - earlier this year.

But Fidelity officials at the privately owned fund manager toldReuters in an interview that they believed the worst of the troublesis over. Although total funds under management fell rapidly to $75billion after Oct. 19, they have now recovered to around $82 billion.

Considering …

Chinese lawyer barred from meeting with Merkel

BEIJING (AP) — A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer said Friday that Beijing police prevented him from meeting with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a sign of continuing heavy restrictions on the country's beleaguered rights advocates.

Mo Shaoping said the German Embassy invited him to a Thursday evening dinner to be followed by a private meeting with Merkel. He said the two planned to discuss China's legal environment and individual lawyers who have suffered from official harassment.

However, Mo said state security bureau agents from the Beijing police arrived at his office at about 2 p.m. Thursday and told him he could not attend the dinner or the meeting, citing …

WTO: Trade talks won't bring deal at current pace

The World Trade Organization warned Tuesday that talks to open up the global economy were unlikely to produce a breakthrough accord by next year unless countries made significant compromises.

The assessment does not bode well for the latest deadline to conclude the WTO's struggling Doha round of global commerce talks. Leaders of the Group of 20 rich and emerging economies have pledged to wrap up a deal by the end of the 2010, but the talks have missed a number of previous targets.

WTO chief Pascal Lamy said they need "serious acceleration."

"We need to see real negotiations emerge," Lamy told a meeting of the WTO's 153 …

Johnny Cash’s sideman

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Not all pioneers know exactly where they're going, and that was definitely the case for Johnny Cash & the Tennessee Two.

Cash, guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant — the last surviving member of the group who died Sunday at age 83 in Jonesboro, Ark., after an aneurysm and stroke — changed the future of American music and popular culture with their distinct boom-chicka-boom beat.

Mr. Grant fell ill after rehearsing for a concert to raise funds for the restoration of Cash's boyhood home, said Cash's daughter, Rosanne Cash.

Mr. Grant always freely admitted the soon-to-be historic trio had no special insight as they shaped that …

Across the Pond

Zine, edited by Caitlin Vernon, v. 2: On the Road: The great twentysomething kerouacian road trip, acrossthepondzine@bgmail.com

This zine is a collection of travel logs written, for the most part, by Canadians. My favourite is "Tripping," a memoir about learning to drive in LA. by Canadian actor Katie Boland. There are various cross-country stories about road trips and travel by bus, as well as crazy characters from abroad and tales of …

Hollywood studios hold contract talks with actors union during Memorial Day weekend

The smaller of two actors unions says contract talks with the major Hollywood studios are being held over the holiday Memorial Day weekend.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists sent its members an e-mail Sunday saying says the talks, which began May 7 over a handful of TV …