European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 05, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                R Page 14 the stars and stripes Money matters saturday february 5.1994 today s rates following Are fixed rates a which Community banking and credit Union facilities will , currencies to . Personnel for personal use German Mark. 1.70 British Pound .4. 1.54 dutch Guilder. 1.89 greek drachma. 243.2698 note tha Ratos above apply within Tho Host country. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other currencies to the Dollar following Are Interbank rate that fluctuate and should be regarded As the approximate value of the . Dollar to foreign Curren cies italian lira 1,689.50 turkish lira 17,422.40 Spanish peseta. 141.13 portuguese escudo 175.26 austrian Schilling. 12.242 saudi Royal 3.7498 Bahrain Dinar 0.37675 kuwaiti Dinar. 0.29725 norwegian Krone. 7.48 danish Krone. 6.76 British Pound .1.4897 German Mark 1.7412 Swiss franc 1.454 French franc. 5.91 dutch Guilder 1.9525 belgian franc 35.86 Canadian Dollar. 1.3275 note figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other currencies to the Dollar Gold quote $387.65 an ounce Silver quote $5.46 an ounce new York Exchange new York up the 15 most Active stocks in new York Stock Exchange composite trading on thursday. Stock Rwjr Nabisco hid Wal Mart stores Tel Fonos de my general motors Rwjr Nabisco pop Ford motor co Uniss corp Maytag corp  corp Citicorp pop Chrysler corp Synte corp Philip Morns Sara Lee corp Silei 8,842,500 5,253,200 4,875,900 4,219,600 3,480,100 3,197,600 3,163,400 3,015,600 2,920,000 2,746,100 2,618,700 2,566,400 2,498.100 2,343,600 2,302,400 lift7ft 28vi7514 63 8vi69h 14v4 17w 36w 21 a 20% 621/ 15v 60 w21 a net chg. Up i up uple up 1v4up % Uultt up putt up /4 unch Ort putt Offutt american Exchange new York up the 10 most Active stacks in american Stock Exchange composite trading thursday. Stock Energy service Cheyenne so Lwi Echo Bay mines citizens St be Pegasus Gold Chiles offshore us cellular co hello Gold mine Royal Oak mines Mercury air Gap silei788,600 560,900526,200 507,800437.900 424,400378,500 269,100265.300 257,900 utt3v4 36h 13h8h 21 v4 5tt 28/4 10ft4tt 5v net fit. Off 1-16 Oft up /4 of tvs up v4 up h up it up 4 unch Dow Jones new York up Dow Jones closing Range of averages on thursday High Low Clou chinos 30 industrials 3995.52 3932.77 3967.66 off 7.88 20 transport 1870.90 1835.59 1852.36 off 9.93 15 utilities 225.55 222.98 224.23 off 0.92 65 stocks 1453.07 1429.57 1441.77 off 4.84 be s Power division to slash 700 jobs Schenectady . A plunging prices for steam Turbine Genera tors Are forcing general electric co. To eliminate 700 jobs from its Industrial and Power systems division a company spokesman said thursday. The affected jobs will All be salaried positions including engineers designers and secretaries said Leonard k.  500 jobs at the company s Schenectady Plant will be affected. An additional 35 jobs will be eliminated from be s Plant in Fitchburg mass., and the remainder will be scattered elsewhere. There Are 7,300 division employees i Schenectady. Fire trouble drives Nissan to buy Back 33,000 minivans by los Angeles times Detroit Nissan motor corp..a. Has finally thrown in the Towel on its flawed 1987-90 minivans by announcing it would buy Back and destroy All 33,000 vehicles. The highly unusual buyback comes after four recalls of the minivans failed to fix defects that could cause engine  buyback is also by far the largest Ever in the United states. Fiat s repurchase of 4,000 1972-74 sedans because of rust prone suspension systems was the Only other major buyback for safety Rea sons. Thursday s decision could Cost Nissan More than $200 million. Nissan said it expects to pay $5,000 to $7,000 per minivan depending on the vehicle s age and mile age. It underscores the Ever greater lengths that automakers must go to main Tain their image with increasingly de manding customers. We re paying higher than you la Ever get As a used car or a Trade in a Nissan spokesman said. The company s vice president and Gen eral manager Earl Hesterberg said this program is designed to satisfy ourcustomers.". That is particularly important these Days to Nissan whose Japan based Par ent company is losing Money while its . Subsidiary has been making a comeback from years of weak sales blamed on suspect products. Nissan was the Only japanese automaker to pick up . Market share last year. Nissan .a, based in Torrance calif., took the action voluntarily As the National Highway traffic safety administration was auditing the results of the latest recall which began in september. The Agency said five or six engine fire Shad been confirmed in vehicles repaired last fall by Nissan dealers. In All there have been 153 fires reported in the Nis san vans since 1987, but no deaths or in juries reported. Under the buyback program the com Pany is offering to Purchase All the Pas Senger Van xes and goes at current re Tail value. The company will also give All current minivan owners a $500 Coupon toward the Purchase of any new or used Nissan vehicle Nitsa approved the buyback pro Gram. We will continue to Monitor the situation said Bill Boehly assistant administrator of enforcement. The Agency itself has taken heat Over its handling of the Nissan minivan prob lems. The Case Marks the first time on Model has been recalled four times for related defects. Nielsen face ratings rivalry from network rein car nation Mitsubishi s redesigned 1995 eclipse sport Coupe is displayed during news conference wednesday prior to the Start of the Chicago Auto show. The car which will also be the basis for Chrysler s Eagle Talon was designed at the Mitsubishi motors America design studio in Cypress calif., and built at Diamond Star motors in Normal 111. The Auto show runs today through feb. 13 at Mccormick place in Chicago. New phones give callers an Active voice in new York a the first Tele phone systems to recognize voice com mands have arrived but Don t put away your fingers just yet. New products from sprint corp., us West inc. And at to go just a Small Way toward meeting the potential such technology holds the companies arid inde pendent experts say. But they do rep resent the first Chance for people to use voice commands in products other than dolls and educational toys. Many engineers believe that continue advances in such technology Are the key to making computers and communication networks usable for everyone. There Are a lot of things on the Hori Zon said Steve Fox product manager for us West s new voice dealing service in Colorado. The system allows a person to just pickup the phone and say whom the phone should Call. It is sophisticated enough to discern Between a woman saying mom and dealing her Mother and her own daughter saying mom and calling her. Us West estimates voice dealing a $5per month option will be available to 40 percent of us Small business and Resi dental customers in Colorado by june. Residential customers can store up to 50numbers and with a voice command have a computer read them Back i needed. At to last year offered businesses that use its 800-toll free service a Way for customers to use voice in the place of press Type commands. A caller May simply request the sales department or reservations for instance. In addition Northern telecoms  is testing Stock talk a service that allows callers to say a company name and get its latest Stock Price. The biggest splash however came Las month when sprint rolled out its voice Voncard nationwide. It allows people to Call a toll free num Ber give an Access code the caller s so Cial Security number plus one digital then say whom to Call. Each customer can store 10 . Behind the scenes sprint s computer mixes a recognition technology that works Independent of a speaker s voice and then one that is dependent tied directly to the person s speech pattern be fore placing the Call. New York a the Abc Cusand Abc television networks the biggest users and loudest critics of the Nielsen ratings system have set up their own Laboratory to improve audience measurement. We re not saying that the current measurement system is bad Nick Schia Vone chairman of the broadcasters committee on nationwide television audience measurement said  re saying that it s not Good enough the fundamental problem the net works contend is that Nielsen s methods Haven t changed much since the Day when most american Homes had a single five Channel to set. Today 48 percent of Homes have More than 20 channels 54 percent have a to in the bedroom 14 percent have one inthe Kitchen and 79 percent own a Var. We Are at or near the Point where people can watch what they want where they want when they want said Gal Metzger president of statistical re search inc., a firm based in Westfield,n.j., that was hired to establish the Laboratory and design a new rating system forthe broadcasters. Programs will be embedded with Universal television program code. Home hardware will use existing Home wiring and personal entry devices to record who s watching what Metzge said statistical research has been testing the to metering and program coding de vices with 100 households in five new Jersey counties since june 1993. Nielsen Media research a division of Dun & Bradstreet corp., immediately announced its support and  has been the sole provider of National to ratings since Arbitron ratings co. Quit the business last october. The Nielsen system is working very Well said Nielsen president and chief executive officer John a. Dimling. The real Issue he said is How we will measure the More complicated environment of the  said David Poltrack who Heads re search at lbs the status quo is not going to survive. So we re going to have to change from where we Are now to where we re going to be in the year2010."