BRIEFCASE JAPAN'S 'KNIGHTS' ON WAY TO THE U.S.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

BURBANK - DIC Entertanment, in conjunction with General Mills, announced plans Wednesday to bring Japanese cartoon ``Knights of the Zodiac'' to the U.S. market.

Cartoon Network will air 40 episodes of the show - formerly known as ``Saint Seiya'' in Japan - beginning in August.

Bandai America Inc. has been awarded the master toy license for the United States and Canada, while ADV has distribution rights for home video.

'Music,' 'Museum' shop sales to start

WOODLAND HILLS - Great American Group will handle the going- out-of-business sales of the bankrupt San Francisco Music Box Co. and The Museum Co. Stores, the liquidator announced Wednesday. Sales at the upscale gift retailers will begin today, with discounts beginning in the 10-percent-to-30-percent range.

``It's a format that worked for a while, but when the economy gets a little tight, it just happens,'' said Harvey Yellin, Great American's chief executive officer.

San Francisco Music Box Co. has 91 stores, including local spots in The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks and the Valencia Town Center. The Museum Co., a 104-store chain, operates stores in the Glendale Galleria, Paseo Colorado and Westfield Shoppingtown Topanga. Yellin said the stores would remain open between eight weeks and 10 weeks.

Remote Imaging wins U.S. grant

CHATSWORTH - International Remote Imaging Systems Inc. won a $669,620 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The urinalysis device manufacturer announced Wednesday that its Advanced Digital Imaging Research subsidiary received the grant for its ``Improved Classifiers for Automated Multiplex FISH (Fluorescence in-situ hybridization),'' an automated DNA probe used to diagnose cancer and genetic disease. The grant provides for a two-year study, carried out with collaborative help from Washington State University at Spokane and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Fed sees signs of economic life

WASHINGTON - The weak U.S. economy, which has suffered thousands of job losses in recent months, might be on the verge of a rebound now that the Iraq war is over, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

The central bank said four of its 12 districts - Dallas, Kansas City, New York and Minneapolis - detected signs of increased economic activity and that no district reported further deterioration since the last report in late April. The central bank cautioned against reading too much into the scattered signs of a rebound, describing overall activity in many districts as still ``sluggish, subpar or subdued.''

The survey of business conditions, known as the beige book for the color of its cover, will be used by Fed policy-makers when they meet June 24-25 to set interest rates.

OPEC to maintain production levels

DOHA, Qatar - OPEC producers agreed on Wednesday to maintain their current production levels through the end of next month, when they plan to meet again to assess the impact of rising Iraqi oil exports and whether to change output targets.

The possibility that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could cut production levels at its next meeting, July 31, helped push oil prices above $32 a barrel in New York for the first time since mid-March.

Even as it decided to maintain its target production ceiling at 25.4 million barrels a day, OPEC urged member states to stop exceeding their production quotas.

Attracted by high prices, the 10 OPEC nations, excluding Iraq, have exceeded their designated quotas by 1.5 million barrels a day, according to Obaid bin Saif al-Nasseri, oil minister of the United Arab Emirates.