Visa

From her California home, Cynthia Haines used her computer and a stack of credit cards to gamble on the Internet. With each click of her mouse, money flowed from her credit card accounts into the virtual craps, roulette and blackjack tables of Caribbean cyber-casinos with names like Acropolis and Cyberthrill.When the banks that issued her 12 Visas and MasterCards tried to recover the $115,000 debt that she'd piled up, Haines sued and hit the jackpot: As part of a settlement reached last month, her credit card debts were wiped out along with a $225,000 lawyer's bill.

NEW DELHI, India -- Salman Rushdie has been granted a visa to return to India, his native land, whose banning of his novel "The Satanic Verses" began a chain of events that led to death threats by offended Muslims and a life in hiding for a writer with a price on his head.The decision was confirmed yesterday by a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs and prompted immediate threats of violent demonstrations. "We will protest within a constitutional framework, but I warn the government of India that a righteous follower of the Holy Prophet may make an attempt on Rushdie's life, and each Muslim will be proud of this person," said Syed Ahmad Bukhari, deputy priest of Jama Masjid, the best-known mosque in new Delhi.

WASHINGTON -- The Cold War may be over, but "the man without a face" is still a man without a visa.Markus Wolf, who directed East Germany's foreign espionage for 34 years, is trying once again to visit the United States, this time for a book tour -- something once unthinkable for a man whose ability to evade scrutiny earned him his sobriquet.But for the second time in two years, the State Department has rejected Wolf's application for a visa.Although now a citizen of a unified Germany, he was barred on the grounds that as the deputy of East Germany's Ministry of State Security, or Stasi, he ordered or abetted acts of international terrorism.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Maybe it wouldn't be so awful in nicer weather, but it rained buckets all night long. The sleeping bags were cold and soggy. By sunrise, the dream of visiting America for 70 Czechs recently camped on a sidewalk outside the U.S. Embassy here was becoming a nightmare."This is humiliating," says Eva Svozilova, 20, a weary-eyed computer technician hoping to spend two weeks in the United States. "It is crazy having to do this, in the rain and all. But what other choice do we have?"

Need a doctor in Dublin? Lost your credit card in Cairo? Want money in Montenegro?Distressed Visa cardholders can call for help any time from anywhere and the Visa International Service Center in Owings Mills will answer.Here in an office building of Owings Mills Corporate Center are the people behind the plastic. For them, the start of the worldwide holiday shopping season means a flurry of lost, stolen or mutilated Visa cards, and up to 15,000 calls a day for help.Sitting in low-walled cubicles, the Visa customer service associates tap on computer keyboards and speak into telephone headsets, enveloped in a multilingual murmur.

The Oscar-winning "Kolya" has arrived in town, and it will delight many, of whom I am not one.Still, the film is not without charms, even if it telegraphs every move in neon long before it happens.It's about a somewhat grumpy, dyspeptic Czech cello player who finds his life turned upside-down by the arrival of a small child whose care he inherits reluctantly. What do you want to bet that this narrow misanthrope finds his heart warmed by the child's presence and opens up to feelings he hasn't had in years?

It happened so fast, John Ballantyne hardly knew what hit him.First came the call from his bank, wondering why he moved without paying his mortgage, even though he never left his Ohio home. Then came the conversation with Visa, telling him he had cashed a $7,000 check, even though he hadn't.Then came the calls from the Charles Schwab Corp., Lord & Taylor and Texaco."I just felt like there was no end to it," said Ballantyne, 47, a victim of an international Nigerian fraud scheme who took the witness stand in federal court in Baltimore yesterday.

A 49-year-old British citizen who federal officials said promoted all-night rave parties is to be deported before the end of the week after U.S. Immigration and Naturalization agents arrested him for violating a visa program, officials said.Raymond Paul Francis, who lived in the first block of Winehurst Road in Catonsville, was arrested Friday by INS agents after an investigation sparked by tips from county police officers in the metropolitan area.Officials say he violated the Visa Waiver Pilot Program, a federal program that allows foreign nationals to remain in the United States for 90 days without a formal visa.

NationsBank of Delaware is preparing to impose a $25 annual fee on Blockbuster Visa customers who pay off their credit card bills each month.The new fee is part of a growing trend in the credit card industry to penalize those customers who pay their bills promptly, in part because banks are making little, if any, money in serving them.Company officials said 6 percent of Blockbuster Visa customers -- those who carry no balances -- would be charged the fee. The officials declined to say how many Blockbuster Visa customers there are."

Yuri Shvets stepped out of his compact car onto the blacktop in front of the suburban Taco Bell restaurant somewhere in Virginia and announced with fatherly pride: "I wanted to come here because my son works here. He's saving money for a trip back home.""Home," though, isn't quite the right word for the former Russian spy. Because a year after Mr. Shvets, 42, published his acid tale of Moscow's espionage in Washington, he's no longer welcome in Russia.And that would be an understatement. The Russian Intelligence Service virtually put a price on Mr. Shvets' head even before "Washington Station: My Life as a KGB Spy in America" was published by Simon & Schuster.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -Outfielder Felix Pie was a no-show for the first full-squad workout yesterday. The Orioles confirmed that he is having visa problems in the Dominican Republic and that there is no timetable for his arrival in camp. Manager Dave Trembley said he doesn't expect Pie's absence to be a big problem if it lasts only a few days and added he's hopeful it does not stretch into the exhibition season, which begins Wednesday. "I don't know when he's going to get here," Trembley said.

Michael Phelps could face criminal charges as part of the fallout from a photo in a British tabloid showing him smoking from a marijuana pipe at a University of South Carolina house party, but yesterday one of his major sponsors - Visa - said it stands behind the Rodgers Forge native. A spokesman for Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who is known for his tough stance on drugs, said yesterday that the department was investigating. "Our narcotics division is reviewing the information that we have, and they're investigating what charges, if any, will be filed," said Lt. Chris Cowan, a spokesman for the agency.

It was one of the first questions fans started asking after Michael Phelps achieved the improbable feat of winning eight gold medals in one Olympics: What will he be worth? Companies are already lining up to hand Phelps millions of dollars to associate himself with their products. He could soon be the face of a revamped and expanded swimming headquarters in North Baltimore. Some have even suggested that Hollywood snap him up to star as an aquatic superhero. Phelps has secured his status as the star of these Olympics, but he has gone beyond that, said Bob Dorfman, who studies the marketing potential of Olympians for Baker Street Partners of San Francisco.

The Q: You're probably used to providing one or two forms of identification whenever you write a check to a merchant, but it seems more and more businesses are asking credit card users to cough up some picture ID, too. "If you refuse to show them your ID, they claim they will not sell to you," said Jon Smith of Baltimore. "I believe under the Uniform Commercial Code, if they display a credit card symbol (such as a MasterCard or Visa) showing those forms of payment are accepted and do not have a posted sign saying they require IDs to use your credit card ... that they cannot refuse selling to you as you have abided by all of their posted policies and have presented a valid form of payment for a product or service."

Do I need a passport to leave the country? In general, yes. Exceptions include land or sea travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, where a photo ID plus proof of citizenship might be enough for now. What else do I need? Depending on the country you visit, you also might need a visa. Contact the country's government for details. How do I get a passport? The best information is at travel.state.gov. Click on "Passports for U.S. Citizens." Under fee increases announced recently, a new passport costs $100 for adults and $85 for children younger than 16; renewals run $75. When should I apply for a passport?

Think twice before you open bogus e-mail from an all-too-helpful "Fraud Department" claiming to be associated with the Federal Trade Commission. The e-mail is laced with links and attachments that download a virus that could grab passwords and account numbers from your computer. It commonly refers to complaints filed against the recipient and includes a phony sender's address from frauddep@ftc.gov. Despite an image of the FTC seal, alert consumers will spot grammatical errors, misspellings and incorrect syntax.

MOSCOW -- Russia said yesterday that it would expel four British diplomats and suspend counterterrorism cooperation with London in the latest step in a confrontation linked to the radiation poisoning death of a former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic. Britain had announced Monday that it was expelling four Russian diplomats over Moscow's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, a Russian businessman accused of using polonium-210 to poison Alexander Litvinenko last year in London. The British government also said that it would place restrictions on visas issued to Russian officials.

HOOPERS ISLAND -- Ignacia Lopez has high hopes for her seventh season here on this tendril of marsh and sand along the Chesapeake Bay. Lopez is focused on the fluffy steamed white meat she will pick from crabs for A.E. Phillips & Son. She calculates that she will earn $10,000 to $15,000 if things go well - 10 times more than she'd make at any job in her dry, mountainous home of Hidalgo, Mexico. "I can make as much in a day as I would in a week at home," says Lopez, 36, whose nimble fingers can earn her $70 for a day's work here.

Will we need visas for a two-day trip to Reykjavik, Iceland? Also, can you suggest package tours and local sights? No visa is required; you can visit Iceland for up to 90 days without one. Reykjavik has plenty to see if you explore on your own: parks, museums, shopping, dining -- and its compact size makes it easy to navigate on foot. Don't miss a chance to visit a thermal pool or the Blue Lagoon, a mineral-rich hot water lagoon and spa not far from the airport. Or to dine at the Pearl (Perlan)

I recently heard from an Iraqi friend of mine, whose identity I am compelled to conceal. Until a month ago, Y. was working for the U.S. Agency for International Development, helping in its multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild Iraq. After two years of sneaking into the Green Zone to work for the United States, his identity was exposed. He was seen leaving a checkpoint by someone from his neighborhood. The next day he found a note on his front steps that said, "We are going to cut off your heads and throw them in the trash."