Comair pilots authorized a strike if union leaders determine it is necessary in the continuing dispute with the regional airline over contract concessions.	COMPLAINTS ON ENTRY Foreign business and leisure travelers are making their feelings known about difficulties in entering the United States. In a survey, foreign travelers rated the entry process the worst among the seven top regional destinations in the world, according to the Discover America Partnership, a tourism industry and business group that promotes foreign travel. Geoff Freeman, executive director of the group, said the study should be a ?“wake-up call?” for the United States government to improve customer service and other procedures for visitors. While foreign visitors overwhelmingly reported positive experiences once they were in the United States, ?“perceptions of a rude and arrogant entry process are turning away travelers and harming America?’s image,?” he said, adding that business travel to the United States was down 10 percent in that period, while it was growing in other regions. The survey, which found that more than half of foreign visitors said immigration officials here were rude, was conducted in this fall by RT Strategies, a polling firm. Ranked from the top, the six destinations that scored higher than the United States were Europe, Asia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the Middle East.	EUROPE.
Inventories at United States wholesalers piled up at a faster pace in October as sales posted their first back-to-back declines in more than three years.	SAC Capital Advisors, a $10 billion hedge fund, has raised its stake in the Phelps Dodge Corporation to 5.1 percent and said yesterday that it would oppose a proposed takeover of the company by Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold.	The panel ruled that Qualcomm, a maker of cellphone chips, is infringing a Broadcom Corporation patent on a way to conserve handset battery power.