Title: Branched coverings of $CP^2$ and other basic 4-manifolds,
Abstract: We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a 4-manifold to be a branched
covering of $CP^2$, $S^2\times S^2$, $S^2 \mathbin{\tilde\times} S^2$ and $S^3
\times S^1$, which are expressed in terms of the Betti numbers and the
intersection form of the 4-manifold.