September 25, 2001

Pres Bush orders immediate freeze of all assets in United States of suspected Islamic terrorist groups and individuals; gives treasury secretary broad new powers to impose sanctions on banks around world that provide such groups access to international financial system; says any foreign banks that do not cooperate with American investigators could be cut off from doing business in US; list attached to Bush's order has names of 27 individuals and organizations, including three charities that government believes might knowingly have channeled money to Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda networks; officials say listed groups are most prominent with identified links to Al Qaeda; demand that overseas banks release information about accounts reportedly controlled by terror groups could run afoul of domestic confidentiality laws; past attempts to crack down on assets of terrorists and drug lords have had limited success; of groups or individuals on list, one-third have been previously identified by US in connection with terrorism; others are new; difficulty of using economic sanctions against terrorism is that amounts of money terrorists use amount to few drops in trillion-dollar torrent rushing through world financial system each day; photos (L)

Korean Air Lines is cutting 21 percent of its flights to US and 7 percent of international flights as result of sharp reduction in passengers (S)

Britain's financial regulator says it will temporarily suspend some rules governing how insurance companies invest in stock market, giving them discretionary leeway on when to sell losing positions and how much stock to hold; rules have required them to pull money out of stock market any time their reserves are insufficient to absorb to 10 percent fall in stock prices and still pay claims; when market falls suddenly, however, rules can force them to dump stocks to raise cash at time when such sales would tend to accelerate downward trend (M)

Swiss National Bank cuts interest rates for second time in seven days to tamp Swiss franc, which has soared against other currencies; trims half percentage point off its benchmark interest rate; economy is expected to grow 1.8 percent this year (S)

From Broadway and Off Broadway to concert halls and jazz clubs, New York City's stages are returning to normal schedules. Here is a sampling of performances. Benefits Under the artistic direction of David Shifrin, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will offer ''A Musical Tribute to the Spirit of New York'' at 8 tonight at Alice Tully Hall. The free concert at which donations are to be collected for firefighters of Engine Company No. 40 and Ladder Company No. 30 of the New York Fire Department, will feature works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Mozart, performed by artists like Mr. Shifrin, a clarinetist; the pianist Anne-Marie McDermott; the violinist Ida Kavafian; the cellist Peter Wiley; and members of the Orion String Quartet. Information: (212) 875-5788.