January 17, 2002

Samsung Electronics says fourth-quarter profit fell 64 percent, to $307 million (S)

White House says Lawrence B Lindsey, who heads National Economic Council and served as paid consultant to Enron Corp before joining administration, directed review of broad economic effects of potential collapse of company but concluded it posted little risk to American economy; says review began two weeks before Enron chairman Kenneth L Lay called Treasury Sec Paul H O'Neill and Commerce Sec Donald L Evans suggesting that any Enron collapse might ripple through American and global economies; says government did exactly what the government should do after being questioned about Lindsey's role; photo (M)

Britain's unemployment rate remained close to 26-year low at 3.2 percent in December (S)

Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan says orders for equipment used to make computer chips fell record 85.6 percent in November (S)

American military officials report that many Pashtun tribal leaders in eastern Afghanistan are balking at cooperating with American Special Operations Forces in hunt for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, weapons and caches and intelligence that could prevent future terrorist attacks; say this leaves American forces with few Afghan allies in one of most dangerous regions of country that may still harbor hostile fighters and contain underground command bunkers and hideouts for staging guerrilla attacks; say Pentagon is trying to offset lack of assistance on ground by focusing more attention on sky, using surveillance sensors and unpiloted Predator drones (M)