February 12, 2002

Pricewaterh ouseCoopers is ordered by market regulator Consob to suspend one of its auditors, Luca Redaelli, after Banca Popolare di Novara failed to report $50 million loss; Redaellis is barred from working as auditor for two years; ban is related to loss that Popolare Novara found in its 1999 first-half earnings (S)

Problem arises in Walter Timpone's candidacy to be assistant to New Jersey's new US Atty Christopher J Christie, because of his meeting last year with Sen Robert Torricelli while representing man whom prosecutors sought to recruit as informer; Torricelli and Sen Jon Corzine accepted Christie, who lacks criminal investigation experience, on condition of input on deputy, but FBI background check turned up Torricelli contact when Timpone represented Robert Janiszewski (M)

Severe mid-January winter storm in mountains of central Mexico devastated two of country's largest monarch butterfly colonies; record 74 percent to 80 percent, or between 220 million and 270 million, butterflies died; researchers say loss is not expected to threaten species; photo; maps (M)

Federal investigation of accounting practices of Global Crossing, troubled communications company, expands into inquiry on type of financial transaction also used by Enron and many other companies; broader probe signaled by SEC subpoena of Qwest Communications, Global's main competitor in 14 Western states, ordering hand-over of documents from transactions with Global involving right to use each other's fiber optic networks to fill gaps in their own coverage; agency seeks to determine whether such long-term contracts, widely bought and sold during Internet boom, were in some cases sham deals to inflate reported revenue (M)

Federal Judge Jack B Weinstein provokes fierce debate among immigration experts with ruling that US officials cannot deport felon without considering impact on child immigrant would leave behind; ruling cites international law on considering best interests of child; rights lawyers see broad aplication, critics charge judicial activism; New York case involves convicted robber from Trinidad whose seven-year-old daughter, Ashley Beharry, would remain in US with grandmother; both are US citizens; photo (M)