April 9, 2002

New York Archdiocese officials say that six priests have been forced to relinquish their official duties and ordered not to carry out duties of priest in public because of past allegations of sexual misconduct; issue guidelines for priests stepping in for others accused of improprieties; Rev John Gallant tells stunned parishioners at St Joan of Arc Church in Sloatsburg, in Rockland County, that complaint that led to his removal was based on 'alleged incident' with 18-year-old girl, and denies that he had ever abused a minor; photo (L)

Shares of Mitsubishi Motors Corp soar 17 percent on talk that company's largest shareholder, DaimlerChrysler, will try to take it over as early as next year; DaimlerChrysler's chief executive Jurgen Schrempp comments; graph (S)

David B Duncan, Arthur Andersen accountant whose destruction of records related to Enron led to criminal indictment of firm, reportedly will plead guilty to single felony count of obstruction of justice and will serve as government witness; move is seen as setback to firm's efforts to exonerate itself; could be boon to federal prosecutors pursuing criminal investigation of Enron since it will give government its highest-ranking and most knowledgeable witness to financial decisions that ultimately pushed Enron into bankruptcy; photo (M)

Market Place column on Ameritrade Holding Corp's decision to acquire rival Datek Online Holdings Corp for $1.29 billion in stock; Ameritrade's chief executive Joseph Moglia is quite optimistic that Nasdaq day-trading boom may come back, agreeing to pay $1,540 a piece for Datek's 837,000 accounts; analysts and investors question whether Ameritrade may have overpaid; photo (M)

Scientists, in light of Merck & Co and Netherlands Cancer Institute discovery of different genetic patterns in breast cancer tumors that would spread through body, thereby requiring chemotherapy, and those that would not, begin classifying cancers in different way; cancers are being characterized by their genes and proteins rather than by where they originate in body; experts comment; photos (M)