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)

New York Mets first baseman Mo Vaughn is sidelined with broken right hand just one week into Mets career (M)

ABC and Ted Koppel strike agreement that ensures that his late-night news program, Nightline, will remain in its 11:35 pm slot for at least two years; deal patches up--for now--strained relations between Koppel and his network, which had threatened future of Nightline and Koppel's career at ABC News; Nightline's future was placed in doubt earlier in year when ABC tried to woo David Letterman away from CBS to start new late-night talk show in time slot that Koppel has held for 22 years (M)

Dutch-based supermarket chain Royal Ahold, seeking to reverse steep decline in its share price touched off by accounting questions, promises to provide more detailed information about its financial statements; Ahold disclosed last week that earnings will be 90 percent lower when prepared under generally accepted accounting principles in US, as opposed to Dutch rules; Ahold will now publish earnings under both Dutch and American standards at end of each quarter (M)

Allan Kozinn reviews Monteverdi opera Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria featuring Les Arts Florissants ensemble and Aixen-Provence European Academy of Music singers at Brooklyn Academy of Music; photo (M)

John Tierney comments on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to gain control of New York City's schools, and familiar scenario of a few state legislators' resisting such a move (M)

Japan Tobacco Inc will speed up job cuts and other restructuring steps to increase profit; will eliminate 1,300 jobs, or 7.3 percent of its work force by March 2005 (S)

Debate over mammography and other cancer screening tests heats up after promising urine test for childhood neuroblastoma fails to fulfill its promise; while many cancers were found early and treated, there was no decline in number of toddlers who developed advanced cancers and death rates from disease remains unchanged; test found tumors that did not need to be treated and missed deadly ones; supposedly rare spontaneous regressions were actually most common form of neuroblastoma; experts now question whether other cancer screening tests should come under scrutiny; chart; diagrams (M)