June 22, 2002

Food and Drug Administration panel recommends allowing Procter & Gamble to sell Prilosec, heartburn medicine it distributes and AstraZeneca manufactures, without doctor's prescription; drug will rival Pepcid, marketed by Johnson & Johnson, for leadership in $1.6-billion-a-year market for over-the-counter heartburn treatments (M)

George Vecsey Sports of The Times column contends that US national team can exit World Cup, after defeat and elimination by Germany, respectfully, having played their best match of tournament; photos (M)

Stock prices skid for third consecutive day and fifth sequential week; Standard & Poor's 500-stock index falls 1.7 percent, or 17.15, closing at 989.14, below 1,000 for first time since its Sept 21, 2001 bottom following Sept 11 terrorist attacks; Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq composite index also drop sharply, Dow falling 177.98, or 1.9 percent, to 9,253.79 and Nasdaq losing 23.79, or 1.6 percent, to close at 1,440.96; flight-to-safety buying causes 5/32 gain in 10-year Treasury note, to 100 26/32, its yield falling to 4.77 percent from 4.79 percent; 30-year Treasury bond rises 12/32, to 99 20/32, driving its yield down to 5.40 percent, from 5.43 percent; photo; graphs; table of key rates (M)

House Committee, 30-23, approves Republican bill to provide prescription drug benefits to elderly under Medicare; vote is major legislative and political victory for House Republicans; committee chairman Rep Billy Tauzin says vote will put pressure on Senate to pass similar bill, interview; Sen Tom Daschle scores bill as inadequate and says Senate will weigh providing more generous benefits; House bill would cost $310 billion over 10 years; table compares bill with two Democratic alternatives (M)

Whither the Death Penalty? The abolition of capital punishment for the mentally retarded does not necessarily portend further limitations on it. NEWS ANALYSIS, PAGE A7

Israeli Prime Min Ariel Sharon's cabinet implements plan for all-out seizure of West Bank as response to terrorism, abandoning tactic of intermittent raids in favor of permanent armed presence; Israeli soldiers in armored columns pour into Palestinian cities, towns and refugee camps; at least 10 Palestinians are killed, only one of them combatant; map; photo (M)

FBI and prosecutors announce charges against 14 men they call Gambino family crime figures and associates; Giuseppe Arcuri, 88, and George DeCicco, 73, are sole survivors of what could be called Gambino crime family's Class of 1991; among 25 men FBI identified that year on poster-sized chart as managers of crime family, they are only ones who have avoided prosecution or death; authorities do not say whether they plan to go after Arcuri and DeCicco; photos (M)

San Diego Padres defeat New York Yankees, 9-1; photo (M)

United States attorney's office, after joint probe with Securities and Exchange Commission, charges Martin L Grass, Rite Aid Corp's former chairman and chief executive, former vice chairman and chief counsel Franklin Brown and former chief financial officer Franklyn Bergonzi with securities and accounting fraud that led to record $1.6 billion restatement of earnings; Grass and Brown are also charged with tampering with witnesses and obstructing probes; executive vice president Eric S Sorkin is charged with lying to grand jury; Grass and Brown deny wrongdoing; SEC aide Wayne M Carlin says criminal pattern at Rite Aid was extensive; securities lawyers say import of criminalizing earnings management extends well beyond Rite Aid; SEC, in separate complaint, says Rite Aid managers overstated company's income in every quarter from May 1997 through May 1999 by large amounts; photos (M)

Merrill Lynch yesterday suspended the stockbroker who handled the sale of Martha Stewart's ImClone shares, saying an internal investigation had uncovered ''factual issues regarding a client transaction.'' The broker, Peter E. Bacanovic, and his assistant, Douglas Faneuil, were put on administrative leave with pay, ''pending further investigation,'' a Merrill spokesman, James Wiggins, said. He said Merrill's findings had been made within the last two days and were immediately turned over to the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as to the United States attorney's office in Manhattan. Both have been investigating possible insider trading of ImClone shares since January.

Rev Cyriacus Udegbulem is arrested in Texas on charges he raped woman in rectory of Brooklyn Roman Catholic church, where she had gone in 2000 for advice on annulling her marriage; church officials in Brooklyn dismissed visiting priest from Nigeria, who soon found work as hospital chaplain and part-time church priest in Laredo; say they encouraged woman to bring charges, informed bishop in Nigeria and believed priest returned there; Brooklyn prosecutors became aware of case in April, when diocese turned over files of abuse complaints against priests; photo (M)

Former Rite Aid Executives Indicted in S.E.C. Inquiry Three former top executives and a current executive of Rite Aid were indicted in what regulators called a securities and accounting fraud that led to a $1.6 billion restatement of earnings, the largest ever. The former chairman and chief executive, Martin L. Grass, 47, was one of those charged. The charges came after a two-and-a-half-year federal investigation. [A1.]