July 13, 2002

Group of 25 banks led by Deutsche Bank and Citigroup ask New York State Supreme Court Judge Helen E Freedman to block WorldCom Inc from spending any of $2.6 billion they lent to WorldCom in May, increasing likelihood that company will have to seek bankruptcy protection; banks contend WorldCom commited fraud by drawing down credit line roughly month before company disclosed it had overstated its revenue by about $3.8 billion in 2001 and early 2002; Freedman declines to issue order, but agrees to review request (M)

UN Security Council, ending unusual wrangle between US and most other members, unanimously adopts resolution effectively giving US peacekeepers year's exemption from prosecution by new International Criminal Court (M)

Jury in Charles Schwarz's retrial in Abner Louima torture case ends its fourth day of deliberations in disarray, with one juror charging that others had 'pre-existing bias based on their previous knowlege of case'; accusation is made in a note from a juror; Schwarz photo (M)a

Children and adults, in interviews, discuss child labor at Los Alamos banana plantation near Puerto Inca, Ecuador; plantation, which employs some 1,300 workers, is owned by Alvaro Noboa, country's richest man and leading presidential candidate; growers and exporters in Ecuador, which supplies 25 percent of bananas exported to US, say product earns them about 30 percent less than decade ago, often prompting to turn blind eye to labor codes; photos; map and chart of child labor in Latin America; photos (M)

Mood is somber at annual retreat of top communications industry executives held by investment banker Herbert Allen in Sun Valley, Idaho; topics of conversation include cash squeeze gripping media industry and new scrutiny of its accounting techniques; falling stock prices mean that top executives' jobs are no longer so secure and atmosphere is rife with gossip; some industry executives comment; photos (M)