September 25, 2002

Nassau County Legislature adopts plege of good sportsmanship law; debates over its merit have circulated on county's practive fields and in school parking lots, with parents and teenagers swapping horror stories about aggressive spectators and unruly players, and some in each group remaining skeptical about enforcement; teams and leagues will be responsible for enforcing law; photo (M)

Tyco International claimed profit on investment even as company lost money then used that profit as excuse to pay almost $24 million in bonuses to top managers with most of money going to former chief executive L Dennis Kozlowski and former chief financial officer Mark H Swartz; details of transaction, which occurred 15 months ago, have emerged in recent days and are raising questions about accuracy of company's profit reports; transaction appears to have provided clear economic loss for Tyco, which was forced to pay above-market price of 11 percent stake in Flag Telecom that has since gone bankrupt; Tyco's purchase of stake in Flag Telecom from Verizon Communications, which closed June 22, 2001, detailed; chart; photo (Market Place column) (M)

World Business Briefing: Britain: I

Federal Reserve leaves official interest rates unchanged, with two of 12 members of Open Market Committee taking rare step of opposing decision to back immediate rate cut; split does little to calm Wall Street, where Dow Jones industrial ends September 24 at 7,683.13, its lowest level in four years; marks first time since 1998 that two committee members simultaneously broke ranks with Chmn Alan Greenspan; highlights unease in Washington and markets about whether economy is at risk of stalling again; leaves investors and analysts uncertain about Fed's next step; comes as Democrats step up efforts to turn attention from possibility of war with Iraq to economy's problems and alleged failure of domestic leadership on part of Pres Bush and Republican Party; comments by Senate majority leader Tom Daschle and House minority leader Richard Gephardt noted; Pres Bush voices optimism; says productivity of American people, plus low interest rates and low inflation, are ingredients for growth; photo; graph (M)

Several hundred more investment bankers and traders are likely to lose their jobs before end of year as firms, including Goldman Sachs Group, try to reduce costs as market slump drags on; some firms like Lehman Brothers Holdings say they will try to avoid broad layoffs and will resort instead to paying smaller bonuses to many employees; Goldman Sachs reports 11 percent increase in third-quarter profit ended Aug 30; company earned $522 million, up from $468 million year earlier; overall revenue was flat at $3.65 billion; revenue from investment banking fell 40 percent, to $652 million; Lehman Brothers reports 37 percent decline in earnings; revenue from trading stocks and bonds dropped 63 percent, to $234 million, pulling down net revenue 17 percent, to $1.35 billion; net income dropped to $194 million, down from profit of $309 million last year; Goldman's chief financial officer David Viniar comments; graphs (M)

Slowdown in economic growth in 12-country euro zone forces European Commission to grant member states additional two years to balance their national budgets; commission president Romano Prodi says members' budgets should be at or close to balanced by 2006 at latest; commission acknowledges that Germany might exceed deficit ceiling this year, and warns that France could come dangerously close; limit is 3 percent of gross domestic product (S)

Moderate Republican Sen Lincoln D Chafee votes with Democrats giving them margin needed to keep Pres Bush from firing workers in new Homeland Security Department; move sets up veto battle with administration that regards such transformation of federal work rules as vital to national security; White House says Senate action will erode president's authority and is unacceptable; comments by press sceretary Ari Fleischer noted; Republicans say alliance between Democrats and Chafee could set back reorganization of some federal agencies to create department until 2003; Senate votes, 90-8, to set up independent commission to investigate government's failure to prevent September 11 terrorist attacks; gives commission broad powers to investigate any aspect of attacks, including intelligence failures; photos (M)

Dow Jones industrial average plunges to four-year low as investors digest surprise dissent from Federal Reserve policy makers Edward Gramlich and Robert McTeer, who voted against decision of majority of Federal Open Market Committee to keep Fed's benchmark interest rate at 1.75 percent and wanted to lower rate; Dow Jones average drops 189.02 points, or 2.4 percent, to 7,683.13, lowest close since Oct 1998, while Standard & Poor's 500-stock index falls 14.41 points, or 1.7 percent, to 819.29; Nasdaq composite index drops 2.76 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,182.17, six-year low; yield on US Treasury's 10-year note falls to 3.65 percent from 3.70 percent, lowest yield on 10-year note in 40 years; price rises 15/32, to 106; yield on two-year note falls to 1.87 percent from 1.90 percent; graphs; charts (M)

Argentina's Economy Min Roberto Lavagna says his country will no longer use its diminishing foreign reserves to pay back loans from International Monetary Fund and other lenders and will thus miss at least one payment due in October, move that pushes Argentina closer to formal break with those bodies; says government will not renounce its policy of social assistance, even if it means further delaying negotiations with IMF that have been bogged down for months; IMF director Horst Kohler says IMF wants to reach deal with Argentina (M)

Joe Drape Sports of The Times column discusses seemingly imbalanced matchup between defending ACC champion Maryland University and Wofford College, smallest college in Division I-A and I-AA; photos (M)

Providers say only small percentage of women seeking abortions are using abortion-inducing pill Mifeprex, formerly called RU-486, two years after introduction in US and that few doctors outside of abortion clinics are offering it; distributor Danco Laboratories of New York says more that 100,000 American women have used pill since sales began in November 2000, but note about 2.6 million had abortions, with about half within seven months of pregnancy when Mifeprex can be used; doctors say medical abortions with pills are more time-consuming and expensive than surgical procedure; many in private practice are concerned about malpractice insurance if they offer drug, and may be put off by requirements that they provide backup surgical abortions if pills fail; women often express little interest in pills when they are advised what is involved (M)

Annual Census Bureau report on income and poverty finds proportion of Americans living in poverty rose significantly during last year, increasing for first time in eight years, and that income of middle-class households fell for first time since last recession ended in 1991; finds weakening economy is affecting large segments of population, regardless of race, region or class and that gap between rich and poor continues to grow; says decline in household income was widespread in all regions except Northeast; blacks suffered first significant decline in two decades; non-Hispanic whites saw slight decline and even Asians and Pacific Islanders, who achieved high levels of prosperity in 1990's, dropped significantly; number of poor Americans rose in 2001 to 32.9 million, increase of 1.3 million, while proportion living in poverty rose from to 11.7 percent from 11.3 percent in 2000; median household income fell to $42,228 in 2001, decline of $934 or 2.2 percent from prior year; other findings of report detailed; graph (M)