September 27, 2002

Federal prosecutors mistakenly turned over 48 classified FBI reports to Zacarias Moussaoui in what Judge Leonie M Brinkema describes as grave security breach; reports were summaries of interviews related to Moussaoui's case and bureau's larger investigation of Al Qaeda terror network; they were retrieved in searches of his jail cell this summer on order of judge after she determined that 'significant national security interests' of US could be at risk; federal prosecutors acknowledge that it was 'dangerous' for summaries to be in possession of Moussaoui, only person charged in American court in Sept 11 terror attacks; mishandling of documents is revealed by Judge Brinkema at request of court appointed lawyers acting on Moussaoui's behalf and over protests of prosecutors, who have not revealed how mistakes were made; Justice Dept officials say matter is subject of internal investigation by FBI (M)

Floyd Norris comment on how top executives at El Paso Corp got rich on fiber optic operation in early 2001 that later collapsed at expense of shareholders; graph (M)

Dresdner Bank AG confirms it is to cut 2,700 to 3,000 jobs as part of new $684 million cost-cutting program; says 1,000 to 1,200 of job cuts will come at bank's troubled investment banking operation Dresdner Kleinworth Wasserstein (S)

Deutsche Borse, which runs Frankfurt stock exchange, will close Neuer Markt--technology-related market this is Germany's answer to Nasdaq--by end of 2003; Deutsche Borse plans to establish two new categories of shares in its place; one category will have much more stringent standards of corporate disclosure than were required by Neuer Markt; reputation of market has been battered by string of bankruptcies and shareholder lawsuits; graph (M)

New York City Councilman Sheldon Leffler of Queens is under investigation for illegal fund-raising during his failed 2001 campaign for Queens Borough President; photo (M)

Verizon Communications Inc sells its 20 percent stake in Telecom Corp of New Zealand for 1.6 billion New Zealand dollars ($754.7 million); Merrill Lynch, which paid Verizon about 4.35 New Zealand dollars ($2.05) a share is offering to sell them to investors for 4.45 to 4.55 New Zealand dollars a share; graph (S)

Some popular online services are using new kind of software to divert sales commissions that would otherwise be paid to small online merchants by big sites like Amazon and eToys; sites that use software, which is made by nearly 20 companies and used by dozens, are acceptable, because users agree to diversion; amounts involved are estimated to have mounted into hundreds of thousands of dollars and are likely to continue to grow, in part because most users are unaware that software is operating on their computers; diversion begins when customers get software from Internet that helps them swap music or other files or find bargains online; Shawn Collins, who feeds customers to Amazon and other online merchants, says his commissions have fallen 30 percent in six months; instructions for removing shopping software from computers noted; diagram; photo (M)

Bank of Korea will cut back loans it makes to commercial banks at preferential rates in effort to slow explosive growth of consumer credit; analysts say reduction, to $8 billion outstanding from $9.7 billion, signals that central bank is preparing to raise interest rates (S)

Caryn James reviews NBC TV program American Dreams with Brittany Snow and Gail O'Grady; photo (M)

Belgian retailers Compagnie Nationale a Portefeuille and Ackermans & Van Haaren join forces in bid for retail group GIB; two retailers offer $1.27 billion (S)

Judge Federico A Moreno grants class-action status to claims that managed care plans systematically denied and delayed payments to as many as 700,000 doctors, but he rejects that status for claims on behalf of millions of members of managed care health plans; ruling is latest in three-year-old litigation challenging methods used by HMO's in trying to control health care costs (M)

Journeys article on largely one-man effort by Dick Anderson, avid hiker, birdwatcher, fly fisherman and former commissioner of Maine Department of Conservation, to extend Appalachian Trail to its natural boundary; addition to 2,169-mile trail, whose somewhat arbitrary end is at Mount Katahdin in Maine, is called International Appalachian Trail and extends another 690 miles, to Cape Gaspe in Canada's Forillon National Park; photos; map (M)