October 3, 2002

European Commission proposes law on takeovers that it hopes will ease merger process in 15-nation European Union; aim of proposal is to enable takeover bids to be made in union under best possible conditions for all those concerned; commission has tried to avoid confrontation with Germany, union's biggest member (M)

Enron's former chief financial officer Andrew S Fastow is charged with engaging in vast scheme to use off-the-books partnerships to fraudulently disguise company's financial performance while enriching himself with millions of dollars in Enron's cash; charges--including fraud, money laundering and conspiracy--portray Enron as company where fraud and deceit were workaday mechanisms used to disguise failings of corporation secretly spinning out of control; government complaint implicates other executives and financial institutions--notably Merrill Lynch--as having direct involvement in or knowledge of criminal activities; Fastow surrenders to FBI agents in Houston; he is led in handcuffs to federal courthouse, where judge orders him to be released on $5 million bond, secured by $3 million investment account and several homes; Fastow and his wife surrender their passports; photos (L)

Deutsche Telekom plans to cut 29,500 jobs at its fixed-line unit T-Com by 2005 to increase efficiency and reduce costs (S)

Metro Matters column on tentative, serial and multiple candidacies as poll-driven political trend that started, notably, with Andrew Cuomo's withdrawal from New York gubernatorial race and then Sen Robert Torricelli's withdrawal in New Jersey (M)

Technology professionals and executives often find themselves tinkering with recalcitrant computers of their friends and relatives, partly out of sympathy for the technically downtrodden and partly because they are unable to resist challenge of networks that fail to communicate, computers that refuse to boot or printers that will not print; photo (M)

Allan Kozinn reviews New York premiere of Philip Glass opera Galileo Galilei, season opener of Brooklyn Academy of Music's 20th Next Wave festival; Mary Zimmerman directed and John Duykers stars; photo (M)

House Financial Services Committee is accusing Goldman Sachs Group, Credit Suisse First Boston and Salomon Smith Barney of rewarding senior executives of their corporate clients with preferential allocations of new stocks; finds that executives of about 20 companies, including eBay chairman Pierre Omidyar and Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, received shares of initial public offerings from Goldman Sachs in practice known on Wall Street as 'spinning'; committee report says Margaret Whitman, eBay's chief executive and director of Goldman Sachs, is among officers and directors who 'flipped,' or quickly sold, shares of new stocks for quick profits; contends three firms used shares of sought-after stock offerings to reward executives for hiring their firms as investment bankers for their companies; adds firms' analysts recommended new stocks to investors long after value had fallen; concludes average investor was harmed by firms' practices, which report says included 'possibly illegal underpricing' of initial public offerings; Goldman took eBay public in 1998 and Yahoo public in 1996 (M)

Article on possibility that Long Island City, Queens, is finally on verge of becoming cultural center; clusters of cultural institutions, some new to borough, have been feeding off one another since Museum of Modern Art moved into temporary quarters at Queens Boulevard and 33rd Street; photos; map (M)

Joseph Holtzman, editor in chief of idiosyncratic design magazine Nest, hires six students from architecture and design schools for two months of labor sweetened with creative free play; goal is to breathe life into showpiece house he bought last year in Ghent, NY; their efforts detailed; photos (L)

Dave Anderson Sports of The Times column discusses San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds, who improved his postseason average from .196 to .198 in Game 1 of National League division series against Atlanta Braves; photo (M)

Developers of new wave of war-themed video games are striving for greater realism; are providing combat intelligence insights, tactical tips and briefing papers that look like the real thing, as well as lifelike situations and mission details; realize that they have reached plateau in digital graphics and that they must now pay closer attention to details; enlist flesh-and-blood solders as consultants; photos (M)

France Telecom reshuffles its board, naming Thierry Breton to be chairman and chief executive; board members representing labor unions and employees say that Breton told them he has received assurances that French government will play major role in any financial overhaul; state owns 56 percent of France Telecom; photo (M)