October 19, 2002

Prudential Financial and Wachovia Corp discuss joint venture that would merge their brokerage and research businesses and create separate, independent company free of any conflicts of interest involving investment banking business; venture would create brokerage behemoth with 13,600 brokers; joint banking ventures have been notoriously unsuccessful to date (M)

Vatican officials reject American bishops agressive new policy to combat child sexual abuse by priests, saying bishops need to rewrite parts of it to make policy conform with Roman Catholic law; say zero-tolerance policy is imprecise and confusing and does not safeguard rights of accused priests or observe protections granted them under church law; cite aspects of policy that remove any statute of limitations on past offenses and define sexual abuse to include situations that do not involve physical force or physical contact; American bishops interpret Vatican's response as somewhat open-ended, saying that while zero-tolerance policy may need to be tweaked, there is no clear sign that it needs to be scrapped; photo (M)

San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds and Anaheim Angels prepare for first World Series appearances; photos (M)

People of South Dakota, fifth smallest state in nation, have seen more political commercials than people in any other state, and they are increasingly annoyed; most ire is directed at commercials in Senate race between Rep John Thune, Republican, and Sen Tim Johnson, but there are also plenty of ads in at-large House race between Stephanie Herseth, Democrat, and Gov William J Janklow; state and national parties run commercials in addition to candidates' own; photos (M)

Statements by host of senior Federal Reserve officials indicate their belief in strength of United States economy and, after multiple stimulatory interest rate reductions, their reluctance to continue rate cuts; Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan has been conspicuously silent, however, since board's September meeting (M)