November 21, 2002

Federal criminal investigation into Computer Associates' accounting has intensified, with prosecutors in Brooklyn issuing grand jury subpoenas for testimony and documents from fromer employees and company's customers; use of grand jury signals that prosecutors have decided to devote significant time and effort to inquiry; prosecutors are examining whether top executives inflated company's sales and profits during last 1990's to reach $1.1 billion payday that was tied to performance of company's stock; are also looking into accounting change that company made in 2000 that effectively allowed company to coount some of its sales and profits twice; Computer Associates has said its accounting is proper; client Allstate Corp and former Computer Associates employee Mary Welch say they have received subpoenas to testify or provide documents to grand jury; photo (M)

Design chief Christopher E Bangle, in major shift for Germany's BMW, seeks to make each model different; bid to gain recognition for design as well as for precision engineering is part of drive to raise United States sales by almost 50 percent in increasingly competitive luxury car market; he hopes to appeal to younger buyers' sense of individuality; approach angers many longtime BMW lovers; graph of inroads by foreign carmakers into US luxury market; photos (M)

Study finds vaccine made by Merck & Co unit can prevent cervical cancer by making people immune to one type of human papillomavirus, sexually transmitted virus that causes 50 percent of cervical cancers; Merck is already testing new version of vaccine designed to work against multiple virus types, preventing 70 percent of cervical cancers; funded study, led by Dr Laura A Koutsky; vaccine, which cannot treat cancer, will be most successful if given to girls and young women before they become sexually active; National Cancer Institute researcher Dr Allan Hildesheim cites need for larger and longer-term trials; photo (M)

UBS Closes Trading Floor That It Acquired From Enron Less than a year after acquiring Enron's energy trading operation, UBS Warburg said that it would reduce the size of the unit and shut down the trading floor in Houston. The operation, which had about 630 employees when UBS acquired it, is expected to be reduced to fewer than 100 employees, all of whom will be moved to Stamford, Conn. The decision comes during a sharp downturn in the energy trading business and after some large trading companies have announced plans to scale back their operations or exit the business. [Page C4.] Making a BMW a Conversation Piece Christopher E. Bangle, BMW's first non-German design chief, wants each BMW to be a conversation piece known as much for design as precision engineering. He is trying to make the yuppie dream car as idiosyncratic as it once was predictable. And a lot of longtime BMW lovers hate him for it. [A1.]

Brazil's central bank raises benchmark interest rate by one point, to 22 percent, in effort to cap rising inflation (S)