March 4, 2003

HSBC Holdings said provisions for bad loans decreased in 2002, helping to increase pretax profit for the year by 19 percent. In contrast with the many banks that have been reporting higher provisions for bad loans along with the sinking economy, HSBC said charges to cover bad debts fell by $716 million, to $1.3 billion for the year. Pretax profit was $10.5 billion, compared with $8.8 billion last year. HSBC, which last year bought Household International of the United States, paid a dividend in 2002 of 53 cents, an increase of 10.4 percent compared with 2001. Suzanne Kapner (NYT)

The writer Charles Willeford, who died in 1988, has something of a cult following for his crime novels and other pulpily atmospheric books in the genre often described as hard-boiled. His first book, published in 1953, was ''High Priest of California,'' the creepy tale of a San Francisco woman trapped by an ill-advised early marriage to a middleweight boxer, a much older man who has receded, punch drunk, into permanent childishness. Willeford himself adapted the book into a play, which has now been unearthed by the 29th Street Rep. And though it is a script with holes -- there are some moments when the characters' behavior is more convenient than credible -- the production, directed by Leo Farley, is terrifically attuned to Willeford's noir spirit.

The United States Olympic Committee ushered in the post-Lloyd Ward era yesterday when Jim Scherr, an Olympic wrestler in 1988, took over the day-to-day operations of the wounded organization until an interim chief executive is hired. That process is expected to take a few weeks. Ward resigned Saturday after struggling to keep his job since mid-January, when he was judged to have violated the organization's ethics code.

The largest Dutch phone company, Royal KPN, had a second consecutive quarterly profit on reduced costs, rebounding from the industry's worst slump. Fourth-quarter net income was 7 million euros ($7.6 million), in contrast to a loss of 6.23 billion euros a year earlier. KPN expects 2003 earnings before tax and one-time items to rise to more than 1 billion euros from about 300 million euros last year. KPN's chief executive, Ad Scheepbouwer, has turned his focus to increasing sales of mobile services and fast Web access after cutting debt and stemming two years of losses since taking the helm in November 2001.

Bush Unveils Medicare Plan The White House unveiled its plan to overhaul Medicare, saying it would offer comprehensive prescription drug coverage and preventive services to people who join private insurance plans. PAGE A20 Warning on Terror Attacks Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge gave the government's bluntest warning that a war with Iraq might mean new terrorist attacks in the United States, saying ''there may be more threats.'' PAGE A10