November 20, 2003

Securities and Exchange Commission issues subpoenas to officials of Hollinger International, publishing company controlled by Conrad Black; requests for information signals that agency has begun formal probe4 into unauthorized payments received by Lord Black and some current and former executives of companyp; regulators are likely to focus on actions of Black, company's auditors and its other directors, who include Henry A Kissinger and Richard N Perle, former chairman of national Defense Policy Board; photo (M)

New York Yankees will pursue free agent pitchers Bartolo Colon and Javier Vazquez if pitcher Andy Pettitte signs with another team (M)

Europe's leading pharmaceutical companies are lobbying intensively to ensure that 10 relatively poor new member states of European Union--from Malta to Lithuania--do not become conduits for cheap prescription drugs to flood wealthier markets like France and Germany (M)

Article on Portland home of Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau, who are raising five foster children born to HIV-positive mothers; interview; photos; Lofton and Croteau, pediatric nurses, moved family to Oregon after Florida refused to allow adoption of one boy who tested HIV-negative, which made him eligible for adoption; Florida bars adoptions by homosexuals, although case is still in courts; photos (M)

World Business Briefing: Britain: Grocer Selects Execute

Christopher Ohrstrom's seven-acre family compound Lee Hall, in The Plains, Virginia, consists of seven old buildings that he moved from other sites and had painstakingly reconstructed as part of family compound; photos (M)

Los Angeles Lakers defeat New York Knicks, 104-83; photos (M)

Conrad M Black's decision to put Hollinger In

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Bush administration's decision to impose import quotas on certain Chinese textiles and clothing was response to furious outcry from North Carolina businesses, workers and elected officials; state has lost 147,000 jobs in last three years, 37,500 of them in textile industry; at least 12 textile plants have closed in and around Burlington in last year; Burlington Industries, bought out of bankruptcy protection last month by financier Wilbur Ross, is shadow of its former self; many smaller local companies have closed, including Flynt Fabrics, which once employed 1,200 people, Tower Mills and Classic Hosiery; Pillowtex, which bought up companies like Fieldcrest, and is based about 70 miles southwest in Kannapolis, went bankrupt this summer and laid off all 4,800 of its North Carolina workers; Copland Fabrics president James R Copland III says industry has gone through worst situation since 1929; graph; photo (M)

Panel of government and industry officials reports that largest blackout in North American history last Aug 14 was set off by series of human and computer failures at Ohio's FirstEnergy power company, where workers were unaware of escalating crisis and so could not act to halt it; says blackout could have been safely contained if not for FirstEnergy's malfunctioning computers and inadequately trained control room workers; finds that FirstEnergy and Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, which has oversight responsibilities, violated one of essential rules governing operation of nation's power grid, by failing to contact neighboring power companies as system unraveled; finds that worsening series of transmission line failures that drove wider collapse of power resulted in part from failure by FirstEnergy to do most basic maintenance of its transmission lines--trimming of trees underneath and alongside lines; 124-page documents says human inaction made matters worse at every turn, until system collapse surged from Ohio into Michigan, Ontario and New York in matter of seconds; Energy Sec Spencer Abraham concludes that 'this blackout was largely preventable'; photo; map; timeline of events leading up to blackout (L)

US House, 418-2, approves legislation aimed at deterring mutual fund trading abuses and fund mismanagement, improving disclosure of fee information and increasing independence of fund boards; Senate has introduced some similar measures in its bill but consideration is not expected before next year; bill's author Rep Richard H Baker says legislation goes long way toward resolving problems of industry and its oversight but he will seek to make it stronger by restoring some provisions that have been watered down; Reps Jeff Flake and Ron Paul are two members who voted aainst bill (M)