February 3, 2004

Actor Ben Kingsley, in interview, comments on his role as Col Massoud Behrani, penniless Iranian immigrant, in movie House of Sand and Fog, for which he has garnered Academy Award nomination; photo (M)

Fashion house Proenza Schouler, run by desingers Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, plans to auction some of newly modeled clothes and shoes on eBay within days of its runway show during Fashion Week in New York next week; lot will include more than four dozen pairs of shoes, designed in eague with Manolo Blahnik and 50 garments; goods, from next week's show as well as two Proenza Schouler shows last year, will carry minimum bids at deep discounts to retail prices; 10-day auction is planned for Feb 26 to Mar 7; photos (M)

Employers have unleashed new wave of cutbacks in company-paid health benefits for retirees, with growing number of companies requiring retirees to pay full cost to retain coverage; experts expect trend, driven by fast-rising cost of health care, to continue despite billions of dollars government will pay companies that maintain retiree coverage when new Medicare drug benefit begins in two years; companies are not obligated to set aside funds to pay for retirees' health benefits, and health plans can usually be changed or ended at company's choosing; companies that offer retiree benefits typically have subsidized about 60 percent of premium; many companies dropping subsidies push retirees into insurance pools separate from those of younger, healthier workers, cutting company's costs for insuring current workers, while further raising premiums charged retirees; graph of companies offering retiree health care benefits; photo (M)

Prosecutors in trial of Martha Stewart prepare for testimony of crucial witness Douglas Faneuil, assistant to Stewart's former stockbroker and co-defendant Peter E Bacanovic, while Stewart's lawyers try to undermine anticipated testimony through their questioning of other government witnesses; Faneuil is expected to tell jury that he was ordered to tell Stewart to sell her 3,928 shares in ImClone Systems in late December 2001, just before company announced that much-anticipated drug Erbitux had run into serious regultory obstacles; Stewart does not face charge of criminal insider trading, but is charged with lying to investigators about what prompted her to sell her stock; photo (M)

Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA, world's biggest iron ore producer, is joining forces with China's Baosteel Group and European steel giant Arcelor to build steel plant in Sao Luis, Brazil, with annual production capacity of 3.7 million metric tons of steel plate (S)