Nortel Networks, troubled Canadian telecommunications equipment maker, fires seven more financial managers in continuing probe of accounting irregularities and will try to recover about $10 million in bonuses that were paid to them last year; announces restructuring that includes layoffs of about 3,500 employees, mostly in administration and research; releases partial results for first half indicating that company was breaking even or perhaps marginally unprofitable on operating basis; estimates revenue of $2.5 billion in first quarter and $2.6 billion in second (M)

7 More Managers Fired Over Nortel Accounting

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd says first-half profit doubled, to 12.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: Hong Kong: Conglomerate Posts Gain

Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island, named for its principal private donor Carl Icahn, is 85 percent built and scheduled for completion in November; its creators hope it will be future site for Olympic trials after its expected certification by International Assn of Athletics Federations; Parks Comr Adrian Benepe say he hopes it will help reinvigorate track and field in New York City; history of stadium, orginally built in 1936, discussed; photos (M)

Built for Speed, And Local Pride; Track Stadium Emerges On Randalls Island

Philippines posts trade deficit of $142 million in June, reversing last year's surplus, as value of imports of oil and other petroleum products more than doubles (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: Philippines: Trade Deficit

Selena Roberts Sports of The Times column criticizes Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina's behavior during loss to US gymnast Carly Patterson in women's all-around event at 2004 Olympics; describes Khorkina as bitter and overly dramatic; photos (M)

Sports of The Times; Khorkina's Final Act Centers on Bitterness

 Seven More Managers Fired At Nortel Networks  Nortel Networks, the troubled Canadian telecommunications equipment maker, fired seven more financial managers as it continued to sort out an accounting scandal.  

BUSINESS DIGEST

Agfa-Gevaert is selling its consumer film and photo labs business to unit's managers for 175.5 million euros; will focus on its more profitable medical imaging and graphics businesses; move comes as sales of traditional rolls of film have declined with spread of digital cameras (M)

Agfa-Gevaert, Photo Pioneer, To Sell Film and Lab Business

France wins men's team saber event; Italy wins silver and Russia wins bronze; photos (M)

U.S. Fencer Draws Blood, but It Works Against Him

Three-judge federal panel rules that distributors of software used by people to exchange music files over Internet cannot be held liable for aiding copyright infringement because they do not have ability to monitor or control how users of their software exchange files; decision, affirming ruling of federal judge in Los Angeles in lawsuits brought against Grokster and StreamCast Networks, gives distributors of peer-to-peer file-sharing software significant victory in their long battle with record and movie industries, which may now have to focus their energy less on courts and more on Congress to change copyright law; photo (M)

File-Sharing Sites Found Not Liable For Infringement

Price of Google shares rises 18 percent in first day of trading, to just above $100, which is about where it would have landed if this had been typical IPO rather than Dutch auction chosen by company's founders; closing price gives company market valuation of more than $27 billion; shares are bought, sold and flipped during day, disappointing founders' hope that unorthodox offering would attract bidders who would buy its stock as long-term investment; there now appears to have been little substance to idea that Google was bucking Wall Street's establishment by seriously undercutting fees investment bankers typically receive in taking companies public; company is paying its bankers fee of 2.8 percent of $1.67 billion raised in auction, which is said to be comparable to fees charged in other deals of this size; photo (M)

After Months Of Hoopla, Google Debut Fits the Norm

United Nations officials say hundreds of new refugees from Darfur region of Sudan are pouring into already overwhelmed refugee camps in Chad; say some sneaked around Sudanese soldiers and their allied Arab militiamen, some were driven out by fresh fighting, and others are emerging from mountain redoubts, drawn by promise of shelter and food when their rations run out; latest influx is alarming barometer of continuing violence inside Darfur, even after Security Council imposed 30-day deadline on Sudanese government to restore stability or face unspecified sanctions; UN officials relying on accounts by refugees are documenting new attacks by Sudanese military and their proxy Arab militias, the Janjaweed; African Union is in process of sending monitors into Darfur to oversee cease-fire signed in Apr by Sudanese government and two rebel foes; peace talks are expected to resume next week in Abuja, Nigeria; photos; map (M)

Death and Sorrow Stalk Sudanese Across Border

New York City Police Department shows off its arsenal as it prepares for Republican National Convention and dual threats of terrorism and violent protesters; photos (M)

Police Show They're Ready For Convention Disorder

Tehran Stock Exchange has been providing outsized returns for investors, but it has also forced them to take on considerable risks, including currency inflation, vague legal framework, unscrupulous brokers, insider dealing and failure of pundits or analysts to provide any research or fundamental analysis of exchange; efforts have recently intensified to fix exchange, revise its rules, offer new products and open it to foreign investors, but some foreign investors are dubious that new efforts will have much effect; photo (M)

Rewards Have Risks on the Tehran Stock Exchange

Caryn James Critic's Notebook column on wide variety of politically themed, mostly anti-Bush, movies, stage shows and television mini-series scheduled for current political season; list; photos (L)

Political Art, Potshots to Sure Shots

United Airlines says it will most likely terminate its four employee pension plans and replace them with less generous benefits in order to attract financing that would allow it to emerge from bankruptcy protection; pension specialists say that if United makes good on threat, it will likely set pattern that other airlines will eventually have to follow, cutting or shedding their pension plans to stay competitive; Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, federal agency that would have to assume responsibility for terminated plans, and two United unions have gone to court to challenge airline's effort to get out from under its pension (M)

United Warns It May Jettison Pension Plans To Stay Afloat

Experts say Bush administration's efforts to isolate North Korea to get it to drop nuclear program may end up isolating United States instead; note that Asian and European governments are actively engaging North Korea on diplomatic, cultural and economic levels; North Korea now has embassies in 41 countries and diplomatic ties with 155; it recently held first-ever military talks with South Korea, and is moving toward normalizing diplomatic relations with Japan; Democrats and other participants in talks on North Korea's nuclear program--South Korea, China, Russia and Japan--are pressuring Bush administration to come up with offer; in June, Pres Bush made first significant offer to North Koreans since coming into office; Asian and European diplomats and businessmen who have long dealt with North Korean officials describe their eagerness to adopt new ideas and policies; say North Korea of today is less isolated and more economically stable than it was just two years ago; North Korea began opening up immediately after its first summit meeting with South Korea in 2000; photos; map (M)

North Korea Is Reaching Out, And World Is Reaching Back

Article on Tybee Island, Ga, town full of colorful characters and laid-back lifestyle; residents, both part- and full-time, say civil war is brewing, pitting newcomers against old-timers, primary residents versus weekenders; photos; maps (M)

Time Catches Up With a Georgia Eden

Prime Min Ayad Allawi gives what he describes as final warning to Moktada al-Sadr, telling rebel Shiite cleric to move quickly to disarm and leave shrine in Najaf where his followers have been battling American troops for two weeks; warning is accompanied by major intensification of American military attacks on targets around shrine; accompanying offensive is launched against Sadr's other major stronghold, Sadr City in Baghdad; aides to Allawi say assault led by Iraqi troops, backed by American troops and airpower, could come in days if Sadr backtracks again on his pledge to disband militia and vacate shrine; Sadr is sending out conflicting signals through other clerics and in letters; Western official says Iraqi officials are trying to figure out what Sadr has committed himself to; separately, top Sadr aide issues plea to kidnappers of American journalist Micah Garen, who was taken hostage last week in Nasiriya; Sadr himself has condemned spate of kidnappings of foreigners across Iraq; photo (M)

IRAQ CHIEF GIVES 'FINAL WARNING' TO REBEL CLERIC

Effort to force embattled New Jersey Gov James McGreevey to leave office in time to schedule special election collapses; aides say he is determined to remain in office until Nov 15 and Democratic leaders say McGreevey's supporters have mounted offensive against those seeking to force him out sooner; news that unnamed administration official warned Rep Robert Menendez to stop criticizing McGreevey because Menendez himself engaged in affair sends chill through party officials who were bracing for new revelations about McGreevey, but fear political standoff would descend into broader personal attacks; Menendez releases statement in support of McGreevey's decision (M)

Effort to Push McGreevey Out Is Collapsing

Rituals column on Ann Loeding and Gary Matthews, who salvaged Elise Ann Conners, sleek but rusting 1881 steam-era canal tugboat, from bottom of Rondout Creek in upstate New York and have docked it behind maritime museum in Kingston, NY; couple has spent past decade painstakingly restoring North America's second-oldest tug; photos (M)

My Rusty Valentine

American demand for natural gas is growing far faster than supply from domestic sources or from friendly neighbors like Canada, and it is probable that within a decade, US will become significant importer of gas from politically troublesome regions like North Africa, Middle East, former Soviet Union and Caribbean, transported in liquefied form by giant tanker ships; prospect raises possibility that natural gas will become another vulnerable front in American diplomacy and energy security, posing same quandaries and threats that crude oil does now; US now imports only 16 percent of its natural gas, nearly all of that coming by pipeline from Canada and only 2 percent brought in on LNG tankers; complexity and expense of bringing LNG to market prompts industry experts to warn that as demand for gas grows -- chiefly from electric-generating plants -- supply may not be there to meet it and price will rise; photos; graph (L)

Natural Gas Seems Headed the Way of Oil: More Demand, Less Supply, Higher Cost

Clyde Haberman NYC column says New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and group United for Peace and Justice could both end up losers in dispute over demonstrating in Central Park during Republican National Convention (M)

Remember Them To Harold Sq.

Police in New York City say shadowy group of protesters who have caused mayhem before are unknown factor in whether demonstrations during Republican National Convention remain under control or veer toward violence and disorder; self-described anarchists have been blamed for inciting violence in belief that standard mass marches of chanting slogans and waving signs are not as effective as 'direct action'; city is using army of police officers to deter violent protests; police officials say they have identified 60 people as militants, some of whom were arrested for violent acts in past protests; even anarchists who are against violence are warning of trouble and admit they are planning acts of civil disobedience, including blocking intersections, staging 'chaos on Broadway' when delegates attend Broadway shows, holding 'die-in' near Madison Square Garden, sneaking into parties and other functions and generally harassing 4,853 delegates and alternate delegates; Jamie Moran, who operates RNC Not Welcome Web site, says he disavows violence against people but not necessarily against property, particularly property belonging to perceived corporate enemies; photo (M)

Anarchists Emerge as the Convention's Wild Card

 Google Shares Rise In First Day of Trading  In Google's first day of trading, investors bought, sold and flipped shares at a furious pace, with the price ending just above $100 -- 18 percent higher than where it started. The closing price gave the company a market valuation of more than $27 billion.   BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1    United May End Its Pensions  United Airlines said it would most likely end its employee pension plans and replace them with less-generous benefits.   BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1

INSIDE

Stephen Fry, a noted actor and sometime novelist, makes his directing debut with this adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's &quot;Vile Bodies,&quot; considered by many to be the funniest novel ever written in English. The movie honors its source with vigor and gusto, capturing both Waugh's cheeky humor and his dark, stringent moralism. Stephen Campbell Moore and Emily Mortimer are touching and funny as the central couple, an impecunious aristocrat named Adam Symes and his long-term fiancée, Nina, but the picture is brought to life by its large supporting cast of both well-known and unknown British actors (and one Canadian, Dan Ackroyd, playing a blustering press baron). The chaotic plot follows a gaggle of twittering, gilded youth through the cynical, gossip-ridden social whirl of pre-World War II Britain. The parallels with the present are obvious without being overdone, and Mr. Fry's exuberant, occasionally messy film departs from the usual stuffy conventions of costume drama. — A. O. Scott

August 20, 2004

Headlines from August 20, 2004

7 More Managers Fired Over Nortel Accounting

World Business Briefing | Asia: Hong Kong: Conglomerate Posts Gain

Built for Speed, And Local Pride; Track Stadium Emerges On Randalls Island

World Business Briefing | Asia: Philippines: Trade Deficit

Sports of The Times; Khorkina's Final Act Centers on Bitterness

Billboard 200

Autobiography

Now 16

License To Chill

Confessions

Here For The Party

Historical Context for August 20, 2004