December 22, 2004

Deutsche Lufthansa AG is hiring as many as 20 pilots a month and will add 500 flight attendants in 2005 as airline expands to meet growth in air travel; expects to raise seating capacity in 2005 by 5 percent to 7 percent; forecasts intercontinental traffic growth to exceed that figure (S)

Comment on Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven, chocolate factory and emporium on Hudson Street in SoHo; photos (L)

Some fathers in New York area take on challenge of caring for children and home as their wives work, braving the isolation and lingering stigma this entails; Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that slightly more than 5 percent of men with children under 18 stay home, outnumbered by stay-at-home moms by six to one; photos (M)

Justice Department is appointing monitor to examine American International Group's books for last four years; monitor is subject to approval by Securities and Exchange Commission and company; monitor, as well as $126 million in penalties and restitution, is heavy price of settlement between company and SEC and Justice Department; accord covers loss-hiding transactions company arranged for PNC Financial Services and Brightpoint; use of independent monitor is unusual step, and it underscores how little is known, by regulators, analysts, shareholders and investors, about sale of insurancelike products that companies buy to smooth their earnings; regulators want to know exactly how many other income-smoothing products were pitched by AIG, and who, in any, bought them; photo of AIG chief executive Maurice R Greenberg (M)

Ifo Institute says Germany's economy will expand 1.2 percent in 2005; Hamburg Institute of International Economics is forecasting growth of 0.9 percent, down from 1.7 percent in 2004 (S)