January 18, 2005

Former WorldCom Inc chief executive Bernard J Ebbers' accounting fraud trial is scheduled to begin with preliminary motions and beginning of jury selection; telecommunications industry, whose 1990's boom Ebbers help fuel with his deal making, is in shambles, riddled with heavy debt, sagging stock prices and network overcapacity; phone carriers, emerging from financial ruins, are relying less on long-distance and data services that Ebbers championed, and more on bundles of products like wireless and video that can attract customers with deeper pockets; WorldCom's downfall led Congress to answer critics' calls for action by reviving stalled legislation that became Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, sweeping pice of corporate reform legislation; companies are spending millions of dollars to comply with law, which has increased accountability but, critics say, also stifles innovation; graph; photo (M)

United Nations-sponsored international team says drastically reducing poverty in its many guises--hunger, illiteracy, disease--is 'utterly affordable' if industrial nations agree to double aid to poor countries, to one-half of 1 percent of national incomes, or 50 cents out of every $100 of incomes; report by so-called United Nations Millennium Project advocates reforms to ease trade barriers and sweeping investments in health, education, rural development, road building, housing and scientific research; blueprint wins quick praise from heads of International Monetary Fund and World Bank; some critics view its approach as utopian overreaching; others worry that it puts too little emphasis on need for poor countries to make deep political and social changes to reduce poverty; project's agenda is first in series this year intended to refocus attention on fulfilling promises to fight poverty that were made at UN in 2000; photos (M)

Faculty panel at Columbia University will investigate Jewish students' complaints of intimidation by pro-Palestinian professors in Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department; issue flared into international news in Oct 2004, when news media was shown film 'Columbia Unbecoming,' which had been made by pro-Israel group called David Project; Profs Hamid Dabashi, Joseph Massad and George Saliba are at center of dispute; Columbia pres Lee C Bollinger has been criticized for failing to contain controversy; photos (M)

A Domain Name Slips Away, And a Company Scrambles Panix.com, New York City's oldest commercial Internet service provider, saw its domain name slip out of its control over the weekend and become the center of an international hunt to get it back. Whether maliciously or inadvertently, the company's main domain name, panix.com, was somehow transferred to a company in Australia. The incident served as a reminder that domain names are as vulnerable to theft as any other digital commodity. [Page C6.] Apex Offers Details of Detention Apex Digital, in a court filing, offered a detailed account of how its president was detained by the Chinese police and, it says, coerced into signing agreements with its Chinese partner, Sichuan Changhong Electric. [C6.] Nissan Chief May Run Renault, Too Carlos Ghosn, left, who turned around the fortunes of Nissan Motor, is expected to be named chief executive of Renault. He would be the first person in the auto industry to take on such dual roles. Mr. Ghosn's success at Nissan led it to leapfrog Honda to the No.2 spot in Japan in six years. The question is whether he can improve on that performance at Renault. [C12.] Panel to Back Cuts in Medicare A federal advisory panel will recommend a cut in Medicare payments promised to hospitals and a freeze in payments to nursing homes and home care agencies. [A15.] Yahoo to Develop Verizon Portal Verizon said it would work with Yahoo to build a Web portal for its high-speed Internet service. [C4.] European Media Lab to Shut Down Media Lab Europe, a research institution set up by the Irish government and M.I.T., will close because it did not attract enough corporate sponsors. [C2.] European and Asian Stocks Rise Stocks in European and Asian markets posted gains, while United States markets were closed. They will reopen today. [C10.] Corporate Retreat, Moat Optional Europe's castles, palaces and manor houses are welcoming American companies and associations that rent them for meetings, gala dinners and other functions. [C14.] Fare Changes Worry Frequent Fliers Some frequent business fliers say they are agitated about a possible drop in the number of first-class seats available for free upgrades. Joe Sharkey: On the Road. [C15.] Diaper Makers Move Into Toiletries The makers of the two top diaper brands, Huggies and Pampers, are both introducing lines of toiletries for babies and small children. Next month, Huggies will begin selling a disposable bath mitt, liquid soap, shampoo and conditioner for toddlers. Advertising. [C8.]

Catholic Archbishop Kidnapped in Iraq Gunmen kidnapped the Catholic archbishop of Mosul as pre-election violence flared elsewhere in Iraq. Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, of the Eastern-Rite Syrian Catholic Church, is the most prominent Christian leader to be seized in the country. PAGE A12 Few Reports of Zhao's Death China restricted news reports about the death of Zhao Ziyang, the former Communist Party chief who opposed the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. PAGE A13 Effect of Shift on Sentencing Allowing federal judges great leeway in sentencing criminals does not have to breed chaos, according to sentencing specialists in states that already have such systems. PAGE A14 Tennis Doping Dispute A Belgian sports minister has put Svetlana Kuznetsova, the United States Open women's champion, in the center of a doping controversy. SPORTSTUESDAY, PAGE D1 Ghetto Survivors Revisit Past Survivors of the Lodz ghetto were invited to a private viewing in London of the largest collection of images of ghetto life during the Holocaust by a single photographer. Many of the photographs, above, by Henryk Ross, had never been seen by the public before. THE ARTS, PAGE E1 A Leap in Men's Style At the Milan men's fashion shows, the spirit of Rudolf Nureyev lives in a line for fall by Costume National. FASHION, PAGE B7