February 4, 2005

Use of instructional video games online is growing exponentially as more organizations see interactive games as way to capture and hold attention of people bombarded with numerous competing messages; games offered by Partnership for Food Safety Education, Greenpeace, American Cancer Society and Unicef discussed; photos (M)

Deutsche Bank's chief executive Josef Ackermann details cost-cutting plans and bank's renewed focus on Germany; rumors circulated in banking industry last year that bank was itching to merge, buy or be bought, which never materialized; analysts say reality of Deutsche Bank's position, with higher costs and lower market value than its American or British peers, has left it with few ways to seize initiative in consolidating industry; bank is also hurt by broader stagnation in German banking; company announces fresh round of job cuts, affecting 3,280 people, or 5 percent of remaining work force; announced in December it was cutting 1,920 jobs; both moves will save bank more than $1.4 billion a year; net income declined 38 percent in fourth quarter, to 269 million euros ($349 million), on revenue of 5.3 billion euros ($6.9 billion); net income for all of 2004 was 2.5 billion euros ($3.25 billion), 87 percent rise from 2003 (M)

Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid prepares to face New England Patriots in Super Bowl; photos (M)

Commission investigating United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq says in interim report that Benon V Sevan, former head of program, violated charter of UN and seriously undermined its integrity by helping company owned by friend to obtain valuable contracts to sell Iraqi oil; cites 'grave and continuing conflict of interest' in Sevan's conduct; report depicts what was UN's largest relief effort as riddled with political favoritism and mismanagement; program is also being investigated by five Congressional committees and federal prosecutor in New York; report says important parts of program were not audited, allowing evidence that Saddam Hussein demanded and got kickbacks from companies selling his oil to go undetected; report does not say Sevan benefited personally, but commission is still investigating $160,000 in cash that he received from aunt whose way of life does not suggest she was wealthy; senior UN official says Secretary General Kofi Annan will try to discipline Seven, who retired last year, and Joseph Stephanides, who oversaw selection of program's major contractors; photo of Paul A Volcker, who heads commission (M)

Advertisers spend $1.50 per mouse click on Google Internet search site, at any hour on any day, for few words of plain text linking prospective customers to advertisers' Web sites; advetiser pays only when prospective customer actually clicks on ad link; Google did not invent concept of keyword search ads, and it is not alone in capitalizing on paid-click trend, but it has been most successful in blending computer science, consumer behavior and merchant motivation in what is considerable money machine; keyword search represents more than 40 percent of total $8.7 billion in Internet ad spending last year in United States, and its share of Internet ad market is growing; keyword Internet ads are one of few forms of advertising that potentially appeal to anyone, anywhere, of any size with somethning for sale; graph (M)