A U.S. federal jury on Saturday found accounting firm Andersen guilty of obstructing justice in an investigation of its client, Enron., pushing the once-venerated auditor a step closer to almost certain demise.

Finance ministers from the world's richest nations on Saturday settled their differences in a dispute that will free up $22 billion in World Bank grants and loans for developing countries over the next three years.

G-7 finance ministers were coolly confident Saturday about the recovering world economy and sanguine about the euro's rise against the fragile dollar.

Recently my wife, Maria, broke the heel of her shoe, and I had to take it to be repaired.

Since the demise of the Berlin Wall, hardly a year has passed without pronouncements being made about how the Cold War is finally over.

Russia has the potential to emulate some of India's success as a center of offshore software development. To achieve this, however, a lot will have to change.

As President Bush left Russia last month his entourage breathed a sigh of relief and self-congratulation.

Ever since President George W. Bush announced that al-Qaida has been scheming to attack our nuclear power plants, the industry has proclaimed itself ready -- with full-page ads in newspapers and magazines talking up its investment in hiring and maintaining crack security forces.

Gazprom Nets $3.2 Bln MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Gazprom said Friday its net profit for 2001 rose to 100.4 billion rubles ($3.20 billion) from 48.8 billion rubles in 2000. The results were audited by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and calculated according to Russian accounting standards. The company statement, released late Friday, also said revenues for 2001 were up at 588.5 billion rubles, versus 498 billion rubles in 2000. In March, the gas monopoly reported a fall in nine-month 2001 net profit to international accounting standards to 32.35 billion rubles from 38.38 billion rubles in the same period the previous year. Energo Loses $1.5Bln IRKUTSK, Eastern Siberia (Reuters) -- Regional electricity utility Irkutskenergo's net losses soared in 2001 on re-evaluation of assets and provision for bad debt, although analysts said Friday the charge was a one-off write-off. Net losses soared to $1.5 billion from $35.24 million in 2000, a top official said.

IT Presentation The European Business Club's e-commerce committee is hosting a presentation on the legal aspects of IT agreements with a focus on international outsourcing, which will take place Thursday at 12 p.m. at 10, 2nd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Ulitsa. The event is free for EBC members, 1,500 rubles for additional representatives of member companies and 3,000 rubles for nonmember companies. For more information, call 721-1760 or see www.ebc.ru . Land Code Seminar The European Business Club's legal and real estate committees are hosting a seminar titled ""New Land Code: Problems and Perspectives"" on Friday at 3 p.m. in the Czech House Hotel at 36/40 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Ulitsa. The event is free for EBC members, 1,500 rubles for additional representatives of member companies and 3,000 rubles for nonmember companies. For more information, call 721-1760 or see target=""new"">www.ebc.ru .