Business & Finance

American Airlines is laying off 3,100 flight attendants effective July 1, the carrier announced Wednesday. The job cuts were OK'd by unions as part of $1.8 billion in labor concessions to avert bankruptcy. But they are deeper than the 2,400 mandated in the deal. American also plans to lay off at least 3,400 pilots and ground workers.

Computer giant Gateway Inc.'s financial reports for 2000 are the target of a preliminary investigation by the Justice Department, the Poway, Calif., company confirmed Wednesday. Gateway, which continues to struggle with low sales, is already under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has restated results for 1999-2001 by about $550 million.

Fidelity Brokerage Co. is the target of a probe by the SEC and the New York Stock Exchange, The Wall Street Journal reported. Regulators are looking into allegations that branch and regional managers at the subsidiary of Boston-based Fidelity Investments, the world's top mutual fund firm, altered customer records to deceive internal auditors, the Journal said. Several have been fired as a result of the inquiry.

Deutsche Telekom reversed 2002's heavy losses and posted its first quarterly profit in almost two years, attributing the turnaround to the sell-off of some assets and a change in the tax status of one of its subsidiaries. Germany's communications giant reported $977 million in black ink for the January-March period, exceeding its goals for both debt reduction and profit. Analysts had predicted the company would lose almost $560 million. Deutsche Telekom lost $2.1 billion in the first quarter of 2002 and $28 billion for the year. It remains deeply in debt, however, with obligations of $65.1 billion.

Police arrested the No. 1 shareholder in Banco Intercontinental SA (Baninter) and two other key figures in the Dominican Republic institution whose collapse made headlines earlier this week. The amount embezzled from the bank or lost through bogus deals was put at $2.2 billion, making it the largest such case in Dominican history. Ramon Baez Figueroa, who owns a chain of radio and TV stations and the nation's most respected newspaper; his brother, Marco; and a third Baninter executive have yet to be charged, however, reports said. The Santo Domingo government said it would honor deposits in the collapsed bank, the nation's second-largest, and appealed to US authorities for help in tracking down missing funds and assets.