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Worldcom suit: Executive pleads innocent
Former WorldCom Inc Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan and another top executive pleaded not guilty to charges of orchestrating a multibillion-dollar accounting fraud that drove the company into the biggest bankruptcy in US history. Sullivan, 40, entered the plea in his first court appearance since a grand jury accused him last week of hiding losses at the parent of the MCI long-distance phone service. Also pleading innocent yesterday was Buford Yates Jr., WorldCom's former director of general accounting, who was indicted last week with Sullivan. Prosecutors may soon bring new allegations and charge other WorldCom employees, Assistant US Attorney David Anders told the judge. The government is trying to build a case against ex-Chief Executive Officer Bernard Ebbers, one former prosecutor said. "I assume the goal is Ebbers," said Mark Beck, who was assistant chief of the criminal division in the US attorney's office in Los Angeles and is now in private practice there. "I assume they will go as wide and high as they can."

Telecoms: SingTel plans new cable
Singapore Telecommuni-cations and 12 other firms are pumping US$1.6 billion into a new submarine cable straddling Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe, a SingTel spokesman said yesterday. The carriers, including Emirates Telecommuni-cations, Pakistan Telecom-munications, Saudi Telecom and France Telecom, signed a memorandum of understanding in the Indonesian island of Bali on Wednesday to plan and initiate the construction jointly. If all goes according to plan, the cable linking Bangladesh, Egypt, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates is expected to be built in about 18 months, SingTel said. It would be operational by around 2004.

US Economy: Construction stagnates
US construction spending stagnated in July as companies reduced work on factories and office buildings, another sign the recovery may have stalled. New construction in July was valued at US$834.1 billion, up 0.04 percent from June's revised US$833.8 billion, the Commerce Department said. Aided by falling mortgage rates, spending on new houses rose. An increase in spending on government projects also helped offset the decline nonresidential construction. "Our customers are biding their time and waiting to see what the broad economy is going to do before they make any long-term investments," said Frank MacInnis, chief executive officer of Emcor Group Inc in Norwalk, Connecticut. "We have seen more maintenance-type spending as opposed to investment in new capacity."

Telecoms: DoCoMo may cut forecast
NTT DoCoMo Inc may not meet its goal of attracting 1.38 million users to its high-speed mobile-phone service by the end of its fiscal year, President Keiji Tachikawa said. Short battery life for third-generation handsets and limited network coverage are damping interest in the service, Tachikawa said. DoCoMo is the world's largest mobile-phone operator. The company's high-speed service is available in 70 percent of Japan, coverage Tachikawa vowed to expand to 90 percent by the end of March.

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