Business & Finance

United Airlines resubmitted its application for $1.8 billion in guaranteed federal loans. The Air Transportation Stabilization Board, created by Congress in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, said United's original request in June was not backed up by adequate cost-saving measures. So, to further strengthen its latest application, the financially troubled carrier announced a second round of austerity moves in less than a week: ending service in January to Caracas, Venezuela; Santiago, Chile; Düsseldorf, Germany; and Milan, Italy; the layoffs of 189 more workers; and switching to smaller planes for some other overseas flights. The cuts came on top of those announced Monday – among them 1,250 layoffs.

Three high-profile companies posted multibillion-dollar losses in their latest quarterly financial reports: • $2.8 billion at Lucent Technologies – actually a sizable improvement over its $8.8 billion loss in the same quarter last year. The world leader in telecommunications equipment has cut its work force more than 50 percent – to 35,000 – in the past 12 months and has spun off noncore businesses amid an industrywide downturn. • $2.6 billion at biotechnology giant Amgen Inc., attributed chiefly to a $3 billion write-off on its acquisition of rival Immunex Corp. of Seattle. • $2.05 billion at AT&T Wireless, the US's third-largest mobile phone service provider, due mainly to write-downs on investments and on the value of wireless licenses, as required under new accounting rules.

AOL Time Warner said it will restate two years' worth of results due to accounting practices that improperly booked revenues and profits for its Internet division. An internal review, chief executive Richard Parsons said, found "several more" cases between the third quarter of 2000 and the second quarter of this year that would cause a $190 million drop in receipts and $97 million less in pretax profits. He said the review was continuing but that the company did not expect "any further adjustments."

Duke Energy Corp. said it will cut more than 1,900 staff and contract jobs next year while reporting third-quarter net income of $230 million. Profits at the Charlotte, N.C., integrated utility are down more than 70 percent from the same period last year. It is one of a growing list of companies hit by financial problems in the energy-trade industry.