Business & Finance

Qwest Communications International withdrew applications to offer long-distance telephone services in nine Western states, but said it planned to refile them later. The Federal Communications Commission was poised to reject the request due to an accounting scandal. Qwest, which is based Denver, is restating its 2000-2001 earnings and is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Colorado's attorney general.

Struggling British Airways appeared certain to be dropped from one of the world's most prestigious stock indexes, the FTSE 100. At the close of business Tuesday, the carrier, Europe's largest, had slid to 111th place in market-capitalization in Britain. Its status was to be the subject of a meeting of the FTSE's indices committee Wednesday, along with the recorded-music group EMI and International Power PLC, an electric utility with plants in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. They were expected to be replaced by a pharmaceuticals distributor, an engineering conglomerate, and a packaging company. British Airways has been part of the FTSE 100 since being privatized in 1987. But in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks it has announced 13,000 layoffs, discontinued numerous routes, and taken other austerity measures.