From wire reports

Stewart judge affirms no-media decision

NEW YORK - A federal judge left intact on Friday her ruling barring the media from watching jury selection in the Martha Stewart trial, rejecting arguments that she was unfairly keeping the public from monitoring the case.

U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum said her primary concern was that the defendants - the domestic style maven and her former stockbroker - receive a fair trial with an impartial jury.

The judge upheld a ruling she had issued Thursday in which she said potential jurors might be less forthcoming as they answer lawyers' questions if they knew reporters were present.

Investment banker Quattrone punished

WASHINGTON - Former star investment banker Frank Quattrone, facing retrial on criminal charges of obstructing justice, has been fined $30,000 by securities regulators and suspended for a year from the industry for allegedly failing to cooperate in an investigation of his activities.

The National Association of Securities Dealers, the brokerage industry's self-policing group, announced Friday that a hearing panel had found Quattrone in violation of industry rules that required him to testify when asked in any NASD inquiry and imposed the civil sanctions.

The NASD's top enforcement official said he would seek to have Quattrone permanently banned from the industry.

The panel rejected arguments by the former Credit Suisse First Boston executive that he should not testify in the NASD's investigation because of the pending criminal charges against him.

Quattrone earned $120 million in 2000.

Accounting probe costs Adecco execs' jobs

GENEVA - Adecco's chief financial officer and the head of its U.S. operations lost their jobs Friday in an accounting scandal that the company, the world's largest employment agency, reveals has been spurred by whistleblowers.

The company's shares tumbled again as Adecco announced the resignation of its chief financial officer, Felix Weber, and the head of its U.S. operations, Julio Arrieta.

Adecco said it was investigating allegations made by "whistleblowers" in the United States, but gave no details. It said the accounting weaknesses under investigation in its U.S. operations included a string of problems with payroll, client billing and the security of computer systems.