Also

* Las Vegas casino waitresses and housekeepers overwhelmingly authorized a strike that could cripple the gambling- dependent city if union officials and casino executives fail to negotiate a new contract before the current one expires May 31.

* Bank of America Corp. must pay $40 million in profit to customers who were illegally charged fees on trust funds by a financial institution it bought in 1992, an appellate court said. The trust funds were managed by Security Pacific National Bank, which secretly took money from the funds over a 19-year period.

* Japan joined the European Union in telling the World Trade Organization that it would impose duties on U.S. steel imports as early as next month in its first such use of retaliatory trade tariffs against the U.S.

* WorldCom Inc., whose chief executive resigned last month, will hold its annual meeting June 14 instead of Thursday to give shareholders time to review changes to the company’s proxy statement.

* Sharper Image Corp. said its fiscal second-quarter loss would be narrower than forecast as shoppers buy more of the retailer’s own brands of electronic toys and gadgets. This quarter’s loss will be 8 cents to 12 cents a share, the retailer said. Analysts’ average estimate was for a quarterly loss of 17 cents.