Allied Irish Banks PLC appointed a senior American banker yesterday to oversee an internal probe into $750 million in allegedly fraudulent losses at its U.S. subsidiary, Allfirst Bank of Baltimore.

Allied Irish said Eugene A. Ludwig - a veteran federal regulator who served as the Treasury Department's comptroller of the currency during the Clinton administration - would publish a report into the losses, which the bank has blamed on foreign-exchange trader John Rusnak, within 30 days.

"Mr. Ludwig is an eminent banking expert. We are extremely fortunate to have found a man of such skill and expertise, with great knowledge of the banking system, to head up our investigation," said Lochlann Quinn, chairman of Allied Irish Banks.

Ludwig, 55, currently serves as managing partner of Promontory Financial Group in Washington, D.C.

He was a banking attorney in Washington before President Clinton appointed him to direct the bank regulatory agency within the Treasury Department, where he oversaw 2,600 nationally chartered banks. He had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University at the same time as Clinton.

In a statement, Allied Irish Banks said Ludwig's investigation would nail down the facts behind Rusnak's trades, identify what checks were in place at Allfirst to police Rusnak's work, document "the manner in which such policies and controls operated or may have failed to operate," and recommend ways of improving them.

Rusnak's attorneys have vowed to fight Allied Irish allegations that he may have covered up his trading losses for personal profit. The FBI has interviewed Rusnak, but filed no charges against the 37-year-old Baltimore resident.

Allied Irish chief executive Michael Buckley on yesterday accused Rusnak of being at the center of "a diligent and a devious fraud" that probably involved collusion with at least one person outside the bank.

Speaking to the Irish national broadcaster RTE, Buckley said Rusnak's lawyers "have tried to give the impression that this was some sort of 'learner driver' who went out of control. This was a sophisticated fraud."

Buckley, who has faced criticism in Ireland for not paying sufficient attention to Allfirst operations, declined to comment on whether he or any other senior Allied Irish or Allfirst executives could be fired.

He said any personnel changes would happen after Ludwig published his report and said the bank's board "will act on his recommendations without restraint or interference."

Buckley said he found out about the financial disaster last Monday. In January, Allfirst officials had grown increasingly suspicious of Rusnak's deals, chiefly in dollar-yen transactions, throughout 2001.

Allfirst confronted Rusnak last weekend after discovering that some of his purchases of foreign-exchange options contracts, which are designed to provide insurance for potential losses on currency purchases, were fabricated.

Allied Irish created Allfirst in 1999 after taking control of First Maryland Bancorp and merging it with a smaller financial institution, Dauphin Deposit Corp. Today Allfirst runs about 250 branches in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Allied Irish, which is Ireland's largest company, will report its 2001 earnings on Feb. 20. Buckley says the bank expects to report a profit of more than $350 million despite the Allfirst losses.

Doctors were awaiting test results Saturday from several suburban schools where students broke out in red, itchy rashes.

Dr. Norman L. Sykes, a Thomas Jefferson University dermatologist, said authorities are waiting for results of tests for fifth disease, a common ailment that causes a mild rash. Tests of one student and one teacher were negative, he said.

Investigators are looking into whether environmental factors, such as cleaning agents or some form of allergen, could have caused the rashes that have struck more than 100 students since Jan. 31.

They are also checking whether the schools have sources of food in common with other schools that have reported rashes, Sykes said.

The rashes have been reported in at least eight schools some 20 miles apart in the suburbs 35 miles north of Philadelphia.

"We are emphasizing that they don't have any reason to believe anything worrisome is happening," Sykes said. Even if something in the schools did cause the rashes, he said, "It's just an annoying, nagging itch."

Health officials have tested water and inspected for chemicals without finding anything unusual.

Similar probes failed to find the cause of itchy rashes that affected hundreds of students and teachers in November at Marsteller Middle School in Manassas, Va.

In New York City's Queens borough, 46 elementary school students and three teachers at PS 161 reported severe itching on Tuesday. The cause of the rashes remained unknown.

Rashes also broke out last week among several dozen students at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Medford, Ore.

The ailment cropped up recently in eastern Pennsylvania. Over the past eight weeks, 62 students at Tobyhanna Elementary Center in the Pocono Mountain School District have been diagnosed with fifth disease.

So called because it was once considered one of the five main childhood illnesses, fifth disease is usually mild, according to the National Center for Infectious Diseases. One in five people infected don't develop symptoms.

A child may have a low fever or cold-like symptoms, followed by a face rash creating a "slapped cheek" appearance and a lacy red rash on the trunk, arms and legs. Adults may develop joint pain.

Sykes said the virus is spread by coughs and sneezes but the contagious stage is over by the time the rash appears. The rash usually disappears in seven to 10 days, and those infected develop lifelong immunity. Sixty percent of adults have been infected at some point in their lives.

Infection during pregnancy may cause serious complications, and fifth disease can slow red blood cell production and cause serious anemia in people with sickle-cell disease. There is no treatment other than to treat any fever, joint pain, or discomfort from the rash.

Arizona State University's East campus hopes to open the state's largest and best-equipped "clean room" for computer engineering training.

Students could be practicing this fall to make computer chips in a 15,000-square-foot classroom that rivals meticulously clean private laboratories.

The room would include $5 million worth of donated equipment from technology giants such as Intel and Motorola, and private employers would provide on-the-job training.

That is, unless legislators continue swinging the budget ax because of the state's $1 billion revenue shortfall.

"If we get cut, we'll have to stop (the training room) in its tracks," ASU East provost Charles Backus said. "We couldn't afford the electricity needed to operate it."

The state's three universities face a combined loss of $17 million to $38 million next year under proposals being floated at the state Capitol. That represents 3 percent to 5 percent of the state's university funding.

The cuts would follow a 4.5 percent cut in higher education from the current budget and come at a time of growing money needs because of higher enrollments and inflation.