The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • A7

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: OS DESK: ASEC DATE: 09-03-2003 EDITION: FLA ZONE: FLA PAGE: A7.0 DEADLINE: 22.15 OP: jwillis COMPOSETIME: 23.27 CMYK WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2003 A7 Orlando Sentinel U.S. LATIN AMERICA The Nation i in Brief Trail Mix I Campaign 2004 notes Reagan and three other people. He was committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington and has been there since. Once-rising number of deaths from cancer has stabilized WASHINGTON Advances in detecting and treating cancer, along with the battle against tobacco use, have helped stabilize death rates from the four top cancer killers, according to a U.S.

government report released Tuesday. Cancer remains the second biggest cause of death in the United States, after heart disease, but a steady increase in cancer deaths seen in the early 1990s has been stopped and even reversed in some cases, the report found. The American Cancer Society says nearly 1.3 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer and 500,000 died from the disease in 2002. 1 .4 million more in U.S. fell into poverty in '02, census says WASHINGTON Nearly 1.4 million more people in the United States fell into poverty last year almost half of them children even as the country emerged from recession, according to a Census Bureau survey.

About 12.4 percent of the population, or nearly 34.8 million people, lived in poverty in 2002, according to the bureau's American Community Survey that was to be released today. That was up from 12.1 percent, or 33.4 million, in 2001. About 17.2 percent of children, or 12.2 million, lived in poverty in 2002, up from 16.4 percent, or about 11.5 million, in 2001. Judge will permit testimony from sniper suspect's guards FAIRFAX, Va. The judge in the capital-murder trial of Lee Boyd Malvo will allow the testimony of two prison guards who say the sniper suspect bragged to them about committing several of the shootings.

Defense lawyers had sought to suppress the testimony of Maryland prison guards Joseph Stracke and Wayne Davis, contending that Malvo had already invoked his right to remain silent by the time he had spoken with the guards. But Circuit Judge Jane Ma-rum Roush ruled Tuesday that the testimony can be heard at trial, set to start Nov. 10. Compiled from wire reports Bush encourages sale, use of PCB-contaminated land WASHINGTON The Bush administration is encouraging the sale of PCB-contaminated sites, reversing a 25-year-old policy barring any such sales before the land is cleaned. The decision by the Environmental Protection Agency pits local leaders pushing for more development of run-down city industrial sections against some environmentalists who fear the change will hide environmental problems instead of fix them.

The EPA said last month that it planned to end the ban, in effect since 1978, on the sale of real estate contaminated with PCBs, or polychlorinated bi-phenyls, which the EPA classifies as a probable carcinogen. The decision is designed to spur the sale of contaminated industrial sites that have lain dormant for years. P0W rescued in Iraq seals $1 million deal for tier story NEW YORK Jessica Lynch has struck a $1 million deal for a book that will tell the story of her capture and rescue in Iraq. But questions remain about how much she remembers. Publisher Alfred A.

Knopf announced Tuesday that the former prisoner of war who became a national hero will collaborate on! Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Rick Bragg, formerly with The New York Times. The book is scheduled to come out in mid-November, with a first printing of about 500,000 copies. Financial terms were not disclosed, but a source close to the negotiations said Lynch and Bragg will split a $1 million advance, with any royalties going to Lynch. Hearings scheduled for man who tried to gun down Reagan WASHINGTON A federal judge Tuesday scheduled hearings in November to decide whether John Hinckley who tried to assassinate former President Reagan in 1981, should be allowed to leave a psychiatric hospital for unsupervised visits. U.S.

District Judge Paul Friedman said the hearings, with testimony from government, defense and hospital psychiatrists, would last an estimated three to four days and start Nov. 3 or Nov. 17. Hinckley, 48, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting of then-President LAWRENCE JACKSONTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS Announces at Patriots Point. Sen.

John Kerry, formally entered the race for president Tuesday by standing in front of an aircraft carrier near Charleston, S.C. Some crewmates from the gunboat on which he served in the Vietnam War stood with him. Kerry notes he fought in war tax cuts to create new jobs," says Gephardt, who shares this view with Dean, "and guarantee health care for all." Lieberman offers health plan Here's a new prescription for health-care reform, written by Connecticut's Sen. Joe Lieberman, his proposal Tuesday the latest from a long line of Democratic candidates for president offering solutions for people lacking coverage. For $53 billion a year, it appears to be a relative bargain compared with other candidates' plans (and aims to provide coverage to 3 1 .6 million of the 41 million now uninsured): "MediKids," a federally subsidized program for children, with low premiums for those who can pay and "substantial assistance" for the poor.

"MediChoice," with subsidies for low-income part-time workers, seasonal employees, single mothers and others falling through the cracks of other plans. Expanded public-health clinics, including an expanded network of school-based health centers in more of the nation's 66,000 elementary schools. The price tag according to an analysis by one expert at Emory University is $267 billion over five years. For averting the challenge of health care, Lieberman said Tuesday at an elementary school in Maryland, President Bush is guilty of "partisan political malpractice." Sentinel Political Editor Mark Silva can be reached at 407-420-5034 or msilvaorlandosentinel.com. The senator, who served in Vietnam, pointed out his Democratic opponents lack combat experience.

John Kerry, ready for combat with President Bush, knows something about national security that one particularly popular Democrat these days doesn't know. That's the message from the senator from Massachusetts, making a formal "announcement" Tuesday for a presidential campaign well under way for months. Kerry stood at Patriots Point near Charleston, S.C, with the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown for a backdrop. Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War hero and later leader of veterans protesting that war, brought crewmates from his Mekong Delta gunboat. The senator is casting himself as the sole combat-hardened candidate among nine Democrats running for president.

This also is Kerry's brand of damage control: Contrasting himself with Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, an opponent of the war in Iraq and no veteran. Dean has taken a 21 -point lead over Kerry his party's once-presumed front-runner in early polling for New Hampshire's Jan. 27 primary. "Overseas, George Bush has led and misled us," Kerry said. "He has squandered the good will of the world after September 1 1 and lost the respect and influence we need to make our country safe." The next president "may well have to use force to fight terrorism.

I will not hesitate to do so," he promised. "But if I am president, the United States will never go to war because we want to. We will only go to war because we have to." Kerry voted for the invasion of Iraq, but has criticized Bush's handling of the conflict leading some rivals to complain that he is attempting to have it both ways. Gephardt airs TV ads Dick Gephardt is making a new debut of his own: Airing his first campaign TV ads of the political season Tuesday in New Hampshire and Iowa. The longtime congressman from Missouri, who carried neighboring Iowa's caucuses in his last presidential campaign, in 1988, is fighting for survival this time around in a contest suddenly dominated by Dean.

Dean has taken a 4-point lead over Gephardt among likely caucus-goers in the latest poll for KCCI-TV of Des Moines this amounts to a statistical tie in a survey with a possible 5-per-centage-point margin of error. Gephardt rolls out his family photo album in one nostalgic ad, picturing his milk-truck-driving father as evidence of humble roots. "I want to stop George Bush and fight for America's middle class," he says. In the other ad, he takes a big share of credit for the economic boom of the 1990s, recounting one-on-one showdowns as a congressional leader with the likes of Republican Newt Gingrich. "Now we have to get rid of the Bush NEXT LAUNCH CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION: A Lockheed Martin Titan 4B rocket carrying a classified payload is scheduled to launch Monday.

Latin America Caribbean i Brief Deaths of 3 U.S. soldiers reported IRAQ FROM Al being filed on behalf of some detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay and their families. The government is interrogating the prisoners, who were captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere, before determining whether they should be sent back to their homelands or face military tribunals. Road protests snarl traffic in Trinidad on 1 st day of school PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad About 300 taxi drivers and other protesters seeking road improvements set up barricades of burning tires along four main thoroughfares in southern Trinidad on Tuesday, officials said.

The protests tied up traffic on the first day of school, said Ramlochan Panchoo, chairman of the MayaroRio Claro local government district, where most of the protests occurred. But school officials did not report major problems, and motorists sought alternative routes. Smuggled pre-Columbian artifacts returned to Honduras WASHINGTON The United States on Tuesday returned dozens of smuggled pre-Columbian artifacts to Honduras. In a low-key ceremony at the Honduran Embassy, Honduran ambassador Mario M. Canahuati accepted the 279 items from Michael J.

Garcia, acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The bowls, pottery and figurines, made between 600 and 950 A.D. by the Lenca people, were found in an Ohio shop. Compiled from wire reports Colombian leader: Insurgents have captured 46 Venezuelans CUCUTA, Colombia President Alvaro Uribe said Tuesday that Colombia's insurgent groups have spread violence across the country's borders and kidnapped 46 Venezuelans. Colombia is the world's kidnapping capital, with nearly 3,000 people taken hostage each year.

Most of the kidnappings in Colombia are carried out by leftist rebels, who hold the victims for ransom or to exchange for imprisoned guerrillas. Court: Ruling on Chavez poll may have been tampered CARACAS, Venezuela Venezuela's Supreme Court is investigating possible tampering with a court ruling which was seized on by the opposition as meaning President Hugo Chavez could not stand for immediate re-election if he loses a referendum. The Aug. 28 ruling appeared to bar Chavez from immediately running for reelection if he were to lose the poll. But hours after a text of the ruling was made public Monday by an opposition-controlled television channel, the Supreme Court said it had been misinterpreted.

It later said a paragraph had been changed and ordered an inquiry. U.S. Supreme Court asked to rule on prisoners' rights WASHINGTON The Supreme Court was asked Tuesday to consider whether the Bush administration has violated the U.S. Constitution by holding 660 terrorist suspects in Cuba without charges or access to attorneys. The appeal was veto-wielding permanent members and the rest of the Security Council, and to project a unanimous, internationally backed stand on what happens next on Iraq.

According to the senior official, the Bush administration plans to begin talking with other nations within days about the new Security Council resolution. Diplomats say placing reconstruction under U.N. auspices will make it easier to garner contributions from nations that opposed the war, notably France and Germany. Belgium, too, said last week that it may be willing to donate money if the United Nations were "playing a central role" in reconstruction. France's U.N.

Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, whose country wields a Security Council veto and led the opposition to the war against Iraq, said the international community needs to move quickly to establish an internationally recognized Iraqi government. France and Russia have called for a timetable for a constitution, elections and the restoration of Iraq's sovereignty. "We think now it's a matter of urgency, and the transfer of responsibility to the Iraqis is something now which is a priority," de La Sabliere said Tuesday at U.N. headquarters in New York. "On the whole subject, we have to move fast because the situation is deteriorating," he added.

The Associated Press, Reuters and The New York Times contributed to this report. said under current policies, the Pentagon would be able to sustain an occupation force of 38,000 to 64,000 in Iraq long term, down from the existing 150,000 that a number of lawmakers said is not enough to confront the spi-raling violence. The report estimated that the U.S. military occupation of Iraq could cost anywhere from $8 billion to $29 billion annually, depending on how many American troops are needed. Sen.

Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat who requested the study, said it showed that Bush's policies in Iraq were "straining our forces to the breaking point." Last week, Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state, said Washington was considering creation of a multinational force under U.N. leadership but with an American commander in an attempt to persuade reluctant nations to send troops to boost security in Iraq. But one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said then that the administration would not consider putting the operation under U.N. control. It was unclear Tuesday night how much authority the Pentagon would be willing to hand over to the United Nations.

Five months after the United States was forced to drop a U.N. resolution seeking authority to attack Iraq, administration officials say they do not want a repeat of that brawl. They say they expect the United States to engage in quiet, behind-the-scenes negotiations on the text of the resolution, to ensure it would be agreeable to the that opposed the U.S.-led war. The United States hopes that expanding the U.N. role in postwar Iraq will attract badly needed troop contributions from additional countries to help stabilize Iraq and more money to help rebuild the country.

Tensions continued to rise in Iraq on Tuesday. A car bomb struck police headquarters in central Baghdad, killing an Iraqi police officer and wounding at least 13 other people in the latest attack apparently targeting Iraqis working with the American-led occupation. The U.S. military also reported the deaths of three more American soldiers two of them in the bombing of a convoy in southern Iraq. At the funeral for Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, his brother raged against the American troops and demanded they leave Iraq.

"The occupation force is primarily responsible for the pure blood that was spilled in holy Najaf, the blood of al-Hakim and the faithful group that was present near the mosque," said Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, the ayatollah's brother and a member of the U.S.-picked Governing Council. A new report also held bad news about the logistics of the Iraq war. The Bush administration may have to cut U.S. troops in Iraq by more than half to keep enough forces to face other threats, a congressional agency said Tuesday in a report that fueled calls for more international help. The Congressional Budget Office COLORSTRIP: I.