September 23, 2002

CBS is challenging NBC's dominance of 10 pm slot with its strongest slate of programs in years; is also trying to raise quality of its stations' 11 pm newscasts will make them more competitive with NBC's; moves are aimed at boosting David Letterman's show in its competition with Jay Leno's Tonight show; ABC used Letterman's disgruntlement over weak lead-ins in failed bid to woo him away from CBS; table of lead-in shows; photos (M)

American military commanders take steps to prepare and deploy troops for possible attack on Iraq; elite Special Operations troops are separated from military temporarily to join CIA units that could be used in any campaign; would bring counterterrorism skills to covert missions while allowing Pentagon to maintain no uniformed combat forces are in action; Navy accelerates training and maintenance schedules for ships; several thousand marines and Army ground forces with heavy armor flow into Kuwait as part of regularly scheduled exercises or troop replacements, but could be ordered along front with Iraq; other moves noted; Pentagon resumes inoculating certain troops for anthrax; deployments enhance already sizeable force left in region since 1991 Persian Gulf war; early moves are calculated not to interfere with Bush administration's campaign to build diplomatic and political support for taking action; map; photo (M)

Willingboro, NJ, residents in November will vote on referendum to allow alcohol to be sold by glass in restaurants along State Route 130; move is inspired by developers of one of town's two defunct shopping centers, who maintain that price of success is presence of brand-name restaurants; other towns in South Jersey are looking to throw off their dry pasts and are seeking new, alcohol-connected future; Gibbsboro is also considering whether to go wet, and Delanco Township has wet-or-dry questions on November ballot; Rev J Evan Dodds Sr opposes alcohol sales in Willingboro while developer Stephen R Jaffe says allowing them will attract restaurants; map; photos (M)

Diagnosis of prostate cancer can be devastating, but men generally have plenty of time to assess their treatment options; there may be no treatment for man who is 75 or older, especially if he has another chronic disease, but most common treatments are surgery to remove prostate, beams of radiation directed to destroy the cancer and radioactive seeds implanted in prostate to eradicate it from inside out; five men treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center explain why they chose course of treatment they did; photo; graph (L) (Special section, Men & Health)

Minutes of compensation committee of Tyco International board of directors show board, despite denials, knew of extravagant pay packages and loans given to company's top executives for months before it took steps to disclose them; show committee was presented with list of top executives who received millions of dollars in improper loans, including $14 million relocation loan to former general counsel Mark A Belnick, which board members say he tried to conceal; also show $18.8 million loan to L Dennis Kozlowski and $7 million loan to former chief financial officer Mark H Swartz; show committee voted to authorize Belnick's compensation agreement, paying him $10.6 million for work in 2002 and through October 2003 and to pay for taxes, making package worth about $20 million; Patricia Prue, senior Tyco executive, tells grand jury and company's lawyers that board member Joshua M Berman pressured her unsuccessfully to doctor minutes of compensation committee meeting where at least one of controversial pay packages was approved to make it appear there was no such approval; Berman denies accusation (M)

Town of New Roads and surrounding Pointe Coupee parish in southeastern Louisiana are experiencing worst outbreak of mosquito-borne West Nile virus nationwide; have highest concentration of virus, with 11 verified but nonfatal cases, among rural population of 22,000; scientists press efforts to determine why since other lush, rural and wet parts of lower Louisiana have not reported single case; map; photos (M)

Sprint Corp will sell its yellow pages directory business to R H Donnelley for $2.23 billion; deal transforms Donnelley from mainly yellow pages sales agent into publisher with over 260 directories; calls for Goldman Sachs Capital Partners to invest $200 million in Donnelley for 23 percent stake; shores up Sprint's finances; photo (M)

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder wins re-election; his Social Democratic coalition prevails in close vote over conservatives headed by Edmund Stoiber; key to victory is Greens Party, coalition partner headed by Foreign Min Joschka Fischer, who fought to preserve coalition with Social Democrats in final days of Schroder's flagging campaign; Fischer is rated in public opinion polls as Germany's most popular politician despite party's small base; results are bitter disappointment for conservatives, who won as many votes as any other party but came up empty nonetheless; conservative alliance and Social Democrats won 38.5 percent of vote each, Greens 8.6 percent, Free Democrats 7.4 perceent and Party of Democratic Socialists 4 percent; chart; photos (M)

Emergency workers inside converted warehouse in Buchanan, NY, are testing for possible equipment failures at Indian Point nuclear plant; real drill at plant will be be held on Sept 24; Indian Point workers will try to demonstrate just how prepared they are for nuclear accident, during elaborate emergency exercise involving hundreds of federal, state and local government representatives in four counties north of New York City; drill will be evaluated by Federal Emergency Management Agency and Nuclear Regulatory Commission; many local officials and residents have called for plant's closing since World Trade Center attack, saying that its emergency drills and evacuation plan will be unable to protect them in real disaster; heightened security has turned drill into larger test of whether nuclear plant can operate safely in such densely packed metropolitan area; Indian Point's opponents say preparations do not go far enough to protect public; plant is operated by Entergy Corp (M)

Bodies of 36 Liberian immigrants wash ashore after crowded boat carrying them sinks off Capo Rossello, Italy; Italian officials expect death toll to rise; Liberians are part of new wave of foreigners pouring illegally into southern Italy, mingling with tides of those coming from Eastern Europe and elsewhere, despite grave risks; influx has stirred powerful crosscurrents of emotion; has ignited fierce political debate throughout Western Europe, where it has tested generosity of French and English, Germans and Dutch and given politicians on right potent and effectiuve issue on which to campaign; debate has intensified in Italy in recent weeks, with enforcement of new immigration laws, widely publicized apprehension of hundreds of illegal immigrants and mass drowning in Capo Rossello; map; photo (M)

Analysis of bankruptcy examiner Neal Batson's preliminary finding that Enron violated public disclosure rules in its dealings with banks; report highlights numerous avenues for criminal probe of whether company's deals with off-the-books partnerships involved fraud; shows some executives worked to disguise company's true condition, reporting as revenue from operations or investing almost $1.4 billion that originated as loans from banks to partnerships set up by Enron (M)

Emmy Awards ceremony; The West Wing is best television drama for third consecutive year, defeating Six Feet Under; former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appears to standing ovation and presents award to four major networks for simultaneous broadcast of America: A Tribute to Heroes, which raised money for families of Sept 11 victims; Conan O'Brien hosts gala event in Los Angeles; photos; Allison Janney is best lead actress for West Wing; Stockard Channing wins best supporting actress for West Wing and also for NBC movie The Matthew Shepard Story; other winners include John Spencer of West Wing, Michael Chiklis of FX's The Shield, HBO movie The Gathering Storm and Albert Finney for role as Churchill, Tom Hanks for HBO movie Band of Brothers; honored for comedies are Ray Romano, Brad Garrett and Doris Roberts of Everybody Loves Raymond, and Jennifer Aniston for Friends; Michael Patrick King gets directing award for HBO's Sex and the City (M)