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)