January 28, 2004

Sen John Kerry wins New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, again defeating Howard Dean, who places second; wins some 39 percent of vote, to 26 percent for Dean; Sen John Edwards and Gen Wesley K Clark virtually tie for distant third with 12 percent each; Sen Joseph I Lieberman wins 9 percent of vote and Rep Dennis J Kucinich 1 percent; aides to Edwards, Clark and Lieberman vow to challenge Kerry in next week's primaries in seven states; Dean tries to portray his showing as win; his aides say they are looking to Mar 2 primaries in California and New York as places where he will do well; tables and graphs of primary results; photos (M)

Thomas H Kean says his independent commission investigating Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks needs extension of its mandate until at least July, raising prospect of public fight with Pres Bush and final report delivered in heat of presidential campaign; House Speaker J Dennis Hastert opposes any bill to extend May 27 deadline, extension opposed by Bush and Republican Congressional leaders; commission officials cite delays by Bush administration in turning over evidence; say they have not yet gotten commitment for public testimony from prominent administration officials, including national security adviser Condoleeza Rice and are still in talks over possible testimony from Bush and Vice Pres Dick Cheney; extension bid follows day of hearings in which tape of American Airlines flight attendant Betty Ann Ong relaying data to airline on chaos aboard hijacked plane is played publicly for first time; panel also sharply questions former Federal Aviation Administration officials over failure to merge terrorism watch lists; photos (M)

Douglas Warner of Springboro, Ohio, is arrested and charged with kidnapping George Villano of Platinum Sports Advisory in Yaphank, NY; allegedly sought ransom of $200,000, amount he thought company's bad advice caused him to lose on sports betting in Las Vegas; photos (M)

Japanese drug maker Takeda Chemical Industries says sales in October to December period rose 3.7 percent in comparison with quarter year ago; sales hit 297 million yen ($2.8 billion) (S)

India's Reliance Group plans to set up world's largest gas-run power plant to generate 3,500-megawatts of power; $2.2 billion project is to be in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (S)