January 31, 2004

Iraqi authorities, with help of US intelligence agencies, are creating intelligence service that will focus on rooting out guerrilla fighters, especially those from outside country; service will employ some former agents of Saddam Hussein's security apparatus and will probably receive financing from US; it will employ 500 to 2,000 people, and is expected to be formed before Bush administration transfers sovereignty to Iraqi government on June 30; CIA is taking lead in helping put together new service; photo shows partly destroyed headquarters of Saddam Hussein's secret police (M)

Cannibal Case: 8 1/2 Years A German who killed and ate a willing victim was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. PAGE A3 No. 1 Beats No. 2 Top-ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne beat her fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters to win the Australian Open. SPORTSSATURDAY, PAGE D1

New York Knickerbockers defeat Boston Celtics, 92-74; photos (M)

Summary of Vital Statistics reports that 59,651 people died in New York City in 2002, continuing steady decline that began in early 1990's and setting record low for city's death rate; infant mortality reached record low of 6 deaths per 1,000 babies--less than half rate of 1980's; AIDS deaths and homicides, which together claimed 2,300 lives in 2002, were down from over 8,000 in some years in 1990's; 122,937 babies were born in city in 2002, lowest birth rate since 'baby bust' of 1970's and early 1980's; graph (M)

Nation's economy grew at annual rate of 4 percent in fourth quarter of 2003, much slower than rate of 8.2 percent in third quarter; though growth remained strong, it was weaker than many economists had been predicting; they say that most important indicators of future growth still point to strong year; consumer spending and business investment continued to grow and exports soared by 19.1 percent; analysts are much less certain about outlook on unemployment, with some predicting that job growth will remain modest in 2004 and fall well short of replacing 2.5 million jobs that disappeared during last three years; graphs (M)