'Heartsongs' poet dies

'Heartsongs' poet dies
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Mattie Stepanek, the child poet whose inspirational verse made him a best-selling writer and a prominent voice for muscular dystrophy sufferers, died Tuesday of a rare form of the disease. He was 13. Mattie died at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the hospital said. He had been hospitalized since early March for complications related to the disease that impaired most of his body's functions.
In his short life, the tireless boy wrote five volumes of poetry that sold millions of copies. Three of the volumes reached the New York Times' best-seller list. Mattie, of Rockville, Md., had dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy, a genetic disease that impaired his heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and digestion, and caused muscle weakness. His mother, Jeni, 44, has the adult-onset form of the disease, and his three older siblings died of it in early childhood.
Mattie began writing poetry at age 3 to cope with the death of a brother. In 2001, a small publisher issued a slim volume of his poems, called "Heartsongs." Within weeks, the book reached the top of the Times' best-seller list, the MDA said.
Gunman kills journalist
TIJUANA, Mexico -- A masked gunman shot and killed a journalist in front of his children and several witnesses on a busy street Tuesday, the latest attack against editors of a newsmagazine known for investigating drug trafficking and corruption. Francisco J. Ortiz Franco, a founding editor of the Zeta newsweekly, had just buckled his children into the back seat of his Chevrolet sedan when a man approached the car and fired from close range.
Ortiz Franco, 48, was hit in the head, neck and chest, authorities said. He died at the scene. Witnesses said the killer emerged from a black pickup truck. The early-morning attack took place against a backdrop of spiraling violence as rival Baja California drug cartels vie for control of the narcotics trade in this border city. Zeta has published numerous expos & eacute;s over the years on the Arellano Felix drug syndicate, as well as the protection given them by government officials and police.
Statement is retractedabout Taliban beheadings
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A senior Afghan militia commander said today that troops from Afghanistan's U.S.-trained national army beheaded four Taliban fighters to avenge the similar slaying of an Afghan soldier and a military interpreter. He later retracted his statement after a strong government denial.
Naimatullah Khan, corps commander of southeastern Zabul province, said the killings occurred Monday in the Arghandab district of southeastern Zabul province.
Afghan National Army troops sent to look for an interpreter and soldier who became separated from a combined Afghan-U.S. force found their corpses and severed heads on a mountainside, Khan said. Four Taliban fighters were caught in a search of the area, he said. Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager, a spokesman for the U.S. military, said today it had "no independent confirmation" about the beheadings. He declined to comment further.
At nuclear talks, U.S.pushes to end dispute
BEIJING -- The United States promised a new proposal at six-nation talks toward ending a dispute over North Korea's nuclear program today, while the North said it would give up nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and an end to "hostile" U.S. policy. But Pyongyang also demanded that Washington withdraw its call for a complete and irreversible dismantling of its atomic program, casting doubt on hopes for a breakthrough in the third round of talks that also include South Korea, Japan and Russia.
U.S. officials said Monday that Washington and its allies were working on a plan to offer the North aid if it agreed to end its nuclear weapons development. American envoy James Kelly gave no details at the start of the talks today.
Toxic pollution on the rise
WASHINGTON -- Toxic chemical releases into the environment rose 5 percent in 2002, marking only the second such increase reported by the Environmental Protection Agency in nearly two decades, and the first since 1997. Some 4.79 billion pounds were released in 2002, the latest for which figures are available, not including releases from metal mining, the EPA reports. The agency stopped including that data because of a recent court decision in an industry challenge.
Combined dispatches