Briefly . . . NATION/WORLD

Iraq war deaths near 4,000

BAGHDAD - Sometime soon, the U.S. military will suffer the 4,000th death of the war in Iraq.

When the 1,000th American died in September 2004, the insurgency was just gaining steam. The 2,000th death came as Iraq held its first elections in decades, in October 2005. The U.S. announced its 3,000th loss on the last day of 2006, at the end of a year rocked by sectarian violence.

The 4,000th death will come with the war further out of the public eye, and replaced by other topics on the front burner of the U.S. presidential campaigns.

Last year was the deadliest for American troops in Iraq, with 901 troops killed. As of yesterday, at least 3,988 Americans have died in Iraq.

3 missing in crane accident

NEW YORK - Three people were still listed as missing yesterday as rescue teams picked through the rubble of a town house crushed by a toppling construction crane in an accident that killed four construction workers.

Crews removed one section of the 19-story-tall crane that crashed onto the four-story brownstone and seriously damaged five other buildings in an affluent East Side neighborhood. Rescuers were waiting for removal of the largest pieces of debris so they could intensify their search for possible survivors, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The crane broke into pieces Saturday afternoon as it came loose from its supports, toppling across 51st Street and the buildings between there and 50th Street. One section that was lying on top of the remains of the town house jutted into 50th Street.

Dalai Lama urges calm protest

DHARMSALA, India - The Dalai Lama called yesterday for his followers to protest peacefully against Chinese rule but said he would not order them to end demonstrations that have erupted into violence in Tibet and neighboring provinces.

Speaking from the Himalayan headquarters of Tibet's government-in-exile, the Nobel Peace laureate said that he felt "helpless" in the face of a Chinese ultimatum for protesters to surrender.

The violent clashes between Tibetan protesters and Chinese police threaten the Dalai Lama's efforts to keep his campaign for Tibetan freedom pacifist, even as they focus the world on his cause.

Ahmadinejad allies top vote

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory yesterday in Iran's parliamentary elections, saying the people had voted to reject the West after nearly complete results showed conservatives holding their majority.

But the conservatives are split. Ahmadinejad's hard-line allies won the largest share of the votes, but a powerful bloc was formed of supporters-turned-critics of the president's fiery, confrontational manner and his handling of the ailing economy.

Reformists, who seek greater democracy in Iran and closer ties with the West, appeared likely to at least retain the small bloc they held in the outgoing parliament.

The unelected, cleric-led Guardian Council disqualified most reform candidates - including the most well-known - for insufficient loyalty to Islam and Iran's 1979 revolution.

Experts: Drink tainted water

Test it, study it, figure out how to clean it - but still drink it. That's the range of reactions raining down from community leaders, utilities, environmental groups and policy makers in reaction to an Associated Press investigation that documented the presence of pharmaceuticals in major portions of the nation's drinking water supplies.

"There is no wisdom in avoidance. There is wisdom in addressing this problem. I'm not suggesting that people be hysterical and overreact. There's a responsible way to deal with this - and collectively we can do it," said Washington-based environmental lawyer George Mannina.

A five-month-long inquiry by the AP found that many communities do not test for the presence of drugs in drinking water, and those that do often fail to tell customers that they have found trace amounts of medications, including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones. The stories also detailed concerns among scientists that such pollution is adversely affecting wildlife and may be threatening human health.

25-year gap in fish story

GREEN RIVER, Wyo. - Some people catch fish and release them. Bill Wengert releases them and then catches them - a quarter-century later.

In April 1983, Wengert and other state Game and Fish Department biologists stocked some 12,000 young trout in the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in southwest Wyoming.

Game and Fish spokeswoman Lucy Wold said Wengert was ice fishing recently on the 91-mile-long reservoir and caught a 23-inch Mackinaw trout, a type of lake trout.

Wengert noticed the trout's right pelvic fin had been clipped, indicating it was a hatchery fish that had been stocked.

"I may have actually clipped the fins on this very fish, and I know I was driving the barge when the fish were stocked, nearly 25 years ago," Wengert said.*

- Associated Press