SECTION: A; Pg. 10

LENGTH: 599 words

HEADLINE: IN BRIEF

SOURCE: Houston Chronicle News Services

BODY:
Agricultural fair may ease Cuban embargo

HAVANA, Cuba - Officials said they expected to buy $ 112 million of U.S. agricultural products as a result of a four-day trade fair that ended Monday. American executives have signed contracts for everything from corn and soy meal to cattle and poultry, much of which will be shipped to Cuba this year, chipping away at Washington's 40-year embargo. The show and participants were licensed by the U.S. government to be in Cuba, under terms of a 2000 law that permits such sales. Criminal gang forces Rio's near-shutdown

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Stores and schools across Rio closed Monday, reportedly on orders from the city's most powerful criminal gang protesting prison conditions of its jailed leader. Drug gangs control hundreds of Rio's shantytowns, and often order nearby shops and schools to close when a prominent gang member is arrested or killed. But Monday's shutdown affected vast swaths of the city.

Leftist leading race for Brazil's president

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A new poll by the Vox Populi organization suggested that the leading candidate in Sunday's presidential election, leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had the support of 43 percent of voters. The poll indicated that if present trends hold, Lula, as he is known, stands within range of winning the election without a runoff.

President concedes crowding sank ferry

DAKAR, Senegal - As the presumed death toll from a ferry sinking nears 1,000, Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade has conceded that overcrowding helped cause of one of Africa's deadliest ferry disasters, and a German newspaper reported the vessel held twice as many people as it was designed for. The death toll Monday stood at 970 but could go much higher - with ticketing authorities saying all children under 5 would have gone unticketed, and thus apparently uncounted. Many victims were trapped beneath the overturned ferry. Screaming for help, gasping for air and beating on windows, they survived for hours, rescue divers said Monday.

Tunisian man let go as terror case fizzles

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Authorities released a Tunisian who was arrested while trying to board a London-bound airliner here. Prosecutors have been unable to build a hijacking case against Kerim Sadok Chatty, 29, Reuters reported, even though he had a loaded pistol in his luggage. Media reports at the time of his arrest on Aug. 29 suggested he intended to crash the airliner into an American embassy.

Rock band charged with inciting hatred

FRANKFURT, Germany - Three members of a skinhead rock band have been charged with inciting hatred and violence with songs against Jews and foreigners, and an associate was charged with attacking a witness ready to testify against them. The four were also charged with membership in or support of a criminal organization that distributes compact discs to a right-wing extremist network. The band, Landser, stopped touring in 1993 but still releases discs.

Remains from WWII crash return to U.S.

BEIJING - Lost to their country and their families, they lay on a lonely Himalayan mountainside for six decades - enough time for their war to end and others to begin. But this week, remains believed to be those of four American airmen killed during World War II when their cargo plane crashed in March of 1944 in eastern Tibet, are finally on their way home. The airmen's remains arrived in Beijing on Saturday and are being stored in a U.S. Embassy compound. They depart Thursday for the United States, where they will be examined and tested for DNA matches.





LOAD-DATE: October 2, 2002