Nation Digest
Author Iris Chang commits suicide

Iris Chang, author of "The Rape of Nanking."

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Iris Chang, a best-selling author who chronicled the Japanese occupation of China and the history of Chinese immigrants in the United States, was found dead in her car of a self-inflicted gunshot, authorities said yesterday. She was 36.

Chang, who won critical acclaim for her books "The Rape of Nanking" and "The Chinese in America," was found along Highway 17 just south of Los Gatos, authorities said.

Chang, who had been hospitalized recently for a breakdown, lived in San Jose with her husband and 2-year-old son.

Washington

Elizabeth Edwards starts chemotherapy

	Elizabeth Edwards begins treatment for cancer.

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, has begun chemotherapy to shrink a half-dollar-size lump in her breast. Doctors found no sign the cancer had spread, a family spokesman said yesterday.

After a 16-week chemotherapy course, Edwards will take a four- to six-week break. Georgetown University Medical Center doctors who are treating her will then surgically remove the lump and, as a precaution, some of her healthy lymph-node tissue. She will then undergo radiation.

Edwards, 55, said she discovered the lump in her right breast on Oct. 21, during a campaign trip. She was diagnosed with invasive ductal cancer, the most common type of breast cancer.

Springfield, Mass.

No prosecution of bishop in sex case

New Hampshire authorities said yesterday they cannot prosecute former Springfield Bishop Thomas Dupre on charges he abused two teens in the 1970s because it wasn't a crime at the time to have sex with youths their age.

Will Delker, New Hampshire's senior assistant attorney general, said the state did not prohibit adults from having sex with 16- and 17-year-olds until 1986. Dupre, 70, the first Roman Catholic bishop to face sexual-abuse charges, was accused of having oral sex with two Massachusetts boys during a trip to New Hampshire when they were 16 or 17.

Saying the statute of limitations had expired, officials in Massachusetts have also declined to prosecute Dupre over allegations he abused the same boys in that state in the 1970s.

Dupre still faces civil lawsuits.

Washington

Study on pesticides in kids suspended

A planned government study into how children's bodies absorb pesticides and other chemicals has been temporarily suspended due to ethical concerns.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it would ask an outside panel of scientists to review its planned two-year study involving the families of 60 children in Duval County, Fla.

Scientists at the EPA and environmentalists had questioned whether the government should give participating families $970 plus a camcorder and children's clothes, saying it might encourage low-income families to use pesticides in their homes. The EPA also had agreed to accept $2 million for the $9 million study from the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents chemical makers.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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