HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M.

NEW YORK (AP) - Visa USA has reached a tentative settlement with Wal-Mart and thousands of other retailers just before their multibillion-dollar lawsuit over the company's popular debit cards was set to go to trial, both sides said late Wednesday.

Visa USA said in a statement that it had reached "an important agreement in principle" with the plaintiffs and would change its debit card policies.

The deal is worth $2 billion, with terms similar to those agreed to between the retailers and MasterCard International on Monday, a source close to the plaintiffs tol

WASHINGTON (AP) - The decision against holding a Cinco de Mayo celebration next week at the White House, after having such events the past two years, was not meant as a snub at Mexico for opposing the U.S.-led war with Iraq, a presidential spokesman said Wednesday.

The conflict has forced President Bush to curtail many public appearances, said deputy press secretary Scott McClellan.

WASHINGTON - President Bush's expected declaration that combat has ended in Iraq will effectively open the rebuilding phase of U.S. operations. It will also make it easier for Bush to move from a war mode to the 2004 presidential election.

Bush will avoid declaring victory in his speech, White House officials say.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Dick Van Dyke is holding Mary Tyler Moore easily in his arms as they move to the strains of a waltz.

Rehearsing a scene for "The Gin Game," a PBS production that has reunited the stars of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" as acting partners after 37 years, they're recapturing the magic they shared.

"It's like nothing has changed," said Moore.

"I don't know where the time went," echoed Van Dyke.

Then giddiness takes over and he veers into a skillful bit of tap dancing and an impromptu concert watched by an amu

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - In chilling detail, a detective said Monday that sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo laughed as he admitted to two of last fall's deadly shootings. She also said the teenager was read his rights before he confessed.

Prosecutors said Malvo's gloating demeanor is evidence that he freely confessed and was not coerced by police. The defense contends Malvo's attorneys were not present during the Nov.

LOS ANGELES - Martha Stewart wants to do for pets what she did for home decorating and food preparation.

By which we do not mean dressing Fido up in a hand-knitted pet sweater or making potpourri-based cat litter. Instead, Stewart's media company is producing a pet-centered TV series set to roll out in the fall.

"Petkeeping with Marc Morrone" is scheduled to launch in September in about 130 markets, Reuters reports.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Union workers at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. approved a new three-year contract on Sunday, ending a two-week strike called to gain better wages and lower insurance costs.

Members of Machinists Local 776 passed the contract 2,192 to 554.

SECAUCUS, N.J.

Meredith Stehm is bringing estrogen to the squad room, Philly style.

Stehm, a 1990 Penn grad, is writing a CBS pilot about a female detective who heads the Philadelphia Police Department's all-male "cold case" squad. (Call this one "Prime Suspect Meets the Mummers.")

No title at the moment. Its original handle - "Cold Cases" - was dropped because it was too similar to Bill Kurtis' "Cold Case Files" on A&E.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The audience appetite for reality television could be tested by a planned cable channel that will offer a diet of all reality, all the time.

Reality Central, scheduled to debut in early 2004, is being developed by Larry Namer, co-founder of E!

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The murder-mystery "Identity" made a killing at the box office, taking in $17 million in its first weekend and displacing "Anger Management" as the top movie.

"Anger Management" slipped to second place after two weekends in the top spot. The Adam Sandler-Jack Nicholson comedy grossed $16 million, pushing its 17-day total to $104.5 million.

The weekend's other new releases debuted weakly. The con-men romp "Confidence," with Edward Burns and Dustin Hoffman, came in at No.

The world may be about to find out if the swift U.S. victory in Iraq was a one-shot war against a uniquely dangerous foe or just the opening salvo in a new Bush doctrine of U.S. political and economic supremacy.

The first clue will be administration's policy toward Syria.

The outlines of a Bush doctrine were laid out in a White House paper called "The National Security Strategy," issued in September. The paper proclaimed that the U.S.

Simon Wiesenthal, the world's most famous Nazi-hunter and namesake of one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations, is retiring.

Wiesenthal, 94, who has been talking about retiring for the past few years, now wants to officially slow down, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Associate Dean in California.

"He's been going to the office a few times a week. But he's going to be 95 in December.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's government said Saturday it is neither seeking "friction" with Washington over Iraq's future government nor pushing for a religious administration in Baghdad.

However, Hasan Rowhani, secretary of the powerful Supreme National Security Council, said Iran does not support the presence of U.S.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Drinking water is reaching 65 percent to 70 percent of Baghdad, and all 26 major sewage pumping stations are working, U.S.

NEW YORK - Some stayed behind to help others. Some were elderly or disabled. Some kept on working until it was too late.

Of the nearly 2,800 people killed at the World Trade Center on Sept.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration said Friday it will confer with allies about possibly seeking U.N.

WASHINGTON (AP) -Environmental Protection Agency criminal agents are being diverted from their normal investigative work to provide security and drivers for agency chief Christie Whitman - and getting long lists of do's and don'ts to keep her happy.

EPA agents assigned to investigate environmental crimes have at times been ordered to perform more personal tasks, such as returning a rental car for Whitman's husband after a trip or sitting at a table until the administrator arrived for a restaurant reservation, according to interviews with several EPA senior manager

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge ruled a group headed by a jailed white supremacist should be fined $1,000 a day until it stops calling itself the World Church of the Creator.

U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Traffic deaths last year were at the highest level since 1990, with more people dying in drunken-driving and motorcycle crashes.

In all, 42,850 people died, 1.7 percent more than the year before, the government said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Tuesday he supports another term for Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, even though the central bank chief had angered some conservatives with his cool reaction to the president's latest round of proposed tax cuts.

The announcement sent a soothing message to the financial markets.

NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of Chinatown residents rushed a neighborhood bank Tuesday after it posted notices that a former branch manager was being investigated for involvement in "account irregularity."

Dozens of police were called in to control the crowd outside Abacus Federal Savings Bank. Customers were allowed in until the bank's 4 p.m.

NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of Chinatown residents rushed a neighborhood bank Tuesday after it posted notices that a former branch manager was being investigated for involvement in "account irregularity."

Dozens of police were called in to control the crowd outside Abacus Federal Savings Bank. Customers were allowed in until the bank's 4 p.m.