Nation in brief

Flooding death toll climbs to 9

BALTIMORE - Searchers on Thursday found the body of a third construction worker swept away as storms flooded roads and overflowed creeks across Appalachia and the Eastern Seaboard.

At least nine people have died and emergency crews from Tennessee to Pennsylvania have rescued dozens of drivers from vehicles stalled in high water as the storms moved northeastward. In West Virginia, 350 children woke up Thursday morning still at school because roads to their homes were blocked by high water overnight.

The storms were tapering off Thursday after two days of rain, but flooding was still a problem as the rainwater drained into already swollen creeks and rivers.

Some of West Virginia's rivers crested at historic highs Thursday, and additional flooding was predicted along the Ohio River. Gov. Bob Wise declared a state of emergency in 29 counties.

In the Baltimore suburb of Woodlawn, rescuers Thursday found the body of a missing construction worker inside the long culvert that he and two others had been repairing beneath Interstate 70 when it suddenly flooded Wednesday.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Prosecutors urged a jury on Thursday to sentence John Allen Muhammad to death for the Washington-area sniper shootings, saying the crimes were not only depraved and wantonly vicious, but also an inspiration to terrorists worldwide.

"The death penalty is the reserved for the worst of the worst," said Commonwealth Attorney Paul B. Ebert, pointing to Muhammad. "That man is the worst of the worst, and he knows it."

The defense urged the jury of seven women and five men to spare Muhammad's life because he once was a good and loving father who could regain his humanity if sent to prison instead of death row.

In their dueling arguments, the prosecution and defense closed the penalty phase of Muhammad's five-week trial, leaving the jury to begin deliberating whether to sentence him to death or life in prison without parole for directing the 10 sniper killings that terrorized Washington and its suburbs last fall.

The jury found Muhammad guilty on two capital murder counts on Monday in the killing of Dean H. Meyers in Manassas, Va., on Oct. 9, 2002. His accused co-conspirator, Lee Boyd Malvo, is on trial in nearby Chesapeake on charges of killing Linda Franklin, an FBI analyst, in Falls Church, Va., on Oct. 14, 2002.

ATLANTA - The nation's syphilis rate has climbed for the second year in a row, mostly because of an increase in cases among gay and bisexual men, the government said Thursday.

Between 2001 and 2002, the syphilis rate rose 9.1 percent from 2.2 cases per 100,000 people to 2.4 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The rate had dropped every year between 1990 and 2000.

The actual increase in cases was small - 759 more people, for a total of 6,862 new cases - but the rise among gay and bisexual men has caused concern that the public health safeguards and safe-sex practices adopted over the last two decades during the AIDS epidemic continue to crumble.

Syphilis cases in the West soared 64.3 percent (1.4 cases per 100,000 to 2.3) between 2001 and 2002 and climbed 54.5 percent in the Northeast (1.1 cases per 100,000 to 1.7 per 100,000), a rise caused in part by outbreaks in these regions' major cities - San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

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