Nation in brief

Cheney fires physician reported to abuse drugs

Vice President Cheney has dropped his personal physician from his medical team, his aides said Sunday, as the New Yorker magazine reported that the doctor has a history of abusing prescription narcotics.

The doctor, internist Gary Malakoff, was relieved last month as chairman of George Washington University Medical Center's General Internal Medicine Division, the magazine reported in the issue that will be on newsstands today. It quoted hospital officials as saying that Malakoff is on leave.

"The office of the vice president does not comment on the private lives of private citizens," said Kevin Kellems, Cheney's press secretary, who pointed out that Malakoff had not been paid with taxpayer dollars.

The magazine said that according to the pharmacy records and customer invoices, Malakoff purchased 76 bottles of the synthetic narcotic nasal spray Stadol over four months in 2000. The magazine said that during the 21/2-year period ending in December 2001, Malakoff spent at least $46,238 online on Stadol and other medications, such as Xanax, Tylenol with codeine and Ambien.

DYERSVILLE, Iowa - As Sen. John Kerry campaigned across Iowa on Sunday with Gov. Tom Vilsack, widely reported to be on Kerry's vice presidential short list, both men dodged repeated questions about whether their joint appearance might be an indication.

But even as he tried to avoid making news Sunday, Kerry broke new ground in an interview that ran in the Dubuque, Iowa, daily, the Telegraph Herald. A Catholic who supports abortion rights and has taken heat recently from some in the church hierarchy for his stance, Kerry told the paper: "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception."

Spokesman Stephanie Cutter said that although Kerry has often said abortion should be "safe, legal and rare," and that his religion shapes that view, she could not recall him ever publicly discussing when life begins.

"I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist," he continued in the interview. "We have separation of church and state in the United States of America."

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