Abc News

City prosecutors will not pursue a wiretapping charge filed against ABC News correspondent John Stossel and several of his producers who allegedly tape-recorded a Baltimore doctor without her consent.Dr. Grace E. Ziem accused the ABC team in October of covertly tape-recording her as she met with a producer and her sister-in-law, who were posing as patients. Ziem, an expert in multiple chemical sensitivity, treats patients who say they were harmed by exposure to chemicals.Francine Stokes, a spokeswoman for Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy, said yesterday that there was "insufficient evidence" to prosecute and that the charges would be formally dismissed at a hearing Tuesday.

In a major and unexpected move, ABC News anchor Charles Gibson announced Wednesday that he will retire at the end of the year, and Diane Sawyer will become the anchor of ABC's "World News." The 66-year-old Gibson said in an e-mail to ABC News staffers Wednesday that he had planned to retire as early as 2007 but that unexpected events in the news division resulted in him staying on. Longtime anchor Peter Jennings died in 2005, and then his replacement, Bob Woodruff, was seriously injured in Iraq in January 2006.

From: ABC News President David Westin To: Ted Koppel, Sam Donaldson, Peter Jennings Subject: Leonardo DiCaprio's interview with President Clinton for ABC News' Earth Day Special, airing April 22. Gentlemen: I understand you are all concerned about our decision to air excerpts of Mr. DiCaprio's interview at the White House with President Clinton. I need to "set the record straight" regarding our commitment to news and to the public. Mr. DiCaprio is not only the celebrity chairman of this year's Earth Day (previous distinguished recipients include Barry "Greg Brady" Williams)

An ABC Primetime news report last night criticized the lack of security at a University of Maryland building housing a nuclear reactor. School officials called the report misleading. ABC investigated security at 25 college nuclear reactors by sending a team of students into the buildings, where the students discovered unstaffed guard booths, unlocked doors and a guard who was apparently asleep, the network said. At College Park, the network's team went to the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Building, where a nuclear reactor used for training and research is located.

ABC News co-anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt, two of the network's more celebrated journalists, were seriously injured yesterday when the Iraqi army vehicle in which they were traveling was hit by a roadside bomb near Taji. Woodruff, 44, who took over this month as co-anchor of World News Tonight, and Vogt, 46, were in serious but stable condition late yesterday at a U.S. military hospital after surgery for head injuries, according to a statement from David Westin, president of ABC News.

Silent in the first days after learning that ABC is seeking to drop him in favor of CBS's David Letterman, Ted Koppel now argues that Nightline remains relevant, competitive and profitable -- no matter what his corporate employers may say. "We have contributed to the network's commitment to operate in the public interest," Koppel writes in an opinion piece in today's New York Times, "but we have also helped pay the rent. Conservatively speaking, Nightline has earned well over half a billion dollars for a succession of corporate owners over the years.

"Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency -- From the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century," by James Bamford. Doubleday. 720 pages. $29.95. Like a mountaineer making a second assault on Everest, James Bamford has returned to the largest and most secret of U.S. intelligence agencies and brought back a book worthy of the scale, importance and mystery of its subject. "Body of Secrets" is a magnificent achievement and a compelling read for anyone interested in espionage, technology and the Cold War. It adds some astonishing footnotes to 20th century history and vividly portrays both the awesome power and growing troubles of the National Security Agency's army of eavesdroppers.

In London, motorists shouted profanities at photographers outside Buckingham Palace. At the Paris hospital where Princess Diana died early Sunday, the epithets were worse: "Murderers," medical staff shouted at the men and women with cameras outside. And at the tunnel where the fatal car crash occurred, angry mourners scrawled red graffiti labeling paparazzi cowards.What had seemed a sort of game -- though an increasingly aggressive one -- changed early Sunday when probably the world's most photographed woman died after trying to elude paparazzi on motorcycles.

Question: What's green at the anchor desk, but deep in the field?Answer: "World News Now," the overnight news service, which ABC News premiered early yesterday morning.The program, which airs from 3:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. daily on WJZ-TV (Channel 13), is clearly superior to the on-the-cheap overnight news services offered by CBS and NBC. But, if you have cable, it is not yet enough to leave CNN or even CNN Headline News for.Like the overnight newscasts on CBS and NBC, "World News Now" is in part an attempt to keep network affiliates from establishing additional ties with CNN, the all-news cable channel.

Hooking Up is the story of what happens to 11 young women in Manhattan when image and text are transformed into flesh and blood in the unpredictable world of online dating. Produced by the ABC News team that in 2000 took viewers inside the Johns Hopkins Hospital in a series called Hopkins 24/7, the five-part documentary is an addictive and illuminating look at courtship in the age of the Internet. It also may serve as a model for journalistically sound, nonfiction drama that's compelling enough to compete in the ratings-driven world of prime-time network television.