WORLD IN BRIEF : PERU : Body of American Reporter Found

A body found near a Peruvian jungle town has been tentatively identified as that of a missing American journalist, Todd Smith. Smith, 28, a reporter for Florida’s Tampa Tribune newspaper, was last seen Friday as he left for the airport outside Uchiza, 245 miles northeast of Lima. He had been researching stories on drug traffickers and leftist rebels. Managing Editor Lawrence McConnell said in Tampa that “we have confirmed . . . that the body has been tentatively identified as that of Todd Smith.” Uchiza is in the heart of the coca-growing Upper Huallaga Valley, and both drug-trafficking gangs and Maoist guerrillas operate in the region.