NEWS LITE : CHARLES LAUDED FOR HELPING POOR.

Prince Charles is the hero of the year to the readers of a magazine for the homeless.

The Big Issue, which is sold on inner-city sidewalks, hailed the heir to the British throne as a maverick ``unafraid to tackle the government.''

``I'm absolutely delighted and very touched,'' Charles told the magazine.

As a member of the royal family, Charles avoids overtly political statements. His major interests include help for poor youngsters.

Dion producing her former opening act

Celine Dion was in the audience for a change to cheer on one of her former opening acts.

Dion introduced impressionist Andre-Philippe Gagnon on Saturday night at the Venetian hotel-casino, then joined her husband in the audience.

Gagnon toured with Dion for two years as her opening act, but the two have known each other for more than 15 years, emerging on the show business scene about the same time in Montreal.

``We come from the same show business world,'' Dion said backstage after Gagnon's first performance in a 40-week engagement at the resort.

Dion and her husband are producing Gagnon's show.

Turner tour kicks off at Super Bowl XXXIV 

Tina Turner plans to kick off her world tour with a rendition of ``Proud Mary'' during the Super Bowl pregame festivities.

She'll also do a new cut, ``When the Heartache Is Over,'' on Jan. 30.

``I can't go to America without performing `Proud Mary,' of course,'' Turner told Hitmakers, a weekly radio industry magazine. ``It's an affair with the fans,and I think it's good for those two songs to be played there, so I'm happy about it. I also really like Atlanta.''

The NFL has yet to announce the halftime lineup.

Country stars remind parents to listen up

A radio campaign led by Martina McBride, Tim McGraw and Wynonna begins this week to teach parents the importance of listening to their children.

The campaign, with the tagline ``Tune In to Your Kids,'' is a joint project of the Advertising Council and the Country Music Association. Television spots will air early next year.

The campaign reminds parents that frequent talks with their children can help them with problems related to peer pressure, drugs and alcohol.

The announcements will be distributed to more than 12,000 TV and radio stations nationwide.

Inter-species parenting could save rare critters

A typical house cat gave birth to a rare African wildcat after scientists pulled off what they called the unprecedented feat of transferring a frozen embryo between species.

Researchers at the Audubon Institute Center for Research of Endangered Species said the advancement could bolster endangered species or even be used to resurrect entire species.

``If extinction happens in the wild, the technology will be there to bring the species back,'' said Ron Foreman, chief executive officer of Audubon Institute.

The house cat, Cayenne, acts toward her kitten like any typical feline mother: protecting her, nursing her and objecting loudly when her offspring is picked up. And the baby wildcat, named Jazz, nurses off her surrogate mother.

``She thinks she has the ugliest baby in the world, but she takes care of it,'' said Betty Dresser, the center's director for research.

Jazz was born Nov. 24, about 70 days after scientists had taken sperm from a male African wildcat named Sid and the egg of a female named Sheena and implanted the embryo in the domestic cat.

Because of its size '' ranging in weight from three pounds to eight pounds '' the African wildcat was considered to be a good match for a domestic cat. Cayenne was chosen because she had proven herself able to carry kittens to term, having had nine litters.

Dresser and C. Earle Pope, another researcher at the center, produced a kitten from in vitro fertilization and a frozen embryo in 1994. In Jazz's case, scientists grew the embryo in an incubator for five days, then froze it for a week at minus 373 degrees. Researchers implanted eight embryos into Cayenne in hopes that at least one would survive.

The freezing process is not a necessary step in embryo transfers, but it was done to advance the idea that extinct species might be re-created years later by thawing frozen embryos when a suitable surrogate species is found.

Scientists are not sure yet how long frozen embryos can be kept, but Dresser said they might be good for hundreds of thousands of years.

``If this technology had been available during the age of the dinosaurs, we might have dinosaurs today,'' she said.

PAIR IN THE AIR; Piggyback planes land

A small plane coming in for a landing became wedged on top of another one 200 feet in the air, and the interlocked pair landed together without injury to any of the three people on board.

The sight of the double-decker plane at Plant City Airport outside of Tampa, Fla., attracted gawkers until it was finally taken apart.

``It was truly amazing,'' said Marilyn Gauthier of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority.

Jay Perrin, 19, was descending in a Cadet on Saturday and didn't notice the Cessna flying below him, officials said. Perrin's front wheel broke the Cessna's windshield and became jammed, sheriff's Sgt. Rod Reder said.

Flight instructor Alan Vangee, 65, took over the controls of the Cessna from his 56-year-old student pilot and landed safely on the grass.

``It should have been a double-plane fatality crash,'' Reder said. ``If I was the student pilot, it would be my last flight.''

News Lite is compiled by Rick Quist from Daily News staff and wire reports

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo: (1) Cayenne, a domestic cat, watches over her 3-week-old kitten, Jazz, an African wildcat born from a frozen embryo implanted in Cayenne.

Bill Haber/Associated Press

(2) Two small planes stuck together land safely at an airport in Florida.

Dale Wilson/Associated Press

(3) Celine Dion

(4) Charles