NEWS LITE : STOP BOMBING VIEQUES: MARTIN.

Puerto Rican pop star Ricky Martin has a message for President Clinton: Stop bombing runs on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

``Puerto Rico is united in this cause and I'm part of it,'' Martin said in Friday's El Mundo newspaper.

The ``Livin' La Vida Loca'' singer has a tentative meeting scheduled next week with Clinton when he is in Washington for a benefit concert.

The Navy owns two-thirds of Vieques, a tiny island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. The military has conducted exercises using live bombs and other artillery on Vieques for decades.

Opposition to the bombing intensified in April when a Marine Corps jet dropped two bombs off target and killed a civilian security guard. Exercises were suspended after protesters set up camps on the range.

Life with Tommy `not all roses': Lee

A year and a half after her breakup with rocker Tommy Lee, Pamela Anderson says being back home with him is not ``all roses,'' but it is ``not a dangerous situation'' either.

Anderson left her husband in 1998 after a highly publicized fight. Lee pleaded no contest to kicking his then-estranged wife several times during a fight while she held their toddler son, Dylan, now 1-1/2.

In the issue of Jane magazine set to hit newsstands next month, Anderson says Lee is learning to communicate better, in part through anger-management classes. ``It's not all roses or anything, because there's a lot of pain that Tommy and I need to resolve,'' she says. ``But seeing my two little boys so happy and playing with their daddy, it's just beautiful to have our family back together.'' Their other son, Brandon, is 3.

But what about snails, Brigitte?

French activist Brigitte Bardot condemns dog-eating in South Korea as savage. Some South Koreans wonder why she doesn't raise a ruckus about snails, a delicacy in France.

About 20 middle-school students in Suwon, south of Seoul, recently sent protest letters to Bardot, lawmaker Kim Hong-shin said Friday.

``Would you like it if the Koreans call the French barbarians just because they eat snail?'' one wrote.

Kim and several other lawmakers have introduced a bill to legalize the sale of dog meat.

The government has occasionally cracked down on dog-eating by invoking a law against consumption of ``unsightly'' foods. But many consider canine flesh, which is served mostly in soups and barbecues, to be a delicacy.

Bardot, a former screen star and animal rights activist, has asked South Korea to forbid its citizens from eating dog meat during the 2002 World Cup soccer tournament to be played there and in Japan.

Forget writing for now; talking is good enough

Since he was struck by a van last June, Stephen King says he has had to start from scratch as a writer.

``There was this one awful minute when I sat there and I thought, I can't do this. I don't know how to do this any more,'' King said in an interview with NBC's Katie Couric to be aired Monday. Excerpts were released Friday.

King, 52, of Bangor, Maine, has had multiple surgeries and faces a long rehabilitation. He was hit by the van while walking along a country road.

The interview suggests King has had much more difficulty writing than was previously revealed. In late July, he said he had begun writing 1-1/2 hours a day.

``At first it was as if I'd never done this in my life,'' he said. ``It was like starting over again from square one.''

For now, King said he is just happy to be alive.

``I think that to still be able to walk and talk and occasionally crawl on my belly like a reptile has made me intensely grateful to be alive,'' he said.

What's the mantra for marital bliss?

Rita Wilson on secrets to her successful 11-year marriage to Tom Hanks: ``You gotta talk, you gotta listen, you gotta laugh. And - now we're getting into Trudie (Styler) and Sting territory - you gotta have lots of tantric yoga sex.''

Enquirer settles with seething Stewart

The National Enquirer and Martha Stewart have settled a $10 million lawsuit over a tabloid article titled ``Martha Stewart Is Mentally Ill.''

Stewart's federal lawsuit alleged libel and defamation of character over the Enquirer story published on Sept. 2, 1997, claiming Stewart ``indulged in self-mutilation and threatened suicide.''

The tabloid also said the good-taste maven ``has frantic fears of being abandoned, a chronic sensation of feeling useless and empty, and a near-constant anger.''

The lawsuit filed by Stewart's attorney, Barry B. Langberg, sought $10 million in addition to unspecified punitive damages and attorney's fees. Stewart has said the story damaged her reputation as a model of civility and good living, bringing ``shame, mortification and emotional distress.''

Langberg confirmed Tuesday there was a settlement, but he said terms of the deal prevented release of any details.

Compiled by Karen Duffy from Daily News staff and wire reports.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Author Stephen King, with ``Today'' show host Katie Couric, is in rehab after being hit by a van in July.

Tony Pagano/Associated Press

(2) MARTIN

(3) STEWART