4.2 new GLOBALS question

I am working on an odler script which loads up in index.php and a URL is passed usually like index.php?s=something Now, around line 10 of index.php I do an include that pulls the value of s via HTTP_POST_VARS and then I dump it into $start. It used to work just fine and still does except on 4.2. After line 10, I need to see what was contained in that $start but i can't figure out the new method to make this global. I tried adding it to $GLOBALS but fear I'm not doing it correctly. Was trying $GLOBALS['start'] = $start and then trying to reference it with $GLOBALS['start'] What am i doing wrong? jeff