Wednesday, February 5, 2003

Rumsfeld Defends General Investigated by Pentagon. The Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday that Gen. Tommy R. Franks is under investigation for possible abuse of his office. By Thom Shanker. 10:47:40 AM

States' Budget Gaps Widen Nearly 50% in Two Months. Estimates of state budget deficits for the current fiscal year have grown by nearly 50 percent in two months, creating the worst fiscal outlook for states since World War II. By Michael Janofsky. 10:47:39 AM

Jurors Who Convicted Marijuana Grower Seek New Trial. Five jurors in the trial of a medicinal marijuana advocate issued a public apology to him and demanded that the judge grant him a new trial. By Dean E. Murphy. 10:47:39 AM

No Assertion of Irish Roots, Kerry Says. Senator John F. Kerry, a fast-rising Democratic candidate for president, might seem like another in a long line of Irish-American politicians, but he's not. By Adam Nagourney. 10:47:38 AM

U.S. Delays Suing Europe Over Ban on Modified Food. With war looming in Iraq, the Bush administration has postponed filing a case against the European Union for its ban on genetically modified food. By Elizabeth Becker. 10:47:38 AM

Rebuilding Effort Could Help Space Industry in Long Run. Analysts who follow the business of building and launching rockets and satellites anticipate that the loss of the space shuttle could eventually help rather than hurt the industry. By Barnaby J. Feder. 10:47:37 AM

President Pledges U.S. Will Continue to Explore Space. President Bush hailed the astronauts of the space shuttle Columbia as seven lost explorers of great daring and purpose. By Elisabeth Bumiller. 10:47:37 AM

Nominee Had Been Investigated for Intervening in Iraq Inquiry. WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled on Wednesday to interview a federal appeals court nominee who was once questioned by officials about whether he improperly intervened in a federal investigation of loans to Saddam Hussein. By Neil A. Lewis. 10:47:36 AM

U.S. Official Says North Korea Could Sell Bomb Material. North Korea's recent moves toward restarting a plutonium reprocessing facility could enable the country to build four to six new nuclear weapons within months. By James Dao. 10:47:36 AM

Critics Say Money for Schools Falls Short of Promises. As educators from around the country digested next year's federal education budget, many said the administration pledged more support than it delivered. By Diana Jean Schemo. 10:47:35 AM

House Raises Questions on Dividend Taxes and Deficit. House Republicans, President Bush's strongest base of loyalty in Congress, were skeptical about his plans for eliminating most taxes on dividends and for running large deficits in the foreseeable future. By Edmund L. Andrews. 10:47:34 AM

Hydrogen Cars Remain Decades in the Future Under New Budget. The Bush administration plan to spur development of hydrogen cars does not envision mass production until 2020. By Danny Hakim. 10:47:33 AM

Lawmakers Seek More Diversity in Shuttle Panel. Lawmakers say they are worried that the space agency investigating the Columbia disaster is dominated by government and military officials. By Carl Hulse. 10:47:33 AM

Powell Begins Presentation on Iraq's Efforts to Foil U.N.. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is now presenting evidence that he says shows Iraq's defiance of the Security Council's call to disarm. By Julia Preston with Steven R. Weisman. 10:47:32 AM

White House Report Stings Drug Agency on Abilities. In a harsh critique of an agency with a strong global reputation, the White House has questioned whether the Drug Enforcement Administration is able to stem the flow of narcotics. By Eric Lichtblau. 10:47:31 AM

Bush Budget Increases Push to Find Tax Cheats. President Bush's proposed budget would increase by at least a third the number of audits of taxpayers suspected of hiding income. By David Cay Johnston. 10:47:31 AM

Aid to Poor Faces More Scrutiny. President Bush's budget proposes new rules that would make it harder for low-income families to obtain government benefits. By Robert Pear. 10:47:31 AM

Excerpts From Tuesday's NASA News Conference. Following are excerpts from a news conference yesterday by Maj. Gen. Michael C. Kostelnik, NASA's deputy associate administrator for the space shuttle program, as recorded by The New York Times. 10:47:30 AM

President Bush's Address. Following is the text of President George Bush's address today at the memorial for Columbia's crew as recorded by The New York Times. 10:47:29 AM

National Briefing: The News Media. PACT ON POLLING VOTERS. 10:47:29 AM

National Briefing: South. KENTUCKY: Nuclear Workers Strike. 10:47:29 AM

National Briefing: Midwest. ILLINOIS: Racial Bias Case; INDIANA: Lawyer'S Punishment Softened. 10:47:28 AM

National Briefing: Northwest. OREGON: Ruling on Diocese. 10:47:28 AM

Lawmakers Seek More Diversity in Shuttle Panel. Lawmakers say they are worried that the space agency investigating the Columbia disaster is dominated by government and military officials. By Carl Hulse. 10:47:27 AM

Rebuilding Effort Could Help Space Industry in Long Run. Analysts who follow the business of building and launching rockets and satellites anticipate that the loss of the space shuttle could eventually help rather than hurt the industry. By Barnaby J. Feder. 10:47:27 AM

Viewers Flocked to Coverage by NBC and CNN. NBC commanded the largest broadcast viewership during live coverage of the shuttle crash on Saturday, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research, while CNN's coverage ranked first among cable networks. By Bill Carter. 10:47:26 AM

Urgent Yet Methodical, Search Traverses a Vast Terrain. MELROSE, Tex., Feb. 4 When the sun came up, they set off, walking six abreast through scratchy fields marked with anthills, cow pies and little red flags. They carried Radiac meters, photo-ionizers, tongs, spoons and yards of Ziplocs. Their job: to locate every single bit of the space shuttle they could, test it for hazardous material, map it, bag it and bring it back to headquarters. By Jeffrey Gettleman. 10:47:26 AM

Fragile Ceramic Tiles Long a Source of Concern. Experts have known since the early 1990's that foam insulation on the space shuttle's fuel tank sometimes tore off and damaged the fragile ceramic tiles that make up its heat shield. The tiles' general fragility has kept them busy devising protective countermeasures since the start of the shuttle program. By John Schwartz. 10:47:25 AM

Hometown Service for Astronaut. PLATTSBURGH, N.Y., Feb. 4 Here in the birthplace of the space shuttle Columbia's payload commander, Lt. Col. Michael P. Anderson, a crowd of more than 300 filled the third-floor rotunda of City Hall tonight for a candlelight memorial service. By The New York Times. 10:47:25 AM

Experts Suspect a Wider Debris Field. Pieces of wreckage that investigators here hope will tell them the cause of the destruction of the Columbia are now believed to be spread across more than half the continent, covering thousands of square miles from California to Louisiana. By Matthew L. Wald with Andrew C. Revkin. 10:47:24 AM

Russia Halts Tourist Trips Into Space in Emergency. The decision deprives the Russian Aviation and Space Agency of a sideline that had added as much as $20 million per tourist to a program whose entire budget totals only $266 million. By Michael Wines. 10:47:23 AM

Debris Search Is Expanded to California and Arizona. NASA sent teams to Arizona and California to determine if any of Columbia's tiles or material from its wings had fallen early in the shuttle's descent. By David E. Sanger with Dean E. Murphy. 10:47:22 AM

For Those Aboard, Final Minutes Held Hint of Catastrophe. The crew of the Columbia almost certainly knew that things were not going according to plan before the shuttle broke up. By John Noble Wilford. 10:47:22 AM

Colleagues, by the Thousands, Get Their Chance to Mourn. The crowd of thousands stretched over a large lawn, and included presidents, senators and dignitaries. Yet for many NASA employees, it felt like an intimate gathering. By Kate Zernike and Nick Madigan. 10:47:21 AM

States' Budget Gaps Widen Nearly 50% in Two Months. Estimates of state budget deficits for the current fiscal year have grown by nearly 50 percent in two months, creating the worst fiscal outlook for states since World War II. By Michael Janofsky. 10:47:21 AM

House Raises Questions on Dividend Taxes and Deficit. House Republicans, President Bush's strongest base of loyalty in Congress, were skeptical about his plans for eliminating most taxes on dividends and for running large deficits in the foreseeable future. By Edmund L. Andrews. 10:47:21 AM

No Assertion of Irish Roots, Kerry Says. Senator John F. Kerry, a fast-rising Democratic candidate for president, might seem like another in a long line of Irish-American politicians, but he's not. By Adam Nagourney. 10:47:20 AM

Promoting Tolerance, Not Paying Heed. Smart principals and teachers can figure out ways to adapt state civil rights programs according to their community's particular needs. By Michael Winerip. 10:47:20 AM

Talk in Schools of Risk and Rewards in Space. Schoolteachers across the nation grappled this week with how to talk with students about the Columbia shuttle. By Sam Dillon. 10:47:19 AM

Layoffs Create Glut of Space in Boston Area. Boston's high vacancies and falling rents have created the fastest, most severe property market contraction on record. By Susan Diesenhouse. 10:47:19 AM

Hydrogen Cars Remain Decades in the Future Under New Budget. The Bush administration plan to spur development of hydrogen cars does not envision mass production until 2020. By Danny Hakim. 10:47:18 AM

White House Report Stings Drug Agency on Abilities. In a harsh critique of an agency with a strong global reputation, the White House has questioned whether the Drug Enforcement Administration is able to stem the flow of narcotics. By Eric Lichtblau. 10:47:18 AM

Nominee Had Been Investigated for Intervening in Iraq Inquiry. WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled on Wednesday to interview a federal appeals court nominee who was once questioned by officials about whether he improperly intervened in a federal investigation of loans to Saddam Hussein. By Neil A. Lewis. 10:47:17 AM

U.S. Olympic Chief Resigns in a Furor Over Ethics Issues. Facing a no-confidence vote by the organization's executive body, Marty Mankamyer resigned as the president of the embattled United States Olympic Committee. By Richard Sandomir. 10:47:17 AM

News Service President Retiring After 18 Years. Louis D. Boccardi, the president and chief executive of The Associated Press, is retiring after 18 years as the top executive of the news cooperative. By Felicity Barringer. 10:47:17 AM

Bush Budget Increases Push to Find Tax Cheats. President Bush's proposed budget would increase by at least a third the number of audits of taxpayers suspected of hiding income. By David Cay Johnston. 10:47:16 AM

NASA Was Told in 1990 About Vulnerable Protective Tiles. A study warned that if the tiles around the shuttle's wheel wells were damaged, two key systems would be threatened. By William J. Broad and David E. Sanger. 10:47:16 AM

Russia Halts Tourist Trips Into Space in Emergency. The decision deprives the Russian Aviation and Space Agency of a sideline that had added as much as $20 million per tourist to a program whose entire budget totals only $266 million. By Michael Wines. 10:47:14 AM

Most Likely, Crew Sensed Something Had Gone Wrong. Maybe for only seconds, but possibly for several long minutes, the crew of the Columbia almost certainly knew that things were not going according to plan. By John Noble Wilford. 10:47:13 AM

NASA Was Told in 1990 About Vulnerable Tiles. The space agency was warned that the tiles around the shuttle's wheel wells were particularly vulnerable to catastrophic failure. By William J. Broad and David E. Sanger. 10:47:12 AM

President Pledges U.S. Will Continue to Explore Space. President Bush hailed the astronauts of the space shuttle Columbia as seven lost explorers of great daring and purpose. By Elisabeth Bumiller. 10:47:12 AM

Technology Briefing: Hardware. PALM LOWERS PRICE TO LIFT SALES;. 10:47:11 AM

Toyota Says Profits Nearly Doubled in Last Quarter of 2002. Toyota said profits nearly doubled in the last quarter of 2002 as Japan's largest automaker continues to solidify its share of the global car market. By Ken Belson. 10:47:08 AM

Sprint Posts Profit, Reversing 2001 Fourth-Quarter Loss. Facing reports that its two top executives were being forced out over their use of a questionable type of tax shelter, Sprint reported a fourth-quarter profit. By The Associated Press. 10:47:08 AM

Stocks Mixed in Early Trading. Wall Street remains guarded as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell speaks to the United Nations on Iraq. By Reuters. 10:47:07 AM

Suspect in Slaying of Hong Kong Businessman Arrested in China. The police in mainland China's Hunan Province said today that they had arrested the suspected gunman in the slaying of a prominent Hong Kong businessman. By Keith Bradsher. 10:47:04 AM

Indonesia Officer Says Soldier Killed Independence Leader. An Indonesian Army officer told a court-martial today that a soldier killed Theys Eluay. By Raymond Bonner. 10:47:04 AM

North Korea Restarts Nuclear Plant. North Korea said today that it is going ahead with the operation of nuclear facilities "on a normal footing." By The Associated Press. 10:47:02 AM

With Audio Tapes and Images, Powell Makes Case to U.N.. The secretary of state said he was presenting "irrefutable and undeniable" evidence that Saddam Hussein is concealing weapons of mass destruction. By Terence Neilan. 10:47:02 AM