WASHINGTON

BUSH: IRISH SISTERS ARE FIGHTERS FOR PEACE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

President Bush met on St. Patrick’s Day with five sisters who want the outlawed Irish Republican Army held responsible for their brother’s death.

Robert McCartney, a 33-year-old Catholic forklift operator, was beaten and stabbed to death outside a Belfast pub on January 30 when he tried to defend a friend from what witnesses described as a knife-wielding IRA gang. McCartney’s sisters – Catherine, Gemma, Claire, Paula, and Donna – want charges brought against those responsible and say the investigation has been stalled by an IRA culture of silence.

McCartney’s sisters and his fiancee met Mr. Bush for a few minutes during a St. Patrick’s Day reception yesterday at the White House and asked him to use his influence on the case. The sisters are hoping that public support in America for their cause will spur the IRA and its legal political arm, Sinn Fein, to encourage witnesses to offer evidence to Northern Ireland’s police force.

– Associated Press

GOSS DEFENDS U.S. INTERROGATION PRACTICES

CIA Director Porter Goss defended American interrogation practices and rejected any notion that the intelligence community engages in torture following months of criticism of Americans’ treatment of foreign prisoners.

Testifying yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mr. Goss came under intense questioning by Democrats and Senator McCain, a Republican of Arizona, but stood firm on the importance of interrogation as a legitimate intelligence tool, necessary to protect civilians and troops.

“I can assure you that I know of no instances where the intelligence community is outside the law on this,” Mr. Goss said. “And I know for a fact that torture is not productive. That’s not professional interrogation. We don’t do torture.”

The CIA inspector general is looking into at least four cases in which agency personnel may have been involved in the death of a detainee and other issues related to American detention policies. He has referred one case to the Justice Department for prosecution, resulting in assault charges against CIA contractor David Passaro.

– Associated Press

NATIONAL ARCHIVES REACHES AGREEMENT TO GET NIXON TAPES

More than 700 hours of President Nixon’s White House audiotapes could be heard by the public for the first time under a new agreement between the National Archives and the Nixon allies who operate the former president’s library and museum in Yorba Linda, Calif.

For two decades, Mr. Nixon and his heirs waged a court battle to keep the tapes from public release. The courts ultimately ruled that personal and political discussions should be physically cut from the reel-to-reel tapes and given to the Nixon family. However, as part of a nascent deal to have the Nixon library run by the National Archives, the family appears to have agreed to allow the federal government to keep all the recordings.

“We expect the offer of the facility to include the donation or planned donation for the majority of Nixon pre- and post-presidential materials at the library and those personal-political materials currently in NARA’s custody,” the American archivist, Allen Weinstein, wrote in a March 14 letter to the library’s executive director, the Reverend John Taylor.

Some exhibits in the Nixon library are also expected to be redesigned, Mr. Weinstein wrote. The letter was released by a Washington-based group that has expressed concerns about access to Nixon-era records, the National Security Archive. Library officials did not return calls seeking comment on the proposed deal.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SOUTH

LAWMAKERS, FAMILY FIGHT TO KEEP SCHIAVO ALIVE

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Working on at least four fronts, lawmakers and lawyers in Florida and in Washington raced to prevent the removal of the brain-damaged Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, but their options appeared to dwindle yesterday as the hours slipped away. Under court order, the feeding tube was set to be removed at 1 p.m. today, in what could be the final act in the long-running right-to-die drama.

The Florida House passed a bill 78-37 to block the withholding of food and water from patients in a persistent vegetative state who did not leave specific instructions regarding their care. But hours later, the Senate defeated a different measure 21-16, and one of the nine Republicans voting against indicated that any further votes would be futile.

As part of the last-minute flurry of activity, Congress was considering legislation to keep the feeding tube in place. Ms. Schiavo’s parents appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Florida judge who approved the withdrawal of food and water denied a request from the state to keep the woman alive. The state appealed that decision to the Florida Supreme Court, which promptly dismissed it.

Ms. Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped because of a chemical imbalance, and court-appointed doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state.

– Associated Press