WASHINGTON

FIFTY-NINE EX-U.S. DIPLOMATS OPPOSE BOLTON CONFIRMATION

Challenging the White House, 59 former American diplomats are urging the Senate to reject John Bolton’s nomination to be the next American ambassador to the United Nations. “He is the wrong man for this position,” they said in a letter to Senator Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Indiana Republican has scheduled hearings on Mr. Bolton’s nomination for April 7.

“We urge you to reject that nomination,” the former diplomats said in a letter obtained yesterday. The ex-diplomats have served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, some for long terms and others briefly. They include Arthur Hartman, ambassador to France and the Soviet Union under Presidents Carter and Reagan, and assistant secretary of state for European affairs under President Nixon.

Others who signed the leader include Princeton Lyman, ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton; Monteagle Stearns, ambassador to Greece and Ivory Coast in the Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations; and Spurgeon Keeny Jr., deputy director of the Arms Control Agency in the Carter administration. Their criticism dwelled primarily on Mr. Bolton’s stand on issues as the State Department’s senior arms control official. They said he had an “exceptional record” of opposing American efforts to improve national security through arms control.

– Associated Press

TOP COURT WON’T STEP INTO LAWSUIT AGAINST NEWSPAPER

The Supreme Court refused yesterday to step into a lawsuit against a newspaper, leaving the press in Pennsylvania legally vulnerable when it reports defamatory comments by public figures. The case could chill news coverage of political campaigns where charges and countercharges are commonplace, First Amendment advocates say.

The justices’ decision not to consider the case was a victory for the former mayor and current council president of Parkesburg, Pa., who sued when the Daily Local News in West Chester, Pa., reported that a council member claimed they were homosexuals. The newspaper reported the councilman also had issued a statement strongly implying that he considered the two officials to be “queers and child molesters.” The newspaper quoted the council president as saying that if the councilman had made comments “as bizarre as that then I feel very sad for him and I hope he can get the help he needs.”

At issue is the neutral reporting privilege that allows the press to convey a reputable public figure’s defamatory comment as long as it is reported neutrally and accurately. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that no such privilege exists, though the privilege is recognized by some state and federal courts.

– Associated Press

WEST

DEATH SENTENCE THROWN OUT BECAUSE OF JURY’S BIBLE READING

DENVER – The Colorado Supreme Court threw out the death sentence yesterday of a man convicted of raping and killing a cocktail waitress because jurors consulted the Bible during deliberations. The court said Bible passages, including the verse that commands “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” could lead jurors to vote for death. The justices ordered Robert Harlan to serve life in prison without parole for the 1994 slaying of Rhonda Maloney. Harlan’s attorneys challenged the sentence after discovering five jurors had looked up Bible verses, copied some of them down, and then talked about them behind closed doors.

– Associated Press

UC BERKELEY: STOLEN LAPTOP CONTAINS SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS

The University of California at Berkeley said a laptop containing personal information for more than 98,000 graduate students and applicants was stolen.

The computer, which was taken March 11, contained details on students who applied for graduate school between 2001 and 2004, graduate students who enrolled between 1989 and 2003, and recipients of doctoral degrees from 1976 through 1999, UC Berkeley said yesterday in a statement. Social Security numbers and addresses were included in some of the files.

The University of California system, which has 10 campuses throughout the state, requires that sensitive information on portable computers be encrypted. The policy was enacted late last year and campuses are still in the process of “moving toward full compliance,” the statement said. UC Berkeley said it has no evidence that the information has been misused. State law requires the university to contact each person whose name and Social Security number were on the computer.

– Bloomberg News