WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATING POSSIBLE CASE OF MAD COW

The government is investigating a possible new case of mad cow disease but says there is no threat to the American food supply. Testing indicated the possible presence of the disease in a cow that died on the farm where it lived, John Clifford, the Agriculture Department’s chief veterinarian, said yesterday. The animal was burned and buried, the department said. “It is important to note that this animal poses no threat to our food supply because it did not enter the human food or animal feed chains,” Mr. Clifford said. The cow probably was born in America and was at least 12 years old, Mr. Clifford said. He said the cow had complications while giving birth. The department knows the location of the farm but is not disclosing it, he said. There currently is no quarantine on the farm. The department is conducting further tests at its laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and is sending tissue to be tested by the internationally recognized laboratory in Weybridge, England. Results should come in the next week, he said. Two other cases of mad cow disease have been confirmed in America. One was confirmed last month, in a Texas cow that died in November. The other was in a Canadian-born cow discovered in December 2003 in Washington State.

– Associated Press

RICE IS ASKED IF BOLTON TESTIFIED IN CIA LEAK CASE

A Democratic opponent of John Bolton asked Secretary of State Rice yesterday whether the nominee for U.N. ambassador had testified to a grand jury about the leak of a CIA operative’s identity. Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee say they want to determine whether Mr. Bolton was truthful when he wrote on a questionnaire for his confirmation hearing that he has not been interviewed in any recent investigations.

In a letter to Ms. Rice, Senator Biden, a Democrat of Delaware, referenced an MSNBC report from July 21 that Mr. Bolton was among State Department undersecretaries who “gave testimony” about a classified memo that has become an important piece of evidence in the leak investigation.

Mr. Biden asked Ms. Rice to tell the committee “whether Mr. Bolton did, in fact, appear before the grand jury, or whether he has been interviewed or otherwise asked to provide information by the special prosecutor or his staff in connection with this matter.”

Several Bush administration officials have been interviewed by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in his quest to determine who leaked the covert identity of Valerie Plame to reporters and whether any laws were broken.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

KILLED SCOUT LEADERS DIDN’T FOLLOW SAFETY PROTOCOL

Four men electrocuted while pitching a dining tent at the Boy Scout Jamboree had ignored scouting teachings by putting the tent under a power line, a spokesman said yesterday. The Scout leaders also had taken the “somewhat unusual” step of hiring a contractor to help with the task, Scouts spokesman Gregg Shields said. “Boy Scouts are taught not to put their tents under trees or under power lines. I don’t know what happened in that case,” Mr. Shields said. The four leaders killed Monday were to be remembered yesterday at a memorial to be attended by President Bush, but the evening’s events were canceled because of the threat of severe thunderstorms and strong wind. Instead, Mr. Bush is scheduled to visit the Jamboree today. The Jamboree has drawn more than 40,000 Scouting enthusiasts from around the world to Fort A.P. Hill, about an hour south of the nation’s capital. Some Scouts witnessed the deaths of the leaders as the large pole at the center of a large, white dining tent came into contact with power lines. Screams rang out as the tent caught fire and the men burned. An investigation into the accident is incomplete. While power lines crisscross the Jamboree’s 7,000 acres, the leaders of Western Alaskan Troops 711 and 713 had ample room to erect a tent out of range of overhanging limbs and power lines.

– Associated Press