WASHINGTON

MAN INDICTED ON CHARGES OF PASSING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

A former Filipino police official was indicted yesterday on charges of passing classified information from an FBI analyst to current and former officials in the Philippines.

The FBI is investigating whether the analyst, a former Marine, also provided classified information taken from the White House when he worked in the vice president’s office, government officials say.

Federal prosecutors in Newark, N.J., did not seek an indictment against the analyst, Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, because he is negotiating a plea, court records show.

His alleged go-between, Michael Ray Aquino, 39, living in Queens, N.Y., was charged with conspiracy and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

The charges mirror those filed in September when Mr. Aquino and Mr. Aragoncillo were arrested. Both have been jailed in federal custody in New Jersey since their arrests.

– Associated Press

FEMA PLEDGES TO RE-ASSESS KATRINA CONTRACTS

Millions of dollars in federal contracts for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts that were handed out with little or no competition will be rebid to prevent any waste or abuse, FEMA chief R. David Paulison said yesterday.

“I’ve been a public servant for a long time, and I’ve never been a fan of no-bid contracts,” Mr. Paulison told a Senate panel investigating the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the hurricane. “Sometimes you have to do them because of the expediency of getting things done. And I can assure that you we are going to look at all of those contracts very carefully.”

“All of those no-bid contracts, we are going to go back and rebid,” he said of pacts that were worth millions of dollars.

– Associated Press

DEMOCRATS SEEK CRIMINAL PROBE INTO EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SPENDING

Democratic senators yesterday pressed for a criminal fraud investigation of the Bush administration’s hiring of a commentator to promote its agenda.

Congressional auditors concluded last week that the Education Department engaged in illegal “covert propaganda” by hiring Armstrong Williams to endorse the No Child Left Behind Act without requiring him to disclose he was paid.

That review by the Government Accountability Office did not come with any penalty. In a letter to Attorney General Gonzales, Senators Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, and Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said questions of fraud remain for the department and for Mr. Williams.

The department paid Mr. Williams, a commentator with newspaper, television and radio audiences, to produce ads promoting Mr. Bush’s law. Work orders show he also was to provide media time to department officials and persuade other blacks in the media to discuss the law. – Associated Press

CONTAINING BIRD FLU ABROAD CRUCIAL TO U.S. FLU PLANS

The Bush administration’s top health official said yesterday that “no one in the world is ready” for a potentially catastrophic outbreak of bird flu, as President Bush summoned vaccine manufacturers to the White House to discuss the situation.

But the health and human services secretary, Mike Leavitt, also said that American officials and their counterparts around the globe recognize that a pandemic is possible and are working hard on ways to protect people from it.

“The good news is, we do have a vaccine,” Mr. Leavitt said on CBS’s “The Early Show.” But he cautioned that officials do not currently have an ability to mass produce it or get it to people quickly.

“It’s enough of a possibility that it demands our attention,” he said. “We have to be prepared all the time … for that type of problem and we need to improve.”

Mr. Bush met with top advisers yesterday on the matter and meets today with representatives from American companies and foreign vaccine manufacturers, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

– Associated Press

NORTHEAST

MASS. COURT HEARS LAWSUIT ON NONRESIDENT GAY MARRIAGES

BOSTON – In a case closely watched across the country, the court that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage was asked yesterday to decide whether same-sex couples from out of state can tie the knot here, too.

At issue before Massachusetts’ highest court was a 1913 state law that says out-of-state couples cannot get married in Massachusetts if their home states do not recognize such unions. Governor Romney has invoked the law to prevent out-of-state gay couples from getting married here.

If the Supreme Judicial Court strikes down the 92-year-old law, same-sex couples from across the country could come here to wed and then demand marriage rights at home. Eight gay couples from surrounding states, all of whom were denied marriage licenses in Massachusetts, are challenging the law.

– Associated Press

HEALTH

TEST SHOWS VACCINE PREVENTS CERVICAL CANCER

TRENTON, N.J. – The first large study of an experimental cervical cancer vaccine found it was 100% effective, in the short term, at blocking the most common cause of the disease, the vaccine’s maker said yesterday.

Merck’s genetically engineered vaccine prevents cervical cancer by blocking infection from the human papilloma virus strains that cause 70% of cervical cancers. Other types of HPV, which is sexually transmitted, also can cause cervical cancer and painful genital warts. About 20 million Americans have some form of HPV.

The final-stage study of the vaccine included 10,559 sexually active women ages 16 to 26 in America and 12 other countries who were not infected with the HPV strains 16 or 18. Half got three vaccine doses over six months; half got dummy shots.

Among those still virus-free after the six months, none who received the vaccine developed either cervical cancer or precancerous lesions likely to turn cancerous over an average two years of follow-up, compared with 21 who got dummy shots. The study, funded by Merck, was to be presented today at a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

– Associated Press

WEST

FIREFIGHTERS GAIN GROUND AGAINST BLAZE

CALIMESA, Calif. – Crews battling a 6,000-acre wildfire scrambled to burn off heavy brush near homes yesterday before an expected resurgence of the hot, dry Santa Ana winds.

By morning, the day-old blaze was 25% contained, up from 5% the night before, and flames had retreated from a freeway’s edge, a spokesman for the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Rick Griggs, said.

– Associated Press