Washington: Lid put on results of missile tests

The Bush administration has decided to begin keeping secret key information on its missile defense program, a blow to political opponents who have relied on such data to challenge the technology as error-prone and not ready for deployment.

Administration officials say they will withhold the data to prevent U.S. adversaries from gaining military secrets about hardware intended to shield America from nuclear attack.

Under the new policy, the Pentagon will continue to give a week’s notice before tests and announce whether the tests were successful, officials said. But they said they will be providing less information on test targets and on the decoy devices that are used to try to fool the missile interceptors.

New York: Nuclear plant neighbors line up for medicine

Hundreds of suburbanites living near a nuclear plant north of New York City were given pills Saturday that could protect them from thyroid cancer in the event of a nuclear catastrophe.

Westchester County residents living within 10 miles of the Indian Point nuclear power station lined up for 130-milligram tablets of potassium iodide. They are meant to be taken if there is a major release of radiation.

County spokeswoman Victoria Hochman said 2,617 people obtained 10,533 pills by the end of the day.

Houston: Andersen jury breaks without reaching verdict

Jurors in Arthur Andersen LLP’s obstruction of justice trial deliberated for a third day Saturday without reaching a verdict in the first criminal trial to emerge from Enron Corp.’s stunning collapse last year.

The jury had already discussed the five-week case for about 25 hours when they broke for the day Saturday. Deliberations were to resume this afternoon.

Andersen is accused of shredding documents and deleting computer records related to Enron audits in October and November last year as the Securities and Exchange Commission embarked on a probe of the energy-trading company’s accounting practices.

Andersen claimed it was routine to destroy extraneous and confidential client information.

Salt Lake City: Questioning doesn’t solve kidnapping case

Police searching for a 14-year-old girl reportedly kidnapped at gunpoint said Saturday they have questioned and released a man they had been seeking earlier in the day, ruling him out as a suspect.

Police on Saturday morning distributed a sketch of the man who they said had contact with Elizabeth Smart before she was abducted early Wednesday from her bedroom.

“We were hoping it would be something we could hang our hats on. But that’s OK. We’ll move on,” Salt Lake City Police detective Dwayne Baird said.

Dallas: Retiring senator mocks ‘divisive Democrats’

Republican Sen. Phil Gramm on Saturday accused Democrats of trying to divide Texans along racial lines and scoffed at a major Democratic debate that was held in Spanish.

Gramm, who is retiring this year, spoke to thousands of cheering delegates at the state’s Republican convention.

“The Democrats believe that they can divide Texas based on race,” Gramm said. “That’s their dream and that’s their vision. And this election is about rejecting that dream and that vision once and for all.”

Tony Sanchez, a Democrat who is Hispanic, is running against incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is white.

Sanchez spokesman Mark Sanders said the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves.