Washington, D.C.

Joint chiefs chairman nominated for 2nd term

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers has been nominated to a second two-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced Wednesday.

Myers assumed the position Oct. 1, 2001, just weeks after the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. His reappointment to the position for a second term must be confirmed by the Senate.

As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Myers is the senior military adviser to the president and the secretary of defense.

Myers was born in Kansas City, Mo., and grew up in Johnson County, Kan. He graduated from Kansas State University in 1965 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force.

Nebraska

Mowers contract rare rabbit fever

Two men in Lincoln who mowed over a nest of rabbits, killing some of them, and another who cleaned the mower developed a rare disease known as rabbit fever, authorities said.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating. The disease, also called pneumonic tularemia, is generally treatable with antibiotics but can lead to pneumonia.

The illness is caused by a bacterium found in wild animals, particularly rodents and rabbits. People can become infected through bites by infected animals or infected insects, handling carcasses, eating contaminated food or, in rare cases, inhaling the bacterium. It is not transmitted person-to-person.

The CDC became interested because all three had the rare inhaled form of the disease. All three were briefly hospitalized and have fully recovered.

Florida

Second Mars rover set for Saturday launch

NASA said it would launch a second Mars rover on Saturday after officials repaired the rocket that will send the craft up.

The decision to go with the launch was made after NASA workers replaced a band of cork insulation on the Delta rocket. A second band of the insulation was examined and didn’t show any problems, said George Diller, a NASA spokesman at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

NASA workers had been concerned that repairs on the second band could delay the launch even further. The Saturday launch is already two days behind its original schedule.

The launch was set for 10:56 p.m. CDT on Saturday. If needed, a second launch opportunity was set for 11:37 p.m. CDT Saturday.

The first Mars rover was launched earlier this month.

Maryland

Company to begin testing of anthrax drug

A biotechnology company said Wednesday it would soon start human tests of an anthrax drug that blocks the toxins released by the deadly bacteria.

The drug, made by Human Genome Sciences Inc. in College Park, is envisioned as both protection against exposure to the bacteria and a last-ditch treatment for those who have been infected and are not responding to antibiotics.

Anthrax killed five people and sickened 17 when it was sent through the mail in the fall of 2001.

Currently, doctors can offer patients an anthrax vaccine before they are exposed that can keep them from becoming infected in the first place. And antibiotics can kill the bacteria once a person is infected.

But antibiotics often are ineffective at saving patients once the toxin has made it into bloodstream.

Chief executive William Haseltine said the company would go forward with mass production of ABthrax only if the government agreed to buy the drug. He predicted the drug could be ready for sale by the end of 2004.