SAN FRANCISCO

Flu vaccine is found tainted in factory

The nation’s supply of vaccine for the impending flu season took a big hit Thursday when Chiron Corp. announced it had found tainted doses in its factory.

The company said it would hold up shipment of about 50 million shots — about half the supply U.S. health officials had hoped to have on hand this year — while it investigates what went wrong and determines whether the vaccine is safe to use.

“There’s no product that is going to go into the arms of the American public that will not have been deemed to have met the highest standards of safety,” chief executive Howard Pien said.

Pien said the company hoped to ship between 46 million and 48 million doses by early October, about month later than usual.

Massachusetts

MIT appoints its first female president

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Thursday named Yale provost Susan Hockfield as its new president — the first woman to hold the job at the prestigious science university where men overwhelmingly dominate the faculty and the student body.

While the appointment of a female university president is no longer exceptional, it is significant at MIT, which in 1999 acknowledged past discrimination and has since made significant efforts to improve prospects for women.

Despite those efforts, women comprise just 42 percent of undergraduates, 29 percent of graduate students, and 17 percent of the faculty at MIT.

The appointment is also significant because of Hockfield’s academic background: A brain expert, she will be the first life scientist to serve as president in the 140-year history of the school, traditionally known for its expertise in engineering and “hard” sciences like physics and chemistry.

Nevada

Crews gaining control of wildfire south of Reno

Gusting wind that whipped a small wildfire into an inferno that consumed six homes let up on Thursday, helping hundreds of firefighters beat back the flames.

The nearly 2,700-acre blaze, unstoppable in Wednesday’s erratic wind south of Reno, was 75 percent contained in a light breeze Thursday.

“Cooler temperatures and higher humidity really helped us out last night,” fire spokesman Franklin Pemberton said. “It let us lay down more (containment) line. We’re making some good progress.”

More than 500 firefighters, 14 tankers and seven helicopters were fighting the blaze.

At least 13 structures, including the six homes and seven outbuildings, had burned as the wind gusted to 35 mph, according to Reno Fire Marshal Larry Farr.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Government taking over terror lists from airlines

The government announced Thursday it is taking over the task of checking the names of airline passengers against terrorism watch lists, saying it can do a more comprehensive and secure job than carriers.

The new system is intended to verify the identity of domestic travelers by amassing information that passengers have given airlines and comparing it with records in government databases. The goal is to better screen travelers by using a larger pool of suspected terrorists than airlines had access to.

The government does not now provide airlines with complete terrorist lists for fear that such information could fall into the hands of U.S. foes, said David Stone, chief of the Transportation Security Administration.