Washington, D.C.

Odor triggers biohazard alert at U.S. Capitol

The nearly empty U.S. Capitol was evacuated Saturday after a sensor detected a possible biohazard in the basement of the building’s Senate wing, but the problem turned out to be an industrial solvent.

Capitol Police spokeswoman Jessica Gissebel said field tests came up negative for harmful materials. Samples were being sent to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore for further analysis, she said.

The building was cleared for reoccupation after hazardous-material teams completed their work.

Las Vegas

Hillary Clinton dropped from Flowers lawsuit

A federal judge has dismissed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from a lawsuit that accused her of conspiring with political advisers to discredit Gennifer Flowers after Flowers said she had an affair with Bill Clinton.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ruled in late November that the conspiracy claim against the former first lady was barred by Nevada’s four-year statute of limitations, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Saturday.

According to the Web site for Judicial Watch, the public interest group that represents Flowers, the organization plans to appeal.

In 1992, a supermarket tabloid wrote that Bill Clinton and Flowers had an affair while he was Arkansas governor. When the presidential candidate denied it, Flowers held a news conference to play audio tapes she said were of secretly recorded intimate phone calls between them.

New Jersey

Convicted bank robber admits Clinton threats

A convicted bank robber who told a prison psychologist he wanted to “spice up” his life by shooting a famous person has admitted threatening to kill U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, officials said.

Edward Falvey, 51, pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening to kill an immediate family member of a former president, a federal crime that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

No sentencing date has been set, according to Greg Reinert, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In 1977, Falvey was arrested and charged with threatening to kill then-President Carter. Falvey was convicted and received probation.

According to the Secret Service, Falvey wrote an April 2003 letter to a prison psychologist in which he said he wanted to “shoot a very famous person. … My life is dull and boring. I need to spice it up.”

He included a hit list, naming Clinton, as well as President Clinton and federal judges, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Jacqueline Carle.

California

Images show comet spouting dust, gas

NASA said Saturday it had captured dozens of close-up images of a distant comet that show the frozen ball of rock and ice spewing jets of dust and gas into space.

The Stardust spacecraft took 72 images of the dark nucleus of comet Wild 2 during a derring-do flyby Friday that occurred 242 million miles from Earth.

Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory began poring over the black-and-white images as the pictures and other scientific data reached Earth on Saturday.

Initial analysis of the images revealed at least five and as many as seven jets shooting from the comet, project manager Tom Duxbury said.

NASA said it would release images of the egg-shaped, 3.3-mile diameter comet to the public on Monday or Tuesday.