New Mexico

Items containing classified information missing from lab

Two data storage devices containing classified information are missing from Los Alamos National Laboratory, officials said.

Lab spokesman Kevin Roark refused to say Friday if the information could jeopardize national security.

He said the “Classified Removable Electronic Media” were discovered missing from the Weapons Physics Directorate during an inventory check Wednesday. He refused to specify exactly what was missing, but said the items could be products such as CDs or floppy disks.

A search was under way, and lab Director Peter Nanos said he would order a full inquiry.

This is the second such incident in recent months. Classified electronic media was also reported missing in May. That data had been set to be destroyed before it went missing, Roark said at the time. Roark acknowledged that this situation is different because the items were to be used for an upcoming experiment.

Philadelphia

NAACP invites Bush again

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume asked President Bush on Saturday to reconsider his decision against addressing the black civil rights group’s convention this week in Philadelphia.

There was no immediate response from Bush, who said Friday that he would not appear because he’d been offended by barbed criticism from the NAACP’s leaders.

A snub of the country’s largest civil rights organization would make Bush — who last spoke to the NAACP in 2000 when he was seeking election — the first president since Herbert Hoover not to address its convention.

The sharpest criticism has come from NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, who told business leaders and lawmakers In Indiana last month that Bush and other Republicans appeal to a racist “dark underside of American culture.”

Chicago

Study: Rapid AIDS testing during child labor beneficial

Government research shows a rapid HIV test can be used on women during childbirth, results that doctors hope will help reduce HIV infections in newborns.

Though HIV infection of newborns is not widespread in the United States, it is of great concern in Africa and elsewhere.

It takes about 20 minutes to get results from rapid tests compared with more than a day for conventional HIV testing. Testing during childbirth allows doctors to begin treating the mother during labor — when most mother-to-infant infections occur — and to start early preventive treatment in newborns.

An estimated 700,000 children worldwide developed HIV infections last year, most from mother-to-child transmission during childbirth or early infancy. The problem is especially acute in southern Africa, where about 1 in 5 pregnant women has HIV but is unaware of it and many don’t see a doctor until giving birth.