Nation in brief

Scientists push for AIDS fix

WASHINGTON - A crash program to develop an AIDS vaccine may be the only way to reduce a worldwide death toll that could reach 70-million by 2020, some of the world's leading researchers say.

Twenty-four scientific leaders advanced a formal proposal in the journal Science on Thursday calling for a network of coordinated research centers dedicated to the sole purpose of developing and testing an AIDS vaccine.

Co-authors of the proposal include two Nobel prize winners, the heads of major public health departments of the U.S. government, and AIDS researchers from France, South Africa, England, Switzerland, China, India and the United Nations.

A crash program to develop and test an AIDS vaccine, the experts said, could cost billions of dollars and take five to 10 years.

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency's No. 2 official, who had been considered a possible successor to Christie Whitman, unexpectedly resigned on Thursday.

Although the official, Linda J. Fisher, will serve as acting administrator for the next two weeks after Whitman steps down as the agency's administrator on Friday, her departure will leave the agency without its top two officials until a permanent successor is nominated and approved, a process that could last until the fall.

BOSTON - The University of Massachusetts trustees decided Thursday to keep William Bulger as president despite an uproar over his relationship with his mobster brother.

Bulger had not broken any laws, and the board chose to keep him because of his distinguished record as the university's president, said Board of Trustees chairwoman Grace Fey after the six-hour meeting to discuss Bulger's future.

HONOLULU - An unmanned plane that set an altitude record two years ago broke apart during a test flight Thursday and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, NASA officials said.

The remotely piloted, one-of-a-kind Helios Prototype crashed off Kauai within the testing area of the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, NASA said in a news release. The $15-million, solar-electric, propeller-driven Helios had a wingspan of 247 feet and looked more like a flying wing than a conventional plane.

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