Nation in brief

Scientists rule out 2029 asteroid impact

PASADENA, Calif. - Additional observations have ruled out the chance that a recently discovered asteroid, believed to be about 1,300 feet long, could hit Earth in 2029, NASA scientists said.

Last week, asteroid 2004 MN4 had been given a small chance of impacting Earth, based on observations in June and this month.

The Spacewatch Observatory near Tucson, Ariz., found faint pictures of the asteroid in archival images dating to March 15.

The pictures allowed scientists to refine the asteroid's projected trajectory.

Scientists also ruled out an impact with the moon.

WASHINGTON - The head of the CIA's analytic division told her staff Tuesday that she is resigning, becoming the latest high-level departure in an ongoing shakeup of the agency's ranks by new director Porter Goss.

Jami A. Miscik told colleagues that her last day as deputy director of intelligence would be Feb. 4, according to an internal CIA e-mail obtained by the Los Angeles Times in which she also indicated that she had been forced out.

Miscik, 46, had served in the job since May 2002 and has been the target of criticism because her department was largely responsible for erroneous prewar assessments that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

FBI NAMES NEW COUNTERTERROR CHIEF: FBI director Robert Mueller on Tuesday named Willie T. Hulon to lead the agency's counterterrorism division, the sixth person to hold the job since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

WASHINGTON - The House ethics committee will investigate Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., to determine whether he violated standards of conduct when an illegally recorded telephone conversation was leaked to reporters during a 1997 committee investigation.

McDermott was ranking Democrat on the ethics committee at the time, and the panel was investigating the conduct of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

The incident began when a North Florida couple taped Rep. John Boehner of Ohio in a cell phone conversation discussing the Gingrich case with other Republicans.

AUGUSTA, Maine - Jane Gray Muskie, whose husband Edmund Muskie's 1972 presidential campaign collapsed after he defended her honor with what appeared to be tears in his eyes, has died at 77.

Mrs. Muskie, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died at home in Bethesda, Md., Saturday (Dec. 25, 2004), Maine Gov. John Baldacci said.

Mrs. Muskie accompanied her husband during his rise in Democratic politics from the Maine Legislature to the governor's house, the U.S. Senate and to President Jimmy Carter's Cabinet as secretary of state. Edmund Muskie died of a heart attack in 1996 at 81.

PUERTO RICO DECLARES GOVERNOR: The Puerto Rico elections commission Tuesday certified that Anibel Acevedo Vila won the governor's race, a victory for a politician who supports the island's status as U.S. territory. The announcement closed a two-month recount and court challenge.

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2004: Top 10 stories of the year

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