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Duke disputes report lacrosse team to return

DURHAM, N.C. - Duke University officials said Friday they haven't decided the future of the school's men's lacrosse program, which was suspended from play after a student at a nearby university told police she was raped at a team party.

University spokesman John Burness denied several published reports that the school planned to announce next week the team would return to play next season.

Duke officials suspended the highly ranked lacrosse team after a 27-year-old black student at North Carolina Central University hired to perform as a stripper at a March 13 team party said she was raped by three white men in a bathroom.

Duke later canceled what was left of the team's season, accepted the resignation of its coach and began a series of internal investigations into the lacrosse program and the school's reaction to the rape allegations.

A grand jury has indicted three players on charges of first-degree rape, sexual offense and kidnapping.

Judge denies Libby's document request

WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Friday rejected a bid by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to see a range of classified government documents that he said are needed to prepare his legal defense against charges of obstruction of justice and lying to government investigators.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was indicted in October, accused of lying about his conversations with three journalists regarding former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and Wilson's wife, CIA officer Valerie Plame.

In the summer of 2003, Wilson accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's nuclear ambitions to justify the invasion.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ruled Libby is entitled to see documents directly related to his efforts at the White House to rebut what Wilson had written about the intelligence. But Libby cannot have other information about a CIA-sponsored trip Wilson had made to Niger in 2002 to determine whether Iraq was seeking nuclear weapons material there, Walton said.

Elsewhere...

FATAL PLANE CRASH: A Learjet registered to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson crashed in Long Island Sound while flying in heavy fog Friday, killing both pilots. Three passengers escaped without serious injury. Robertson was not aboard.

PLANT FIRE: An explosion and fire ripped through a manufacturing plant in northwest Ohio, injuring at least five employees and leading to the evacuation of several hundred homes, officials said.

[Last modified June 3, 2006, 06:34:52]