The nation in brief

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 7, 2001

250 want to watch McVeigh die

OKLAHOMA CITY -- About 250 people who were injured or lost loved ones in the Oklahoma City bombing want to watch Timothy McVeigh put to death for the attack.

Federal prison officials are weighing how to accommodate those who want to witness the first federal execution since 1963, and are considering the possibility of a closed-circuit television broadcast.

The death chamber at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., where McVeigh is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 16 has only eight seats for witnesses for the victims.

In January, the government sent out about 1,100 letters to bombing survivors and victims' relatives asking if they want to watch the execution. The number of responses was disclosed Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Paul Heath and seven other bombing survivors have asked attorney Karen Howick to go to court if necessary to give victims a closed-circuit telecast of the execution. Howick said there is a good chance the government will allow it.

Shuttle launch tonight

When the space shuttle Atlantis streaks from Cape Canaveral at 6:11 p.m. today it will carry one of its most expensive payloads.

The $1.38-billion Destiny module, a bus-sized laboratory compartment for the growing International Space Station, will be attached later this week and give the United States its own permanent research facility in space for the first time since Skylab came crashing down to Earth in 1979.

If anything goes wrong and the Destiny module is damaged, lost or destroyed, it would set back the construction of the space station for years.

Its deployment will involve several difficult maneuvers, the trickiest of which will come when astronaut Marsha Ivins has to use the shuttle's robot arm to lift the 28-foot-long, 16-ton cylinder from the shuttle's cargo bay so that it can be attached to a central hub of the space station. As it rises from the bay, the module will have only an inch of clearance on either side. Three spacewalks also will be needed.

Va. Senate okays waiting period for abortion

RICHMOND -- The Virginia Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that will require women seeking abortions to wait 24 hours after seeing a doctor before the procedure can be performed. The measure also has passed the House, and Gov. James S. Gilmore III has said he will sign it into law.

Supporters of the bill said it would not restrict a woman's choice but rather provide her with a right to fully understand what abortion means. Besides the 24-hour wait, the "informed consent" bill requires that doctors offer to show patients pictures of fetal development and provide other information.

Passage of the bill by a vote of 24-16 was preceded by an impassioned debate during the past two days. Opponents predicted that Virginia women will leave the state for abortions.

The 24-hour waiting period bill is the most recent legal restriction on abortion sought by Virginia's social conservatives, who in the past few years have successfully pushed for a law requiring parents to be told when a minor seeks an abortion and for a ban on certain late-term abortions, which last year was found unconstitutional.

Tracking rampage guns

MELROSE PARK, Ill. -- A day after a factory rampage left five people dead, police spent Tuesday trying to learn how the gunman, a convicted felon, was able to get the weapons he used.

William D. Baker, 66, killed four people at the Navistar plant Monday before committing suicide. He had been scheduled to report to prison Tuesday for taking part in an engine-theft ring at the plant in 1993-94.

He used a .38-caliber pistol and an assault rifle in the attack, police Chief Vito Scavo said. Police said they don't know how or when he got the weapons, though a shotgun and hunting rifle he also carried were bought legally in 1993.

26 more tire deaths

WASHINGTON -- Twenty-six more deaths have been linked to Firestone tires that shed their treads, primarily while on Ford Explorers, the federal government reported Tuesday. The additional deaths push the toll to 174.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also increased the tally of complaints about separations and accidents involving Firestone ATX, ATXII and Wilderness AT tires from 4,300 to 6,000.

None of the added 26 deaths occurred after the recall.

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