Around the Nation

Trial date set in CIA leak case

A federal judge yesterday set a trial date for early next year for a former top White House aide facing perjury and other charges stemming from the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity to the press.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said jury selection would begin Jan. 8 in the case of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff. He faces five counts of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice. Mr. Libby, who attended the hearing, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The judge set the next hearing in the case for Feb. 24.

Meanwhile, friends and supporters of Mr. Libby have raised $2 million to help him pay his legal bills.

The Scooter Libby Legal Defense Trust hopes to raise $5 million to $6 million, or more, said Barbara Comstock, a Republican strategist who is helping the fund’s steering committee.

The fund’s existence was first reported yesterday by the New York Times.

Fire destroys five churches

CENTREVILLLE, Ala. — Five small churches were burned to the ground or otherwise damaged in a string of fires that investigators said were apparently set one after another by arsonists making their way down the highway.

The fires broke out late Thursday or early yesterday at mostly Baptist churches in Bibb County, about 25 miles south of Birmingham. Chief Deputy Sheriff Kenneth Weems said the blazes were set “as fast as they could drive from one location to the next.”

There were no arrests and no injuries were reported. Authorities were uncertain of a motive or how many arsonists took part.

The FBI joined the investigation by state and local authorities.

Ragan Ingram, a spokesman for the state insurance agency that oversees fire investigations, said the fires destroyed both black churches and white ones.

Three churches were destroyed, and two others were damaged.

Court blocks access to abortion records

TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas Supreme Court yesterday temporarily stopped the state attorney general from looking at records from two abortion clinics, saying such a review could violate patient privacy.

The high court ordered a lower court judge to first make sure that Attorney General Phill Kline has the right to see the documents in his investigation of potential violations of state restrictions on abortion and suspected rapes of children.

If Judge Richard Anderson determines Mr. Kline does have that right, he still must ensure that the patients’ privacy is protected, the court said.

Mr. Kline said yesterday he was pleased with the ruling because he thinks the subpoenas eventually will be honored.

Peter Brownlie, Planned Parenthood’s chief executive officer, called it “a significant victory for us and our patients and for women being freely able to access health care when they need to.”

Workers refloat grounded tanker

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Three tugboats helped pull a grounded fuel tanker off a beach on the Kenai Peninsula yesterday, one day after an ice floe pulled the tanker from its mooring and sent it adrift.

The tanker was being filled when it broke lose at the port of Nikiski, 80 miles southwest of Anchorage. Eighty-four gallons of fuel spilled into Cook Inlet, but the tanker’s hull didn’t appear to have cracked, the Coast Guard said.

It took about 40 minutes to refloat the 575-foot Seabulk Pride, said Kip Knudson, a spokesman for Tesoro Alaska, which leases the ship. He said the tanker was pulled into deeper water where it was being inspected.

Cultural center has $36 million debt

The $75 million John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, completed in 2001, is $36 million in debt, according to an article published yesterday by the National Catholic Reporter.

Called a “100,000-square-foot money pit,” the article says the combination think tank, museum and exhibit hall on 12 acres across the street from Catholic University and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception gets very few visitors, is expensive to operate and has no endowment.

The Archdiocese of Detroit and its leader, Cardinal Adam Maida, are carrying the debt while at the same time having to close schools and consolidate churches to keep financially afloat, the magazine says.

From staff reports and wire dispatches