In the Nation

Top law-enforcement officers from eight states, including Pennsylvania, asked MySpace.com yesterday to turn over the names of registered sex offenders who use the social-networking Web site.

In a letter, the attorneys general asked MySpace to provide information on how many registered sex offenders were using the site, and where they live. Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett signed the letter, along with his counterparts from Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Ohio.

Attorneys for MySpace said they had not seen the letter and could not comment. In December, MySpace said it was partnering with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. to build a database with information on sex offenders in the United States. - AP

SAN DIEGO - The former No. 3 CIA official pleaded not guilty yesterday to new charges that he pushed a proposed government contract worth at least $100 million for his best friend in return for lavish vacations, private jet flights, and a lucrative job offer.

The indictment replaced charges brought in February against Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who resigned from the CIA a year ago, and the friend, defense contractor Brent Wilkes.

The charges grew from the bribery scandal that landed former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in prison. Foggo and Wilkes now face 30 wide-ranging counts of fraud, conspiracy and money-laundering. Foggo resigned last May after his home and office were raided by federal agents. - AP

The Bush administration made more than 200 revisions to the first report of a civilian board that oversees government protection of personal privacy, including the deletion of a passage on anti-terrorism programs that intelligence officials deemed "potentially problematic" intrusions on civil liberties, according to a draft of the report obtained by the Washington Post.

One of the panel's five members, Democrat Lanny J. Davis, resigned in protest yesterday over deletions ordered by White House lawyers and aides. The changes came after the congressionally created Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board had unanimously approved the final draft of its first report to lawmakers, renewing an internal debate over the board's independence. The panel was created by Congress to address concerns about the government's growing anti-terrorism surveillance powers but placed under the supervision of the White House without investigative tools such as subpoenas. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called the editing "standard operating procedure." - Washington Post

A local-news Web site's editor who hired two reporters in India to cover Pasadena, Calif., said he had been so overwhelmed by reaction to his plan that he had to postpone publication of their first stories.

A riverboat-style cruise ship, the Empress of the North, ran aground off the Alaska coast yesterday, forcing an evacuation of more than 200 passengers before it could move again with a Coast Guard escort.

Firefighters kept a sprawling wildfire along the Georgia-Florida line in check yesterday, though officials warned that more residents might have to evacuate.