In the Nation

RIVERTON, Utah - FBI agents wearing protective suits searched yesterday for the poison ricin at a home where a man possibly sickened by the poison had once lived.

Authorities believed they had found all of the ricin in several vials recovered Thursday from a Las Vegas motel where Roger Von Bergendorff had been staying, but they wanted to also check the home in Riverton, outside Salt Lake City. Nearby homes were evacuated for a time as FBI agents searched the home belonging to Von Bergendorff's cousin Thomas Tholan.

Von Bergendorff had been staying in the motel room where the ricin was found and has been hospitalized since Feb. 14. Police and the FBI have not been able to question him about the ricin in his room, but they say they have found no terror links.

Neighbors say Von Bergendorff lived in the Tholan home for about a year before moving to Las Vegas about a year ago.

- Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The number of Iraqi refugees admitted to the United States rose slightly for the second month in a row, although the Bush administration still will struggle to meet its target of 12,000 by the end of September.

The State Department said Saturday that 444 Iraqi refugees entered the country in February. That puts total admissions for the current budget year, which began Oct. 1, at 1,876 and leaves the administration seven months to admit 10,124 to reach its goal.

"This is a modest improvement, but still well short of where we expect to be a few months from now," said James Foley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's point man on the issue.

"We think the turning point will come by May," Foley said, noting that there are thousands of refugee interviews scheduled this month and next. But he said the slow pace of processing in Syria, home to the largest number of Iraqi refugees, remains problematic.

- Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The House intelligence committee chairman said he expected a compromise soon on renewing an eavesdropping law that could give legal protections to telecommunications companies as President Bush has insisted.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D., Texas), in an interview broadcast yesterday, did not specifically say whether the House proposal would mirror the Senate's version. The Senate measure provides retroactive legal immunity to the companies that helped the government wiretap U.S. computer and phone lines after the Sept. 11 attacks without clearance from a secret court.

Reyes said he was open to that possibility after receiving documents from the Bush administration and speaking to the companies about the industry's role in the government spy program.

"We are talking to the representatives from the communications companies because if we're going to give them blanket immunity, we want to know and we want to understand what it is that we're giving immunity for," he said. "I have an open mind about that."

- AP