In the Nation

NEW YORK - Evidence from the work clothes of a hotel housekeeper matched DNA samples taken from Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund who has been charged with sexually assaulting her, a person briefed on the matter said Monday.

The reported test results were consistent with what law enforcement officials have said about the account by the woman, 32, whose name has not been released.

They are also consistent with what lawyers for Strauss-Kahn, 62, have suggested would be his defense - that a sexual encounter indeed occurred when she went to clean his room May 14 but was consensual.

Strauss-Kahn, in a brief letter resigning his post last week, denied the allegations. - N.Y. Times News Service

BUFFALO - The contest to fill a vacant U.S. House seat in Upstate New York's conservative 26th District was tightening up in a special election Tuesday that was supposed to be an easy win for Republicans. Instead, it has become a referendum on the party's plan to transform Medicare.

A Siena College poll published Saturday showed Democrat Kathy Hochul with 42 percent to Republican Jane Corwin's 38 percent in the race to succeed GOP Rep. Chris Lee, who resigned in February after shirtless photos he sent to a woman were published online. Wealthy tea-party candidate Jack Davis had 12 percent.

Corwin, a state assemblywoman and multimillionaire, saw her lead evaporate after expressing support for a plan crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) to strip billions from Medicare and recast it as a voucher program. The race has drawn more than $2 million from national parties and independent groups. - AP

NORFOLK, Va. - Two Somalian men pleaded guilty Monday to piracy in the hijacking of a yacht that left all four Americans on board dead.

Burhan Abdirahman Yusuf and Jilani Abdiali face mandatory life sentences but as part of a plea agreement could serve less time and eventually be deported to Somalia.

They are among 14 Somalis and a Yemeni facing charges related to the February hijacking of the Quest. Three of those men have already pleaded guilty to piracy in plea deals; two others are expected to make similar deals Tuesday. Abdiali told U.S. District Judge Mark Davis through a translator at a hearing Monday that he had never committed a crime before becoming a pirate and would work tirelessly for the U.S. government.

The Quest's owners, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., and friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle were shot to death several days after being taken hostage several hundred miles south of Oman. - AP

Floods along the Mississippi River and its tributaries have affected almost 3.6 million acres of cropland, causing the most damage in Arkansas, the American Farm Bureau Federation said.