The News in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

Kucinich abandoning bid for White House

CLEVELAND—Democrat Dennis Kucinich is abandoning his second, long-shot bid for the White House as he faces a tough fight to hold onto his other job — U.S. congressman.

In an interview with Cleveland’s Plain Dealer, the six-term House member said he was quitting the race and would make a formal announcement on Friday.

Kucinich has received little support in his presidential bid; he got 1 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary and was shut out in the Iowa caucuses. He did have a devoted following.

Kucinich, 61, is facing four challengers in the Ohio Democratic congressional primary March 4, and earlier this week he made an urgent appeal on his Web site for funds for his re-election. Rival Joe Cimperman has been critical of Kucinich for focusing too much time outside of his district while campaigning for president.

His decision comes a month after the death of his youngest brother, Perry Kucinich.

Kucinich said he will not endorse another Democrat in the primary.

Italian premier resigns after losing Senate vote

ROME—?Italian Premier Romano Prodi resigned Thursday night after his government lost a risky Senate confidence vote.

The center-left government fell four votes short of the 160 needed for victory. The vote was 161-156.

Elected in April 2006, Prodi has had a shaky government from nearly the start. But it lurched toward collapse after a small Christian Democrat party, whose votes were vital to a coalition majority in the Senate, yanked its support earlier this week in the latest squabbling among his allies.

Calling early elections or asking a politician to try to form another government are among President Giorgio Napolitano’s options as head of state.

The Presidential Palace said Napolitano would start consulting Friday with political leaders to help him decide

Border Patrol agent honored at memorial

YUMA—A U.S. Border Patrol agent killed over the weekend when he was run over by a suspected drug smuggler was honored at a memorial service Thursday.

Law enforcement officers from across the Southwest filled the Yuma Civic Center to remember Senior Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar. The 32-year-old agent was killed Saturday while trying to place spike strips in front of a Hummer fleeing other agents in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area in southeastern California, about 20 miles west of Yuma.

A funeral procession of law enforcement vehicles served as an honor guard for Aguilar’s body, leading it from Immaculate Conception Church to the civic center.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner W. Ralph Basham and Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar attended the service.

Paul Wolfowitz named to lead arms panel

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Former World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz will head a high-level advisory panel on arms control and disarmament, the State Department said Thursday.

The move by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice marks a return to government for Wolfowitz, a conservative with close ties to the White House. As deputy defense secretary under President Bush, he was a major architect of the Iraq war.

Wolfowitz was replaced as World Bank chief last June after a stormy two-year tenure. His leadership was undermined by a furor over a hefty compensation package he arranged in 2005 for a bank employee who was also his girlfriend.

Wolfowitz will become chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, which reports to the secretary of state. The panel is charged with supplying independent advice on arms control, disarmament, nonproliferation and related subjects.

Asteroid to make close pass by Earth

LOS ANGELES—An asteroid at least 500 feet long will make a rare close pass by Earth next week, but there is no chance of an impact, scientists reported Thursday.

The object, known as 2007 TU24, is expected to whiz by Earth on Tuesday with its closest approach at 334,000 miles, or about 1.4 times the distance of Earth to the moon.

The nighttime encounter should be bright enough for medium-sized telescopes to get a glimpse, said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which tracks potentially dangerous space rocks.

However, next week’s asteroid pass “has no chance of hitting, or affecting, Earth,” Yeomans said.

An actual collision of a similar-sized object with Earth occurs on average every 37,000 years.