NASA will try Tuesday to launch Endeavour

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA will try again Tuesday to launch space shuttle Endeavour on a flight to the international space station after two cosmonauts aboard the orbiting outpost go out on a spacewalk to clear away a piece of junk.

The long, cordlike piece of debris is preventing an unmanned Russian supply ship from latching securely to the space station, a problem that is keeping Endeavour waiting on the launch pad.

The spacewalk is set for Monday.

The docking problem led NASA to call off Endeavour's launch Thursday. The space agency worried that the force of the shuttle might cause the supply ship to wobble and damage the space station.

GOP national chairman to resign in January

WASHINGTON -- Republican National Chairman Jim Gilmore disclosed plans to resign Friday after a one-year tenure marked by disappointing election results and internal party tensions.

Gilmore's departure, effective in mid-January, clears the way for President Bush to install a new party head in advance of 2002 elections, with control of Congress and three dozen statehouses at stake.

Moving quickly, the White House asked Republican leaders throughout the country for advice on a successor.

Gilmore said he was stepping down from the party post for family reasons.

Woman shoots suspect in child porn case

COVINGTON, Ky. -- An angry mother shot a man who allegedly had nude pictures of young boys and had spent time with her son, authorities said.

Larry Eugene Howell was shot once in the groin and once in the side Thursday night in the front seat of his van in a drug store parking lot next to the police department, Police Sgt. Teal Nally said.

Howell, 40, was in critical condition Friday.

The woman was charged with first-degree assault.

Her son was not pictured in about 25 photographs taken from Howell's residence, but the woman was upset because her son had spent time with Howell, authorities said.

Study: Risk of mad cow disease low, but not zero

WASHINGTON -- Mad-cow disease is highly unlikely to ever take hold in U.S. cattle because of measures taken to prevent its spread, and the chances of human sickness are even more remote, according to a Harvard University study released Friday.

The study said a 1997 ban on the feeding of meat and bone meal to cattle is the nation's most critical defense against an epidemic of the disease.

Mad cow is linked to a human brain-wasting disease that has killed about 100 people in Europe.

The Harvard study said there is as much as a 20 percent chance that mad cow was introduced into the country before imports of British cattle were banned in 1989. However, it is unlikely that those cattle caused any new cases, the study said.

Patriotic M&Ms to benefit Red Cross

TRENTON, N.J. -- Packages of red, white and blue M&Ms will be sold to raise money for disaster relief.

The idea came from workers on the M&M assembly line in Hackettstown, N.J., Sept. 11. The candy went into production days later. At first, the patriotic candies were handed out only to rescuers at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

The company marketed flag-colored M&Ms once before, but this is the first time its has sold the candy for charity.

Profits from the 5 million packages, expected to top $3 million, will go to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

-- From wire reports