Nation briefs 11/3/03

Man sought for tower tampering is arrested

SAN FRANCISCO -- A man sought by the FBI for allegedly loosening bolts on a high voltage power line tower in Northern California was arrested Sunday when he walked into a California Highway Patrol office looking for directions.

Michael Devyln Poulin said his action was intended to highlight domestic insecurity, and that he had been trying to surrender.

He was arrested in South Sacramento after a CHP employee recognized him from a wanted poster, said patrol spokesman Tom Marshall.

"I wish they were all this easy," Marshall said. Poulin said he was looking for directions to the FBI office in Sacramento and did not resist arrest, Marshall said.

White House will give Iraq info to Senate panel

WASHINGTON -- The White House reversed itself and promised the Senate Intelligence Committee access to all materials requested for its inquiry into prewar intelligence on Iraq, the committee chairman said Sunday.

A White House spokesman remained noncommittal, promising "a spirit of cooperation" but no specifics. Spokesman Trent Duffy reiterated administration doubts about the committee's jurisdiction over the White House.

Foreign enrollment slows in American colleges

A new study says the number of foreign students attending U.S. colleges increased by less than 1 percent in 2002-03 -- the lowest growth rate in seven years. It's just the latest piece of evidence that international students are shying away from the United States because of tough immigration rules.

The Institute of International Education said tightened visa procedures enacted after the 2001 terrorist attacks, which have delayed the entry of many foreigners into the United States, contributed to the low growth rate.

The IIE said in its annual "Open Doors" report, to be released today, that foreign enrollment increased by only 0.6 percent last year. In each of the two previous academic years, foreign enrollment had increased by 6.4 percent.

Pleas would make Green River Killer most prolific

SEATTLE -- This week, a slight man with thick glasses, a man who has been married three times and is the father of one child, is to stand before a judge who will ask him at least 48 times how he pleads to separate charges of murder.

Each time, Gary Leon Ridgway will respond "guilty," sources involved with the case have told The Associated Press. When it's over Wednesday, he will have more murders on his record than any other serial killer in the nation's history. And a mystery that confounded detectives for two decades will come to a close.

Ridgway, 54, a longtime painter at Kenworth Truck Co., is expected to admit being the Green River Killer, named for the river south of Seattle where the first victims were found.

-- From wire reports