U.N. starts investigation into killings in Jenin

UNITED NATIONS -- With Israel's approval, the Security Council unanimously adopted a U.S. resolution Friday welcoming the dispatch of a U.N. team to find out what happened in Jenin during the Israeli military's sustained attacks.

Arab nations have accused Israel of a massacre in the Jenin refugee camp but Israel says the deaths and destruction were the result of gunbattles between its soldiers and Palestinian gunmen.

The council adopted the resolution hours after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Secretary-General Kofi Annan that it would welcome a U.N. representative "to clarify the facts" of what happened in the Jenin refugee camp.

Hundreds attend funeral of ex-Justice Byron White

DENVER -- Hundreds of mourners, including five U.S. Supreme Court justices, attended the funeral Friday of retired Justice Byron R. White, a tough law-and-order jurist who served 31 years on the high court.

White, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Kennedy in 1962 and retired in 1993, died Monday of complications from pneumonia at age 84.

About 700 mourners packed St. John's Cathedral for an emotional service that eulogized White as a respected public servant and loving father, husband and grandfather.

Bioterrorism lab worker tests positive for anthrax

FREDERICK, Md. -- A worker at a bioterrorism laboratory at Fort Detrick has tested positive for exposure to anthrax spores, officials said Friday.

The civilian researcher had been previously immunized for anthrax but has begun antibiotic treatment as a precaution, base spokesman Charles Dasey said.

Anthrax spores also were detected in a hallway and an administrative room at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease, but appeared to be contained to the area. Investigators don't know how spores escaped from the biocontainment lab, Dasey said.

"We think it was an accidental exposure," he said.

Prosecutors seek death in espionage case

WASHINGTON -- Government lawyers told a federal judge Friday they intend to seek the death penalty if they win a conviction against a retired Air Force master sergeant on charges he tried to spy for Iraq, Libya and China.

The government accused Brian Patrick Regan, 39, of creating a "grave risk of death" to U.S. military pilots patrolling the no-fly zone over Iraq. Regan allegedly intended to sell Iraqi president Saddam Hussein secret details about American satellites that could help Iraq hide its anti-aircraft missiles.

United parent loses near-record $510 million

CHICAGO -- United Airlines parent UAL Corp. reported a $510 million first-quarter loss Friday, its second-biggest setback ever, as it continues to struggle to lure back business travelers.

The loss was the seventh in a row for the nation's second-biggest airline, exceeded only by the $1.16 billion loss in last year's third quarter, when the terrorist attacks threw the industry into crisis. Two of the jetliners hijacked Sept. 11 were United flights.

"We certainly are seeing signs that our industry's situation is beginning to improve, but there still is a long way to go," chief executive Jack Creighton said.

--From wire reports