Political columnist Robert Novak dies
WASHINGTON (AP) - Political columnist Robert Novak, a conservative, pugilistic debater and proud owner of the "Prince of Darkness" moniker, died Tuesday after a battle with brain cancer that was diagnosed in July 2008. He was 78.
His wife of 47 years, Geraldine Novak, told The Associated Press that he died at his home in Washington early in the morning.
A household face as co-host of CNN's "Crossfire," Novak had been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades.
Card hacker thieves still on the loose
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - This week's indictment of a hacker believed responsible for the biggest retail-store data breaches in U.S. history doesn't necessarily make shoppers safer from having their credit card numbers plundered.
Accomplices to the crimes are believed to be on the loose in Russia or other countries where U.S. authorities are less likely to get them. And the underlying security holes mined by the hackers still exist in many payment networks.
Albert Gonzalez, a Miami hacker who once worked as a government mole tracking down identity thieves, is accused of playing a critical role in all the largest credit-card heists on record.
With Monday's indictment of Gonzalez on conspiracy charges in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the Justice Department says he helped steal 130 million card numbers.
Factory logjam could delay swine flu shots
WASHINGTON (AP) - Faced with a delay, health officials are trying to counter new problems with swine flu vaccine production including a logjam at factories that put the precious liquid into syringes.
The newest calculations show the nation won't have the long-promised 120 million doses ready to dispense by Oct. 15, but just 45 million instead. It appears to be more of a delay than a shortage: More are expected to arrive rapidly, about 20 million doses shipped every week, according to the latest estimates by the Department of Health and Human Services.
"Hopefully there are ways to bring that number up," Dr. Robin Robinson, the department's chief of vaccine procurement, said Tuesday.
"We're trying to bring on more manufacturing" for the final packaging step, he said, such as having companies that finish first share their facilities with stragglers.
Swine flu vaccinations still are planned for mid-October, and Robinson noted that 45 million doses means a lot of people inoculated. Add in the weekly deliveries, and there should be 85 million doses on hand by October's end, and the full 195 million the government has ordered by December, the long-set date for final delivery.
But he acknowledged that if there are early outbreaks in September and October, there could be higher-than-anticipated demand for the swine flu vaccine.
"As we've all along said, if things can go wrong they will," Robinson said.