Friday, June 9, 2006

Harvard President Says Goodbye at Graduation

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers presided over his final commencement Thursday, enjoying a warm reception from students and later challenging the university to make bold use of its unmatched financial resources as it carries on under new leadership.

Set to leave office June 30 after five tumultuous years, Summers spoke at Harvard's 355th commencement to confer 6,706 degrees in rainy Harvard Yard.

Later, he told an audience of alumni he is proud of Harvard's progress during his tenure -- though he is disappointed it is ending.

"There was much more I wanted, felt inspired, to do," Summers said.

The former Treasury secretary announced his resignation in February; he had clashed with faculty after controversial remarks he made about women failing to reach the highest posts in scientific fields. He has said he will take a sabbatical next year and then return as a professor. Former Harvard president Derek Bok will lead the university while a successor is chosen.

LOS ANGELES -- Two more members of a California family have been indicted in connection with an investigation into an attempt to send sensitive information about Navy warship technology to China.

Wednesday's indictment by a grand jury in Santa Ana brought to five the members of a Chinese American family charged with being Chinese agents, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said.

Chi Mak, 65, an engineer at a Navy defense contractor; his wife; and his brother were indicted in November. Mak's sister-in-law Fuk Heung Li and his nephew Billy Yui Mak, 26, were indicted Wednesday.

None of the five has been charged with espionage because the material was not formally classified.

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· ST. LOUIS -- Missouri's attorney general, a candidate for governor, agreed to return more than $19,000 in donations that came indirectly from a utility he is investigating over the collapse of a reservoir. In an e-mail to the Associated Press, Jay Nixon's campaign said it was returning the money to the four Democratic committees that contributed it in March. All four had received $5,000 checks from Ameren Corp.

· MEMPHIS -- Former state Sen. Roscoe Dixon (D) was convicted of extortion for taking payoffs from a fake company set up by the FBI to catch corrupt lawmakers. Sentencing was set for Sept. 8. The maximum penalty is 90 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine.

· TAMPA -- Two middle school teachers resigned after students saw them having sex in a classroom, the school district said. Frances J. Sepulveda, 30, and Bryant J. Wilburn, 29, said they had sex in the classroom during school hours on "one or two occasions," according to an investigation by the Hillsborough County School District.

· ANCHORAGE -- Crews searching for two mountain climbers missing on one of Alaska's most difficult peaks spotted a torn backpack in an avalanche debris field, and fear that the women have been without food and fuel for over a week. Sue Nott and Karen McNeill, both experienced climbers, started up Mount Foraker on May 14 and planned to complete the route in 10 to 14 days.

-- From News Services