NATION IN BRIEF

· ST. PAUL, Minn. -- In addition to heavy traffic, missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River faced a less obvious enemy: pigeons. Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W framework made the steel beams rust faster. Investigators have not identified the cause of the Aug. 1 collapse.

· KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine -- An 81-year-old houseguest suffered a fatal heart attack at the summer home of former president George H.W. Bush. John C. Jansing, the husband of Bush's cousin Shelley Bush Jansing, was taken by paramedics to the emergency room at Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford late Tuesday. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. The Jansings lived in Harbor Springs, Mich., and Hobe Sound, Fla.

· WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Florida's top police agency said its investigation into former congressman Mark Foley's lurid Internet communications with teenage boys has been hindered because neither Foley nor the House will let investigators examine his congressional computers. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says it hopes to conclude its investigation within 10 days. Foley resigned from Congress on Sept. 29 after being confronted with the computer messages he sent to male teenage pages who had worked on Capitol Hill.

-- From News Services