WASHINGTON IN BRIEF

Payments to Victims Of Katrina Ordered

For the second time in eight days, a federal judge in Washington ordered the Bush administration yesterday to immediately resume making housing payments to thousands of families whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said last week that the confusing, often contradictory letters to hurricane victims from the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not explain why rental payments were cut off. He said that violated the Constitution.

FEMA appealed that ruling and asked Leon not to force the agency to restart the program while that case plays out. Leon refused yesterday to do so. He ordered FEMA to come to court Wednesday to discuss how many evacuees are due housing payments and how the funding will be restored.

2-Missile Interception Fails in Navy Drill

A drill planned to demonstrate the Navy's ability to knock down two incoming missiles at once from the same ship failed off Hawaii's coast, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said.

A computer configuration problem aboard the anti-missile ship USS Lake Erie grounded one interceptor missile and officials halted the second during the test of the sea-based missile defense system.

It was the second failure in nine tests, said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Chris Taylor.

McKinney Bill Seeks Bush Impeachment

In what was probably her final legislative act in Congress, outgoing Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) announced legislation to impeach President Bush.

The bill has no chance of passing and serves as a symbolic parting shot not only at Bush but also at Democratic leaders. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made it clear she will not entertain proposals to sanction Bush and has warned the liberal wing of her party against making political hay of impeachment.

McKinney said Bush violated his oath of office to defend the Constitution and the nation's laws.

Envoy to Urge Sudan To Accept U.N. Troops

Andrew S. Natsios, President Bush's envoy to Sudan, left yesterday for Khartoum in a last-ditch effort to persuade the leadership there to accept a peacekeeping force in Darfur that would include United Nations troops.

Natsios said last month that the Sudanese government must conclude an agreement with the U.N. and the African Union on a peacekeeping force for Darfur before Jan. 1 or face changed political circumstances.

The U.S. envoy helped win Sudan's tentative agreement Nov. 16 for the deployment of a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force of up to 23,000 soldiers and police, but Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has since stepped back from the accord, saying his country will accept only U.N. financial and logistical support for the African force.

For the Record

· A Liberian man was sentenced to 33 months in prison and faces deportation for trying to extort $2 million from the Christian Science Monitor by promising to win the release of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll. Kelvin Kamara was arrested two weeks before Carroll was released unharmed in Iraq after 82 days.

-- From News Services