Undersecretary

President Bush will nominate John G. Keller Jr., his chief advance man, as undersecretary of commerce for travel and tourism.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's top expert on anti-terrorism technology has privately advised her to spike a long-planned, multibillion-dollar upgrade of BioWatch, the nation's troubled system for detecting a biological attack. Dr. Tara O'Toole, the department's undersecretary for science and technology, doubts that the so-called Generation 3 version of BioWatch could be relied on to detect anthrax, smallpox, plague or other deadly germs in the event of a biological attack, scientists familiar with the matter said.

Rodney J. Blonien, formerly undersecretary of California's Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, has been named a partner of the international law firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey and will head the firm's Sacramento branch.

Lawrence S. Eagleburger, the wisecracking, chain-smoking diplomat who charmed both Republicans and Democrats, handled tense assignments during the first Persian Gulf War and rose up the ranks to become secretary of State toward the end of President George H.W. Bush's administration, has died. He was 80. Eagleburger died Saturday after a short illness in Charlottesville, Va., a family spokeswoman told the Associated Press. No other details were given. Eagleburger headed the State Department for about five months.

President Reagan will nominate George D. Gould of New York, chairman and chief executive officer of Madison Resources Inc., as undersecretary of the Treasury, the White House announced Friday.

Nicholas Eden, son of former British Prime Minister Anthony Eden and a former undersecretary in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's cabinet, has died at age 54 after a long illness, it was reported Tuesday. Nicholas became Earl of Avon on his father's death in 1977. The title will now lapse because Nicholas Eden never married and there are no heirs to the title, created in 1961 to honor his father. Anthony Eden was prime minister from 1955 to 1957.

A Harvard University professor accused of assaulting a woman has withdrawn from consideration as a potential nominee for the No. 2 post at the Department of Education, a department official said today. Bill Kristol, chief of staff to Education Secretary William J. Bennett, said Glenn C. Loury withdrew his name Monday, citing personal and family reasons. On Thursday, Loury was accused of assault by Pamela Foster of Boston. She said in the police report that her address was the same as Loury's.

Assistant Agriculture Secretary Ewen Wilson, one of the Agriculture Department's top economics officers for four years, said Friday he will leave government May 6 to seek private employment. Wilson joined the department in 1985 as deputy assistant secretary for economics and moved into his current post in 1987. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter, he said Friday, "The time has come to move on." The decision means Yeutter will have few, if any, holdovers from the Reagan era. President Bush has named new people for deputy secretary, undersecretary for commodity programs and for four assistant posts.

Ned Rifkin, the Smithsonian Institution's undersecretary for art, will leave the post in April. Rifkin, 58, who has overseen eight art museums since 2004, is the only one of the Smithsonian's top five officials who isn't serving an interim appointment. Former Secretary Lawrence Small resigned in March 2007 amid scrutiny of his spending and compensation. The Smithsonian Board of Regents is searching for a new secretary, and a decision is expected this month. Cristian Samper has been serving as acting secretary for the last year.

John R. Norton III, the acting secretary of agriculture, announced Wednesday that he was quitting after five days on the job. Norton, who gave no reason for the resignation, was not available for comment. Norton had been serving in the post since the departure of John R. Block. He holds extensive farming interests in California and Arizona and is the former head of the J. R. Norton Co.

WASHINGTON ? In his first public comments on the Libyan crisis, President Obama said Wednesday his administration is preparing "the full range of options" to respond and condemned the government's "outrageous and unacceptable" suppression of its citizens' rights. Without offering specific details, Obama said the United States would study "accountability measures" it might take unilaterally or in cooperation with allies and multinational organizations. Obama said the actions of the Libyan government "violate international norms and every standard of common decency," and called for violence to stop immediately.

Paul "Red" Fay, who met John F. Kennedy when they were both in the Navy, joined his administration as undersecretary of the Navy and then wrote a bestselling book about their friendship, has died. He was 91. Fay, who had Alzheimer's disease, died Sept. 23 at his home in Woodside, Calif., said his son, Paul Fay III. Fay met the future president in 1942 in Rhode Island. Their first meeting, in a story befitting the Kennedy legend, was during a touch football game that Kennedy joined in progress.

After the anthrax letter attacks of October 2001, the Bush administration pledged $57 billion to keep the nation safe from bioterror. Since then, the government has created a vast network of laboratories and institutions to track down and block every remotely conceivable form of bioterror threat.

Ned Rifkin, the Smithsonian Institution's undersecretary for art, will leave the post in April. Rifkin, 58, who has overseen eight art museums since 2004, is the only one of the Smithsonian's top five officials who isn't serving an interim appointment. Former Secretary Lawrence Small resigned in March 2007 amid scrutiny of his spending and compensation. The Smithsonian Board of Regents is searching for a new secretary, and a decision is expected this month. Cristian Samper has been serving as acting secretary for the last year.

washington -- A Bush political appointee and former Silicon Valley executive who has faced opposition in his bid to bail out Iraq's struggling factories is under investigation by the Defense Department on mismanagement allegations. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Paul A. Brinkley, who heads an economic task force in Baghdad, is accused of mismanaging government money and engaging in public drunkenness and sexual harassment, a Defense Department spokesman said last week.

A senior State Department official and international experts gave a Senate panel a pessimistic assessment Thursday of developments in Iran, saying they saw no signs that current disarmament efforts would deter the country's rulers from acquiring a nuclear weapon. One expert told senators that the "most probable" outcome of the stalemate would be that Tehran would obtain nuclear weapons.

California Gov. Jerry Brown's prison policy is forcing a split personality with federal courts. Brown on Tuesday repeated his insistence he will take no move to further reduce prison crowding unless ordered (again) to do so, and he included no money for prison leases and other proposals in his 2013-14 state budget. At the same time, Brown's administration officials told a panel of federal judges Wednesday the governor is working behind the scenes on that very legislation. "Defendants are drafting legislative language for these measures, which will delineate potential changes to state law to: (1)

When Kofi Annan sent investigators in the spring to look into rumors that U.N. officials and peacekeepers were sexually abusing girls in this war-riven nation, he got back some bad news. Not only were there more than 150 cases of alleged rape and exploitation -- one involving a senior official in charge of security -- there also were pictures and videos of some incidents. And one of the investigators sent here was caught soliciting a prostitute.

The Army general who investigated abuse at a U.S. military prison in Iraq and a Pentagon official in charge of military intelligence disagreed sharply Tuesday over who controlled the prison when Iraqi war prisoners were stripped, humiliated and threatened with attack dogs. Responding to questions for the first time since his secret report to Army officials became public, Maj. Gen. Antonio M.