From CNN’s Kathleen Koch

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A senior White House official, Tim Goeglein, has resigned after he admitted copying large sections of an essay he wrote for a newspaper in Fort Wayne, Ind., the White House confirmed Friday.

In an e-mail to The News-Sentinel, Goeglein, special assistant to the
president and deputy director of public liaison, apologizes, saying, “It is
true. I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses.”

Goeglein said he has reached out to the author, Jeffery Hart,
whose 1998 writings in the Dartmouth Review he copied nearly verbatim.  “I have written to Jeff to apologize, and do so categorically and without exception,”
he says.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Friday said he will not ask a federal grand jury to investigate whether two top Bush administration officials should be prosecuted for contempt of Congress.

A letter from Attorney General Michael Mukasey was issued one day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked  Mukasey to look into whether White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers committed contempt of Congress in its investigation of the 2006 firings of several U.S. attorneys.

Pelosi said the two were unresponsive to Congress’s probe, while the White House argues that contempt laws don’t apply to the president or any of his staffers who invoke executive privilege.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. government Friday announced that it will not try to block a lawsuit filed by the family of an American terror victim against the Palestinian Authority. The authority wanted the United States to intervene, saying it could be driven into bankruptcy.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of Aharon Ellis, killed in a shooting in Israel in 2002. Palestinian militants claimed responsibility for the attack. His wife, Leslye Knox, an American citizen, filed the suit on her behalf and her six children as well as other relatives.

The U.S. court awarded them almost $200 million.

–From CNN’s Charley Keyes

GAZA CITY (CNN) — An Israeli air strike early Saturday in northern Gaza killed Hamas commander Iyyad al-Ashram, Hamas security and medical sources told CNN.

The Israel Defense Forces had no immediate comment on the strike, which took place about midnight.

ATLANTA (CNN) — A man who was arrested in suburban Atlanta after a months-long, three-nation manhunt will be deported from the United States and returned to New Zealand to face murder charges in the death of his wife, authorities told CNN Friday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of Nai Yin Xue on Friday from DeKalb County, Ga., police, said spokesman Pat Reilly. ICE agents will escort him back to New Zealand, Reilly said.

Xue, believed to be in his early 50s, was arrested in Chamblee, Ga., on Thursday after residents of an apartment complex recognized him from a Chinese-language newspaper, called police and detained him until officers arrived, police said. He is accused of killing his wife, Anan Liu, 27, and stuffing her body in the trunk of a car outside the couple’s Auckland, New Zealand, home last September.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Senate Republicans this week thwarted efforts by their Democratic counterparts to vote on a housing stimulus bill that President Bush said would “bail out lenders and speculators.”

But that doesn’t mean Congress is done trying.

Democrats are likely to push ahead on legislation they argue would soften the problems caused by the growing number of foreclosures. The most controversial part of the bill would let bankruptcy judges reduce the amount of principal and interest due on some residential mortgages. Under current law, only mortgages for investment properties, vacation homes and farms may be written down for those in bankruptcy.

–By CNNMoney.com’s Jeanne Sahadi

WASHINGTON (CNN) One of the most outspoken congressional critics of the administration Friday demanded answers about problems with the biggest, most expensive U.S. Embassy in the world — still under construction in Baghdad, with no moving-in date on the calendar. It is months behind schedule and poses a big problem between the State Department and Congress.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., fired off a new letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatening to force Rice’s second in command, Deputy Secretary John Negroponte, to appear before his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee with explanations and documents to explain why the project isn’t finished.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters at his midday briefing that he hadn’t seen the congressman’s letter but that his requests will be considered.

–From CNN Producer Charley Keyes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks tumbled Friday, resulting in the second worst day of 2008, after AIG’s record loss added to worries about the financial sector and more weak economic news intensified fears about a recession.

According to early tallies, the Dow Jones industrial average lost about 315 points, or 2.5 percent. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 2.7 percent and the Nasdaq composite fell 2.6 percent.

Treasury prices rallied, sending yields higher, as investors sought safety in the comparatively safer haven of government debt, while the dollar held near a record low versus the euro. Oil prices dipped after topping all-time highs over $103 a barrel during the session. Gold prices jumped, too.

“It’s a debacle today,” said Dave Rovelli, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Canaccord Adams. “There’s just no good news out there.”

–By CNNMoney.com’s Alexandra Twin

(CNN) — Preliminary results of an investigation show that Tuesday’s massive power outage in Florida was caused by human error, Florida Power and Light President Armando Olivera said Friday.

A field engineer was diagnosing a switch that had malfunctioned at FPL’s Flagami substation in west Miami. Without authorization, the engineer disabled two levels of relay protection, Olivera said.

“This was done contrary to FPL’s standard procedures and established practices,” he said. Standard procedures do not allow the simultaneous removal of both levels of protection.

“We don’t know why the employee took it upon himself to disable both sets of relays,” he added.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A senior White House official has admitted copying large sections of an essay he wrote for a newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

In an e-mail to The News-Sentinel, Tim Goeglein, special assistant to the president and deputy director of public liaison, apologizes, saying, “It is true. I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses.”

The White House press office provided the e-mail to CNN. Spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said the White House was made aware of Goeglein’s column and actions Friday morning. She would not speculate on what steps might be taken.

TOKYO (CNN) — Japan will lobby a dozen members of the International Whaling Commission at a meeting Monday to support its much-criticized Antarctic whaling program — just three days before all members of the commission meet in London to discuss reaching an agreement on whale conservation rules.

Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the nation’s Fisheries Agency will make their case to officials from Angola, Eritrea, Congo, Guinea, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Palau, Micronesia, Cambodia, Laos and Vanuatu, ministry spokeswoman Eri Okabe told CNN. Several of the countries are new to the 78-member whaling commission.

Two months ago, Japan “temporarily halted” its plan for a humpback whale hunt in the seas near Antarctica as what it said was a gesture to enhance the dialogue at the International Whaling Commission, which remains torn over whaling.

MIAMI (CNN) — Police were called to Miami Edison Senior High School after a student protest became unruly Friday, officials said.

Quintin Taylor, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade School Board, said “a couple of hundred” students were involved in the protest, which began during lunch hour in an open patio next to the cafeteria.

Minor injuries were reported among police and students, and video from the scene showed several students being led away as if under arrest.

Students told television station WSVN they were angry that the principal put a student in a “choke hold” Thursday.

LAS VEGAS (CNN) — Two tests have confirmed a substance found in a Las Vegas extended-stay hotel room is the deadly poison ricin, and a man who was staying there has been hospitalized for more than two weeks and is currently in critical condition, police said Friday.

The man, whose name was not released, summoned authorities Feb. 14 and asked to be transported to a hospital because of difficulty breathing, Kathy Suey, deputy chief of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, told reporters.

But police were not aware of the ricin’s existence until Thursday, when a second man, who identified himself as a relative of the victim, went to the Extended Stay America room to clear the victim’s possessions out and found the substance. That man brought the poison, which was in vials in a plastic bag, to the manager’s office, and police were notified.

LAS VEGAS (CNN) — A second test confirms that ricin was in a bag found in a hotel room in Las Vegas, Las Vegas police said Friday.

Kathy Suey, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, said the test was done locally. The preliminary test also showed ricin.

LAS VEGAS (CNN) — A previous guest of a Las Vegas hotel room where ricin has been found is in critical condition at a hospital, where he has been since Feb. 14, said Kathy Suey, deputy chief of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

A different person reported the suspicious bag of ricin to authorities, she said.

(CNN) — The discovery of a small amount of what authorities believe to be the deadly poison ricin in a Las Vegas hotel room “does not appear to be related to terrorism,” FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Friday.

A report from the the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center said the FBI considers the discovery “criminal in nature.”

Preliminary tests show the substance is ricin, but other tests to confirm that are being done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Results are expected later Friday.

ATLANTA (CNN) — A man who was arrested in suburban Atlanta after a months-long, three-nation manhunt will be deported from the United States and returned to New Zealand to face murder charges in the death of his wife, authorities told CNN Friday.

Nai Yin Xue, believed to be in his early 50s, was arrested in Chamblee, Ga., on Thursday after residents of an apartment complex recognized him from a Chinese-language newspaper, called police and detained him until officers arrived, police said. He is accused of killing his wife, Anan Liu, 27, and stuffing her body in the trunk of a car outside the couple’s Auckland, New Zealand, home last September.

Days later, authorities said, he abandoned the couple’s 3-year-old daughter at a Melbourne, Australia, train station. The child became known internationally as “Pumpkin” because of a label in the sweater she was wearing. Authorities attempting to contact her parents discovered her mother’s body.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — A suicide attack on the funeral Friday of a district superintendent of police — killed earlier in the day in a separate attack — killed at least 11 people and injured 50 in northwest Pakistan, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told CNN.

Other reports put the death toll much higher. A police source at the Swat province’s special branch of police said there were 30 dead and 50 to 55 people injured in the blast, which occurred in Minora, Swat’s capital.

He said the attack took place on a funeral procession, and caused an electricity blackout, which made it difficult to ascertain exact casualty numbers amid the confusion.

–From CNN’s Zein Basravi

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Two Federal Reserve officials said Friday that the housing market could damage the economy even more severely than it has already if measures are not taken to correct it.

In speeches at the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum in New York, Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and Frederic Mishkin, a member of the Federal Reserve board of governors, spoke about the critical nature of the housing market crisis.

“Further declines in housing prices could depress residential investment, reduce consumer spending, generate elevated foreclosures, and contribute to financial instability,” Rosengren said. “Taking appropriate monetary, regulatory, and fiscal actions to mitigate this risk seems prudent.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Eight members of the military who objected to taking a mandatory anthrax vaccine lost another round in federal court Friday.

A District of Columbia federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from service members who claim the federal government is forcing them to take an unproven and potentially ineffective drug to stop the deadly bacteria.

The ruling was the latest in a long-running legal fight over the vaccine.

–From CNN Senior Producer Bill Mears

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — An explosion at the funeral Friday of a district police officer killed earlier in the day in northwest Pakistan killed 30 people and injured between 50 and 55, province police said.

The Swat special branch of police could not confirm reports that the blast, which occurred in Mingora, Swat’s capital, was from a suicide bomber.

The district police officer was killed by an explosion Friday in a separate area of northwest Pakistan.

–From CNN’s Zein Basravi

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — An explosion at the funeral Friday of a district police officer killed earlier in the day in northwest Pakistan caused some deaths and injuries, province police said.

Swat police could not confirm the number of casualties, and could not confirm reports that the blast was from a suicide bomber.

The district police officer was killed by an explosion Friday in a separate area of northwest Pakistan.

–From CNN’s Zein Basravi

BAGHDAD (CNN) — Gunmen ambushed a Christian leader Friday in Iraq, killing three of his guards and kidnapping him, an official with Mosul police said.

Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Faraj Rahho was in a car leaving al-Safina church when gunmen attacked his car and took him around 5:45 p.m. (9:45 a.m. ET), the police official said.

Mosul is about 420 km (260 miles) north of Baghdad.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Consumer spending rose slightly last month as rising prices forced Americans to shell out more, according to a government report released Friday.

The Commerce Department said spending by individuals rose 0.4 percent in January, but that was due primarily to inflation. In constant dollars, spending held flat. “Consumers were a little more conservative,” said Wachovia analyst Sam Bullard. &#