In the Nation

MEMPHIS - A Memphis hospital is confirming that Apple founder Steve Jobs received a liver transplant and said he had an "excellent prognosis."

Dr. James D. Eason made the announcement yesterday on the hospital's Web site. He is program director at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute and chief of transplantation.

Eason said that Jobs was the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available and that he was recovering well. Eason did not say when the operation was performed, citing patient privacy. Other reports have said he had the transplant two months ago. - AP

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday approved establishment of a military command to coordinate and consolidate the Pentagon's efforts to protect its 15,000 computer networks from hacker attacks.

The cyber command will likely be set up at Fort Meade, Maryland, and be ready for initial operation in October, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. It will be part of the U.S. Strategic Command, which is responsible for defending the nation against nuclear attack.

The command is likely to be headed by Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency.

The creation of the command is part of an effort by the Obama administration to improve the protection of federal information technology. - Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said yesterday that she would kill a Bush administration program to expand the use of spy satellites by domestic law enforcement and other agencies.

Napolitano said she acted after state and local law-enforcement officials said that access to secret overhead imagery was not a priority.

Two years ago, President George W. Bush's top intelligence and homeland security officials authorized a program to expand sharing of satellite data with domestic agencies. Congressional Democrats barred funding for what they said could become a new platform for domestic surveillance that would raise privacy and civil-liberties concerns.

Earlier this month, House Democrats expressed surprise that Obama included funding for the program in the Homeland Security Department's 2010 budget, and they threatened to kill the office. - Washington Post

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has signed a book deal with a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster and said he hoped readers of all ideologies would be interested in his story. The book is expected to be published in spring 2011 and will cover his long career in government. Financial terms were not disclosed.

After a political mystery - "Where in the world is South Carolina's governor?" - aides to two-term Republican Mark Sanford said he was stunned by all the fuss over his five-day absence and would cut short a secretive hike along the Appalachian Trail.

The Arizona Senate narrowly approved a bill yesterday to impose new restrictions on abortion, including a mandatory waiting period and a requirement for state-scripted disclosures by doctors. The state House approved the bill in March. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, an abortion critic, has voiced support for key elements of the legislation.

James von Brunn, 88, the white supremacist accused of fatally shooting a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum guard, hasn't recovered enough to appear in court but has been turned over to the District of Columbia's Corrections Department.