In the Nation

WASHINGTON - The House intelligence committee has asked the CIA to provide documents about the now-canceled program to kill al-Qaeda leaders, congressional officials said yesterday.

The agency spent at least $1 million on the eight-year program before it was terminated last month, a congressional official said. Intelligence officials say it never progressed beyond planning.

The CIA said it would cooperate in the House move, a precursor to what would likely become a full-scale investigation into the secret program and why it was not disclosed to Congress. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

CIA Director Leon E. Panetta, meanwhile, ordered a thorough internal review, agency spokesman George Little said. - AP

RICHMOND, Va. - A federal appeals court yesterday ordered new arguments in the case of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacharias Moussaoui, the only person tried in a U.S. court for the 2001 attacks.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit heard arguments in the Moussaoui case in January. But one of the judges, Karen J. Williams, has retired after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Her departure led the court to schedule a rehearing, court clerk Patricia Connor said. Moussaoui is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to helping plan the attacks. His lawyer argued in January that the plea was invalid because the government failed to turn over evidence that could have helped his defense. He asked for a new trial. - AP

WASHINGTON - Veterans Affairs Department hospitals and clinics are not always making sure female veterans have privacy when they bathe and undergo exams, government auditors said yesterday.

As thousands of women return from Iraq and Afghanistan and enter the VA's health system, the Government Accountability Office reported that no VA hospital or outpatient clinic under review was complying fully with federal privacy requirements.

The GAO found that many VA facilities had gynecological tables facing the door, including one door that opened to a waiting room. It also found instances where women had to walk through a waiting area to use the restroom, instead of it being next to an exam room as VA policy requires. In 2008, the VA provided care to more than 281,000 female veterans, up 12 percent from 2006. - AP

The National Transportation Safety Board said the Boston trolley operator who was killed after her train rammed another trolley in May 2008 had ignored a red stop signal, most likely because she had undiagnosed sleep apnea that caused her to briefly fall asleep.

President Obama said he would nominate a career international development specialist, Aaron Williams, 62, as director of the Peace Corps. Williams was once a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic.