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In the Nation

Ex-congressman in halfway house

CINCINNATI - Former Rep. Bob Ney, who pleaded guilty in a congressional bribery scandal tied to disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has been moved from prison to a halfway house in Cincinnati, according to the federal prisons Web site.

The Ohio Republican, 53, was sentenced in January 2007 to 21/2 years after pleading guilty to trading political favors for golf trips, campaign donations and other gifts in the scandal.

Ney had been held at the Federal Corrections Institution in Morgantown, W. Va. Prison spokesman James Robinson said he could confirm only that Ney left Tuesday.

Ney earned time off his original sentence because he completed an alcohol treatment program. His attorney did not immediately respond to a phone message.

- AP

38 Duke athletes sue over rape case

RALEIGH, N.C. - Thirty-eight current and former Duke lacrosse players filed suit yesterday alleging they suffered emotional distress during the furor over the now-discredited rape case against three of their teammates.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Durham, accuses Duke University, the City of Durham, and several school and police officials of fraud, abuse and breach of duty for supporting the prosecution of the case.

The suit accuses Duke of implying the team was guilty by canceling its season after the rape allegation surfaced in 2006, and accuses Duke of suppressing and discrediting evidence that proved the players innocent. It accuses disbarred former District Attorney Mike Nifong and his investigators of hiding and fabricating evidence.

The university "coldly turned away and abandoned these young men," Steven Henkelman, the father of former Duke lacrosse player Erik Henkelman, said at a news conference yesterday.

Also among the plaintiffs is Duke player Anthony McDevitt, a graduate of and former lacrosse player at Philadelphia's William Penn Charter.

Duke general counsel Pamela Bernard said that if "these plaintiffs have a complaint, it is with" Nifong, and that attacking Duke is "without merit."

- AP

Columbia retains accused professor

NEW YORK - A Columbia University professor whose colleagues found a noose on her office doorway will remain on staff despite reprimands for plagiarism, school officials said yesterday.

The university's Teachers College said Wednesday it had imposed unspecified "serious sanctions" against Madonna G. Constantine. It said a lengthy investigation uncovered numerous instances in which she used others' work without attribution in papers she published in academic journals in the last five years.

Her lawyer said she had been targeted because she is black and hinted the sanctions and noose incident were linked, which Teachers College spokeswoman Marcia Horowitz denied. The investigation began in 2006; the noose, a symbol of lynchings in the Deep South, was found in October, the school said.

- AP

Elsewhere:

University of Colorado

regents approved Bruce Benson, an oilman and former Republican fund-raiser, as the system's president, brushing aside opponents' skepticism because he lacks an advanced degree.

Windows shattered,

and building facades and signs fell, but no one was seriously injured yesterday when an estimated 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook rural Wells, Nev.