In the Nation

Breyer robbed at his vacation home

WASHINGTON - Justice Stephen G. Breyer was robbed last Thursday by a machete-wielding intruder at his vacation home in the West Indies, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Monday.

Breyer, 73; his wife, Joanna; and guests were confronted by the robber about 9 p.m. in the house Breyer owns on the Caribbean island of Nevis, Arberg said. The intruder took about $1,000 in cash, and no one was hurt, Arberg said.

She said the robbery was reported to local authorities but did not know whether an arrest had been made. The U.S. Marshals Service is assisting local authorities and the Supreme Court police with the investigation, Marshals Service spokesman Jeff Carter said.

The last time a justice was a victim of crime was in 2004, when a group of young men assaulted then-Justice David Souter as he jogged in Washington. The justices return from a nearly monthlong recess for a closed-door conference Friday. - AP

Carney criticizes contraception bills

WASHINGTON - The White House said Monday Senate legislation that would give employers broad leeway to restrict employees' health-insurance coverage for contraception was "dangerous and wrong."

Press secretary Jay Carney took aim at legislation by Sens. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.) that would allow employers to deny birth-control coverage if it runs counter to their religious or moral beliefs. Another bill, by Sen. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.), would go even further, allowing health plans to deny coverage for any service that violates their beliefs.

Both approaches are far more expansive than allowing conscience protections just for churches and church-affiliated employers. Carney said the Rubio and Blunt bills took "absolutely the wrong approach." He said it was vital for women no matter where they worked to have access to free preventive care, including birth control. - AP

Judge won't toss suit against Yale

HARTFORD, Conn. - A federal judge has rejected a second bid by Yale University to throw out all the allegations in a lawsuit filed by a South Korean university that contends it lost tens of millions of dollars after Yale damaged its reputation.

Dongguk University alleges it hired an art history professor after Yale wrongly confirmed that the professor had earned a Yale doctorate. Court papers say professor Shin Jeong-ah later had a scandalous love affair with an aide to South Korea's president.

Dongguk, a Buddhist-affiliated university in Seoul, is suing Yale for more than $50 million, saying it lost that amount in government grants, alumni donations, and costs of building a law school the government later refused to approve because of the scandal.

U.S. District Judge Tucker Melancon on Friday rejected most of Yale's motion for summary judgment. He let stand allegations of defamation and negligence. A trial is set for June. - AP

Elsewhere:

Authorities were investigating the actions of a 14-year-old girl accused of attacking two students with a hammer Monday at Columbine High School in Colorado in the first assault with a weapon there since the deadly shootings in 1999.