NATION IN BRIEF : ALASKA : Remains Identified as Missing Politician

Troopers relying on fingerprints taken in the 1940s said they have identified the skeletal remains of Joe Vogler, who vanished from his Fairbanks, Alaska, house 17 months ago. There was no word on how the 80-year-old politician died. In midweek, searchers using cadaver-sniffing dogs found his body in a three-foot grave in woods about 300 miles northeast of Anchorage. Vogler, a miner whose estate was valued at millions, came to Alaska nearly 50 years ago. He founded the Alaskan Independence Party and ran unsuccessfully for governor three times.