A federal judge ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mail messages, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against. The order, from Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. of Federal District Court, came in response to two lawsuits trying to determine whether the White House destroyed e-mail messages in violation of federal law. Two private groups that filed suit, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive, say 5 million messages have disappeared. Judge Kennedy’s order is directed at maintaining backup tapes that contain copies of messages.

SEATTLE — Perhaps an NFL mercy rule isn’t such a bad idea after all.

It surely would have been applied at Qwest Field on Monday night, as the Seattle Seahawks ran roughshod over the lowly San Francisco 49ers in a 24-0 rout.

Mike Nolan, who was coaching the 49ers a day after his father, ex-coach Dick Nolan, died, saw his team become the fifth ever to lose seven in a row after starting a season 2-0.

“Anytime you can get a shutout in this league, it’s really something,” said Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who offered condolences to Nolan before the game. “I was pleased at how the defense played. The offense was a little better.”

Hey, the Seahawks (5-4) are not the New England Patriots.

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They just looked like them vs. a 49ers outfit that could not contain Matt Hasselbeck’s target practice or generate enough offense to stay in the game.

Hasselbeck passed for 200 yards by halftime, when it was 17-0, and finished 27-for-40 with 278 yards and two TDs.

Holmgren promised to open up his offense, with running back Shaun Alexander out with a broken hand. And he was true to his word, with Hasselbeck passing on 16 of Seattle’s first 19 snaps.

“If you believe you have the right quarterback, then at least you can think about throwing it more,” said Holmgren. “If you have the receivers, there’s less wear and tear on your linemen. It reminds me of our old days at BYU, where we never ran it.”

Alexander’s fill-in, Maurice Morris, rushed 12 times for 78 yards and a TD.

Yet almost any offensive strategy would have been good enough to complement the Seattle defense’s suffocation of 49ers quarterback Alex Smith.

Smith, drafted No. 1 overall in 2005, had another nightmarish experience. He twice set up Seahawks TDs by fumbling on sacks. Smith completed 12 of 28 passes for 114 yards. The 49ers were 0-for-third down and didn’t get a first down until Arnaz Battle hauled in a 45-yard Hail Mary pass just before halftime. They tried everything. Nothing worked.

They even sprung a surprise, shifting Michael Robinson under center after lining up in punt formation … and called timeout. Mercy, please.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office was scheduled to conduct an autopsy Wednesday on Donda West, mother and manager of hip-hop star Kanye West, amid reports that she died of complications from cosmetic surgery.

A statement issued by the family late Monday offered no details about how West died, but the coroner’s office cited a recent surgical procedure as a possible cause. A California surgeon said through a spokeswoman that he had declined to perform cosmetic surgery on West months ago because she had a pre-existing condition.

West, 58, who stopped breathing at her home in Los Angeles on Saturday, was brought to the Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center in Marina del Rey by paramedics, hospital spokeswoman Cyndee Woelfle told the Tribune. Woelfle said it was her understanding that West had had some cosmetic surgery, and that her “problems were a result of the surgery but it was not done at this hospital.”

On Monday, Patricia Green, a publicist for Donda West, told news media she understood West had undergone cosmetic surgery; later, Green backed away from that statement.

Under the agreement, IBM will pay $58 for each share of Cognos (COGN:

cognos inc com

COGN 57.15, +4.17, +7.9%) (CA:CSN: news, chart, profile) , an Ottawa-based software company whose products help businesses gauge their performance.

The offer represents a 9.5% premium over the Friday closing price of Cognos. In recent action, Cognos shares were up 7.7% to $57.07.

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) faces a federal patent infringement lawsuit by Northeastern University over technology used in its core Web search system, according to legal papers filed last week. The complaint was filed on Nov. 6 in Marshall, in the Eastern District of Texas — the U.S. court with a history of decisions that are highly favorable to plaintiffs in patent cases — but the case only came to light over the weekend.

The plaintiffs are Boston-based Northeastern University and Jarg Corp, a start-up founded by a Northeastern University professor that is the exclusive licensee of search technology patented in 1997, a year before Google was incorporated.

A spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google said it believed the suit was without merit.

“While we have not been served, we are aware of the complaint and believe it to be without merit based upon our initial investigation,” Google spokesman Jon Murchison said.

The leading Internet company derives 99 percent of its revenue from online advertising, which is delivered in response to keyword searches Google users perform to find Web links.

Michael Belanger, president and co-founder of Jarg, said in a phone interview that his company had become aware of the infringement several years ago, but lacked the resources to press its case until it found a law firm willing to fund the case on a contingency-fee basis. Northeastern then signed on.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys are from the Texas-based global law firm of Vinson & Elkins, which is paying the costs of the case, assisted by local counsel in Marshall and nearby Tyler.