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School bus found in Maryland, none hurt OLEY, Pa. (AP) — A school bus with 11 children aboard that disappeared in eastern Pennsylvania on Thursday morning was found hours later in Maryland, its occupants unhurt, authorities said. The bus had picked up the students, ages 6 through 16, at Oley Valley High School between 7:30 and 7:45 a.m. for the six-mile trip to the Berks Christian School in Birdsboro. The disappearance had sparked a massive hunt for the bus, including a search by helicopter. Conditions in the area were rainy and foggy. Pennsylvania state police trooper Raymond Albert said the man driving the bus when it was found had a shotgun. “He must have pulled over, maybe to get something to eat and the children were waving out the window and an off-duty police officer suspected something was wrong and took him into custody. And he (the driver) had a shotgun in his possession,” Albert said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the bus’ original driver Thursday morning, Otto Nuss, was the man driving when the bus was found. Nuss, of Boyertown, who is in his early 60s, has worked for the company that operates the bus since September, Albert said. Authorities were making arrangements to pick up the bus and children. The 48-passenger bus has “Oley Valley Schools” written on both sides, police said. The district, which is responsible for transporting private school children, contracts with the private bus company, Quigley Bus Service. First lady returns to Senate after Sept. 11 postponement WASHINGTON (AP)
— When Laura Bush went to Capitol Hill for her debut Senate
testimony last fall, she wound up being rushed to a secret bunker.
It was Sept. 11. “I have seen the faces of children who were directly affected by the attacks,” Mrs. Bush told a half-dozen senators. “As a result, I am doubly committed to using my voice to help give our youngest Americans a real chance to succeed in the classroom, in the universityand in the workplace.” With the 25-minute presentation that she dusted off and tweaked since September, Mrs. Bush became the fourth sitting first lady to testify before Congress. The former librarian and grade-school teacher reported on last summer’s White House summit on early childhood cognitive development and her own anecdotal experiences as a mother and educator. She talked of playing rhyming games with her twin girls when they were babies. Senate education committee Chairman Edward Kennedy credited the first lady for having “intuitively understood” years ago what science has since borne out about how infants learn language. The Democrat from Massachusetts and Mrs. Bush agreed to work together this year on rebuilding early learning programs, such as Head Start, that haven’t proven too successful. Thursday’s hearing of the Health, Education and Labor Committee was notable for more than its eerie deja vu. The unprecedented occasion put the current first lady across the witness table from the former first lady, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., herself a student of childhood development issues and a member of Kennedy’s committee. Denver Lt. Governor’s spending investigated DENVER (AP) — State auditors began looking into the finances of Lt. Gov. Joe Rogers on Thursday after learning he had spent at least $55,000 in state money on such items as a phone for his wife, a boombox and campaign telephones for his Capitol office. Records obtained by The Associated Press under Colorado’s Freedom of Information Act show Rogers also spent $96 on news video about a rival politician and nearly $5,000 for a service to provide TV news clips of his own appearances. When asked about
the charges, Rogers said he will repay those that were inappropriate. Rogers, one of the nation’s highest-ranking black Republicans, said earlier this month that he will probably run for the state’s new congressional seat rather than seek another term. U.S. military fighting Muslim extremist group ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) — The first U.S. soldiers to arrive with assault rifles strapped to their backs flew into the southern Philippines on Thursday to help prepare for a joint military exercise aimed at fighting a Muslim extremist group. The 13 troops arrived on a massive U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane, toting unloaded M-16s. They sweated heavily under the tropical sun on the tarmac of Edwin Andrews Air Base in the Zamboanga area. They are “logistics soldiers here to support the training between the Philippine and the U.S. soldiers,” said U.S. Lt. Col. Steve Woods, spokesman for the exercise. Another 10 soldiers without visible weapons flew in later in the day on a C-130 transport plane that also carried several crates of equipment. Fourteen other Americans had arrived Friday. Thursday’s arrivals brought to 65 the number of U.S. troops in the Zamboanga area for a six-month mission to train Filipino soldiers to fight the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel group that has been linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. The Abu Sayyaf, notorious for kidnappings and beheadings, is holding an American missionary couple and Filipino nurse hostage on Basilan island, close to Zamboanga, home to the Philippine military’s Southern Command. More than 600 U.S. troops, including 16 from the Special Forces, are to take part in the mission. Israeli troops suspected in Palestinian raid on bakery HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Israeli undercover troops wearing traditional Arab headdresses arrested a suspected Palestinian militant in a raid on a Hebron bakery Thursday. A Palestinian intelligence officer was killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops in another West Bank town. Also Thursday, the bodies of two Palestinians were found near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip. A radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said the two were killed in a “heroic martyrs’ operation” against Kfar Darom late Wednesday. The PFLP did not explain how the two died, and the Israeli military had no immediate comment. In the Hebron raid, six Israeli undercover officers knocked on the back door of the bakery, pushed aside a man opening it and wounded the wanted man, a bakery employee identified as Hazem Qawasmeh, witnesses said. A bystander was also shot in the raid, said bakery owner Ali Shweiki. Israeli troops took the two wounded men to a nearby Jewish settler enclave, and later released the bystander. The Israeli military had no comment, including on charges by witnesses that the officers opened fire without provocation. Israel has carried out numerous arrest raids in recent weeks, with troops often entering Palestinian-controlled areas to seize Palestinians. Israel says it had to step in because the Palestinian Authority has done little to capture fugitives. Palestinian officials say they have worked hard to enforce a truce declared by Arafat on Dec. 16, but that persistent Israeli strikes against Palestinians, including the killing of a local militia leader last week, have created a bitter climate that makes it increasingly difficult to enforce the truce. Gunmen fatally wound police and bystanders CALCUTTA, India (AP) — A video camera atop the U.S. cultural center in Calcutta captured the faces of gunmen on motorcycles who killed four police guards and wounded 20 other people, police said Thursday. Videotape from
the security camera on the roof of the American Center gave a frame-by-frame
account of Tuesday’s assault, Deputy Commissioner of Police
Saumen Mitra said. Calcutta police have picked up more than 70 people for questioning, but most were set free after questioning, Mitra said. Six people, including three Bangladeshis, have been arrested in connection with the attack, but none of them are believed to be the gunmen. Mitra said Aftab Ansari, an Indian who now lives in the United Arab Emirates, was the main suspect in the attack. Police said Ansari called from Dubai after the attack to claim responsibility for it. Ansari, a Muslim from northern India, allegedly has links with Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami, an Islamic militant group fighting to separate Kashmir from India. The Indian government has said it is too soon to say if Tuesday’s attack was carried out by Islamic militants sponsored by Pakistan. U.S. officials have also said they haven’t yet determined who was behind the attack or the reason for it. Mitra did not give the details of the videotape pulled from the camera atop the American Center. |
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