USA
The Amish community in Pennsyl-vania that lost five girls last year in a schoolhouse massacre said Wednesday it will make an unspecified contribution to the gunman's widow and her three children. A statement released on behalf of the community underlined its determination to forgive and "not to become a hostage to hostility."
The Environmental Protection Agency recommended more testing for potentially harmful vapors from a huge underground oil spill in Brooklyn, N.Y. The spill of possibly more than 17 million gallons from an Exxon refinery dates back at least 50 years. Activists and politicians have called for speeding up cleanup efforts, which began in the early 1990s and have pumped more than 9 million gallons of oil from the borough's water table.
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell retracted his claim, made to Congress, that US surveillance powers incorporated in a controversial new security law helped to foil a terrorist plot in Germany.
Gov. Linda Lingle (R) of Hawaii said that Superferry service, which was halted for nearly a month because of environmental protests, will resume Sept. 26 on a limited, daytime schedule. The US Coast Guard will secure the route of the $95 million catamaran, which provides Hawaii's first vehicle-passenger service.
Humberto, the first hurricane to hit the US Gulf Coast in two years, brought heavy rain and 80 m.p.h. winds to southeast Texas early Thursday before weakening as it bored into central Louisiana. Texas has had one of the wettest summers on record.
Former Gov. Mark Warner (D) of Virginia announced Thursday that he will run next year for the US Senate seat held by Republican Sen. John Warner, who is retiring after 30 years in office. The men are not related.
The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington named its 30th annual cultural honorees: singer Diana Ross, comedian Steve Martin, Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, film director Martin Scorsese, and pianist Leon Fleisher. The tribute to them will be held Dec. 2 and televised Dec. 26.
Saul Arrellano, age 8, joined about 150 pro-immigration activists in marching through the halls of Congress Wednesday to protest the deportation of Saul's mother, Elivra, last month. The two were expected to be reunited in Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday.
