Bush to Miss. grads: Hitch up britches, fight poverty
Biloxi, Miss. – President Bush on Thursday urged graduates of a Mississippi community college to use the resolve they showed in restarting their lives after Hurricane Katrina to help improve schools and fight poverty across the nation.
In an arena still under repair, Bush quoted Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who said: “People aren’t leaving. They’re hitching up their britches and rebuilding Mississippi.”
Graduates at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, unfazed by Bush’s sagging poll numbers, warmly applauded his upbeat message about post-Katrina recovery.
“Over this past nine months, you have shown a resilience more powerful than any storm,” Bush told them.
“I urge you to take the same determination you brought to rebuilding schools and use it to ensure that every school provides a good education – use that same bravery it takes to rescue people from water to rescue communities from poverty.”
First lady Laura Bush on Thursday told the graduating class at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., that helping others can bring happiness. She urged them to “dedicate a vacation to recovery” by participating in Gulf Coast rebuilding efforts – or to volunteer their talents anywhere they might be needed in the world.
It was the president’s 10th visit to Mississippi since the hurricane struck in August.
HOUSTON
New trial for trucker in smuggling deaths
A federal appeals court has ordered a new trial for the truck driver convicted in the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt – a journey that ended in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed into his sweltering trailer.
The ruling means Tyrone Williams could once more face the death penalty.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the verdict was invalid because the jury failed to decide whether Williams was directly responsible for the deaths.
When the jury couldn’t agree on that question before Williams was sentenced last year, the judge removed the death penalty as an option. Prosecutors appealed. The new trial will be scheduled once a new judge is chosen.
FRANKFORT, Ky.
Governor indicted on misdemeanor charges
A grand jury indicted Gov. Ernie Fletcher on misdemeanor charges Thursday, accusing him of illegally rewarding political supporters with state jobs since taking office two years ago.
Fletcher was charged with conspiracy, official misconduct and violating a prohibition against political discrimination. Thirteen other current and former administration officials and associates were previously indicted on misdemeanor counts, and the grand jury handed up another 14 sealed indictments Thursday.
The indictment alleges that Fletcher conspired with other administration officials on a hiring scheme dubbed the “Governor’s Personnel Initiative.” Administration officials, according to the indictment, crafted an elaborate system of screening job candidates and ran background checks on prospects’ political affiliations and donations.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.
Fire is 15th reported at churches since Feb.
State investigators Thursday were searching for the source of an early-morning fire that destroyed a rural church, the state’s 15th church fire since February.
Ragan Ingram, a spokesman for the state fire marshal’s office, said it was too early to tell if the latest fire, Tubbs Church of Christ in Oakman, was an accident or possibly a copycat of an earlier arson spree.
Thirteen of the fires have been ruled arson, including nine in which a trio of Birmingham-area college students have been charged.
VATICAN CITY
Moves to limit church influence worry pope
Pope Benedict XVI told Hugo Chavez on Thursday that he was very concerned about moves to limit the Roman Catholic Church’s influence in Venezuela, including proposals to change anti-abortion rules, the Vatican said.
The Catholic Church has been one of the most critical voices against the leftist Venezuela president, who has in the past called the church leadership a “tumor.”
Catholic leaders last year lobbied against a since-shelved initiative by some pro-Chavez lawmakers to loosen the near-complete ban on abortion and allow it for incest or rape victims.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka
17 sailors missing after Tiger rebels sink boat
Tamil Tiger rebels sank a navy patrol boat off the northern coast of Sri Lanka on Thursday, leaving at least 17 Sri Lankan sailors missing and prompting a retaliatory attack that sank five rebel vessels, the navy said.
Air force planes also bombed areas near the Tigers’ northern headquarters, a rebel spokesman said.
LAGOS, Nigeria
2 foreign oil workers snatched by gunmen
Gunmen kidnapped at least two foreign oil workers from a bus in southern Nigeria on Thursday, a day after a U.S. oil worker was killed in the same city, a hub of this country’s oil industry.
Two foreign nationals were seized as they rode to work in Port Harcourt, police Commissioner Samuel Adetuyi told The Associated Press. He gave no further details.
