Washington – Doctors found no cancer in five small growths removed from President Bush’s colon, the White House said Monday.
The polyps were found during a routine cancer scan that Bush underwent Saturday at Camp David. Examinations showed the growths were benign.
“The president is in good health,” Bush spokesman Tony Snow said. “There is no reason for alarm.”
Bush’s next cancer scan will be in three years, his press secretary added, saying that is the typical interval between exams given the number of growths found this time. Bush previously had a colonoscopy in 2002.
Polyps are extra pieces of tissues that grow inside the large intestine. Most polyps are not dangerous, but over time, they can turn cancerous. To be safe, doctors typically remove the polyps and test them. Finding them early is considered one of the best ways of preventing disease.
Bush, 61, regularly exercises and is considered to be in excellent shape for a man his age.
YREKA, Calif.
Firefighting copter crashes, killing pilot
A helicopter delivering water to firefighters battling a blaze in the Klamath National Forest crashed Monday, killing the pilot, authorities said.
Investigators were trying to determine what caused the chopper to go down in “extremely rugged” mountain territory about 12 miles southeast of Happy Camp, Calif., said Duane Lyon, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.
The pilot, who was not identified, was under contract with the Forest Service but was not a government employee, Lyon said.
More than 1,100 fire crews were battling the cluster of about 30 lightning-sparked fires covering 14 square miles near the Oregon state line.
WASHINGTON
Sheehan, seeking Bush impeachment, arrested
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested Monday at the Capitol on a charge of disorderly conduct, shortly after saying she would run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the California Democrat’s refusal to try to impeach President Bush.
Sheehan was taken into custody inside Rep. John Conyers’ office, where she had spent an hour imploring him to launch impeachment proceedings against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Conyers, D-Mich., chairs the House Judiciary Committee, where any impeachment effort would have to begin.
“The Democrats will not hold this administration accountable, so we have to hold the Democrats accountable,” Sheehan said outside Conyers’ office after the meeting.
Sheehan said Conyers told her there weren’t enough votes for impeachment to move forward.
PARIS
6 imprisoned medics flown out of Libya
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to life in prison in Libya for allegedly contaminating children with the AIDS virus left Tripoli Tuesday on board a plane with the French president’s wife, France’s presidential palace said.
The plane was heading to Bulgaria, the Elysee Palace said.
France had been seeking the return home of the six – in jail for the past eight years – in a final goodwill gesture by Libya after it commuted their death sentences in favor of life in prison.
Bulgaria made an official request Thursday for Tripoli to repatriate the medics to serve their sentences in Bulgaria.
It granted citizenship to the Palestinian doctor, Ashraf al-Hazouz, last month.
MIAMI
Poll: 1 in 3 wouldn’t evacuate in hurricane
About one in three people living in Southern coastal areas said they would ignore hurricane evacuation orders if a storm threatened their community, up from about one in four last year, according to a new poll.
The survey released early today found the most common reasons for not evacuating were the same ones that topped last year’s Harvard University poll: People believe their homes are safe and well-built, that roads would be too crowded and that fleeing would be dangerous.
Slightly more than one in four also said they would be reluctant to leave behind a pet.
Robert Blendon, the Harvard professor who directed the survey, said the mild 2006 Atlantic hurricane season probably put more coastal residents at ease.
