State News-Saturday, Oct. 7th

GEORGETOWN, Pa. (AP) - For the fourth time in two days, the Amish have had to bury one of their own. This time it was the funeral for the fifth young girl shot by a suicidal intruder at their one-room Lancaster County schoolhouse. Under a cold, steady drizzle, more than 40 horses and buggies trailed a herse and two mounted state troopers as they made their way to the cemetery with a hand-sawn wooden coffin bearing the body of 12-year-old Anna Mae Stoltzfus. Yesterday's procession took them past the home of Charles Roberts, the 32-year-old milk truck driver who took the girls hostage, tied them up and shot them, then killed himself. Services were held yesterday for the four other girls killed during Monday's shootings. Two of the girls were sisters. A sixth girl shot during the attack is reported in grave condition.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Donors from around the world are pledging money to help the families of the ten Amish girls shot to death in Lancaster County on Monday. The donation amounts range from one dollar to 500-thousand. Though the Amish are generally reluctant to accept help from outsiders, Monday's deadly attack on a one-room schoolhouse has fueled an outpouring of sympathy -- and offers of financial assistance. A spokesman for the Mennonite Disaster Service, an agency collecting pledges on behalf of the Amish, says the Amish know this is at least one way that people can show their concern. Among the donors are Capital BlueCross, which pledged 500-thousand dollars to help pay the survivors' medical expenses. At the other end of the financial spectrum, Kevin King, the executive director of Mennonite Disaster Service, says 20 African missionary churches have promised to contribute one dollar each.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A group of researchers has set up a foundation in Pittsburgh to study the members of a rare and exclusive club. Researchers are going to study people who live to be older than 110 to try and figure out why. The Supercentenarian Research Foundation hopes to develop strategies to help combat the effects of aging as well as improve the elderly's quality of life. It's estimated that there are about 300 people worldwide who are 110 years old or older. But only 76 of those people have had their ages verified through public documents such as birth certificates. The oldest person ever whose age was authenticated was Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived to 122 years and 164 days. She was born in France in 1875, and died at a nursing home in 1997.

DREXEL HILL, Pa. (AP) - Congressman Curt Weldon says he is an aggressive fighter for his suburban Philadelphia district, who knows people by name. His Democratic opponent, Joe Sestak, says he has a long record of military service defending his country. Weldon, a ten-term Republican, and Sestak, a former Navy vice admiral, took testy jabs at each other as they jostled over the handling of the Iraq war, their backgrounds and other issues in their first debate yesterday. Like Weldon, Sestak grew up in the suburban Philadelphia district, but he spent 31 years away during his Navy career. Weldon seized on that to portray Sestak as an outsider. Sestak accused Weldon, the second-ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, of voting with President Bush nine out of every 10 times. He says Weldon has sided with the Republican administration as poverty increased and jobs were lost in the district.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The embattled chief executive of Sovereign Bancorp may be in a fight for his job and a board meeting next week could decide his fate. Seven out of 12 Sovereign directors will meet Tuesday to decide whether to oust C-E-O Jay Sidhu and reconfigure the leadership of the board. That's according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. Investors cheered the news, which was reported by The Wall
Street Journal yesterday. Sovereign shares rose eleven-point-six percent to close at a new 52-week high on the New York Stock Exchange. Sidhu has been under fire from major shareholders for engineering the sale of nearly 25 percent of Sovereign to Banco Santander Central Hispano S-A in Madrid. The deal was crafted in a way that bypassed shareholder approval and consolidated power in friendly hands. Santander spokesman Peter Greiff confirmed that there would be a meeting on Tuesday. Sovereign declined to comment.