National & International News - Saturday Mar. 3

WHITE HOUSE (AP) - President Bush is setting up a bipartisan commission to examine the quality of care at all military and veterans hospitals. His action follows Washington Post reports detailing poor outpatient care for wounded veterans. Bush will be talking about it in his radio chat today.

WHITE HOUSE (AP) - President Bush visits storm-damaged areas in Alabama today, including a high school where eight students were killed Thursday in a tornado. He says he's making the trip "with a heavy heart." Storms and twisters in Alabama, Georgia and Missouri killed at least 20 people.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is sounding upbeat about the economy. He says recent financial market volatility is normal and not a symptom of major problems. Paulson tells National Public Radio that despite weakness in housing and manufacturing, there are "some real bright spots."

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - At least 32 people have died in landslides today triggered by heavy rain in Indonesia. Officials fear dozens more are buried under mud. They say the rescuers haven't even been able to reach some villages because the slides have blocked some roads and caused others to collapse.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Police in Iraq say six Sunni men have been shot to death execution style in a town south of Baghad. The men had all received death threats from Sunni insurgents because they had attended reconciliation talks with Shiites.

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith has been laid to rest in a lavish funeral in the Bahamas. But the legal battle over custody of her infant daughter continues. Smith's companion Howard K. Stern, her ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead and her mother are fighting over who will become the child's guardian.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Winter storms moving East out of the nation's heartland are blamed in least 15 deaths, most in weather-related traffic accidents. More than a foot of snow has fallen in some areas. Thousands of people have lost power.

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina teacher accused of having sex with five teen-age boys has been released on bail. But she's now under house arrest in Greenville. Allena Ward will be allowed out only to go to church and see her lawyers.

BLUFFTON, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's tiny Bluffton University is mourning the deaths of four student athletes, killed in a bus crash in Atlanta. Their driver and the driver's wife also died. The baseball team members were on their way to a tournament in Florida.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The F-B-I says filmmaker Steven Spielberg is cooperating in the investigation into a Norman Rockwell painting stolen more than 30 years ago. The piece was found in Spielberg's collection, but he didn't know it was stolen. The F-B-I says he can hold onto for now.