National and State News-Friday, June 29th

LONDON (AP) - The new British prime minister, Gordon Brown, says a bomb scare in London is a reminder that Britain faces "a serious and continuous threat" and people "need to be alert."
Authorities defused what they say may have been a large car bomb in Piccadilly Circus. A witness saw a gas canister and nails inside the car.

BAGHDAD (AP) - A bomb has exploded under an oil pipeline south of Baghdad, spilling crude and sparking a huge fire. There's also word from Iraq that five more American soldiers have been killed. They were attacked while on patrol in Baghdad yesterday.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling that chipped away at affirmative action was a major topic at last night's Democratic debate. The eight presidential hopefuls told a mostly black audience at Howard University in Washington they still see a wide racial divide in the country.

MARBLE FALLS, Texas (AP) - The flood threat in Texas and Oklahoma is likely to last for several more days. More evacuations have been ordered near Fort Worth, Texas. All 77 counties in Oklahoma are under a state of emergency.

ATLANTA (AP) - Another mystery in the case of dead wrestler Chris Benoit. Authorities are trying to determine who changed Benoit's Wikipedia entry to mention his wife's death. The
Internet reference entry was altered 14 hours before the bodies of the couple and their son were discovered.

NEW MILFORD, Pa. (AP) - State police say several people are injured from the crash of a tour bus on an exit ramp of Interstate 81 in Susquehanna County. A police dispatcher says no other vehicles were involved in the crash just after 4 a-m today on the crash in New Milford Township. That's about 30 miles north of Scranton. The bus was leaving the southbound lanes at the Gibson exit of the interstate. The police dispatcher didn't have any immediate information on the bus line or destination.

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) - Police say a chiropractor who crashed his small aircraft nose-first in a Lancaster County cornfield was intoxicated during the hour-long flight. Pennsylvania law prohbits flying a plane with a blood-alcohol level of point-oh-two or higher -- a much lower threshhold than the point-oh-eight for driving. George Robert Coder Junior of Lancaster told police that he started having mechanical problems at 22-hundred feet before the single-engine plane lost power. Before his arrest, Coder told reporters at the scene that the Manheim Township cornfield looked like a good place for a soft landing. Coder suffered only a scrape to his shin. Police said he failed a field sobriety test and charged him with flying under the influence.

CORAOPOLIS, Pa. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he doesn't favor deporting the estimated 12 (m) million illegal immigrants in the United States. But he says he also doesn't want them to receive what he calls a "special pathway" to legal residency. The former Massachusetts governor told reporters near Pittsburgh yesterday that the Senate's failure to pass the president's immigration plan was a "victory for the people." Romney was in Pittsburgh for a fundraiser at the exclusive Duquesne Club, where G-O-P presidential hopeful and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani held a fundraiser the day before. Romney says he wants current laws enforced as well as a reliable employment-verification system for immigrants. Unlawful immigrants, he says, should "get in line" with other immigrants waiting for permanent residency.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A former nuclear engineer accused of helping a former Russian official steal nine (m) million dollars in aid was sentenced to 15 months in prison for conspiracy and tax evasion. Federal prosecutors indicted 56-year-old Mark Kaushansky of Monroeville in 2005 along with former Russian atomic energy minister Yevgeny Adamov on charges including conspiracy, money laundering and tax evasion. Kaushansky entered a plea agreement in September. The Ukraine native had immigrated to the United States in 1979 and worked as a
nuclear engineer at Westinghouse. Prosecutors accused him and Adamov of stealing millions intended to improve nuclear technology in Russia. Prosecutors also alleged that Kaushansky owed millions in back taxes, but U-S District Judge Maurice Cohill found that he owed only 63-thousand dollars. Kaushanksy's attorney, Fred Thieman, said his client and Adamov funneled money through banks around the world to keep it safe from Russia's volatile economic market and to pay impoverished Russian nuclear scientists.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The budget plan of the state's largest transit agency includes fare increases. It also calls for drastic service and job cuts if state lawmakers do not provide enough money to cover its huge deficit. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which serves the Philadelphia region, has a 129-point-six (m) million-dollar budget shortfall.
If the Legislature does not provide 100 (m) million dollars by September, the agency's budget approved yesterday calls for a 31 percent fare increase, a 20 percent cut in service and the
elimination of one thousand jobs. SEPTA also approved a second, more optimistic plan that assumes the Legislature comes up with the needed funding. That proposal will increase fares by 11 percent on July ninth, while maintaining current service and job levels. Critics worry that the approved plans make it less likely that the Legislature will find the necessary funding for the system, now that the agency has a balanced budget.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Philadelphia judge says 44-year-old Rebekah Johnson should be extradited to New York to stand trial in the shooting of a commune leader. Johnson is accused of the May 2006 shooting of Jeff Gross, a founder of the Ganas community on Staten Island in New York City. He survived. Neighbors and commune members have said that Johnson was asked to leave the community, where she lived from 1986 to 1990 and again from 1994 to 1996. After leaving, she accused the group of sexual assault and brainwashing, while Gross accused Johnson of stalking him. Johnson was arrested last week as she stepped off an elevated
train in West Philadelphia.

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) - Blair County officials say a county prison inmate committed suicide.
Officials found Nathan Aughenbaugh, of Tyrone, hanging by a bed sheet from a bar in his cell about 1:30 yesterday afternoon. Officials say Aughenbaugh, who was in for a parole violation,
was determined to be suicidal and so they were checking on him every couple minutes.
Officials say it appears that protocols were followed.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Pittsburgh Public Schools has settled a lawsuit filed by administrator who claimed he was wrongfully passed over for superintendent. The 390-thousand dollar settlement ends Andrew King's suit and related complaints he filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and U-S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. King
will also retire Saturday, a year early. The district's solicitor says the settlement is only 75-thousand dollars more than King would have gotten next year in salary and for unused sick and vacation days. King served as interim chief when Superintendent John Thompson left in January 2005. King also applied for the position, but he was passed over in favor of Mark Roosevelt, a former Massachusetts legislator. King sued, saying he was more qualified. King, who is black, also alleged discrimination. In 1999, King was charged with open lewdness after police said they caught him in a sex act with a homeless woman in an S-U-V. He pleaded guilty to a lesser count, disorderly conduct.