TROPICAL DEPRESSION THREATENS SOUTHEAST COAST

Tropical depressionthreatens Southeast coast
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A tropical depression formed southeast of the Carolinas on Friday, prompting tropical storm watches south to the Georgia-Florida state line.
The depression was 140 miles southeast of Charleston, S.C., with maximum sustained winds of 30 mph. It was nearly stationary, but forecasters expected the storm to drift slowly westward Friday night.
It was predicted to come ashore near Charleston late today and move to the northeast across the Carolinas.
The depression could strengthen into a weak tropical storm before making landfall, according to experts at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The biggest threat was flooding. Three to 5 inches of rain were forecast along coastal areas from Georgia to North Carolina.
Carbon monoxide sickensstudents at trade school
ANACONDA, Mont. -- A cracked exhaust pipe on a heater caused a carbon monoxide leak that sickened 30 male students in a dormitory at a trade school Friday, leaving some unconscious and others suffering convulsions, authorities said.
Twenty students were flown to hospitals in Billings and Spokane, Wash., said Anaconda Fire Chief Bill Converse. They had to be flown to hospitals with hyperbaric chambers, in which patients breathe 100 percent oxygen to remove the carbon monoxide from their blood.
Authorities were called to the Anaconda Job Corps Center about 7:30 a.m. after a nurse reported finding several dozen students sick, Converse said.
"She didn't know what was going on, but she knew something was wrong," he said. "When we got there, there were some students that were unconscious, there were some that were in convulsions and seizures. There were others who were conscious, but just weren't with us, if you know what I mean."
The leak appeared to have originated in an exhaust pipe attached to the dorm's furnace, Detective Steve Barclay said. Converse said the pipe had cracked and allowed exhaust to vent inside the building.
Teen jailed in slaying
WAGONER, Okla. -- A 16-year-old boy accused of fatally stabbing a classmate aboard a school bus pleaded no contest to first-degree murder Friday and was transferred to juvenile custody.
Daniel Harley Dillingham will remain in the county jail, segregated from other inmates, until a bed opens at the state's only maximum-security juvenile facility. He said nothing during his court appearance, and his attorney, Dennis Shook, entered the plea for him.
Dillingham, who was 15 at the time, stabbed Carl Andrew Robinson in the back and chest aboard a Porter High School bus Dec. 8.
Robinson, 16, died on the bus while Dillingham fled out a back emergency exit. He told investigators he was tired of Robinson's bullying.
Coup plotter convicted
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- A one-time movie star and former British special forces operative accused of leading a foiled coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea was convicted Friday of trying to buy weapons from Zimbabwe's state arms manufacturer.
Simon Mann -- an alumnus of the exclusive British boarding school Eton and a longtime mercenary who won praise for his appearance in a 2002 film about Northern Ireland -- admitted trying to order weapons from Zimbabwe Defense Industries. Mann said the arms, including assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank rocket launchers and other explosives, were for guarding a mining operation in war-torn eastern Congo.
The offense is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Inflammatory remarks
JERUSALEM -- Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who outraged Jews in November by calling them "the root of evil," is at it again, this time saying Jews control the world's banks and the mass media.
Theodorakis, best known for the score of the 1964 film "Zorba the Greek," called himself a "true friend of the Jewish people" in an interview published Friday by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Theodorakis said he granted the interview to try to soothe the feelings he hurt in November.
But Theodorakis went on to reiterate his earlier comments and used common anti-Semitic invectives.
He said he doesn't hate Jews, but rather Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies regarding the Palestinians, which he described as Nazi-like. Sharon -- and other Jews in influential positions -- persuaded U.S. President George W. Bush to go to war against Iraq, he added.
Theodorakis said Jews control banks, the mass media and the United States.
Associated Press