Commander suspended

Commander suspended
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The Israeli army suspended a platoon commander today on suspicion he emptied an ammunition clip into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, or "verified a kill," after she was shot from an army outpost and collapsed to the ground.
In a nearby Palestinian refugee camp, a 5th-grade girl died today after being shot in the chest the day before while sitting at her desk in a school. The army said it fired at the camp in response to mortar fire from the area of the school. A U.N. aid agency said the camp was quiet at the time.
In other developments today, the army expanded its two-week-old offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, with tanks moving deeper into the town of Beit Lahiya to try to stop Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli border towns.
Three militants were killed and seven Palestinians were wounded in the fighting, including four children between the ages of 5 and 16, hospital officials said. One of the militants was killed by a missile strike, and two by a tank shell, witnesses said.
Israel's deputy defense minister, Zeev Boim, told Israel Army Radio that "the expansion of the operation proves we don't mean to let up" and that the number of rocket attacks has dropped.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday he was deeply troubled by the Israeli raid.
Lava breaks surfaceat Mount St. Helens
SEATTLE -- After weeks of earthquakes and steam eruptions, Mount St. Helens has a new lava dome that could even eclipse the volcano's old one.
The quakes subsided as the new lava emerged Monday and cooled in the open air, suggesting molten rock from deep inside the Earth had found the path of least resistance by going around the old dome, said Jon Major, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Unlike the dramatic rivers of red-hot lava from Hawaii's volcano, St. Helens' extrusion of new rock was subtle and difficult to see from outside the crater. A lazy plume of steam rose slowly from the mountain for much of Tuesday.
Infrared instruments recorded a surface temperature of nearly 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, confirming that the second dome consisted of cooling lava rather than old rock which had been pushed upward, said USGS volcanologist Willie Scott.
"The fact that we see stuff at the surface that hot means it's new rock," Scott said.
Police chase Blues Brotherafter coming to aid of Elvis
CRYSTAL, Minn. -- Police responding to a call of a convulsing Elvis Presley impersonator soon found themselves in a high-speed chase of another faux celebrity -- a man dressed as one of the Blues Brothers.
Crystal Police Capt. Dave Oyaas said the bizarre string of events began when officers were called to a veterans hall Monday morning to find a man dressed as Elvis Presley apparently in convulsions.
When the officers approached, Oyaas said the man suddenly jumped up and yelled, "Viva Las Vegas!" before singing show tunes.
At about the same time, two women said another man at the veterans hall dressed as John Belushi's character in "The Blues Brothers" had stolen their car and driven to a nearby airport.
The man led police on a high-speed chase around the airport before officers forced him to stop and arrested him.
"It's one of those things that you stop and scratch your head, and you think that 'Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?'" Oyaas said.
Oyaas said charges pending against the men could include disorderly conduct, fleeing police and drunken driving.
Associated Press