FENCE JUMPER MAKES IT

Fence jumper makes it
WASHINGTON -- A screaming intruder made it onto the front lawn of the White House Sunday while President Bush was at home before being apprehended by Secret Service officers. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren identified the man as 40-year-old Brian Lee Patterson, whose last known address was in Albuquerque, N.M. Patterson has been caught trying to get onto the White House grounds at least three times before, Zahren said. The bearded man, wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt that said "God Bless America," jumped the fence outside the White House and ran across the north lawn while yelling, "I am a victim of terrorism!" Members of the Secret Service emergency response team, including one holding a barking dog, chased Patterson with their guns drawn and surrounded him near the row of cameras set up for television stand-ups.
Explanation sought
WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should speak publicly about their involvement in the CIA leak case so people can understand what happened, a leading Republican senator said Sunday. "We ought to get to the bottom of it so it can be evaluated, again, by the American people," said Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a federal court filing last week, the prosecutor in the case said Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, testified before a grand jury that he was authorized by Bush, through Cheney, to leak information from a classified document that detailed intelligence agencies' conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. A lawyer knowledgeable about the case said Saturday that Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Libby be the one to disseminate the information.
Study: No to obesity
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Obese people have a blind spot when it comes to their own weight problem, according to a study that showed only 15 percent of people in that category view themselves as obese. Such a lack of self-awareness can be deadly. "If somebody doesn't perceive themselves to be obese, they are most likely not going to pay attention to any public health information about the consequences of obesity," said Kim Truesdale, a nutrition researcher at the University of North Carolina. Among those consequences are heightened risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis. The study of 104 adults, ages 45 to 64, showed that only 15 percent of people who fit the body type for obese correctly classified themselves that way. In contrast, 71 percent of normal-weight people and 73 percent of people classified as overweight were accurate in their self-assessments.
Rebels vow more action
KATMANDU, Nepal -- The crisis in this Himalayan nation deepened Sunday as angry crowds demanding the restoration of democracy took to the streets across Nepal in defiance of a daytime curfew, throwing stones at security forces and burning government offices. With King Gyanendra and his swelling opposition both refusing to back down, the situation appeared to be reaching its most volatile point since he seized absolute power more than a year ago. The well-armed communist insurgency has allied itself with the political opposition, which vowed Sunday to continue demonstrations indefinitely.
29 killed in stampede
KARACHI, Pakistan -- A stampede at the end of a religious gathering Sunday to mark the birth of Islam's prophet Muhammad left at least 29 women and children dead in southern Pakistan. The stampede occurred as thousands of women were leaving the Sunni Muslim Faizan-e-Medina center in the port city of Karachi after listening to clerics deliver sermons, said Hanees Billu, a spokesman for the center. Witnesses said the fatal crush happened inside the center's compound, when a woman bent down to pick up a young girl who had fallen, causing other people behind her to trip.
Associated Press
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