Senate OKs tax package

Senate OKs tax package

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a giant tax package Tuesday that saves more than 20 million taxpayers from the bite of the alternative minimum tax.

At a cost of more than $100 billion, the bill also nudges the nation toward greater use of alternative energy resources, renews popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals, and extends relief to disaster victims.

It includes a provision to ensure that mental health problems get the same level of insurance benefits as other medical treatment. The bill passed 93-2.

Report: U.S. drone downed

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani soldiers and tribesman shot down a suspected U.S. military drone close to the Afghan border Tuesday night, three intelligence officials said.

If verified, it apparently would be the first time a pilotless aircraft was brought down over Pakistan and likely would add to tensions between Washington and Islamabad over recent American cross-border incursions into the country’s lawless tribal regions.

The three officials said the aircraft was hit at the village of Jalal Khel in South Waziristan after circling the area for several hours. Wreckage was strewn on the ground, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

The United States challenged the account.

School shooting in Finland

KAUHAJOKI, Finland — A student chef killed 10 of his classmates in a suicidal shooting rampage at a vocational college Tuesday, a day after police questioned him about violent videos he had posted on the Internet, Finnish authorities said. It was the second school massacre to devastate the Scandinavian country in the past year.

Police said the gunman, identified as Matti Juhani Saari, walked into a classroom during an exam and opened fire with a .22-caliber pistol. Wearing a ski mask and dressed in black, the attacker roamed the corridors of Kauhajoki School of Hospitality for more than an hour, witnesses said, stalking students and setting off explosives that burned some of his victims beyond recognition.

The attack ended when the gunman shot himself in the head. He was flown to a hospital and declared dead a few hours later, officials said.

1 reprieve, 1 execution

JACKSON, Ga. — The U.S. Supreme Court gave a reprieve to a Georgia inmate less than two hours before his scheduled execution Tuesday for the 1989 slaying of an off-duty police officer.

Family and advocates of 39-year-old Troy Davis have long said he deserves a new trial as seven of the nine witnesses who helped put him on death row have recanted their testimony. The stay was announced about 5:20 p.m. EDT.

Meanwhile in Florida, Richard “Ric Ric” Henyard, 34, died by lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant him a stay. He was pronounced dead at 8:16 p.m.

Henyard was convicted of the 1993 shooting deaths of two sisters — 7-year-old Jamilya Lewis and Jasmine Lewis, 3. Their mother, Dorothy Lewis, survived after she was raped and shot several times during a carjacking. Both girls, with their mother when they were seized by Henyard and an accomplice, were shot in the head when they cried out for her.

Arrested near Obama home

CHICAGO — Police have brought a felony gun charge against a member of a prominent Chicago family who was arrested after he approached security barriers outside Barack Obama’s home.

The family of 31-year-old Omhari Sengstacke released a statement saying he had no intent to harm the Democratic presidential candidate or his family. The U.S. Secret Service also has insisted he never posed a threat to Obama.

Sengstacke was apparently intoxicated but not armed when he was arrested about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. The gun was found in his car.

Omhari Sengstacke is the grandson of John Sengstacke, longtime publisher of the Chicago Defender.

The newspaper waged a prominent campaign against segregation, sparking blacks’ migration to Northern cities.

Drilling ban to expire

WASHINGTON — Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4-a-gallon gasoline prices this summer.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.

Combined dispatches