Kennedy hospitalized after seizure at luncheon

Kennedy hospitalized after seizure at luncheon

WASHINGTON — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, ill with a brain tumor, was hospitalized Tuesday but quickly reported feeling well after suffering a seizure at a post-inauguration luncheon for President Barack Obama.

“After testing, we believe the incident was brought on by simple fatigue,” Dr. Edward Aulisi, chairman of neurosurgery at Washington Hospital Center said in a statement released by the senator’s office.

“He will remain ... overnight for observation, and will be released in the morning.”

The statement said the 76-year-old senator “is awake, talking with family and friends, and feeling well.”

Kennedy was diagnosed last May with a particularly aggressive type of brain tumor, called a malignant glioma, after suffering a seizure at his Massachusetts home. He had what his doctor described as successful surgery to remove as much as possible of the tumor in his left parietal lobe.

Close call with a subway

WASHINGTON — A 68-year-old woman who fell onto subway tracks in Washington on Tuesday narrowly escaped an oncoming train by squeezing into a small space underneath a platform, authorities said.

As a train was fast approaching, the woman was trying to get a lift onto the platform, but there wasn’t enough time. So Houston police officer Eliot Swainson, who was in town to help out with the record crowds during the inauguration, told the woman to squeeze into the space under the Metrorail platform.

After the train whizzed by the Gallery Place Metro Station, Swainson safely pulled the woman up onto the platform.

The woman, who was not identified by authorities, was traveling with a group of people when she turned to look for a friend and took a slight step backward. She lost her balance and fell onto the tracks, Swainson said. She was taken to a hospital with a dislocated shoulder, Swainson said.

1,000 turned away

WASHINGTON — Inauguration Day turned out to be a disappointment for at least 1,000 people who held tickets to the swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol but couldn’t get in.

Ryan Ford, an intern who works in Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s office, said he had been looking forward to the event for weeks, but was “extremely disappointed” when he was turned away at the gate.

After waiting for more than four hours, Ford gave up and ended up watching the inauguration at his office.

Jay Mayfield, of Knoxville, Tenn., also missed the ceremony at the Capitol despite arriving in Washington at least four hours before the swearing-in ceremony.

Mayfield and others went to the location indicated on their purple tickets but were unable to enter. He said there were no volunteers to assist them, and police would not explain what was going on.

World joins in celebrating

LONDON — The arrival of a new American president triggered joy and jubilation Tuesday in a world made weary by warfare, recession and fear.

Bulls and goats were slaughtered for feasts in Kenya, toasts were offered at black-tie balls in Europe and shamans in Latin America chanted Barack Obama’s name with reverence.

From Kenya and Indonesia, where Barack Obama has family ties, to Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, Obama’s inauguration sparked a volcanic explosion of hope for better days ahead.

The ascendance of the first black to the presidency of the United States was heralded as marking a new era of tolerance and possibility.

Combined dispatches