Suspicious envelopes sent

Suspicious envelopes sent

NEW YORK — Authorities investigating white powder found in envelopes at New York’s Wall Street Journal say similar mail was received at Harvard Law School in Massachusetts.

Police evacuated about 250 people from the Journal’s Manhattan newsroom and executive offices Wednesday after about a dozen envelopes were found. FBI spokesman James Margolin says five employees were decontaminated as a precaution.

A newspaper spokeswoman said the New York mail was addressed to several executives. The postmark was Knoxville, Tenn., but each letter had a different return address.

The FBI in Knoxville said another letter with powder and a Knoxville postmark was received at Harvard Law School, addressed to political commentator Alan Dershowitz. He recently published an opinion piece in the Journal defending Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Mayor to be investigated

PORTLAND, Ore. — The state’s attorney general agreed Wednesday to investigate claims made by the mayor of Portland that he lied to cover up a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old male.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams admitted this week that he lied to cover up his relationship with a teenage legislative intern because a potential mayoral candidate had spread rumors that Adams had sex with a minor.

Adams, who is 42, said the teen was 17 when they met in 2005, and that the relationship did not turn sexual until the boy turned 18. He said he lied because he was afraid voters wouldn’t believe that his young lover had turned 18 before they started having sex.

Adams became mayor on New Year’s Day, making Portland the largest U.S. city with an openly gay mayor.

Fatal stabbing at Va. Tech

BLACKSBURG, Va. — A fatal stabbing on Virginia Tech campus has triggered a crisis alert system that was revamped after a deadly mass shooting there in 2007.

Students were warned Wednesday night to stay in place in an alert sent by e-mail and text message. After a suspect was taken into custody, students were told about an hour later they could resume normal activity.

The killing took place at the Graduate Life Center. A university news release says the suspect is a male graduate student and the victim is a female graduate student. Police found a knife they believe was the murder weapon.

The alert system was revamped after gunman Seung-Hui Cho took 32 lives before turning the gun on himself in an April 2007 rampage.

Kennedy leaves hospital

WASHINGTON — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was released from the hospital and doing well Wednesday after suffering a seizure during an inaugural luncheon.

Kennedy’s office confirmed that the senator left Washington Hospital Center, where he stayed overnight for observation, and was resting at home. Kennedy has been under treatment for a brain tumor.

A Kennedy representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement was not official, said the senator was in good spirits and that doctors wanted him to get some rest.

Doctors blamed fatigue for the seizure Kennedy suffered during the Capitol Hill luncheon Tuesday after attending the swearing-in of President Barack Obama.

More evidence of birds

NEW YORK — As US Airways Flight 1549’s missing engine was identified on the Hudson River bottom, federal investigators said Wednesday they had found more evidence that birds caused the aircraft to lose power, including a feather attached to the wing.

The National Transportation Safety Board said what appears to be organic material was found inside the right engine and on the wings and the fuselage. There was also heavy internal damage and evidence of a “soft body impact” to that engine’s front fan blades, another indication that birds may have been sucked inside shortly after the Airbus A320 took off from LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, N.C., last Thursday, said NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson.

Top Sunni escapes death

BAGHDAD — A top official of Iraq’s biggest Sunni party escaped assassination in a Baghdad car bombing that killed at least two other people Wednesday — only 10 days ahead of an election that could reshape local power bases.

The U.S. military blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for the attack against Ziyad al-Ani, deputy secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party and dean of the Islamic University, a Sunni institution.

His party said the blast was a “dangerous indication” of the perilous security in Iraq, even as President Barack Obama prepares to shift America’s focus to Afghanistan.

Combined dispatches