Report says Israel tested ‘dirty bombs’

Report says Israel tested ‘dirty bombs’

JERUSALEM

Israel built and exploded so-called “dirty bombs,” explosives laced with nuclear material, to examine how such explosions would affect the country if it were to be attacked by the crude radioactive weapons, the Haaretz daily newspaper reported Monday.

Israeli defense officials and scientists refused to comment on the report when reached by The Associated Press. However, Israel has what is widely considered to be an extensive nuclear weapons program that it has never declared.

Barbara Bush marks her 90th birthday

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine

Former first lady Barbara Bush celebrated her 90th birthday Monday by spending time with her family and promoting literacy, a cause long dear to her.

Foundations set up by Bush and by Dollar General have partnered with X Prize for a competition aimed at boosting adult literacy. The $7 million competition challenges people or teams to create a mobile app capable of giving the biggest boost to adult literacy skills within 12 months.

Bush said she hopes the competition will bring “a radical breakthrough” that will help an estimated 36 million U.S. adults who read at the third-grade level or lower.

Last of ‘Angola 3’ ordered released

NEW ORLEANS

The last of the “Angola Three” inmates, whose decades in solitary confinement on a Louisiana prison farm drew international condemnation and became the subject of two documentaries, was ordered released Monday.

The ruling would free 68-year-old Albert Woodfox after more than 40 years in solitary, which human-rights experts have said constitutes torture.

U.S. District Judge James Brady of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ordered the release of Woodfox and took the extraordinary step of barring Louisiana prosecutors from trying him for a third time.

E. coli outbreak closes day care

COLUMBIA, S.C.

A South Carolina day care is closing temporarily after seven cases of E. coli were traced to the center and at least one child appeared to have died from a disease caused by the bacteria.

The Learning Vine in Greenwood is thoroughly cleaning its day care after the outbreak, according to a statement released Monday by the center.

The owners said they closed the day care as soon as they got the first indication E. coli might have sickened some of its children and employees.

17 killed in bus accident in Andes

LIMA, Peru

A truck carrying students home from a parade fell into a ravine in the Peru’s Andes Mountains, killing 17 people and injuring 33, authorities said Monday.

Five of the injured are in “grave condition” after the accident Sunday near the remote community of Cahuac, 163 miles northeast of the capital, Lima, said hospital director Rosa Pascual. Fifteen of the dead were students age 9 to 15.

Kansas faces cuts

TOPEKA, Kan.

Kansas likely would be forced to lay off prison guards, cut aid to public schools and reduce payments to health care providers and nursing homes if legislators don’t increase taxes, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget director told GOP lawmakers Monday.

Unable to agree on how to tackle a budget shortfall that arose after the state slashed personal income taxes, lawmakers over the weekend still approved a spending measure for the fiscal year that begins July 1 that includes a $400 million deficit.

Associated Press