National news briefs

Church group's bus flip kills 1, injures 23

MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) — A bus carrying a church youth group from Louisiana to Georgia flipped Sunday on Interstate 20 in Mississippi, killing one person and injuring 23 others, a coroner said.

The bus, from First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., rolled three times around 10:20 a.m. near Meridian, said Lauderdale County coroner Clayton Cobler III.

"It had a blowout," Cobler said.

At least two passengers were trapped underneath the bus. A group of National Guard soldiers was on the highway at the time and helped extricate the injured.

"The National Guardsmen actually picked the bus up off the two people and got them out," Cobler said.

An 18-year-old male was pronounced dead at a hospital, Cobler said. His name was not released.

Three people were airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, including one with severe head injuries, while the others were being treated at three hospitals in Meridian, the coroner said.

Shuttle liftoff delayed due to bad weather

New York Times News Service

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Endeavour was ready on Sunday, but the weather was not.

The shuttle was to take off at 7:14 p.m. But as the launching time approached, lightning and showers encroached within 20 miles of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida — too close if the shuttle needed to make an emergency landing. NASA will try again at 6:51 p.m. today.

Last month, two launching attempts were called off because of a hydrogen leak. Then lightning struck the launching pad on Friday, postponing a Saturday attempt. On Sunday, no technical problems arose, but the clouds moved in.

The shuttle is to spend 16 days in space for work on the International Space Station.

Gunman surrenders in veterans' hospital

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Officials say a gunman who entered a Veterans Affairs medical center in Topeka, Kan., surrendered without hurting anyone and is now a patient at the hospital.

Veterans Affairs spokesman James Gleisberg said the man is a U.S. military veteran who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He says the man had pulled out a gun and made threats Sunday in the emergency room of Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center. No one was hurt.