National Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun
NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

NORTHEAST


TRAIN HITS CAR, KILLING TWO PEOPLE


WATERFORD, Conn.- A high-speed Amtrak Acela train plowed into a car at a crossing yesterday, killing a woman and her 8-year-old grandson and causing major delays along the Boston-to-Washington corridor. The accident happened around 7:30 a.m., Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said.


Patricia Metzermacher, 61, and Zachary Joseph Metzermacher were killed, police said. A granddaughter, Courtney Metzermacher, 4, was critically injured. None of the 116 passengers and four crew members on the train were hurt, police said.


Train service was halted for about six hours. The Acela express train can travel up to 150 mph but goes much slower through Connecticut.


– Associated Press


$100 LAPTOP FOR CHILDREN UNVEILED


CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The $100 laptop computers that Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers want to get into the hands of the world’s children would be durable, flexible, and self-reliant.


Nicholas Negroponte, the MIT Media Lab leader who offered an update on the project yesterday, hatched the $100 laptop idea after seeing children in a Cambodian village benefit from having notebook computers at school that they could also tote home to use on their own.


– Associated Press


WASHINGTON


NEW FOOD PYRAMID FOR CHILDREN


In a new Food Pyramid for children, the government hopes to teach children to eat right with a spaceship computer game, lesson plans, worksheets, and tips for families.


Unveiled yesterday, the kid-specific version of the new pyramid is aimed at children 6 to 11 years old.


In the “My Pyramid Blast Off Game,” a Food Pyramid spaceship blasts off. The ship only makes it to Planet Power if kids load it up with the right combination of healthy food: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low fat or fat-free milk, and lean meat.


– Associated Press


HOUSE GOP TO PUSH FOR EASIER ENVIRONMENTAL RULES


Riding a wave of concern over high energy prices triggered by Hurricane Katrina, congressional Republicans began a rush yesterday to ease environmental rules on refineries and looked for ways to open new coastal waters to oil and gas development. “More refineries will result in more domestic production of gasoline,” Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican of Texas, said as his committee began work on the energy legislation. “We cannot stop hurricanes but we can mitigate some of the adverse impacts.”


But some Democrats called Mr. Barton’s bill a subsidy to an energy industry that is reaping huge profits from high oil and gasoline prices, and criticized the proposals for not addressing price gouging at the pump. They also argued it would gut major clean air requirements on refineries.


– Associated Press


SOUTH


ARMY INTERROGATOR SENTENCED


FORT BLISS, Texas – An Army interrogator was sentenced to five months in prison yesterday for assaulting a detainee in Afghanistan who later died.


Sergeant Joshua Claus was the sixth soldier to be convicted of or to plead guilty to abusing detainees following the deaths of two prisoners at the Bagram Airfield detention center. In all, charges were filed against 14.


Claus pleaded guilty to maltreatment and assault, and also to forcing another inmate to kiss a soldier’s boots. His sentence included a bad conduct discharge from the military.


– Associated Press


IN THE COURTS


JUDGE REJECTS CLAIM THAT PEACETIME RULES DON’T APPLY IN TERROR WAR


NEW YORK – A federal judge yesterday rejected a claim by a former attorney general, John Ashcroft, that a lawsuit alleging abuse of Muslim jail inmates should be dismissed partly because the threat of foreign terrorism exempts the government from following rules made in peacetime.


U.S. District Judge John Gleeson upheld a lawsuit by two men claiming they were beaten, starved, and in one instance violated with a flashlight while held under restrictive conditions after a roundup of Muslim men in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.


Egyptian immigrant Ehab Elmaghraby and Pakistani immigrant Javaid Iqbal filed the lawsuit last year against Mr. Ashcroft and dozens of other federal officials.


Mr. Ashcroft said in a response to the lawsuit that the threat of terrorist attacks meant that the government should not have been required to follow regulations allowing inmates to appeal assignment to the special unit.


– Associated Press

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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