In the Nation
Trick-or-treat at the White House
WASHINGTON - Barack and Michelle Obama yesterday doled out presidential M&Ms and dried fruit mixes to more than 2,000 trick-or-treaters, marking their Halloween at a White House event partly aimed at honoring military families.Dressed as superheroes, pirates, fairies, and skeletons, the kids came in with their parents, lining up at the orange lit White House.
The Obamas smiled, chatted and passed out cellophane goody bags that were also filled with a sweet dough butter cookie and a National Park Foundation Ranger activity book.
President Obama was not in costume, although Mrs. Obama wore furry cat ears and a leopard-patterned top. The White House would not say where their daughters Sasha, 8, and Malia, 11, were celebrating - or what they were wearing. - AP
Six bodies found around Cleveland
CLEVELAND - A convicted rapist who fled before police arrived to arrest him on new rape charges was arrested yesterday in his inner-city neighborhood after police found six decomposing bodies at his home.A police spokesman said Anthony Sowell was walking down the street on the east side of Cleveland when authorities spotted him and took him into custody. Charges against him are pending.
Officers initially identified three bodies at Sowell's home, police said. A spokesman for the Cuyahoga County coroner's office said additional remains were found and confirmed yesterday as three more bodies, for a total of six. - AP
Cheyney cited poor memory
WASHINGTON - Citing faulty memory, former Vice President Dick Cheney told federal investigators in a 2004 interview he had no idea who revealed to reporters that Valerie Plame, the wife of a Bush administration critic, worked for the CIA.Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the probe of who leaked the former spy's identity to the news media.
A summary of the FBI's interview with the then-vice president reflects that he had deep concern about Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador in Africa who said the administration had twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq.
The 28-page interview summary was released Friday to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sued to get the material under the Freedom of Information Act. - AP
Elsewhere:
A small fire at the temporary home for the remains of thousands of World Trade Center victims was likely arson committed after a break-in yesterday, authorities in New York said.
Police were searching yesterday for a person who shot and killed a 16-year-old girl and wounded two men following a football game at a high school in Long Beach, Calif.
Ford Motor Co. workers have overwhelmingly rejected contract changes that would have allowed it to cut labor costs, leaving Ford at a disadvantage to its Detroit rivals.




