Explosives, ammunition seized near Las Cruces
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - Border agents apprehended three people carrying two homemade explosive devices along with a gun and ammunition in a car near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The purpose of the explosives and the gun was not immediately known.
Agents identified the trio as the driver, Judy L. Green, 42, and Edward Fieldman, 48, both of Sun City, Ariz.; and Allan Riedel, 34, of Phoenix. They were turned over to the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department.
All three apparently had lengthy criminal histories, according to a release by the Homeland Security Department.
Agents stopped them Sunday morning at a checkpoint near Las Cruces and discovered the explosive devices while searching for contraband.
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Bomb experts who X-rayed the devices decided it was not safe to move them.
So Interstate 25 was closed to traffic, and the devices were detonated in the nearby desert.
Syphilis cases on the rise in Bernalillo, New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - New Mexico has seen a steady rise in syphilis in the past few years. While the numbers are not high, the increase is.
The state had about 20 cases in 1999. Last year, it had 63. In the first six months of 2003, 47 cases were reported, said Al Chowning, program manager for sexually transmitted diseases for the state Department of Health.
Bernalillo, San Juan and McKinley counties have seen the largest increases in 2002 and so far this year. American Indian cases in the first six months of this year already equal the total for all of last year, Chowning said.
Bush seeks to establish manufacturing post
RICHFIELD, Ohio (AP) - President Bush announced Monday he is creating a high-level government post to nurture the manufacturing sector, which is bleeding jobs in states crucial to his re-election.
On a rain-soaked Labor Day trip to a factory-training center, Bush said he had directed Commerce Secretary Don Evans to establish an assistant position to focus "on the needs of manufacturers."
Keeping factory jobs is critical to a broader economic recovery, the president said, his outdoor venue ringed by cranes, backhoes and bulldozers.
Presidential candidate arrested on Yale campus
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Rev. Jesse Jackson and 13 other people were arrested Monday after they blocked traffic on the Yale University campus in support of striking university service and clerical workers. Jackson led more than 1,000 people on a Labor Day march and rally in support of the striking workers before he was arrested.
Hussein denies car bombing near mosque
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - As a huge funeral procession for a beloved Shiite cleric marched to the holy city of Najaf, Arab TV broadcast an audiotape Monday purportedly from Saddam Hussein denying any involvement in the bombing that killed the moderate ayatollah. The U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council, meanwhile, named a new Cabinet in a step toward reclaiming some powers from the American occupiers. The new government mirrors the ethnic and religious makeup of the 25-member council.
Shooting wounds 26, kills one in Gaza City
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli helicopters fired four missiles at a car carrying Hamas militants Monday, killing at least one of them and wounding 26 people on a crowded Gaza City street in the sixth such attack in two weeks. Three men were in the car, witnesses said, and at least one got away.
