TEXAS
George H.W. Bush in intensive care A spokesman said former President George H.W. Bush is in the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital. Jim McGrath said Bush, 88, was admitted to the ICU on Sunday at Methodist Hospital "following a series of setbacks, including a persistent fever." McGrath said Bush was alert and conversing with medical staff and that doctors were cautiously optimistic. No other details about his condition were provided, but McGrath said Bush was surrounded by family. Earlier Wednesday, McGrath said a fever that kept Bush in the hospital over Christmas had gotten worse and that doctors had put him on a liquids-only diet. A bronchitis-like cough initially brought Bush to the hospital in late November. McGrath said the cough has improved.
NORTH CAROLINA
Chicago mob hitman dies in prison Convicted mob hitman Frank Calabrese died in a federal prison in North Carolina. Calabrese, 75, one of Chicago's most feared mobsters, was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison. A federal jury held Calabrese and two other aging mobsters responsible for 10 murders after a trial that exposed the workings of organized crime in Chicago. Calabrese, a portly, bearded loan shark, was found responsible for seven murders. Witnesses said he strangled victims with a rope, then cut their throats.
SOUTH AFRICA
Ex-President Mandela released from hospital Former President Nelson Mandela was released from the hospital after being treated for a lung infection and having gallstones removed, a government spokesman said. The 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon will continue to receive "home-based high care" at his home in Johannesburg until he fully recovers, said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj. The Nobel peace laureate was rushed on Dec. 8 to a hospital in the capital of Pretoria from his rural home in Qunu, Eastern Cape Province.
PAKISTAN
6 killed in attack; 10 more die in aftermath Businesses were closed in Pakistan's commercial capital, Karachi, after an attempt to murder a politician left six dead and ensuing violence killed 10 others. Aurangzaib Farooqi, leader of the hardline Sunni Muslim organization Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, survived an attack by gunmen. Farooqi received a bullet wound to the thigh, while five of his guards and his chauffeur were killed. People with bamboo shafts and pistols took to the streets after television channels reported the news. Armed men fanned across the city and 10 more people were killed, a newspaper reported.
AFGHANISTAN
Bomb detonates short of targeted U.S. base A suicide car bomber targeting a U.S.-operated base in eastern Afghanistan killed at least three Afghans and injured six others, officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties among U.S. or NATO forces. The bomber detonated a minivan packed with explosives when stopped by Afghan security guards at a checkpoint on a road leading to Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khowst, said provincial police Chief Abdul Qayoum Baqizoy. One of the guards and two in the minivan were killed in the blast.
BRITAIN
Huge BBC severance payout under scrutiny Britain's public spending watchdog will investigate severance packages at the BBC in the wake of a highly criticized payout to the broadcaster's former director general. The probe comes after a group of British lawmakers accused the BBC of being cavalier with taxpayers' money by paying $730,000 in severance to George Entwistle -- double the amount he was entitled to -- when he quit last month over the BBC's disastrous handling of fallout from the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.
NEWS SERVICES
