■ United States
Letters spark terror probe
Envelopes containing matches rigged to ignite when opened have been received through the mail at the offices of at least 14 state governors in the last two days. The mailings, under investigation by the FBI and the Department of Home-land Security, bear a return address that names two inmates at a maximum-security prison in Nevada. But a Nevada corrections official said it was unclear whether they were the actual senders. Aides to several governors said they had been told by the FBI that the case was being treated as one of domestic terrorism. No one was injured by the letters.
■ United States
Clinton leaves hospital
Former US president Bill Clinton was released from a New York hospital on Friday after undergoing quadruple heart-bypass surgery earlier in the week, his office said. Clinton was back at his home in suburban Chappaqua, New York, his office said in a statement. "The president is in good spirits and has taken short walks in the hospital hallway and in his home today." Clinton was seen leaving the hospital in a motorcade of black vehicles but did not speak with reporters who had staked out the hospital in recent days. Clinton, his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea, issued a statement thanking hospital staff and well-wishers.
■ United States
Cancer test useless
Thousands of men may have unnecessarily undergone an invasive operation to remove their prostate, sometimes suffering impotence and incontinence as a result, because of a screening test which was Friday written off as all but useless. The PSA test is a blood test that measures levels of prostate specific antigen, a protein produced by the prostate gland. It will tell doctors that a man has a prostate cancer, but scientists in the US said yesterday that in many cases the man can live with the cancer and the treatment may be worse than the cure. "The PSA era is over," said researchers at Stanford University school of medicine in their paper in the Journal of Urology.
■ United States
People smugglers indicted
A federal grand jury indicted two Hong Kong brothers on Friday for allegedly plotting a scheme in which 17 Chinese immigrants were smuggled into port inside a 12m-long shipping container. Chan Yau-hang and Chan Yau-hung were being held by Hong Kong authorities on Chinese immigration charges and US authorities plan to seek their extradition, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officers acting on a tip found the smuggled immigrants on Feb. 24 in a shipping container at the Port of Los Angeles. They had spent about 25 days inside the box, officials said.
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