■ United States
Bono finds stolen lyrics
It took 23 years, but U2 frontman Bono has finally found what he was looking for: a briefcase full of lyrics and notes stolen from the band during a US concert. Bono said this week that the bag with the lyrics for the October album had been handed to the band in Portland, Oregon, by Cindy Harris, 44, who said that she found it in the attic of a rental home in Tacoma, Washington, in 1981. Harris said she did not know the notes had been stolen until many years later and then she had no idea how to reach the band. Her friend Danielle Rheaume spent much of the past year contacting U2's management.
■ United States
`Hammer' hammers home
A boxer who fights under the nickname "The Harlem Hammer" pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges that he used a hammer to murder a freelance sports writer and then set fire to his Hollywood apartment. James Butler, 31, was charged with murder and arson following his Wednesday arrest and was being held on US$1.25 million bail. Sam Kellerman, 29, was found dead last Sunday at his apartment. A spokeswoman said Butler and the sports writer were friends, and that the boxer had been staying at Kellerman's apartment since late September. Butler is best known for punching an opponent in November 2001 after losing a charity match.
■ United States
No flu shot for mayor's ma
She's 95 years old, her son is the mayor of New York City, and that son also has a prominent school of public health named after him. But Charlotte Bloomberg still can't seem to get a flu shot. "She's been calling around, unable to get a flu shot, and she's 95," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Friday during a weekly radio appearance. The mayor has urged New Yorkers who are not in high-risk categories to avoid flu shots so that stocks will be available for the elderly and others at risk. He said two weeks ago on the program that his mother's doctor did not have any vaccine, but that when some became available, he would call her in.
■ United States
New submarines in action
The US Navy was to commission yesterday the first of a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarine, designed more for intelligence missions close to shore than its Cold War predecessors, navy officials said. The USS Virginia, which is to be inducted into the navy in a ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia, can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles from a distance or it can be configured to slip a 50-member special operations force behind the lines, they said. The US$2 billion submarine is the first of 30 that the navy plans to buy, eventually replacing the current fleet of Los Angeles-class attack submarines made famous in movies like The Hunt for Red October.
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