■ Gaza
IDF destroys Hamas home
An Israeli airstrike destroyed the home of a local Hamas leader in the southern Gaza Strip late on Friday, officials said. There were no reports of casualties. The owner of the home, a senior member of Hamas' military wing in the area, received a call from the army approximately 15 minutes ahead of the blast telling him to evacuate the building, Hamas officials said. The Israeli army confirmed the airstrike, saying it had targeted a weapons storage facility. It said it warned people to stay away from the structure ahead of the attack to avoid civilian casualties.
■ United States
Elderly woman rams bus
A 90-year-old motorist went through a red light and rammed a school bus hard enough to knock it over, injuring 11 children, authorities said. One child was in critical condition, and the car's driver was also taken to hospital, officials said. The bus was struck while carrying the learning-disabled students to the Palmdale Learning Plaza in the Antelope Valley northeast of Los Angeles, authorities said. California Highway Patrol Officer Henry Roth said the elderly woman driving a Lincoln Continental failed to stop at a red light and struck the bus broadside.
■ United States
Bomb hoax author jailed
A Mexican man who hoaxed US officials last year by inventing a plot by Chinese nationals to release a "dirty bomb" in Boston was sentenced on Friday to three years in federal prison. Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinonez, 34, pleaded guilty in May to one count of passing on false information about a terror attack to federal officials. According to court documents, Beltran called California Highway Patrol dispatchers in January last year to report that a nuclear warhead would be smuggled within four days through a tunnel connecting Mexicali and Calexico, California.
■ United States
White House snubs Borat
Borat, the fictional TV reporter from Kazakhstan, may have gotten under the skin of Kazakh officials but on Thursday he couldn't get past the gates of the White House. Secret Service agents turned away British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in character as the boorish, anti-Semitic journalist, when he tried to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of his upcoming movie, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Cohen's stunt was timed to coincide with an official visit by Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
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