Briefly

New York City: Thousands march to WTC in Good Friday procession

Walking behind a simple, wooden cross, thousands of worshippers marked Good Friday with a solemn march from a Brooklyn cathedral to a church near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“This time of the year is a time to look back and a time to look forward,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the group.

Firefighter John Bartlett led the procession, carrying the wooden cross. He lost 343 fellow firefighters in the attacks.

At the site where the World Trade Center stood, recovery workers kept to their task Friday. In the morning, the remains of a police detective killed in the attacks were carried from the site by a police honor guard.

Chicago: Oprah declines Afghan visit

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey declined President Bush’s offer to join an official U.S. delegation to tour Afghanistan’s schools, saying she didn’t have the time.

The trip was to celebrate young girls’ return to school after the fall of the Taliban regime.

Without Winfrey on board, the White House postponed the trip that also was to feature some of the administration’s top women, including Bush adviser Karen Hughes and possibly National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

Aides told the paper it was unclear whether another celebrity who shares Winfrey’s credibility and popularity could be substituted.

Washington, D.C.: Former Joint Chiefs chairman undergoing rehabilitation

Retired Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will remain in the hospital for “extensive rehabilitation” from a spinal injury he received when he fell at his home on Saturday, Walter Reed Army Medical Center said Friday.

Doctors have been monitoring Shelton, 62, to determine whether his injury will require surgery.

Shelton, who was partially paralyzed after falling off a ladder at his suburban Virginia home, took a few steps with help on Wednesday, the hospital said. He has been moved from intensive care but remains in serious condition.

Afghanistan: Radioactive material found

Atomic experts came to Afghanistan this week after radioactive cobalt-60 was found in the abandoned wing of a hospital in Kabul  a discovery that raised fears other dangerous materials might lie forgotten in the country’s rubble.

Though radioactive materials can be used to make “dirty bombs,” there was no evidence the cobalt-60 was intended for anything but medical treatment.

The cobalt-60 was found in a machine for treating cancer and was located in an abandoned wing of a hospital  surrounded by 10-foot-thick, lead-lined walls.

The doors of the room were open, and the machine where the cobalt-60 was stored had been pried open. Officials said the tampering had probably been done a decade ago during factional fighting that destroyed large parts of the hospital.