Denver

Recount ordered in disputed House race

An automatic recount was triggered Thursday in the race for Colorado’s new congressional seat after updated vote tallies showed Republican Bob Beauprez ahead of Democrat Mike Feeley by just 122 votes out of nearly 163,000 cast.

Beauprez had led by 386 votes, but three counties were ordered by a judge to count every qualified provisional ballot in the battle to represent the 7th District in suburban Denver.

When the returns came in, Beauprez had 81,530 votes and Feeley had 81,408. The margin is so small that a recount is automatic under state law.

Feeley said he would wait for the recount before deciding his next step.

Beauprez said he was confident he would win the recount, which under state law must be completed by Dec. 15.

San Diego

DEA plans to target Ecstasy rings

Saying teenage use of Ecstasy is reaching “epidemic” levels, U.S. authorities planned to boost efforts to stamp out rings making and selling club drugs.

The Drug Enforcement Administration expected to double such investigations as part of “Operation X-Out.”

Currently, about 5 percent of the DEA’s major investigations involve club drugs such as Ecstasy and the so-called “date-rape” drugs Rohypnol and GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate.

The agency also planned to focus new efforts on Internet trafficking and the Netherlands, the source of some 80 percent of the world’s Ecstasy supply.

DEA Director Asa Hutchinson announced the changes at a news conference Thursday in San Diego.

According to the DEA, 8.1 million Americans tried Ecstasy in 2001, up from 6.5 million the year before.

Pennsylvania

Attacker uses sword to slice girlfriend’s hand

A man used a samurai sword to sever part of his girlfriend’s hand during an argument, police said, and surgeons were trying to reattach it Thursday.

Bradon Burnett, 21, was arrested Wednesday at his home in Wilkinsburg, in suburban Pittsburgh, police said.

Officers found the woman in the street outside with her hand severed between the fingers and through the palm, said Wilkinsburg Police Chief Richard Dwyer. She also had wounds on her arm and head, police said.

Officers found the severed portion of the hand inside the residence and gave it to paramedics, police said.

Police and UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh, where the woman was undergoing surgery, declined to release her condition or identity.

Burnett, who had a sword with him when he was arrested, was arraigned on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and domestic violence and was jailed, Dwyer said.

Florida

Bad weather threatens launch of space shuttle

NASA kept an eye on the weather in Florida and 4,000 miles away in Spain, hoping for a break that would allow the launch of the repaired space shuttle Endeavour tonight at Cape Canaveral.

Endeavour’s flight to the international space station has been delayed almost two weeks by a leaking oxygen line and a damaged robot arm. The damage was caused by workers who accidentally rammed a platform into the 50-foot arm.

Forecasters said there was an 80 percent chance of good launch weather, with gusty wind the main concern. But the outlook was much worse at the two emergency landing sites in Spain, where rain, thick clouds and turbulence were expected throughout the weekend.