Washington, D.C.: For second year, students to recite simultaneous pledge

President Bush and Education Secretary Rod Paige want school children across the nation to put their pencils down, put their hands over their hearts and join them next week in a national recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

The “Pledge Across America” event is scheduled for 1 p.m. CDT on Sept. 17.

A California atheist successfully sued last June on behalf of his daughter to have the Pledge of Allegiance declared unconstitutional, saying the phrase “under God,” inserted by Congress in 1954, made the pledge an endorsement of religion.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has been put on hold pending appeals.

Philadelphia: Airport gun charges dropped

Prosecutors have dropped charges against a woman who was arrested after security screeners found a loaded gun in her bag at Philadelphia International Airport.

U.S. Atty. Patrick Meehan said Monday that the gun belonged to Nancy Keller’s husband and that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove she knew it was in her bag.

Prosecutors declined to say how the .357-caliber semiautomatic got into a zipper compartment in Keller’s carry-on bag.

Keller, 37, of Huntersville, N.C., was making a connection in Philadelphia on a flight from Atlanta on Aug. 25 when a screener saw the gun on an X-ray machine. She had been charged with boarding an aircraft with a concealed weapon.

The screener who missed the weapon at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport was later fired.

Philippines: Security intensified after new al-Qaida threat

The Philippines is intensifying security after a suspected al-Qaida member reportedly revealed a new plot to carry out attacks in the country, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said today.

Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, a Canadian arrested because of alleged links to al-Qaida, reportedly told U.S. interrogators the terror group has plotted to attack unspecified targets in the Philippines, Reyes told The Associated Press.

Jabarah was arrested in Oman this year and later brought and detained by the military in the northeastern United States.

Philippine officials said security has been strengthened at embassies, airports, power plants, telecommunications facilities and vital infrastructure ahead of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. They did not cite any specific threat.

India: At least 100 feared dead in train derailment

An express train traveling Monday from Calcutta to New Delhi jumped its tracks and plunged into a river, and at least 100 passengers were feared dead, officials said.

The Rajdhani Express plunged into the river about 10:40 p.m. near the village of Rafiganj, about 100 miles south of the Bihar state capital of Patna, federal telecommunications official R.K. Singh said.

“Several train cars are hanging from the bridge. The other coaches are just thrown around,” Singh said. “The bodies are being taken out slowly. Many are dead. The river is very deep and that is a problem for rescuers.”

Authorities were not ruling out sabotage as a cause of the derailment, saying it appeared that the train tracks had been tampered with.