Washington, D.C.

Bush used health budget on campaign-related trips

The Bush administration spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from its health and welfare budget to stage presidential events around the country last year — most of which coincided with campaign appearances for Republican candidates.

A report released Friday by the General Accounting Office identified 15 trips where the White House asked the Department of Health and Human Services to pick up the tab.

When the president travels for both official and campaign business, taxpayers generally share the cost with campaign committees.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who requested the report, said an agency charged with helping the sick and the poor should not be indirectly funding politics.

Uganda

Stowaway on press plane was no threat to Bush

White House officials discovered a stowaway on a chartered plane for reporters covering President Bush’s Africa trip, and the man was detained by Ugandan authorities.

The man, who was not identified, had joined the reporters on Friday and flew with them to a compound in Entebbe where the president had several events, said deputy Secret Service director Mark Sullivan.

The United Airlines Boeing 747 carried media members, White House staff and Secret Service agents. The man, who carried no weapons and had no identification, boarded in South Africa, and flew to Bush’s next stop, in Entebbe, where he was detained.

Sullivan said the president was never in danger.

Delaware

Legionnaires’ disease increase a mystery to health officials

The number of reported cases of Legionnaires’ disease has risen sharply this year, baffling federal and state health officials.

The number of cases of legionellosis reported to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year totaled 624 as of last week, compared with 436 for the corresponding period last year.

In some regions, the numbers are double or triple those reported last year. Officials say the cases appear to be random. People contract Legionnaires’ disease after inhaling mists from a water source contaminated with the legionella bacteria, which thrives in warm, stagnant water.

Peru

Shining Path rebels kill 7

In the worst loss for the Peruvian military in four years, Shining Path rebels ambushed a patrol of army special forces and marines in rugged mountainous jungle, killing seven, officials said Friday.

The Thursday afternoon attack, which comes a month after guerrillas kidnapped scores of pipeline workers in the same general area, indicates a resurgence in activity by the Shining Path, which people now say is better-armed than the military.

The Shining Path, which follows a hardcore communist ideology and seeks to overthrow the government, launched its armed conflict in 1980. By the early 1990s the group almost brought the Peruvian government to its knees. The violence dropped significantly with the capture of founder Abimael Guzman in 1992.