Texas

11-year-old was driving truck that crashed, killing three

An 11-year-old girl was apparently the driver of an 18-wheeler that crashed into a highway overpass guardrail, burst into flames and fell onto the road below, police said.

Nicole Marie Gonzales, her father, Luis, 35, and her brother, Nicholas, 3, burned to death in the wreck early April 25 on U.S. Highway 75, authorities said.

Police Sgt. John Cherry said Luis Gonzales drove from Michigan to Muldrow, Okla., the day before the crash.

“The father in this case had not had much sleep,” and it appears 11-year-old Nicole was driving the rig, Cherry said.

“She was behind the wheel. She had the steering wheel in her hands when she was removed,” he said.

Washington, D.C.

Air Force secretary to move to Army leadership post

As part of his push to remake the military, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is expected to appoint James G. Roche as Army secretary, replacing Thomas White, who was fired last week, a senior Pentagon official said Thursday.

If approved by the White House and confirmed by the Senate, he would be the first secretary of two services who also served as an officer in a third.

Roche, a retired Navy officer, is now secretary of the Air Force. He will have a clear directive: to change the culture of the Army. Rumsfeld sees current Army culture as a holdover from the Cold War: too cautious, too big, too reliant on heavy armor and too slow to respond to international developments.

Washington, D.C.

FAA finds some passengers, luggage heavier than thought

The Federal Aviation Administration may add 10 pounds to its estimates of how much air travelers weigh, a figure used to determine if planes are too heavy to fly safely. Regional carriers say they might have to eliminate seats to comply.

Under current guidelines, an adult passenger flying in winter is estimated to weigh 185 pounds, including clothing and carry-ons. The same passenger is calculated at 180 pounds during summer travel.

Children age 2 to 12 are estimated to weigh 80 pounds in winter and summer. Each checked bag is calculated to weigh an average of 25 pounds for a domestic flight and 30 pounds for international travel.

Some think those estimates, put in place in 1995, may be too low because Americans and their carry-on bags have gotten larger.

London

Studies tout high-fiber diet to prevent colon cancer

New research has revived the notion that a high-fiber diet may protect against colon cancer.

Long-standing recommendations for high-fiber diets took a hit after a handful of carefully conducted studies failed to find a benefit.

But experts say two major studies published this week in The Lancet medical journal indicate previous research may not have examined a broad enough range of fiber consumption or a wide enough variety of fiber sources to show an effect.