California

Alleged double agent indicted in Los Angeles

A federal grand jury Thursday indicted alleged Chinese double agent Katrina Leung on charges that she illegally took, copied and kept secret documents obtained from an FBI agent who was her chief contact and alleged lover.

The five-count indictment, however, did not charge Leung, 49, with espionage. She has been jailed without bond since her April 9 arrest.

The charges follow a six-count indictment Wednesday against Leung’s longtime FBI handler, retired counterintelligence agent James J. Smith. He was charged with wire fraud for allegedly filing false reports to FBI headquarters about Leung’s reliability and with gross negligence for allegedly allowing her access to classified material.

Tennessee

Flooding hits Southeast

Some of the heaviest rainfall in more than a century swamped parts of the South with flooding Thursday, forcing hundreds of people to flee homes and businesses in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.

Some 300 people left West Point, Ga., 75 miles southwest of Atlanta, as the Chattahoochee River rose toward its highest level since at least 1961.

More than a foot of rain has fallen on the region since last weekend. The swollen Tennessee River has forced as many as 1,600 people out of their homes in the worst flooding to hit Chattanooga, Tenn., in nearly 30 years.

WASHINGTON

House OKs jobs training bill focusing on religion

Religious groups that receive federal funds to provide job training services could refuse to hire workers with different beliefs under legislation the House passed Thursday.

The measure, which passed 220-204, is part of the reauthorization of the 1998 Workforce Investment Act, which provides $6.6 billion in job training programs and services to more than 19 million people through One-Stop Career Centers. They are federal, state and local partnerships.

That law now prohibits religious groups that receive grants from discriminating in hiring based on religion. But Republicans removed that provision in the new plan.

“We don’t say to Planned Parenthood that if you take money from the government you have to hire somebody who is pro-life,” said Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz. Religious groups “have a right to hire people who share their values.”

LONDON

Three people charged in Tel Aviv bombing

Three people arrested in England in connection with a suicide bombing in Israel were charged Thursday with terrorism offenses, police said.

Police arrested six people in central England and London last week after the April 30 Tel Aviv bombing, which killed three people at a bar.

Israeli police said the bomber was a Briton, Asif Hanif, 21, from the London suburb of Hounslow and that another man, Omar Khan Sharif, 27, of Derby in central England, fled the scene of the bombing when his explosives failed to detonate.

Hungary

Train-bus crash kills 33

A passenger train sliced into a double-decker bus in Hungary on Thursday, killing at least 33 people, all German tourists on the bus.

Five other people were injured in what Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy called one of the worst traffic accidents in Hungary.

The collision happened at 9 a.m. at a railroad crossing near the town of Siofok, about 60 miles southwest of Budapest. The town is a popular tourist resort on Lake Balaton.

The bus was carrying 38 people, mostly retirees.

BALTIMORE

Priest indicted in abuse of man who shot him

A priest who was shot three times last year by a man who accused him of sexual abuse has been charged with molesting the shooter as a child.

A judge agreed Thursday to allow the Rev. Maurice Blackwell, 57, to remain free until a May 29 arraignment. Blackwell had been expected to turn himself in Thursday, but the judge agreed to a request by his attorney, Kenneth Ravenell, to cancel the arrest warrant.

Blackwell was indicted Wednesday on four counts of child sexual abuse.

The indictment alleges Blackwell abused Dontee Stokes, now 27, between 1989 and 1992.