Washington, D.C.

Wesley Clark loses campaign manager

Wesley Clark’s campaign manager quit Tuesday in a dispute over the direction of the 3-week-old Democratic presidential bid, the latest setback for a team struggling to mesh its Internet-savvy founders with a corps of Washington insiders assuming more power.

Donnie Fowler, 35, told associates he was leaving over widespread concerns that supporters who used the Internet to draft Clark into the race were not being taken seriously by top campaign officials. Fowler also complained that the campaign’s message and methods were focused too much on Washington, not key states, said two associates who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Fowler, involved in his fifth presidential campaign, ran Al Gore’s field operation in 2000. He is one of several veterans of the Clinton-Gore political campaigns involved in Clark’s bid.

China

Manned orbit set for Oct. 15

After a decade of preparation, China will launch its first human being into space on Oct. 15 in a 90-minute flight that will orbit the Earth once, a major Chinese Web site reported in one of the most concrete signs yet that the landmark trip is imminent.

Sina.com implied that the flight, the Shenzhou 5, would carry only one human being in its bid to make China the world’s third spacefaring nation.

The single-orbit flight will take place Oct. 15, Sina.com said, quoting Phoenix Television, a Hong Kong broadcaster with close ties to the Beijing leadership that is run by a former Chinese military officer.

That would be a day after the closing of the Chinese Communist Party’s plenum, a major political meeting. That schedule illustrates China’s long-held desire to hold up its space program as a patriotic endeavor.

Washington, D.C.

Schools to get tools to handle bomb threats

School districts and public safety agencies across the nation will receive a new package of tools to help handle school bomb threats, federal officials announced Tuesday.

The centerpiece of the effort is a compact disc with information about such topics as preventing and planning for bomb threats, providing training to staff and responding to explosions. The program also features a Web site, www.threatplan.org, and reference cards to help schools customize their plans.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Education Department are partners in the project.