Honolulu

Bush ends weeklong trip with stop in Hawaii

President Bush dropped flowers into the water Thursday at the sunken battleship USS Arizona, a reminder of the terror that struck America more than a half century ago.

Accompanied by his wife, Laura, the president also toured Pearl Harbor in a launch, riding past a nuclear-powered submarine that fired the first Tomahawk missile of the Iraq war. Bush passed U.S. ships back from the war. Sailors stood at attention on the decks.

Hawaii was the last stop on Bush’s fast-paced trip to Asia and Australia to thank Iraq war allies and to attend a 21-nation summit. The president was ending his journey just like he began it in California a week ago — with a fund-raising event for his re-election campaign. Republicans in Hawaii are energized by the election of the first GOP governor in 40 years, Linda Lingle.

Campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said 600 people attended the event, which raised more than $600,000.

Missouri

Two murderers missing; inmate found dead

Two convicted murderers were missing Thursday morning from the state prison, several hours after an inmate who had killed his siblings was found dead in a prison work area.

Jefferson City police set up roadblocks outside the prison as part of the search for the missing inmates, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether they had escaped.

The two inmates, Chris Sims, 27, and Shannon Phillips, 35, have been missing since Wednesday night when the body of Toby Viles, 28, was found in the ice-making plant where the three men were working alone.

As part of their work, the inmates routinely used chisels and hammers to chop up ice. Guards do not directly supervise the workers but check on them periodically.

Viles was found with wounds to his head and neck and his death is being investigated as a homicide, Kniest said.

United Nations

Five nations elected to Security Council

Algeria, Brazil and the Philippines were elected Thursday to seats on the U.N. Security Council for two-year terms with Romania and Benin.

The five candidates won the support of more than 170 nations in voting by the 191-member General Assembly.

Some years see fierce competition for the council’s 10 elected seats, which are based on nominations by regional groups to ensure geographical representation.

The only drama this time, however, took place behind the scenes when the United States succeeded in scuttling a bid by Libya in July to get the Arab seat.

The United States worked with West African nations to support Algeria instead, according to a U.S. administration official.

The new members will join the Security Council Jan. 1, replacing Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, Mexico and Syria.

The five permanent members — the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France — are the only ones on the 15-member council to hold veto power, enabling them to block resolutions.

Florida

Space station crew aware of concerns

The new international space station crew was told that some medical equipment and air- and water-monitoring devices aren’t working properly, but they aren’t worried, astronaut Michael Foale said Thursday in an interview from the space station.

Foale said the concerns, initially raised by a NASA physician and scientists, shouldn’t affect the six-month mission aboard the station for him and his crewmate, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri.

“They made a point to tell me that they saw no reason to believe that the actual quality of the air was bad or that the water we were drinking was bad,” Foale said.

Astronaut Ed Lu, who is at the end of his six-month stay on the space station, said he and his crewmate, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, had no health problems.

Washington, D.C.

FBI interviews officials in CIA leak probe

The FBI has interviewed more than three dozen Bush administration officials, including political adviser Karl Rove and press secretary Scott McClellan, in its investigation into the leak of an undercover CIA officer’s identity.

The interviews have extended beyond the White House to other government agencies. The Defense and State departments and the CIA itself also are part of the probe.

The focus, however, remains on the White House, two law enforcement officials said on condition of anonymity. While the initial, informal interviews have yielded no major breaks, the FBI is satisfied that the dozen agents assigned to the probe are making progress and have not encountered any stalling tactics, the officials said Thursday.

So far, no grand jury subpoenas have been issued, the officials said.