Virginia

First lady christens nuclear submarine

First lady Laura Bush christened a $2.2 billion nuclear-powered attack submarine named after her home state of Texas on Saturday, cracking a bottle of American sparkling wine against the hull on her first try.

“May all who board her be forever blessed and may all who encounter her upon the seas remember, ‘Don’t mess with Texas,”‘ she said at the ceremony at the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard.

The Texas is the first submarine to be christened in Newport News in more than nine years. The private ceremony drew about 5,000 people Saturday.

New York

Circus tiger escapes, causes car accident

After escaping from the circus, a white tiger alarmed picnickers and motorists Saturday on what for him apparently was a calm, half-mile stroll through an unfamiliar urban jungle.

The animal, named Apollo, was safely recaptured in the Queens section of New York City — but not before the sight of him on the Jackie Robinson Parkway caused a multicar accident. Four adults and one child suffered minor injuries.

When the tiger lay down on a nearby street, six police officers with guns drawn created a perimeter around it, Capt. John Durkin said. The tiger’s trainer arrived and coaxed it back into his cage.

The 7-year-old, 450-pound tiger is part of the Cole Bros. Circus in Forest Park.

The cat was being transferred from a small cage to a larger one when the two enclosures separated, creating an opening big enough for him to get out, police and parks officials said.

Iran

Nation has restarted nuclear construction

A defiant Iran on Saturday said it had resumed building nuclear centrifuges.

The announcement by Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi hardened the lines between Iran and the United States, which has been pushing to take Iran’s nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council.

Kharrazi told a press conference that Iran has not resumed enriching uranium but was manufacturing centrifuges in response to the failure in June of Britain, Germany and France to help close Iran’s file of possible nuclear nonproliferation violations at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Bangladesh

Floods kill 1,500, strand 30 million in south Asia

Flood-weakened riverbanks in south Asia collapsed around villages Saturday, pushing the death toll from this season’s monsoons above 1,500 and stranding more than 30 million people in homes and schools, along highways and atop mud embankments, officials said.

As some floodwaters began receding, more bodies were found, raising the death toll from six weeks of monsoons in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan to 1,509. The deaths have been caused by drowning, landslides, electrocution and waterborne diseases.

The annual monsoon usually lasts from June to October.

Kuwait

Powell warns Sudan to accept resolution

Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Sudan on Saturday to accept a new U.N. resolution aimed at ending violence in the western province of Darfur and use the next 30 days to rein in a marauding Arab militia that has killed more than 30,000 people and forced more than a million to flee their homes.

The resolution, which passed in the Security Council Friday on a 13 to 0 vote with two abstentions, warned of unspecified punitive action if the government failed to follow through on promises to crack down on the militia, known as the Janjaweed, restore security and facilitate international aid to alleviate a growing humanitarian crisis.

Powell is on a trip through North Africa and the Persian Gulf region this week.

Miami

Storm warning issued

The first tropical depression of the Atlantic hurricane season formed Saturday, and a tropical storm warning was issued for coastal areas of the Carolinas, forecasters said.

The depression, which forecasters said could become a tropical storm by today, was centered 175 miles south-southeast of Charleston, S.C. The Atlantic hurricane season started June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.