Seattle

Lava climbing in Mount St. Helens

The molten rock rising inside Mount St. Helens is giving the peak an eerie red glow at night.

Lava has been climbing to the surface at nearly 1,300 degrees for the past few days in a process that scientists said Wednesday could go on for days, weeks or months. At night, low-hanging clouds and the steam rising from the volcano reflect the glow of the red-hot stone inside the crater.

Scientists said they do not know how long the eruption might continue, or whether it will be marked by explosive blasts. But they said any eruption would probably be far less dangerous than the cataclysmic explosion in 1980 that killed 57 people.

Tennessee

One dead, one missing in ammo plant blast

An explosion tore through an earth-covered bunker at an Army ammunition plant Wednesday, killing one worker, leaving another missing and creating a thunderous blast that could be heard for miles.

Mayor George Killebrew said a third worker was airlifted to a hospital after the explosion at the Milan Army Ammunition plant. The factory produces medium-caliber ammo for the Army and employs about 600 people.

The cause was not immediately determined, but FBI agent George Bolds had been told by authorities that the blast appeared to be an accident.

New Hampshire

School board bans senior yearbook photo

The school board has voted to ban a photo of a student from the senior section of his high school yearbook because he is posed with a shotgun.

But Tuesday’s vote also backed a compromise: Blake Douglass can have the photo published in a “community sports” section, and a new photo — without the gun but featuring other elements of skeet and trap shooting — can appear in the seniors’ section of the Londonderry High School yearbook.

The compromise wasn’t good enough for Douglass, who wanted his senior photo in a traditional sportsman’s pose.

“I don’t see anything wrong with the picture,” Douglass, 17 said at the hearing.

Penny Dean, Douglass’ lawyer, said she intended to file a complaint in U.S. District Court, and said the National Rifle Assn. would pay for the court case.