Chris Cuomo unhurt after convoy hit by roadside bomb

New York – ABC news anchor Chris Cuomo was unhurt Tuesday after the convoy of military police he was riding with in Iraq was struck by a roadside bomb.

Some of the soldiers suffered minor injuries in the attack, ABC said. The convoy of four heavily armored Humvees was going to check a report of a burning vehicle in northwest Baghdad when booby-trapped bodies left by the side of the road exploded.

The vehicles returned to safety following a small arms battle, and Cuomo reported on the attack on “Good Morning America,” where he is the news anchor.

“If these vehicles did not have the armor that they did, this situation could have turned out very differently,” Cuomo said. A hubcap-sized piece of shrapnel shattered glass but was stopped by the armor in the vehicle in front of him, he said.

Another ABC News anchor, Bob Woodruff, was seriously injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq on Jan. 29, 2006. He will tell his story in a prime-time ABC special next month.

Ted Nugent says Confederate flag shirt OK by governor

Austin, Texas – Ted Nugent says Gov. Rick Perry had no problem with his decision to wear a Confederate flag shirt during his appearance at last week’s inaugural ball – and even complimented his performance.

Nugent, 58, said Perry talked to him backstage after the black-tie event, complimenting him on “the greatest rock ‘n’ roll” and thanking him for coming, several newspapers reported Tuesday. The governor also called over the weekend, ending the conversation by telling Nugent to “give ’em hell,” Nugent was quoted as saying.

Perry spokesman Robert Black said the governor wouldn’t wear such a shirt, but told Nugent he has the right to wear whatever he wants.

“If you’re going to defend freedom of expression, then you’re going to have to defend all freedom of expression,” Black said.

When asked if Perry would have invited Nugent if he had known what he would wear, Black said: “Yes.”

Elizabeth Vargas: ABC didn’t force her out of anchor job

Chicago – Elizabeth Vargas told Oprah Winfrey that she wasn’t forced out as co-anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight,” but decided to step down when she became pregnant with her second child.

“I was finding it more and more difficult to do that job the way I wanted to do it, which is 100 percent … and still be a great mother,” Vargas, 44, said Tuesday on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Vargas, who is now co-hosting the network’s newsmagazine, “20/20,” said she learned she was pregnant just before her co-anchor, Bob Woodruff, was seriously injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq on Jan. 29, 2006.

Vargas said she had hoped to continue anchoring “World News Tonight” but soon realized she had to step down.

“It was becoming difficult to juggle all that, do the job at work that I wanted to do, and to be the mother I wanted to be,” she told Winfrey.

In May, ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co., announced that it had appointed Charles Gibson as anchor of the nightly news program.