Text size:

WORLD & NATION UPDATE: AT HOME

Compiled from news dispatches

November 8, 2008

Billy Graham's work as a pastor to presidents is coming to an end, but he is praying for Barack Obama as the nation's next leader begins his work, Graham's son said Friday on the evangelist's 90th birthday. Franklin Graham said in an interview that his father's mind remains sharp even as his body continues to fail. But the preacher who has counseled every president beginning with Eisenhower is not in line to mentor Obama. "My father feels like his time and day for that is over," Franklin Graham said. "But he would certainly like to meet [Obama] and pray with him."

The FBI tracked the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam over more than two decades, newly released documents show. Students at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism obtained the FBI documents by filing a Freedom of Information Act request. The university posted the documents on its Web site Thursday. The FBI monitored Halberstam's reporting, and at times his personal life, from at least the mid-1960s until at least the late '80s, the documents show. The FBI declined to comment Friday on why it tracked the writer.

A car driven by a 16-year- old girl and carrying two younger children, ages 2 and 14, plunged into a rain-swollen river in Auburn, Wash., Friday morning, and authorities said that the driver managed to escape but that there was not much hope for the other two. Divers found the Volkswagen about 100 yards from where the distraught girl told authorities it went off a road into the Green River, authorities said. A tow truck and crew were brought in late morning to attempt to pull it out of the water, but recovery efforts were soon suspended. Kent Fire Capt. Kyle Ohashi said conditions in the murky, fast-flowing river in suburban Seattle were too dangerous for the rescue crew.

Colorado voters became the first in the nation to reject a ban on state affirmative action programs, narrowly defeating a measure that California businessman Ward Connerly has helped pass in four other states. By 51 percent to 49 percent, Coloradans rejected a proposed constitutional ban on considering race or gender in state hiring, contracting and college admissions.