California patrol says bus driver was DUI
WILLIAMS, Calif., Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The driver of the bus that crashed in rural California and killed 10 people was driving under the influence, the California Highway Patrol alleged Monday.
Quienten Joey Watts, 52, of Stockton, Calif., was listed in critical condition in a Woodland-area hospital, one of 35 people officials said were injured in Sunday's crash of a bus traveling from Sacramento to the Colusa Casino near Williams in rural Colusa County, The Sacramento Bee reported.
The California Highway Patrol said Watts would be arrested for suspected DUI.
CHP Special Officer Robert Kays told the Bee the bus had Texas license plates and an invalid registration, which hindered officials from determining who owned the vehicle. The owner was later discovered to be bus line owner Daniel Cobb Sr., 68, of Sacramento.
About 45 people were on the bus and they were "possibly Laotian" from Sacramento, CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader told the Bee.
The crash occurred on a two-lane road that is a shortcut for motorists headed to the casino, officials said.
Kays said witnesses told police they saw the bus swerve onto the right shoulder, over-correct "and it wound up going across the highway, flipping and overturning so it was facing in the wrong direction ... from the original direction it was going."
Suicide bomber strikes in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- At least 10 people were killed Monday in a suicide bomb attack aimed at a lawmaker in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province.
Police say the target of the attack, National Assembly member Rashid Akbar Nawani, escaped injury when the attacker detonated explosives during an open forum meeting between Nawani and his constituents, CNN reported.
Police estimated the death toll for the blast at 10 but a spokesman for Nawani's political party told CNN at least 20 people were killed and many more injured.
It was the second suicide attack against a Pakistani party leader in less than a week.
The Interior Ministry and local police say last Thursday a suicide bomber killed Asfandyar Wali Kahn, leader of the Awami National Party.
Maliki urges Egyptian investment in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says his country is seeking better relations with Egypt and other Arab nations.
Justices mute on Georgia death case
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court, opening its new term Monday, took no action on an appeal of a death-row inmate who reportedly has a significant claim of innocence.
The court indicated it would hear arguments on the appeal of Troy Anthony Davis' death sentence on Friday, CNN reported.
The justices had issued a stay Sept. 23 just hours before Davis, 39, was to be put to death by lethal injection for the 1989 killing of Savannah, Ga., Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Since Davis's 1991 trial, seven key prosecution witnesses recanted testimony about the incident.
Lower courts have ruled there wasn't enough new evidence to say Davis received an unfair trial based on the witness's recanting. But supporters say prosecution witnesses were unreliable.
In other matters, the court granted no new cases. Constitutional issues for which the justices denied review include a non-unanimous jury convicting someone of a crime, jurors' using a Bible during death-penalty deliberations, police searching a passenger's purse during in a validly stopped vehicle and a claim that motorists have a constitutional right to imprint controversial messages on their license plates.
Commenting Monday during a visit to Baghdad by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit, Maliki said Iraq needs the cooperation of Egypt and its other Arab neighbors on construction and economic development projects, al-Sumaria Television reported.
Maliki added used Gheit's visit to urge Egyptian companies to pick up reconstruction opportunities in the country, the broadcaster said, adding that Gheit reaffirmed Egypt's support of Iraq's efforts as establishing security and the imposition of rule by constitutional law.
