Nation in brief

Security threat cancels flight into Houston

WASHINGTON - Continental Airlines canceled a Sunday flight from Washington to Houston after security concerns were raised by the Homeland Security Department.

Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Flight 1519 was canceled "due to security concerns and threat reporting about that particular flight." He did not give any details of the threat.

The cancellation came on the heels of announcements Saturday that six international flights set for Sunday and today were canceled because of security concerns.

In Houston, Continental spokesman David Messing said passengers were being booked on other flights.

The flight was scheduled to take off from Dulles International Airport outside Washington at 5:45 p.m. and arrive at Bush Intercontinental Airport at 9:10 p.m.

The National Football League's Super Bowl was being played Sunday evening at Reliant Stadium, about 27 miles from the airport. However, a U.S. government official said the cancellation was not specifically connected to the Super Bowl.

BUCKEYE, Ariz. - A corrections officer was released Sunday from the prison guard tower where she had been held hostage by a pair of inmates for two weeks, a Corrections Department spokeswoman said.

No information was released on why the inmates surrendered.

Corrections spokeswoman Cam Hunter said the guard, whose name was not released, was receiving medical attention.

The surrender at the medium- to high-security Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis ended one of the nation's longest prison hostage situations in decades.

The standoff began Jan. 18 when two inmates got into the observation tower, where they took the two guards hostage.

One of the correctional officers, a man, was released Jan. 24.

The inmates were identified by prison officials as Ricky Wassenaar, 40, and Steven Coy, 39.

Wassenaar is serving 28 years for armed robbery and assault.

Steven Coy, who is serving a life sentence, has spent the better part of two decades in Arizona prisons. His offenses include theft, burglary, criminal damage and drug possession and rape.

HOLLAND, Mich. - Tacking Jr. or II onto a boy's name is too common, a new father decided, so the self-described engineering geek took a software approach to naming his newborn son.

Jon Blake Cusack talked his wife, Jamie, into naming their son Jon Blake Cusack 2.0. "I wrote in the birth announcement e-mail stuff, like there's a lot of features from version 1.0 with additional features from Jamie," Cusack said.

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