Nation in brief

Methodists renew a commitment to unity

PITTSBURGH - The United Methodist Church ended its national conference Friday as delegates overwhelmingly pledged themselves to church unity after a tumultuous 10-day meeting torn by divisions over homosexuality and talk of schism.

On a 869 to 41 vote, the church's quadrennial General Conference - its highest lawmaking body - approved an impromptu unity resolution that pledged them "to remain in covenant with one another, even in the midst of disagreement."

The vote came a day after a prominent conservative pastor and national president of an unofficial Methodist "renewal" group called for "a just and amicable" separation of the church because of "irreconcilable differences" over homosexuality. The Rev. William H. Hinson had said the only option after 30 years of debate was for liberals and conservatives to divide church property and go their separate ways even though the church earlier this week strengthened his stand against homosexuality.

Stunned by the suggestion, delegates responded Friday with a resolution that said they wanted to "reaffirm our commitment to work together for our common mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ throughout the world."

Asked later if he thought his separation proposal had been repudiated, Hinson said he stood by his plan.

DETROIT - A cigarette smuggler is challenging testimony by a key prosecution witness in the post-Sept. 11 convictions of three Moroccan immigrants, a defense lawyer said Friday.

James Thomas, a lawyer for convicted immigrant Ahmed Hannan, said the prosecution turned over information from an FBI interview with smuggler Thamir Zaia as part of an ongoing document review ordered by a federal judge.

In the interview, Zaia said it was he, not defendant Karim Koubriti, who went shopping for cigarettes with a man whose notebook had what the government says were sketches of possible terrorist targets.

The notebook, owned by a now-dead, mentally ill Yemeni immigrant named Ali Mohammed Ali Ahmed, was a major part of the prosecution's case. Only one prosecution witness linked him with the defendants. Defense lawyers say their clients did not know Ahmed.

RANDALLSTOWN, Md. - Four students were wounded Friday in a drive-by shooting at a high school outside Baltimore, authorities said.

The victims were students who stayed after school to attend a charity basketball game. Three of them suffered nonlife-threatening injuries, while the fourth was in surgery, Baltimore County police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan said.

The motivation for the attack was not immediately known, but Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. said that it was a "street crime that happened on school grounds."

Witnesses told police a car with about four people inside pulled up to Randallstown High School about 4:30 p.m., and the driver and a passenger got out of the car, police spokesman Bill Toohey said.

The driver shot four or five times, then handed the gun to the passenger, who also fired. The car - a black BMW with tinted windows - then sped off.

WASHINGTON - The Congressional Budget Office says it believes its March projection for a federal deficit of $477-billion this year was too high, though the red ink still seems all but certain to set a new record.

The budget office, Congress' nonpartisan fiscal analyst, provided no new figure and won't formally update its estimate until summer. Nonetheless, the improved outlook paralleled Wall Street firms that have revised their forecasts for the better, marking the first time in several years that experts are saying their earlier estimates were too gloomy.

Last year's $374-billion deficit stands as the worst ever in dollar terms.

LOS ANGELES - Lost: a priceless 320-year-old Stradivarius cello belonging to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Last seen two weeks ago under the arm of a thief on a bicycle.

The instrument, which symphony officials say is irreplaceable but valued at $3.5-million for insurance purposes, was taken about 6:30 a.m. April 25 from the home of Peter Stumpf, the Philharmonic's principal cellist, in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The police will not say whether the thief entered the house or whether the instrument had been absentmindedly left outside.

A grainy video from a neighbor's security camera shows a teenager or young man on a bicycle rolling up to the house, parking the bike and re-emerging into view of the camera a few moments later with a silver-colored cello case 41/2 feet tall. He is seen riding away, and then, off camera, the sound of the bike's colliding with trash cans can be heard.

An anonymous benefactor has offered a $50,000 reward for the return of the cello, which was made in the Cremona, Italy, workshop of Antonio Stradivari in 1684 and is named the General Kyd, for the man who carried it from Italy to England at the end of the 18th century.

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