Nation in brief

President tumbles off bike

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush suffered cuts and bruises early Saturday afternoon when he fell while mountain biking on his ranch, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.

Bush was on the 16th mile of a 17-mile ride when he fell, Duffy said. He was riding with a military aide, members of the Secret Service and his personal physician, Dr. Richard Tubb.

"He had minor abrasions and scratches on his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees," Duffy said. "Dr. Tubb, who was with him, cleaned his scratches, said he was fine. The Secret Service offered to drive him back to the house. He declined and finished his ride."

Bush was wearing his bike helmet and a mouth guard when the mishap occurred. Duffy said he didn't know exactly how the accident happened.

"It's been raining a lot and the topsoil is loose," the spokesman said. "You know this president. He likes to go all out. Suffice it to say he wasn't whistling show tunes."

Bush left Crawford shortly after the bike mishap for Austin, where he was attending a private party of his daughter, Jenna, who graduated from the University of Texas earlier in the day. When he arrived in Austin, scrapes were visible on his right temple and on his chin.

As he departed from the presidential helicopter with his wife, Bush paused to give photographers a chance to take his picture, then shrugged, waved and got into a waiting limousine.

Earlier this month, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry took a spill from his bicycle while riding with Secret Service agents through Concord, Mass., about 18 miles north of Boston. Kerry fell when his bike hit a patch of sand. He was not injured.

Told about Bush's mishap, Kerry said, "I hope he's okay. I didn't know the president rode a bike."

BOSTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Saturday he has yet to decide whether to delay his nomination at the party's convention to improve his campaign's financial prospects. But he said he wouldn't put himself at a disadvantage.

"Boston will have the best convention ever put on, no matter what decision," the Massachusetts senator told local television stations in his first public comment on the proposed strategy.

"We've made no decision; I've made no decision personally, but I'm not going to put myself at a disadvantage to the Republicans," Kerry said, according to WBZ-TV. "I'm not going to let silliness in the legal process deprive us of a full contest for the presidency of the United States."

Each major party candidate will be eligible for $75-million in public money once he has accepted his party's official nomination. Both Kerry and President Bush are expected to rely on public financing for the general election campaign.

But if Kerry were to be nominated at the July 26-29 Democratic convention, he would have to make that money last a month longer than Bush, who will accept the GOP's blessing at its Aug. 30-Sept. 2 convention in New York.

BRADGATE, Iowa - Houses lay crumpled to their foundations and hundreds of thousands of people were without power Saturday after storms tore through the Midwest, including a tornado that leveled this tiny Iowa town.

"Sixty seconds of horror and weeks and months of rehabilitation and rebuilding," said Gov. Tom Vilsack, who took a walking tour of Bradgate, population 100, in northwestern Iowa.

Fifteen people in Bradgate and nearby Rolfe were injured, though none seriously, in the Friday night tornado, said Humboldt County Emergency Management Director Doug Wood. The tornado rendered 30 of Bradgate's 40 homes uninhabitable, he said.

While Iowa was hardest hit, Friday's severe weather knocked out power through parts of West Virginia, Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Michigan authorities blamed three deaths on the storm.

CORONA, N.M. - Firefighters battled a blaze that charred a ranch home and nearly 4,000 acres in central New Mexico, but afternoon wind made the fight more difficult Saturday.

The state's first big wildfire of the season was reported Friday morning in the Cibola National Forest near Corona, about 85 miles southeast of Albuquerque. By early afternoon, the wind pushed the flames from tree to tree.

About 240 firefighters on the ground had help early Saturday from four single-engine air tankers, but the planes were grounded in the afternoon because of strong winds, fire information officer Karen Takia said.

"The wind is pretty horrific - gusts up to 65 mph," fire information officer Rebecca Stoneman said. "The dust is unbelievable."

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