Around the world
BUS ACCIDENT: Twenty-eight people were killed when a Vietnamese bus burst into flames after a smoker set a load of alcohol on fire, the driver jumped out in panic and the blazing vehicle plunged over a cliff into the sea. Eleven passengers were taken to the hospital with serious burns, the Vietnam News daily reported Monday. Bodies were washed up on the shores of the southern province of Khanh Hoa or found trapped in the bus when it was pulled out of the sea.ACQUITTED: A Pakistani special court acquitted Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Monday of the second of seven charges of abuse of power that were used to dismiss her three-and-a-half years ago. "The case is dismissed," said special court judge Munir Sheikh in his brief verdict on the charge that Bhutto abused her position as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 to allot prime land in the capital, Islamabad, illegally.
AUTHOR DIES: Author and critic Margaret Lane, who wrote biographies of Beatrix Potter, Samuel Johnson and the Bronte sisters, has died at age 86. Lane, the widow of the Earl of Huntingdon, died Feb. 14 at Southampton in southern England, her family said. No cause of death was announced.
Across the nation
TRIAL OPENS: The trial of an activist accused of killing an abortion doctor opened Monday in Pensacola, Fla., with the judge warning he would tolerate no politics in his courtroom. Circuit Judge John Parnham ordered security officers to have spectators remove any lapel pins or other items that state a point of view after a defense attorney complained.
IN ORBIT: Clementine 1 flew into lunar orbit to start work on its mission of moon mapping and testing military equipment. The 6-foot, 933-pound spacecraft went into an elliptical orbit at about noon Saturday, said Defense Department spokesman Major Arne Owens. Clementine had been in a circular orbit around Earth since it was launched Jan. 25. The $75 million craft will map the moon and fly past an asteroid on its seven-month mission to test advanced sensors meant to detect and track missiles and other lightweight spacecraft components.