In Brief

Bomb scare closes stretch of N.J. Turnpike

WOODBURY HEIGHTS, N.J. : A potential bomb threat that shut down part of the New Jersey Turnpike yesterday has been found not to be credible, New Jersey State Police said. Sgt. Stephen Jones, a state police spokesman, said troopers took a 27-year-old Massachusetts man into custody after a car stop about 6:15 p.m. yesterday in the southbound lanes of the turnpike in Woodbury Heights about six miles south of Exit 3. Jones said state police stopped the car after receiving a tip from federal authorities that the driver might be armed and dangerous, and possibly carrying a bomb. Jones said the original tip came from a member of the man's family. State police initially shut down a 30-mile stretch of the turnpike in both directions from Exit 4 in Mount Laurel to its southern terminus near the Delaware Memorial Bridge. By 9:45 p.m., all northbound lanes had been reopened, and southbound lanes from Exit 4 to Exit 2 in Woolwich were expected to reopen within a half-hour, state police said. .

U.S. secures safer Afghan supply routes

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Russia and neighboring Central Asian nations have agreed to let supplies pass through their territory to American soldiers in Afghanistan, lessening Washington's dependence on dangerous routes through Pakistan, a top U.S. commander said yesterday Securing alternative routes to landlocked Afghanistan has taken on added urgency this year as the United States prepares to double troop numbers there to 60,000 to battle a resurgent Taliban eight years after the U.S.-led invasion. U.S. and NATO forces get up to 75 percent of their "non-lethal" supplies such as food, fuel and building materials from shipments that traverse Pakistan, a volatile, nuclear-armed country.