Compound

WACO, Texas -- Federal authorities said yesterday that they have begun edging closer to the fortified compound of the David Koresh cult and clearing its surrounding grounds of debris that could hamper an assault."

Stevenson is dealing with two losses: Tuesday night's 14-13 overtime setback to Roanoke and a shoulder injury to starting goalkeeper Dimitri Pecunes. Coach Paul Cantabene said Wednesday morning that the freshman suffered a sprained AC joint when he was tackled from behind on a clear attempt in the first quarter and fell on his shoulder. Cantabene said Pecunes is expected to be sidelined for at least one week and possibly as many as three. “So we don't know when we're going to get him back,” Cantabene said.

WACO, Texas -- Nearly two weeks after federal agents began a siege on an armed religious sect, federal officials said yesterday that conditions were deteriorating inside the compound, with a number of the 105 remaining sect members suffering life-threatening injuries from the shootout. But there was no sign of any speedy break in the standoff.Doctors gave medical advice to the wounded by telephone Friday night and urged them to seek hospitalization; none accepted. One of the most seriously wounded is Judy Schneider, 41, the wife of Steve Schneider, the top lieutenant to the Branch Davidian sect's leader, David Koresh.

The U.S. today has both historically low interest rates and large reserves of ready cash for investment by business. The interest rates and ready cash means businesses already have the maximum incentive to invest in new production that our financial system can provide; their cost of borrowing money will never be lower than it is right now. In spite of this, U.S. businesses are still not investing in new production enough to spur hiring. American businesses fail to invest because they know their market is shrinking.

Eleven children orphaned by the inferno at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, are under the care of Texas child-welfare officials who hope to place them in their relatives' homes within the next few weeks. Ten others already have been placed with relatives, according to officials.Meanwhile, the outpouring of support -- from the room filled with Teddy bears and U.S. Treasury bonds that are accumulating in a Waco office building, to the incessant phone calls nationwide from people offering to adopt or serve as foster parents -- has intensified daily, officials said.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- After months of whipping his followers into a frenzy of anti-government sentiment, the head cleric at a radical mosque was caught yesterday trying to slip out of his besieged compound clad in a head-to-toe veil known as a burqa, police said. The arrest of Maulana Abdul Aziz came as police and paramilitary troops backed by armored vehicles and helicopters surrounded the mosque, which was the scene Tuesday of a shootout that left as many as 16 people dead. More than 1,100 of Aziz's followers surrendered to authorities yesterday.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A missile strike destroyed the compound of a suspected militant leader in Pakistan's tribal belt yesterday, killing at least 18 people, officials and residents said. The Pakistani military disavowed responsibility for the strike in the South Waziristan tribal agency, raising the possibility that it was carried out by U.S. forces. American military officials in neighboring Afghanistan had no immediate comment, though U.S. troops are believed to have carried out similar attacks in recent months.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- About 30 suspected Islamic insurgents were killed yesterday when explosions ripped through a compound near the Afghan border that was described by Pakistani intelligence officials as a militant training camp. The compound, which housed a madrassa, or Muslim seminary, was in North Waziristan, a semiautonomous tribal area along the Afghan frontier that is a sanctuary for Taliban and militants linked to al-Qaida. Tribal sources said they believed that the blasts, which occurred about 10:30 a.m. in the district of Data Khel about two miles from the Afghan border, were caused by missiles fired either by an airborne drone or by Western forces from across the border.

WACO, Texas -- It was one of those soul-jarring thunderclap that detonate out of the blue, forcing involuntary cries from throats and blasting a little hairline crack down the length of the most cast-iron of nerves. Even the unflappable Bob Ricks, a senior FBI official involved in trying to resolve the bitter 43-day standoff down here between federal agents and a heavily armed religious cult, stopped in mid-sentence and looked instantly to the heavens. "Oh, wow," he said, gulping, a most unusual display of emotion for an FBI agent.

MEDINA, Wash. -- Some chilly nights, after his computer turns off every light bulb, the fireplace and the infrared heat over the patio, and before it adjusts the blinds, Charles Simonyi, Microsoft's chief programming wizard, stands on a cantilevered terrace of his 20,500-square-foot lake-side home, marveling at what he calls "the absolute magic," the quiet perfection of it all.To the southwest is Mercer Island, where a co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen,...

The pharmacy at the center of a fungal meningitis outbreak that has hit 19 states said Friday it has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Massachusetts. The New England Compounding Center also said it plans to establish a fund to compensate those affected by the outbreak. The outbreak has sickened 620 people and killed 39. In Maryland, 25 people have gotten ill and two have died. The outbreak is linked to three lots of a steroid injection used to treat back pain that clinics and medical facilities bought from New England Compounding Center.

The state board that regulates Maryland pharmacies like the Massachusetts firm under investigation in a national fungal meningitis outbreak said it can adequately oversee so-called compounding pharmacies, despite cries from critics that the federal government should have more authority. The Maryland Board of Pharmacy said last week that in the last four years it has beefed up oversight of compounding pharmacies, which make drugs not sold commercially. New safeguards including random, annual inspections would make it hard for a Maryland facility to reach the level of contamination problems found at the New England Compounding Center, said Laverne Naesea, the board's executive director.

- Pikesville resident Gerald Cohen was an active 71-year-old retiree, filling his free time with gardening, volunteering and enjoying the company of his grandchildren despite persistent back pain - until he sought relief for it. Treated with steroids in the past, he received spinal injections of the medication again in August and September at a Baltimore-area clinic. But this time, side effects came quickly and severely - nausea, neck stiffness, fever and eventually a stroke. Aside from the physical ailments, he grew irritable and started seeing a psychologist over nightly worries that he wouldn't wake up the next morning.

As Massachusetts closed another compounding pharmacy for unsanitary conditions, a report released Monday argued that the state boards that regulate those pharmacies are doing an inadequate job. Released by Massachusetts Rep. Edward J. Markey, the report stems from the national fungal meningitis outbreak linked to a steroid from the New England Compounding Center that has sickened 354 people in 19 states and killed 25. In Maryland, 20 people have...

State health officials in an article in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association criticized the oversight of compounding pharmacies and said the facilities need to take more responsibility in protecting patients from tainted drugs. The article, which appeared first in Friday's online edition of the medical journal, comes as the country still reels from a national meningitis outbreak linked to tainted steroids from the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts.

That a batch of tainted vials from a single company could put thousands of people across the country at risk for a deadly form of meningitis is a sign the system for regulating pharmacies that mix drug compounds and ship them nationwide needs to be overhauled. Roughly 14,000 people may have received contaminated shots of a steroid used to treat back pain from the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. So far, 304 people in 17 states have become ill - including 13 in Maryland - and 24 have died, with those numbers expected to rise.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A well-coordinated attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen's capital yesterday morning left 16 people dead but was ultimately thwarted by security barriers and Yemeni soldiers, six of whom died in the car-bomb explosion and ensuing gunbattle. No American personnel were injured in the failed attempt by the attackers to breach the well-guarded compound's gates and to get near the building that houses U.S. officials. An obscure group called Islamic Jihad, unrelated to the Palestinian organization, claimed responsibility for the attack.

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Heavily armed guerrillas shouting "God is great" launched a brazen assault on Iraqi security compounds yesterday, outgunning Iraqi police, freeing dozens of prisoners and leaving at least 23 dead. Some of the bloodiest street fighting in Iraq during the 10-month occupation claimed the lives of 17 police officers, four attackers and two civilians. The battle spilled into the dense alleys and markets in the heart of this volatile city west of Baghdad and left another 35 people wounded.

The federal Food and Drug Administration identified 89 medical facilities in Maryland that bought drugs from the Massachusetts manufacturer being investigated for a national fungal meningitis outbreak. The facilities are among more than 3,000 in numerous states that the FDA said received drugs from the New England Compounding Center as evidence of widespread sanitary issues at the company continues to come to light. The list of facilities in Maryland covers a large swath of the medical community.

Grout used to protect steel support cables in the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which carries Interstate 95 over the Potomac River, may be contaminated with an excessive level of chloride, a corroding substance known to accelerate rusting. The Federal Highway Administration warned 21 states — including Maryland — that as many as three dozen bridges were built with possibly defective grout manufactured in Ohio between November 2002 and March 2010. Chloride-contaminated grout was blamed in the collapse of a pedestrian walkway at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. in 2000, injuring more than 100 fans.