WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Colin Powell was examined Monday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center three weeks after his cancerous prostate gland was removed. Powell is “O.K.,” said a State Department spokesman Adam Ereli, who also said he had not seen any medical report of the exmination.

Principal quits

months after raid

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (AP) – A high school principal announced his resignation Monday after coming under fire over a November drug sweep in which police with guns drawn ordered students to the floor.

“I realized it is in the best interest of Stratford High School and of my students for me to make a change,” George McCrackin said in a statement.

School officials asked Goose Creek police to come into the school Nov. 5 after receiving reports of marijuana sales on campus. Police said dogs sniffed drug residue on 12 book bags but found no drugs. No one was arrested.

The raid led to allegations of excessive force and racism, because many of the students were black.

District Superintendent J. Chester Floyd said McCrackin will be reassigned to a still-undetermined position. But he said McCrackin will probably spend the coming weeks preparing for two lawsuits filed by students over the incident.

94-year-old guilty

of molestation

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – A 94-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday as he was about to go on trial for allegedly molesting at least five girls.

Theodore Sypnier reached a plea deal with county prosecutors in which he will receive an eight-year prison term in exchange for his plea to one count of attempted sodomy.

Sypnier of the Town of Tonawanda accepted the deal at the start of jury selection in state Supreme Court, where he was to be tried on charges of rape, sodomy sexual abuse, use of a child in a sexual performance and child endangerment.

Sypnier was accused of molesting the girls, ages 4 through 10, during sleepovers at his home in 1998 and 1999.

Burglary victim

shoots suspect

MANCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) – A suspected teenage burglar was shot and wounded by a homeowner while trying to break into a house late at night, authorities said.

A couple who own the house in this rural town 30 miles southeast of Rochester told police they heard glass breaking early Saturday, spotted someone outside with a flashlight and called police.

The husband said he then fired three shots from his .22-caliber rifle through the window when the intruder tried to lift the window.

One of the shots hit Nathan Rosekrans, 16, in the cheek.

The boy fled down the street but was captured by police, who airlifted him to a Rochester hospital.

Rosekrans, who lives in nearby Clifton Springs, was treated for his injuries and then charged with second-degree attempted burglary and possession of burglar’s tools. He was ordered held on $10,000 cash bond.

The homeowner will not be charged, prosecutor Brian Dennis said in Monday’s Daily Messenger of Canandaigua.

Under state law, Dennis said, “a homeowner who reasonably believes another person is committing or attempting to commit a burglary may use deadly physical force upon such other person.”

AP-ES-01-05-04 1250EST

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