Tour-bus crash near Hoover Dam

The Nation

Tour-bus crash: A tour bus overturned on a highway near the Hoover Dam on Friday, killing seven Chinese nationals and injuring at least 10 other people, authorities said. Cmdr. Dean Nyhart, of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said investigators were not certain how many people were on the 24-passenger bus that crashed about 190 miles northwest of Phoenix.

Darvon danger: A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 14-12 Friday to recommend a ban on Darvon, a prescription medicine that's been used to treat pain for more than 50 years but left a trail of problems, such as addiction and suicide.

Fiancée moves out: Christina Raines, 24, who became engaged to Drew Peterson, 55, a former suburban Chicago police sergeant suspected in his fourth wife's 2007 disappearance, moved out of his Bolingbrook, Ill., home Friday, hours after he spoke about his current and past relationships on "Nightline."

The World

Korea tensions: South Korea bolstered its military readiness and tried to figure out North Korea's intentions Friday, after the North said it was scrapping the agreements both countries have signed to ease military and political tensions on the divided peninsula.

Cuba-Russia pact: Cuban President Raul Castro and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a strategic partnership and several other documents Friday in Moscow, pledging to expand cooperation in agriculture, manufacturing, science and tourism but avoiding a public discussion of military ties.

Odds & Ends

Familiar Scientology voice: Longtime Scientologist Nancy Cartwright, who provides Bart Simpson's voice on "The Simpsons," was heard this week in a phone message using the voice of the cartoon fourth-grader to boost attendance at a Scientology event scheduled for today. "Simpsons" executive producer Al Jean said the message wasn't authorized by the show.

Jail for DMX: Rapper DMX, 38, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was sentenced Friday to 90 days in a Phoenix jail and placed on 18 months' supervised probation. He pleaded guilty in December to theft, marijuana possession and animal-cruelty charges.

Krewe picks Kilmer: "Batman Forever" star Val Kilmer will reign as celebrity king when the Krewe of Bacchus parade rolls through New Orleans on Feb. 22, two days before Mardi Gras.

Passages

Guy Hunt, 75, who in 1987 became Alabama's first Republican governor since Reconstruction but six years later became the state's first chief executive removed from office for a criminal conviction, died Friday in a Birmingham hospital. He was being treated the past few years for cancer and was frail when he had gallbladder surgery in late November and never recovered.

Robert Broughton, 91, a pioneering camera-effects artist for Walt Disney productions who worked on nearly every Disney motion picture from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937 to "The Black Hole" in 1979, died Jan. 19 at a nursing facility in Rochester, Minn.

Lionel "Lee" Barrow Jr., 82, a former advertising executive and civil-rights activist who retired in 1985 after 10 years as dean of the Howard University School of Communications, died Jan. 23 at a hospice in Tampa, Fla. He had prostate cancer.

Today in history

1865: Gen. Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of all the Confederate armies.

1945: Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, became the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he was shot by a U.S. firing squad in France.

1999: Researchers from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, presented what they called convincing proof that the AIDS virus originated in chimpanzees and spread to people in Africa.

2000: An Alaska Airlines jet plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard.

Birthdays

Actress Carol Channing, 88. Composer Philip Glass, 72. Actress Jessica Walter, 68. Actor Anthony LaPaglia, 50. Actress Minnie Driver, 39. Actress Portia de Rossi, 36. Actress Kerry Washington, 32. Singer Justin Timberlake, 28.

Seattle Times news services