Ted Kennedy

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BOSTON — Sen. Edward Kennedy, who has brain cancer, was taken by ambulance Friday to a hospital near his Cape Cod vacation home after complaining of feeling ill, but returned home a few hours later.

A statement issued by the senator's office attributed the episode to a change in medications.

Sen. John Kerry said his fellow Massachusetts Democrat was well and planned to watch the evening's presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama.

A 911 call from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port came around 5 p.m., said Barnstable police Sgt. Ben Baxter. Kennedy was taken to Cape Cod Hospital and was "alert and responsive" during the trip, Baxter said.

Kennedy, 76, had a seizure in May and underwent surgery in June for a malignant brain tumor.

After undergoing six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, he has been steadily increasing his public activity.

LOGANSPORT — A school bus carrying special-needs students collided with two dump trucks in a horrific crash Friday in rural northern Indiana, killing four children and injuring the bus driver, authorities said.

The five were the only people on board, but "the victims are everywhere," said Cass County Coroner Gene Powlen.

The bus driver, identified by school officials as Debbie Duvall, was flown to a Fort Wayne hospital, where her condition was not available Friday night. The two truck drivers were not injured.

"It saddens the Twin Lakes School community to report the death of four of our students involved in a school bus accident today," said a statement issued by Superintendent Thomas Fletcher of the Twin Lakes School Corp. in nearby Monticello.

The crash occurred about 3 p.m. on U.S. 24 west of Logansport, about 70 miles north of Indianapolis, said 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten of the Indiana State Police.

FOUNTAIN — A Colorado teenager hired men to kill his mother so he could use her money to get breast implants for his girlfriend, police said.

Nikita Lee Weis, 18, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, said Fountain Deputy Police Chief Mike Barnett.

His girlfriend, Sophia Nicole Alsept, and two men police said he hired, Juan Antonio Velez Gonzalez, 18, and Brandon Michael Soroka, 19, were arrested on the same charge.

Weis' mother, Hyun Weis, was attacked Thursday with a small wooden baseball bat at home but escaped, authorities said. She was released Friday from a hospital.

Barnett said Weis wanted to sell his mother's car and use money in her bank accounts to pay for breast implants for Alsept, 21.

Barnett also said the suspects discussed wrapping Hyun Weis' body in plastic and dumping it in the desert in New Mexico or Arizona.

LOS ANGELES — The Orange County Register ended up in the headlines this week after a judge barred the paper from covering testimony in a $100 million lawsuit filed against it by newspaper deliverers.

The ruling, which is being appealed, was quickly denounced by some of the nation's most prominent legal scholars as an unconstitutional infringement on free expression.

Orange County Superior Court Judge David C. Velasquez issued the order after attorneys representing some 6,000 newspaper carriers who accuse the paper of labor violations complained that the Register's reporting was biased and could influence a jury in its favor.

The class-action lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial Monday. The newspaper, meanwhile, has appealed the gag order and is awaiting a ruling from a state appeals court.

FRESNO — The nation's fresh produce would be safer if U.S. farmers were required to adopt strict standards for growing leafy greens similar to industry-written ones devised for California growers, a Food and Drug Administration official said Friday.

Dr. David Acheson said the FDA would need authority from Congress to enact "preventative controls" over production of the nation's fresh produce like those it has in place for seafood and fresh juice.

"Having Congress give us explicit authority makes it a much more robust approach and gives more chance of success," said Acheson, the agency's commissioner for foods.

Acheson was responding to a report by Government Accountability Office investigators that said the FDA's efforts to combat food-borne illness are hampered by insufficient staffing, infrequent inspections and poor enforcement at fresh-produce processing plants.

He said the FDA agreed with many of the findings and began addressing them before the report was published.

LOS ANGELES — The brakeman on the freight train in a deadly collision near Los Angeles is suing the other railroad and the companies that provide its engineers.

Dominick Fravola and his wife sued Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. They say the Sept. 12 crash happened because the defendants allowed dangerous conditions to persist.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages, medical and psychological expenses and loss of income. His wife also seeks damages for loss of consortium.

The lawsuit names the Metrolink service, as well as Veolia Transportation and a subsidiary. Metrolink and Veolia declined to comment.

In the accident, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink train ran a red signal and collided with the Union Pacific freight train.

TOPEKA — An atheist soldier says in a federal lawsuit that his superiors required him to be present for Christian prayers and that the military allows fundamentalist Christians to proselytize.

Spc. Dustin Chalker, a combat medic with an engineering battalion, alleges he was required to attend three events from December 2007 to May 2008 at Fort Riley in which Christian prayers were delivered.

Chalker has served in Iraq and Korea.

Chalker and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation filed the lawsuit Thursday against Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Kansas City, Kan. It alleges violations of the soldier's religious freedoms.

The lawsuit contends the military allows religious discrimination by fundamentalist Christians who try to force their views on others, especially subordinates.

Its examples include programs for soldiers, presentations by "anti-Muslim activists" and a "spiritual handbook" for soldiers endorsed by Gen. David Petraeus, former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East.

HARRISBURG — Philadelphia officials cannot enact gun laws tougher than Pennsylvania's law, a state appeals court ruled Friday in throwing out city ordinances that included limiting gun purchases to one a month and banning assault weapons.

Commonwealth Court dismissed a lawsuit against the Legislature filed by two members of Philadelphia's City Council, Darrell L. Clarke and Donna Reed Miller.

The court cited language in several gun ordinances the council passed last year that precludes the measures' taking effect unless the Legislature allows municipalities to enact stricter laws. That has not happened.

"While we understand the terrible problems gun violence poses for the city and sympathize with its efforts to use its police powers to create a safe environment for its citizens, these practical considerations do not alter the clear pre-emption imposed by the Legislature," President Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter wrote in the court's ruling.