In the Nation

LITTLE ROCK - A line of thunderstorms fed by unusually warm weather continued spinning off swarms of January tornadoes yesterday, killing a man in Arkansas and carrying a cow close to a mile.

At least three people died and hundreds were evacuated because of flooding in Indiana, where more than 5 inches of rain in some areas pushed rivers and streams over their banks. Two of the victims were young children trapped in a submerged car.

A tornado that hit Appleton, Ark., rolled a double-wide mobile home off its cinder-block supports, killing a man and injuring his wife. No injuries were reported yesterday afternoon from another tornado, in northwest Tennessee, but the Dyersburg State Gazette reported that a string of homes had been destroyed or heavily damaged.

- AP

WASHINGTON - President Bush signed legislation yesterday aimed at preventing severely mentally ill people from buying guns, in a rare bipartisan agreement with the Democratic-led Congress after last spring's deadly shootings at Virginia Tech.

The bill authorizes up to $1.3 billion in grant money for states to improve their ability to track and report individuals who shouldn't qualify to buy a gun legally, including those involuntarily confined by a mental institution.

Also yesterday, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine proposed mandated background checks in his state for everyone who tries to buy firearms at gun shows. He called the legislation critical to helping prevent tragedies like that at Virginia Tech.

- AP

RENO, Nev. - President Bush declared part of northern Nevada a national disaster area yesterday, making federal relief available to hundreds of people whose homes were swamped by a levee rupture early Saturday.

Bush signed the declaration as building inspectors went door to door in Fernley to assess millions of dollars' worth of damage from the flood, caused by a break in a century-old irrigation canal.

Floodwaters continued to drain in the fast-growing town east of Reno. City Manager Gary Bacock said water in the hardest-hit areas was down to curb high.

- AP

Seeking the erasure

of his guilty plea in an airport-bathroom sex sting, attorneys for Sen. Larry Craig (R., Idaho) argued in a new court filing yesterday in Minnesota that the underlying act wasn't criminal because it didn't involve multiple victims.

A Missouri teenager,

Marcus Bowers, 18, who had won a VFW contest with an essay titled "My Role in Honoring America's Veterans," has been charged with first-degree murder in the September slaying of an Air Force veteran.