In the Nation

CINCINNATI - Four people were killed early Sunday when a minivan carrying a family leaving a Christmas party went the wrong way on a southwestern Ohio highway and hit another minivan, whose driver and family were going to see grandparents for the holidays, police said.

The 2:30 a.m. head-on collision on Interstate 75 near Franklin took the lives of three adults and a 7-year-old boy and critically injured two other children, Ohio State Patrol Sgt. Stan Jordan said.

Alcohol was a suspected factor, he said. Investigators smelled liquor in the minivan that was going the wrong way and found a bottle of an alcoholic beverage in the vehicle, he said.

Jordan said Joshua Nkansah, 40, of Fairfield, was driving with his children when he turned his minivan around on the highway and started driving the wrong way. The vehicle hit another minivan carrying Scott and Michele Barhorst of Madisonville, Tenn., and their four children, ages 8 to 18, the officer said.

Nkansah was killed along with his 7-year-old son, David, as well as 31-year-old Michele Barhorst, Jordan said. Scott Barhorst, 37, later died at a Cincinnati hospital.

Jordan said Nkansah's 4-year-old son, Darius, and the Barhorsts' 9-year-old daughter, Haley, were in critical condition. - AP

HOUSTON - President George H.W. Bush, who has been in a Houston hospital with a lingering cough since November, needs to "build up his energy" before he can be released, doctors said Sunday.

Methodist Hospital spokesman George Kovacik said in an e-mailed statement that doctors are still optimistic that the 88-year-old Bush will make a full recovery, but are being "extra cautious" with his care. Bush is in stable condition, he said.

Bush was hospitalized Nov. 23 for treatment of a bronchitis-related cough. Hospital officials have said Bush has been receiving physical therapy to increase his strength. - AP

HONOLULU - The late Sen. Daniel Inouye was remembered Sunday as an American hero whose legacy as a war veteran and longtime senator would be felt across Hawaii for years to come.

The memorial service at Honolulu's National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific was attended by about 1,000 people, including President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Hawaii's congressional delegation, and a number of other senators, cabinet secretaries, and other dignitaries.

"Daniel was the best senator among us all," Reid told those assembled, adding later: "Whenever we needed a noble man to lean on, we turned to Sen. Dan Inouye. He was fearless." - AP