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Tunisia prez: 'We are in a war with terror'

TUNIS, Tunisia - Foreign tourists scrambled in panic yesterday after militants stormed a museum in Tunisia's capital and killed 20 people, "shooting at anything that moved," a witness said.

TUNIS, Tunisia

- Foreign tourists scrambled in panic yesterday after militants stormed a museum in Tunisia's capital and killed 20 people, "shooting at anything that moved," a witness said.

Two gunmen were slain by security forces following the deadliest attack on civilians in the North African country in 13 years, and the president said the young democracy was embroiled in a war with terror.

The militants, who wore military-style uniforms and wielded assault rifles, burst from a vehicle and began gunning down tourists climbing out of buses at the National Bardo Museum. The attackers then charged inside to take hostages before being killed in a firefight with security forces.

Authorities launched a manhunt for two or three accomplices in the attack, which officials said killed 20 people - nearly all of them tourists from Poland, Italy, Spain, Germany and Colombia. At least two other people killed by the gunmen were Tunisians.

"I want the people of Tunisia to understand firstly and lastly that we are in a war with terror, and these savage minority groups will not frighten us," said newly elected President Beji Caid Essebsi in an evening address to the nation. "The fight against them will continue until they are exterminated."

Suspect arrested in Phoenix-area shooting that killed 1, injured 5

MESA, Ariz.

- A gunman killed one person and wounded five others yesterday in a rampage that included a motel shooting, a carjacking and a home invasion and ended with his arrest at a nearby apartment in suburban Phoenix.

The suspect was taken into custody after officers spotted him on an apartment balcony and deployed a stun gun. Numerous officers later led a handcuffed man to a truck parked outside an apartment complex. Police did not immediately release his identity.

The incident started with an argument inside a room at a motel and spilled outside, leaving three people wounded, Mesa Detective Esteban Flores said. The suspect then shot a person at a nearby restaurant and carjacked a gray Honda Accord. Two more people were wounded at separate apartment complexes, including one during a home invasion.

The shootings prompted an intense hunt for the suspect as Mesa police searched the trunks of cars, interviewed witnesses and brought in SWAT and canine units from other agencies. Flores warned people in the neighborhood to remain indoors.

Several locations in the area were placed on lockdown amid a heavy law enforcement presence. The Arizona Department of Public Safety sent its SWAT team to Mesa to assist with the effort, DPS spokesman Bart Graves said. Scottsdale police also sent SWAT and canine units.

Before Jeb resigned its board, firm faced suits

WASHINGTON

- In a public move presaging his run for the White House, Jeb Bush resigned from corporate positions at the end of last year. Less noticed: One of the companies where he served on the board, Florida timber company Rayonier Inc., faced a flurry of lawsuits not long before his exit.

One case alleges that a plant in Georgia violated the Clean Water Act and contaminated the Altamaha River, and five other suits from investors contend the company made false and misleading statements that caused them losses. All are active in court.

Bush is not named as a defendant in the cases, but he is listed among Rayonier board members in court papers filed in the Georgia environmental case, raising the possibility he could be called to testify. In a larger sense, the lawsuits could renew questions about the former Florida governor's stewardship in the corporate world as he aspires to step back into public office. At least four times, Bush served on the board of companies sued by investors or the government.

It can be difficult to hold board members liable in such cases, even though directors ultimately oversee corporations.

"It is far too hard to hold a board member liable for oversight failures when the board member has simply been asleep at the wheel," said Elizabeth Nowicki, an Albany Law School professor and former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer. "You are not going to find with board members a lot of successful lawsuits." Still, she added, "The buck stops with the board members."

Frats caught behaving badly despite intense focus on prevention

Racist chants. Nude photos of unconscious women. A criminal investigation into hazing. Fraternities around the country seem to be coming under fire as never before over behavior that would shock the frat boys of "Animal House."

Despite a major national push to reduce drinking and sexual assault on campus and increase diversity, some fraternity chapters have failed to clean up their acts. Universities and the fraternities' national offices are quickly punishing the offenders amid more promises of reform.

Some critics blame popular culture, saying it's making fraternities essentially ungovernable.

"There's this underlying acceptance that boys will be boys, this is fraternity life and this is what you have to accept when you walk through the doors of a fraternity," Ellen Kramer, legal director of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said yesterday.

- Associated Press