International news briefs

Investigators are searching the New Orleans offices of the activist group ACORN in connection with embezzlement and tax fraud allegations.

Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said a warrant was obtained to seize computers, hard drives and other documents Friday. Caldwell said investigators will copy records and hard drives, then return them to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

He said the allegations of embezzlement were made last year by ACORN board members who were fired after they asked to look at the group’s books.

ACORN fired the longtime director of its Louisiana chapter last month, citing a lack of accountability.

RAMALLAH, West Bank

Leader nixes another term

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pushed Mideast peace prospects into unknown territory Thursday, announcing he doesn’t want another term and opening the way to a succession battle that could play into the hands of his rival, the militant Hamas.

But it also could boost the prospects of a popular candidate who reportedly wants to run for the presidency from his Israeli prison cell.

Abbas blamed his decision on the stalemate in peace talks, but the wording of his televised speech raised speculation that it was not final and could be a tactic for pushing Israel and the U.S. toward a larger compromise.

PHILADELPHIA

Shooting on school bus

A teenager shot and wounded another youth on a school bus headed to a high school for troubled students in West Philadelphia Friday morning, police said.

Police later arrested the 15-year-old suspect with a .25-caliber handgun nine blocks away.

The 17-year-old victim suffered a graze wound to the head and is expected to survive.

Police do not know yet what sparked the shooting but said they do not believe it was accidental.

The gunfire erupted in the back of the bus around 8 a.m. on Pine Street, near S. 57th Street, a residential neighborhood of gabled row homes.

The shooter shoved a gun in the driver’s face and jumped off the bus through the front door, fleeing toward 60th Street, officials said. Police later caught him at S. 61st and Cedar Streets.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

Teen charged with death

A teenager has been charged by federal authorities with killing a nun whose body was found in her Navajo Nation home earlier this week.

Federal court documents show 19-year-old Reehahlio Carroll of Navajo, N.M., was charged with “the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought.”

FBI spokesman Darrin Jones confirmed Carroll is accused of killing 64-year-old Sister Marguerite Bartz. She served at St. Berard Catholic Church in the tiny town on the Navajo reservation.