Buffett buys into services company

CHICAGO - Warren Buffett's investment company announced yesterday it will pay $4.5 billion for 60 percent of Marmon Holdings Inc., a private company of more than 125 manufacturing and service businesses. Berkshire Hathaway Inc., based in Omaha, said it plans to acquire the remaining 40 percent of Marmon over the next five to six years depending on future earnings of Marmon, according to a statement released by both companies. Before the closing, Marmon said it will make a "substantial distribution of cash and certain assets to the selling shareholders," according to the statement. (AP)

President Bush brought his extended family together for a Christmas celebration at Camp David, Md., with gift exchanges and a midday feast on the holiday agenda. The president gave his wife, Laura, a silver tray and purse and she gave him a new coat and warming soles for cold weather mountain biking, said Sally McDonough, Laura Bush's press secretary. (AP)

Roundworms might infect close to a quarter of urban black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among US Hispanics, and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a US specialist said yesterday. Studies show many of the poorest Americans carry the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease specialist at George Washington University. "This is such an important health issue and yet because it only affects the poor it has been ignored," Hotez said via e-mail. (Reuters)

OMAHA - A man killed two women and then beat and raped the daughter of one of the victims, authorities and a relative of the victims said. Fabian Hands, 46, was booked on two counts of homicide and two counts of use of a weapon to commit a felony. When police arrived Monday, a 20-year-old woman came out of a bedroom and said she had been sexually assaulted. Hands followed her and assaulted her in front of officers, according to a police report. The bodies of the woman's 36-year-old mother and 48-year-old aunt were found in the basement. (AP)

BOISE - A State Police academy leader has disavowed the slogan of the most recent graduating class urging one another to "go out and cause" post-traumatic stress disorder. Each class at the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy is allowed to choose a slogan that is printed on its graduation programs, and the class of 43 graduates came up with "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it." The academy's director, Jeff Black, said: "It shouldn't have been there. It was inappropriate." (AP)