U.S. OPTIMISTIC OF ALLIES' HELP WITH GITMO

BERLIN — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said yesterday that he was "pleasantly surprised" at the willingness of some European allies to resettle prisoners from Guantanamo Bay and that the United States was close to making formal requests for European countries to accept specific prisoners.

European leaders have praised President Obama's promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo in Cuba by January, but they have been slow to respond to his pleas for help in emptying the detention center.

In a speech at the American Academy in Berlin, Holder urged European nations to help absorb the burden of closing Guantanamo by accepting prisoners deemed not to present a security threat.

MEXICO NABS SUSPECTED GANG LEADER

MEXICO CITY — Mexican police have arrested suspected Zeta gang leader Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, one of Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug traffickers.

Federal police say Sauceda Gamboa was detained in the border city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

The Zetas are a violent drug gang based in the states along Mexico's Gulf coast, and have been involved in many of the killings that have taken more than 10,650 lives since 2006.

FORT DIX PLOTTERS GET LIFE TERM, 33 YEARS

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge yesterday sentenced Mohamad Shnewer — often described as the lead defendant in a terrorist plan to attack Fort Dix — to life plus 30 years in prison.

The judge then gave 33 years to co-defendant Serdar Tatar, the only one of five men convicted in the plot who did not receive at least a life term.

All five men, foreign-born Muslims raised primarily in Cherry Hill, were convicted in December of conspiracy to kill U.S. soldiers. A jury acquitted them of attempted murder charges.

BUS DRIVER IN CRASH HAD HIT WOMAN IN '05

SOLEDAD, Calif. — Police reports show that the driver of a tour bus that crashed in central California, killing himself and four others, struck a woman in a Las Vegas crosswalk in 2005.

The Monterey County Coroner's office yesterday identified the bus driver as 69-year-old John Egnew of Corona.

Cmdr. Scott Ragan says Egnew died of head and neck injuries after he was thrown from the bus, which overturned Tuesday on a freeway overpass in Soledad.

KANSAS STORMS' DEATH TOLL INCREASES

WICHITA, Kan. — The death toll from days of heavy rain in Kansas rose to five yesterday when authorities found the bodies of two people in a car submerged in a flooded creek.

A 26-year-old Parsons man and a 22-year-old Springfield, Mo., woman were found by Labette County sheriff's deputies in Pumpkin Creek in southeast Kansas, the state Division of Emergency Management said.

The five storm-related deaths have occurred in northeast, southeast and south-central Kansas since Saturday. More rain was expected today and flood warnings were posted for communities along several eastern Kansas rivers.

N.D. CITY TOLD IT'S OK TO START FLUSHING

BISMARCK, N.D. — An eastern North Dakota city that has suffered from flooding problems for much of the month has taken a step toward normalcy — residents are allowed to flush their toilets again.

Valley City Mayor Mary Lee Nielson said residents yesterday were being allowed to flush their toilets on a limited basis.

The sanitary sewer system is being restored after it failed April 17 under pressure from the Sheyenne River. Hundreds of portable toilets have been stationed throughout the city of about 7,000 for nearly two weeks.