HARRISBURG, Pa.

After shootout, lawmaker credits concealed handgun

A state lawmaker who got into a shootout with a 15-year-old boy who was trying to rob him near the Capitol said Wednesday the experience proves the value of packing a gun.

State Rep. Marty Flynn, a former prison guard who is licensed to carry a handgun, said he believes he probably would have been killed if he had not used the Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 380 pistol that he conceals in a belt holster worn on the small of his back.

“This isn’t my neighborhood. I didn’t grow up here. I’m not comfortable in this environment,” said Flynn, D-Lackawanna, a native of Scranton.

Flynn said he fired twice after the youth fired the first shot. Police said the first two shots were “almost simultaneous.”

No one was injured.

HAMILTON, Bermuda

In wake of tropical storm, island prepares for hurricane

Hurricane Gonzalo barreled toward Bermuda as a major Category 3 storm Wednesday, threatening the tiny archipelago where people rushed to repair homes and clear trees and power lines knocked down by a weekend tropical storm.

Gonzalo had top sustained winds of 125 mph and was about 610 miles south-southwest of Bermuda in the afternoon. It was moving northwest at 10 mph and was expected to be near Bermuda early Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Gonzalo had become a Category 4 storm Wednesday, but hurricanes often fluctuate in intensity.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Bermuda, and forecasters said a dangerous storm surge could cause significant flooding on the island, which has some 64 miles of shoreline and is about one-third the size of Washington, D.C. Some 3 to 6 inches of rain was predicted.

PARIS

European Space Agency will land craft on comet

After hovering around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for two months, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft has gotten the go-ahead to deliver a lander to a specific spot on the comet on Nov. 12.

The decision, made Tuesday, is a landmark in the first attempt to perform a soft touchdown on the surface of a comet.

“Now that we know where we are definitely aiming for, we are an important step closer to carrying out this exciting – but high-risk – operation,” Fred Jansen, the Rosetta mission manager, said in a statement.

The spacecraft has been checking out the comet from ever closer vantages, narrowing the distance to about 6 miles from the comet’s heart.

– From news service reports