American stabbing victim is upgraded

BEJING (AP) — The condition of the American mother of a former Olympian who was stabbed on the opening day of Olympics competition was improving today, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympics Committee told the AP.

USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said Barbara Bachman’s condition has been upgraded from critical to serious but stable.

Mrs. Bachman was with her husband, Todd Bachman, both 62, when they were attacked by a Chinese man at an ancient monument in the heart of the Chinese capital on Saturday.

Todd Bachman was killed in the attack. The couple, from Lakeville, Minn., are parents of 2004 volleyball Olympian Elisabeth “Wiz” Bachman and in-laws of U.S. men’s volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon.

Elisabeth Bachman was with her parents at the time of the attack, but uninjured. Their Chinese tour guide was injured, but Beijing authorities have declined to release any details about her condition.

Crash site becomes pilgrimage for some

SHERMAN, Texas (AP) — Like others returning from a religious festival in Missouri, Hoang Vu stopped at the spot where a charter bus carrying fellow Vietnamese Catholics on the pilgrimage had crashed and killed 17 people.

“It has actually strengthened our faith,” Vu said Sunday. “Now the whole world knows. So I think that God used this tragedy to strengthen our faith. I truly believe that.”

While Vu and others paused at a makeshift memorial at the site of Friday morning’s crash, federal authorities moved to shut down the companies that have been linked to the charter bus.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ordered Iguala BusMex and Angel Tours Inc. to cease commercial operations.

The agency issued a second order finding that the activities of Angel De La Torre, owner and president of the bus companies, “in connection with motor carrier operations pose an ’imminent hazard’ to the public.”

Authorities also announced that an Iguala BusMex bus was pulled out of service at the religious festival in Carthage, Mo., because it was unauthorized to operate.