Bush Trip Canned Amid Threats

The 43rd president may have missed out on a fat speaker’s fee, but he’s safer for it: A planned trip to Switzerland by George W. Bush has been canceled, his spokesman says, due to security concerns. Bush was due to address a charity, the United Israel Appeal, in Geneva. His spokesman cited threats of left-wing protests against the former president as the cause, but several human rights group see it differently. They had pushed Switzerland to open a criminal investigation on torture allegations against Bush while he was on their soil. “Whatever Bush or his hosts say,” read one of their statements, “we have no doubt he canceled his trip to avoid our case.”