TODAY'S NEWS

Nebraska Sixth-Grader Takes On the World

¿ Standing onstage yesterday holding a big cardboard check representing the $25,000 college scholarship he had just won in the 20th annual National Geographic Bee, 11-year-old Akshay Rajagopal said: "It just feels like I'm really special."

Special indeed. One of the youngest people in this year's bee, Akshay breezed through the two-day national finals without missing a question. The Nebraska sixth-grader said he was stumped -- sort of -- just once.

The question that made him champ -- and dropped Hunter Bledsoe of Alabama into second place: "The indigenous peoples of Australia include the Aboriginal peoples and a second group, whose name comes from what strait that separates Australia from New Guinea?" (Answer: Torres.)

The District of Columbia's Benjamin Geyer made history as the first four-time state-level champion. Benjamin, 14, also was one of the top 10 finalists for a second time.

One highlight of yesterday's one-hour session was a noisy appearance by Quigley, an Australian kookaburra. Quigley laughed on cue for his trainer, Jennifer Hernandez of Discovery Cove in Florida.

Earthquake Update

¿ Chinese children returned to school yesterday in some of the areas most damaged by a major earthquake 10 days ago.

More than 700 children streamed into the Zundao Hope School -- 13 one-story buildings hastily built in the town of Zundao, in Sichuan province. "It's great to be back in school. All my classmates are fine. We are very lucky," said Fang Kai, 11.

Principal Chen Chaolu said the children would get help to overcome the trauma of the quake. More than 70,000 people were killed or remain missing.

Corrections: The giant birthday pretzel mentioned in a story Monday was not made by Daniel Meakem's mom. It was bought at the Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe in Arlington.

Also, in our article last week about NASCAR pit crews, we listed the wrong college for Heath Cherry. He attended Lenoir-Rhyne College in North Carolina.