Nation IN BRIEF : MARYLAND : Jewish Secondary School Vandalized

Vandals tore through a Jewish secondary school in Silver Spring, Md., upending furniture and equipment and smashing bottles of laboratory chemicals. Police in the Washington suburb said the 12-room school, Yeshiva of Greater Washington, apparently was invaded late Tuesday, the fifth night of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The school, which has 85 students in grades seven through 12, was closed this week. The vandalism was classified as a “hate-violence incident” because of messages left behind, officials said. The word “Satan” was written in chalk on a blackboard and the words “Roman Catholics rule” were scribbled across six lockers.