Alabama hostage standoff carries on into fourth day

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. -- The standoff between police and a gunman accused of holding a kindergartner hostage in an underground bunker dragged into a fourth day on Friday, as authorities sought to continue delicate conversations with the man through a pipe and worked to safely end the tense situation.

The gunman shot a school bus driver to death Tuesday, grabbed a 5-year-old boy off the bus and slipped into an underground bunker on his property in rural Alabama, police said. There were signs the standoff could go on for some time: the shelter has electricity, food, TV, and police have delivered the boy's medication through a 4-inch-wide ventilation pipe leading to the bunker.