Alabama bunker standoff drags on

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

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

Hostage negotiators have used the pipe to talk to the suspect.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 02/02/2013

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