Republican saves a journalist and Boy Scout saves a president

Senator Sununu performed the Heimlich maneuver to save Al Hunt.

When a piece of chicken got stuck in journalist Al Hunt's windpipe Friday night, Sen. John Sununu came to the rescue.

"John was terrific," said Hunt, 65, executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News. "He quickly jumped up, put his arms around me, did the (Heimlich) maneuver. Within about two seconds, it came out."

Hunt and Sununu were sitting next to each other Friday night at the Hanover Street Chop House in downtown Manchester. The table was packed with powerbrokers, politicians and prominent journalists, including columnist Bob Novak, New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson and Hunt's wife, Judy Woodruff.

Hunt said he stood up at the table, trying to purge the piece of chicken, when Sununu sprung into action.

"It was really, really quick," Hunt said. "Some people were saying they didn't even know it had happened. But, as I say, he was fabulous."

But the real story of saving a life is the story of the boy scout who saved the President of the Maldives from an assassination attempt.

A quick-thinking Boy Scout foiled an assassination attempt on the president of the Maldives on Tuesday, grabbing an attacker's knife as the man leapt from a crowd and lunged at the leader, an official said.

President Maumoon Gayoom was unhurt, but his shirt was ripped as the attacker tried a second time to stab him before being overpowered by security guards, government spokesman Mohammed Shareef said.

"One brave boy saved the president's life," he said.

Mohammed Jaisham Ibrahim, wearing his blue Maldives scout uniform with a blue kerchief, was standing in the crowd to greet Gayoom on Hoarafushi, one of the 1,190 coral islands in the Indian Ocean that make up the Maldives.

The attacker hid a knife in the Maldivian flag as he awaited Gayoom's arrival, then lunged at the president, Shareef said.

Ibrahim reached out and grabbed the blade, and he was cut on the hand, according to the government.

"There was blood on the president's shirt, but it was not his but the boy's," Shareef said.

Now that's a scout who lives up to the motto of "Be prepared." What a great story.

And stay tuned, it may be that the assassination attempt was connected to Islamic terrorism.