Cruise ship crew member recovered from ocean

MIAMI (AP) — A cruise ship crew member who fell overboard early Tuesday was rescued after spending about 10 hours in the Atlantic Ocean.

The 24-year-old Romanian woman was in stable condition and will remain on the Miami-based Norway under the care of a ship’s doctor until it makes its next cruise call in the U.S. Virgin Islands, officials said.

There was no word on how the woman, who was not identified, fell from the thousand-foot-long vessel.

“She was believed to go overboard around 12:30 a.m.,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Anstasia Burns. “She was treading water when the cruise ship found her.”

The ship was about 135 miles northeast of Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas when she fell.

Coast Guard aircraft responded, but the woman was found by the Norway. She was rescued by a small boat and taken back aboard.

Three shot to death Tuesday en route to court hearing

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) — Three people on their way to a court hearing were shot to death Tuesday morning in the parking lot of the Isabella County Courthouse, officials said.

The victims, two women and a man, were headed to a probate court hearing, police officer Charles Lyon said. He said one of the victims was the ex-wife of the suspected shooter.

Lyon described the motive for the shooting as a “domestic type of deal.”

Witnesses told police the shooter fled the scene.

The suspect, who was to be “part of that hearing,” was believed to be holed up in his house in nearby Weidman later Tuesday, Lyon said. The house was surrounded by police, he said.

Boston Archdiocese agrees to $30 million settlement

BOSTON (AP) — The Archdiocese of Boston has tentatively agreed to pay up to $30 million to 86 people who say they were molested by now-defrocked priest John J. Geoghan, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.

The settlement was expected to be completed Tuesday, the newspaper said, citing unidentified sources.

The Globe said the tentative agreement was reached Monday, after 11 months of negotiations. It will still need the signatures of all 86 plaintiffs and the 17 defendants, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law.

Mitchell Garabedian, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said Tuesday: “No documents have been signed. We don’t even have a final draft.”

Geoghan was sentenced to nine to 10 years in prison last month for groping a 10-year-old boy in a swimming pool, and faces two more criminal trials. He has been accused of molesting more than 130 children in six parishes over 30 years.

United Airlines cockpit fire forces emergency landing

TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) — A cockpit fire forced a United Airlines 757 to make an emergency landing at Texarkana Regional Airport on Tuesday. None of the 106 people on board was injured.

There was no word on the cause of the fire.

Ninety-nine passengers and a crew of seven were aboard the Orlando, Fla.-to-San Francisco flight, airline spokesman Joe Hopkins said.

The pilots aboard Flight 275 reported smoke and a small fire in the cockpit, Hopkins said. He said the fire was extinguished before the plane landed at Texarkana.

Airline officials said another plane would be brought in from Denver to transport the passengers on the remainder of their trip.

Austrian zookeeper killed by jaguars Tuesday

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Three jaguars attacked and killed an employee while she was preparing the animals’ meal at a Vienna zoo on Tuesday.

With zoo visitors looking on, the jaguars entered an enclosure where the 21-year old woman was working at the Schoenbrunn zoo. She was killed when a black jaguar bit her in the neck.

Afraid that the large cats would escape from the cage, many of the visitors standing nearby ran away from the scene, screaming.

The director of the zoo, Helmut Pechlaner, was injured by the jaguars after rushing to the enclosure to help the victim.

Officials at the 250-year-old zoo said they did not yet know how the accident occurred, but suspected that the three jaguars had burst into the cage through a hatch which had not been locked correctly.

Cafeteria fire delays Milosevic war crimes trial

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Slobodan Milosevic’s trial was postponed Tuesday after a fire in the cafeteria of the U.N. war crimes tribunal filled the corridors with smoke, prompting the evacuation of the building.

Guards and security personnel escorted 800 staff members outside just before the 9 a.m. start of hearings in the Milosevic case. Hearings in four other war crimes cases also were postponed.

Officials said the fire began in a deep fryer in the canteen and there was no suspicion it was intentional.

The fire was quickly put out, and damage was restricted to the canteen area and no injuries were reported. The downtown building remained closed for more than two hours to be ventilated.

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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002