Around the world
DROWNED: An autopsy shows that a California car salesman who tried to ride a Jet Ski over Niagara Falls was not killed in the 180-foot fall but drowned. Robert Overacker had no broken bones or any other injuries from the fall, Dr. Azim Velji, the pathologist who performed the autopsy, said Monday. Overacker, 39, of Camarillo, Calif., had been training for the stunt for seven years. During the jump Sunday, he wore a rocket that was to propel him into the air, and he carried a parachute that never opened.
ADHERENCE: The State Department says North Korea is living up to all agreements on its nuclear facilities while talks on new nuclear power plants continue in New York. "North Korea continues to adhere in all respects to the agreed framework," spokesman Nicolas Burns said Monday, referring to conditions for considering international help to install nuclear reactors that would not be used in a weapons program.
VIOLENCE: At least 135 Tamil rebels and 24 government troops have died in some of the worst fighting of Sri Lanka's civil war, military officials said Tuesday. Early Tuesday, guerrillas tried to recapture land on the Jaffna Peninsula recently taken by the government troops. After four hours of fighting, the soldiers beat them back, killing 105 rebels, the military said. On Monday night, rebels attacked naval ships off northeastern Sri Lanka, killing at least 15 soldiers, a military statement said.
Across the nation
RULING: A federal judge in Birmingham, Ala., has agreed to let women decide for themselves whether to accept a new plan to salvage something from a $4.25 billion deal to settle injury claims. The new offer, proposed by implant makers during a series of intense negotiations over the weekend, covers far fewer women than the old deal and promises each of them less.
RETURNED: Patrick Combs of San Francisco won fame and fortune - literally - when he successfully deposited a phony junk mail check for $95,000 through his bank's automated teller system. Now, six months later, he's giving the money back. Combs, a 29-year-old author whose plight put him on TV talk shows, has reached an agreement with First Interstate Bank to return the money. He said it was just a lark when he deposited the check, and figured someone would realize it wasn't real. But it took the bank a month to figure it out. When the bank asked for the money back, Combs said he was happy to return it. Then a security officer accused him of fraud, and Combs refused to return the check until he could get something in writing from the bank to clear him. The bank refused and sued.
In other news
A BAND OF GUNMEN laid logs across tracks in southeastern Bangladesh to stop a train, then robbed the 500 passengers of all their jewelry and cash, police in Dhaka said Tuesday. . . . JURORS MIGHT BE unduly influenced if television cameras are allowed at the retrial of two brothers accused of gunning down their parents, public defender Charles Gessler, who is representing Lyle Menendez, says.