HOFFA TAKES OATH OF OFFICE THAT WAS HELD BY HIS FATHER

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Teamsters have sworn in James P. Hoffa as the union's new president.Assuming a post once held by his late father, Hoffa took the oath of office Monday at the union's headquarters. He then administered it to other newly elected officers, most of whom were sworn in through a conference call, before holding an executive board meeting.

The new panel passed several resolutions, including one authorizing auditors to review the union's financial records. Hoffa has pledged to balance the Teamsters' budget during his first year in office.

The board also passed a resolution to create an internal ethics panel to help reshape the image of the union, which has been tainted by charges of ties to organized crime.

CRUISE LINE TO PAY $1 MILLION IN FINES OVER FALSIFIED RECORDS

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has pleaded guilty to falsifying oil discharge records on a ship that was stopped in Los Angeles port, agreeing to face more than $1 million in fines.

The cruise line admitted that its employees presented false pollution prevention records to U.S. Coast Guard officers during routine inspections on the ship Nordic Prince, the U.S. attorney's office said Monday.

The plea relates to three incidents between January and October 1994, when the ship was berthed in the Port of Los Angeles.

The records claimed that oil and oil-contaminated water had been properly treated prior to being dumped overboard. But the equipment designed to separate oil from wastewater was inoperative.

34 SENATORS WANT GORE TO TELL RUSSIA TO QUIT HELPING IRAN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A bipartisan group of 34 senators wants Vice President Al Gore to press Russia's prime minister to stop his country's cooperation with Iran on missiles and nuclear technology.

In a letter released Monday, the 34 said Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov must be convinced that "an Iran armed with nuclear weapons and advanced ballistic missiles is no more in Russia's interests than in our own."

Initiated by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the letter was signed by 20 Democrats and 14 Republicans, including Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C.

Primakov was arriving in Washington Tuesday, with meetings set to begin Wednesday.

COMPANIES GET PACT TO ALTER PLUTONIUM INTO REACTOR FUEL

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Energy Department has awarded a $130 million contract to a consortium, including two U.S. utilities, for the disposal of plutonium by converting it into a fuel for civilian power reactors.

The department previously had announced its plan to get rid of about 36 tons of weapons-grade plutonium by converting it into a mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel that can be used in a civilian reactor.

The contract Monday was awarded to the French nuclear fuel manufacturer, Cogema, and two U.S. utilities, Duke Power and Virginia Power Co., that will burn the MOX fuel in four reactors.

S. CAROLINA CANCELS CONTRACT TO SELL DRIVER'S LICENSE PHOTOS

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Gov. Jim Hodges has ordered the cancellation of South Carolina's contract to sell nearly 4 million driver's license photos for a fraud-prevention system.

Hodges said he found out this weekend that 4,200 photos of children as young as 10 had been transmitted to Image Data LLC of Nashua, N.H. The children's photos are from Public Safety Department identity cards.

"South Carolinians have spoken clearly that they want these records to be kept private and we as state government must move forward to do that," he said.

AUTHOR'S SUIT SAYS MAKERS OF 'SHAKESPEARE' STOLE TALE

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A best-selling author has sued the makers of the Oscar-winning film "Shakespeare in Love," charging they stole the tale of a lovelorn bard from her 1989 novel "The Quality of Mercy."

Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard won the best original screenplay Oscar for the movie Sunday night. Novelist Faye Kellerman sued them in federal court on March 16, less than a week before the Academy Awards.

"It's interesting that it won the award, but as I said in the complaint it should have been for best adapted screenplay," Barry Novak, Kellerman's attorney, said Monday.

Named in the lawsuit are Norman and Stoppard, Miramax Film Corp. Inc., Universal City Studios Inc. and script publisher Hyperion Press Inc.

MOTHER AND SON REACH ACCORD OVER NOT-SHARED LOTTERY LOOT

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) -- A man who refused to share a $2.15 million lottery award with his mother has given up nearly a quarter of the price in a settlement his lawyer called a business decision.

Phyllis and Michael Klingebiel embraced after their lawyers worked out an agreement Monday.

Phyllis Klingebiel, who stopped speaking to her son after suing him in 1997, wants "the chance to mend fences with her son and daughter-in-law," said her lawyer, Gary Blaustein.

Phyllis Klingebiel said she and her son had a decade-old agreement to buy lottery tickets together and share any prizes. Each month, she sent him $20, while he also put in $20, to buy 40 tickets.

When a ticket Klingebiel bought won the Pick-6 drawing on Oct. 2, 1997, he called his mother and said, "We won." But Klingebiel said he was talking about his wife, Jillanne. He said he did not have to share it with his mother.

GRADUATE STUDENTS AT UCLA VOTE 718-269 TO UNIONIZE

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Graduate students at the University of California at Los Angeles have voted to unionize, paving the way for unions to form at the seven other university campuses.

The 718-269 vote, which took place March 9-11, affiliated the UCLA union with the United Auto Workers.

"It's a historic victory for academic student workers," said Connie Razza, a UCLA teaching assistant and spokeswoman for the new Student Association of Graduate Employees-UAW.

"The University of California will cooperate fully with SAGE-UAW and will bargain in good faith," Chancellor Albert Carnesale said.

Before Monday's announcement, there were 18 institutions, including the universities of Michigan and Wisconsin, with unionized teaching aides, according to 1997 statistics by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Graduate students, who often teach small groups of undergraduates, grade papers and tutor, typically work 15 to 20 hours a week and earn about $15,000 a year.

ONE RIDER DIES WHEN SEATS SEPARATE FROM SIX FLAGS RAFT

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- The seating unit of an amusement park raft carrying a dozen people separated from its inner-tube base as it overturned and killed an Arkansas woman, park operators said.

"How the tubing came off, we don't know," said Nancy St. Pierre, spokeswoman for Six Flags Over Texas. "Hopefully, we'll find that out."

The amusement park's investigation has not yet determined what role, if any, the separation played in the accident Sunday afternoon on the park's Roaring Rapids. It was the first fatality involving a visitor in the park's 38-year history.

Most aboard the overturned raft were able to unbuckle their seat belts and get out of the waist-deep water, authorities said.

But Valeria Cartwright, 28, of West Helena, Ark., drowned after being trapped upside down when the raft capsized, the Tarrant County medical examiner's office said Monday. Three other people remained hospitalized Tuesday. At least one rider suffered a broken leg.

LONG ISLAND LOLITA, VICTIM REPORT THAT ALL IS FORGIVEN

NEW YORK (AP) -- Mary Jo Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher have made up.

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Buttafuoco has forgiven the Long Island Lolita who had an affair with her husband and shot her in the head in 1992. Buttafuoco and Fisher began writing to each other more than six months ago.

"At this stage, forgiveness is appropriate," Buttafuoco told the New York Post from West Hills, Calif., where she lives with her husband, Joey.

Buttafuoco also supports a deal that might hasten Fisher's release from prison, the Daily News and the Post reported Monday.

Fisher, 24, is serving a five- to 15-year sentence for the shooting.

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