nation in brief

4 Dead, 1 Missing, 42 Rescued After Fishing Boat Sinks

ANCHORAGE -- A fishing boat sank off Alaska's Aleutian Islands on Sunday, leaving four crew members, including the captain, dead and another missing, the Coast Guard said.

Forty-two of the 47 crew members on board the Seattle-based Alaska Ranger were rescued, and the search continued for the missing person, said Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane.

The vessel started taking on water shortly before 3 a.m. after losing control of its rudder 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor. In a statement, the ship's owner, the Fishing Company of Alaska, said it did "not have sufficient information to determine why the vessel foundered."

6 War Protesters Arrested at Church

CHICAGO -- Six people were arrested at Holy Name Cathedral after disrupting an Easter Mass to protest the Iraq war. As security guards and ushers tried to remove them, the demonstrators squirted fake blood on themselves and parishioners.

Photos Show Bent Bridge Plates

MINNEAPOLIS -- Old photos of the Interstate 35W bridge show that two steel connecting plates were visibly bent at least four years before the span collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people. Minnesota Department of Transportation officials declined to say when the state first knew about the bending.

The two photos were part of a report issued this month by the National Transportation Safety Board and are believed to have been taken by URS, a consulting firm the state hired to examine the bridge from 2003 to 2007.

Blast at Meat Plant Causes Evacuations

BOONEVILLE, Ark. -- An explosion at a meatpacking plant caused an ammonia gas leak that forced 180 people from their homes, but none of those working at the plant was injured, emergency responders said. Firefighters said that they could not fight the blaze using conventional equipment because of the danger and that they would let it burn itself out. Mark Klein, a Minneapolis-based spokesman for Cargill Meat Solutions, said the plant is closed Sundays but about 20 contractors and a few other employees were at the site.

-- From News Services