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Water taxi captain questioned

BALTIMORE - National safety investigators questioned the captain of a harbor water taxi Sunday as rescue workers continued to search the murky, frigid waters near Baltimore's Inner Harbor for passengers missing since the 36-foot craft overturned Saturday afternoon in a sudden blast of high wind.

One passenger, a 60-year-old woman, was confirmed dead, and three people were still missing and presumed dead: a man and woman, both 26, and a 6-year-old boy.

"Realistically, it's not likely anyone would survive," Baltimore Fire Department spokesman Kevin Cartwright said. The cold March waters - temperatures were in the 40s - "would certainly bring on hypothermia," he said.

Two other passengers on the tourist boat remained in critical condition Sunday - a 30-year-old woman, and an 8-year-old girl who went into cardiac arrest but who was revived, Cartwright said. Five other passengers remained hospitalized Sunday, fire officials said.

On Sunday, search crews with cadaver dogs scanned the shoreline for those missing, and divers in wet suits plunged into the harbor through the morning and afternoon.

A Maryland State Police helicopter made repeated sweeps from above, hovering over sections of water near where the boat capsized - but aerial searches were called off early in the afternoon.

The harbor waters, thick with silt and decades of debris, are "for the most part zero visibility," Goodwin said.

Scientists planned to run tests on the rover Opportunity after it failed to grind a hole in martian rock on Sunday, NASA officials said.

The rover tried, unsuccessfully, to use one of its many tools to grind away at an outcropping dubbed Flat Rock, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement on its Web site.

Scientists hope to learn more about the rock's chemical composition from scrapings off of its exterior. Tests on the rover were planned for today and the rover could take another shot at Flat Rock later in the week, officials said.

WASHINGTON - Three top Democrats, all talked about as possible running mates for presumptive presidential nominee John Kerry, discussed the possibility Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation.

Sen. Bob Graham, who folded his campaign for the Democratic presidential nod last October, said, "I think that's going to be up to Sen. Kerry, obviously."

Asked whether Kerry could help himself by choosing Graham, the Florida senator responded, "I will do whatever I can to help John Kerry be elected president and deny George Bush another four years in the White House."

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson could create a stir as the first Hispanic on a major party ticket. But he said he was very happy in his current position.

"I love being governor of New Mexico. My job isn't finished yet. I've only been governor for a year," Richardson said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell deferred to Graham and Richardson, saying they have a "tremendous advantage over someone like me. They both have foreign policy experience. . . . And I think both would be excellent choices."

POCOMOKE CITY, Md. - More than 300,000 chickens on Maryland's Eastern Shore were destroyed Sunday to stem a fresh outbreak of avian influenza. The flu has infected birds in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in recent weeks and is threatening the heart of the tri-state economy.

The most recent outbreak - discovered Saturday near the Virginia line - is the first on a commercial farm in Maryland, where poultry is responsible for about a third of the state's $1.4-billion-a-year agriculture industry.

The infected farm is about 45 miles from the nearest infected farm in Delaware. Authorities said they had not discovered a connection. The flu strain is not considered harmful to humans. But authorities fear it could mutate into a more dangerous variant.