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National briefs: Fuel line leak tied to ship fire
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ATLANTA -- A leak in a fuel oil return line caused the engine-room fire that disabled a Carnival cruise ship at sea, leaving 4,200 people without power or working toilets for five days, a Coast Guard official said Monday.
Cmdr. Teresa Hatfield addressed the finding in a conference call with reporters and estimated that the investigation of the disabled ship, the Carnival Triumph, would take six months.
Capt. Hatfield said the Bahamas --where the ship is registered, or flagged -- is leading the investigation, with the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board representing U.S. interests in the probe. The vessel was in international waters in the Gulf of Mexico at the time of the incident.
Sen. Johanns to retire
WASHINGTON -- Republican Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska said Monday that he will not seek a second term in 2014, becoming the fifth incumbent to eschew a re-election to the Senate.
Mr. Johanns, who was elected to two terms as the state's governor and served in George W. Bush's Cabinet as agriculture secretary, said in a letter to his constituents that it was simply the right time to end his three decades-long career in public office.
Mr. Johanns, who in 2008 won the Senate seat once held by Chuck Hagel, is one of just two Republicans who has said he would vote to confirm him as defense secretary.
Burger King hacked
MIAMI -- Somebody hacked Burger King's Twitter account on Monday, posting obscene messages and changing its profile picture to a McDonald's logo.
The tweets stopped after a little more than an hour, and Miami-based Burger King said it had reached out to Twitter to suspend the account. A Twitter spokesman did not immediately respond to a phone message left Monday.
Burger King, which usually tweets several times a week, said it was working to get the account back up.
Adoptee death inquiry
DALLAS -- Russian authorities have blamed "inhuman treatment" for the death of a 3-year-old boy adopted by an American family, but Texas officials say they are still investigating claims that the child was abused before his death.
Russia's Investigative Committee said Monday that it had questions about the death of an adoptee whom authorities identified as Maxim Kuzmin. The committee is the country's top investigative agency.
Texas Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins confirmed the agency had received a report on Jan. 21 of the death of a 3-year-old named Max Shatto, and that the Ector County Sheriff's Office in West Texas was investigating.
School bus-strike costs
NEW YORK -- The city spent roughly $20.6 million in transit cards, taxis and gasoline mileage to get tens of thousands of stranded students to school during the monthlong bus strike, but some still didn't get there at all, schools chancellor Dennis Walcott said Monday.
The 7,700 or so bus routes that serve the nation's largest school district will resume Wednesday following mid-winter recess, but routes for non-public schools will start today, Mr. Walcott said. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 ended its walkout on Friday evening after union leaders were assured by prospective New York City mayoral candidates that their concerns about job protection would be heard after this year's election. They went on strike Jan. 16.
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First Published February 19, 2013 12:00 am
