Vain

In a calm but agonized voice, the captain of the Japanese fishing vessel that was struck and sunk by a Navy submarine testified Wednesday about waiting in vain for the sub to mount a rescue effort for survivors adrift in choppy seas. Hisao Onishi told a court of inquiry that the Ehime Maru's crew members and students expected the Greeneville to help those who were tossed into the sea or forced to abandon ship in lifeboats as the trawler sank within 10 minutes.

Children and teachers at three elementary schools near Seal Beach were locked in for six hours Wednesday as police officers with dogs combed the area for a bank robbery suspect. "I did my homework," Lindsey Miller, an 8-year-old third-grader at Lee Elementary School in Rossmoor, said of the ordeal. "All of us were curious, and a few of us were scared. I was kind of scared--they really didn't tell us much."

At his first campaign appearance after being named the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) affirmed his religious convictions by uttering a prayer and quoting the Bible. The B'Nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League not long afterward responded by urging Lieberman to keep religion out of politics. Even among co-religionists, it seems, the separation of church and state is an explosive issue--and that is why Stephen L.

Ron Eldard was caught in a yo-yo diet. For his role in the 1999 off-Broadway production of "Bash," the normally fitness-conscious actor had stopped working out and let nature take its course to help emphasize his character's moral as well as physical flabbiness. While still in that show, he was chosen to replace Kevin Anderson as elder son Biff, opposite Brian Dennehy's Willy Loman, in the hot Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman."

Four hours a day, six days a week, Cara Heads-Lane trains for the Olympic Games. She has no corporate sponsors and no endorsement contracts. Her husband works two jobs to help cover the couple's expenses. If she qualifies for Team USA, her parents might not be able to afford the trip from Orange County to Australia. She does not ask for sympathy. She does not lift weights to make money.

Under a cold and driving rain that added to the sadness of the occasion, 15 "grunt" Marines killed in the crash of a controversial aircraft were remembered Monday as among the "bravest and brightest" of young Americans. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Jones told several hundred family members of the victims, "You can take solace in the fact that your Marines and your loved ones did not die in vain. We will learn from this tragedy."

The lights kept shining, the gas kept pumping, the taps kept running, and the parties kept rocking as the most hyped New Year's moment in history finally arrived in Ventura County. Staying up to monitor computer systems through the wee hours on Saturday, officials who had prepared for massive Y2K failures stifled massive yawns. No trouble was reported. Crime also took a holiday.

A house fire that was probably ignited by a cigarette killed a woman who was trapped by flames and smoke inside a bathroom where she was showering, authorities said. Clair Thompson, 57, apparently died of smoke inhalation in the 3 p.m. blaze at her house, said James Baroni, a senior deputy county coroner. An autopsy was scheduled today. "I lost the best neighbor anybody could have ever had," said William Ferrall, one of two neighbors who tried to reach Thompson.

Old-timers would say it's the mysterious hand of God. New suburbanites might liken it to moving a cursor on an underground computer screen that only certain people can see. Either way, folks in this tiny town about 50 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., are hoping the forked cherry branch, gripped in the gnarled hands of the 77-year-old farmer in the "Kickin' Bass" cap, has guided him to what they sorely need: water.