New Orleans

Mardi Gras parade canceled by storms

Driving rains forced the cancellation of one traditional Mardi Gras parade Monday, but hard-core revelers still drank beer and strolled along partly flooded Bourbon street, celebrating the raucous climax of New Orleans’ Carnival season.

Parade organizers and businesses dependent on the usual influx of more than a million locals and tourists held out hope that the flooding and rains would not keep partiers from enjoying themselves and spending money.

The 112-year-old “Proteus” parade was canceled, but others went ahead as planned. Some spectators chose to watch parades from the comfort of restaurants and bars to avoid the damp weather.

The annual Mardi Gras festival, which peaks today, is held before the fasting and penitence of Lent, the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

New Orleans

Three bodies found from ship collision

The bodies of three crew members missing after their cargo ship sank in the Mississippi River were found Monday, as rescuers worked to remove the wreckage that has blocked the main channel since Saturday’s accident.

The search for two remaining crew members was called off and rescuers and salvage workers focused on clearing the channel, the only one deep enough for large oceangoing ships to make their way from the Gulf of Mexico into the lower Mississippi.

Scores of freighters were stopped cold and thousands of cruise ship passengers were stuck Monday in New Orleans because of the shipwreck.

Gary LaGrange, executive director of the Port of New Orleans, said authorities hoped to have the channel cleared this afternoon, but it might take until Wednesday because of strong wind. The weather service issued tornado warnings for the southeastern part of the state.

Arkansas

Three students die in car-bus collision

Three high school students were killed Monday after their car turned into the path of a school bus carrying 46 children home from school, state police said.

None of the children on the bus was seriously hurt in the crash, although one was sent to a hospital with an injury, according to state police Capt. Mike Fletcher.

Sgt. Lance Huey said the accident occurred when the car pulled out in front of the Lake Hamilton school district bus while making a turn at an intersection near Hot Springs.

No charges will be filed in the accident, state police Trooper Dennis Overton said.

Miami

14 airport workers indicted in drug case

Following a sting operation, 14 workers at Miami International Airport were indicted Monday on charges of smuggling cocaine and heroin from Latin America to the United States, federal officials said.

Thirteen current or former airport workers were charged with drug conspiracy after a four-year investigation spanning at least three foreign countries and three U.S. cities.

Authorities arrested a 14th man, but he may have been a victim of mistaken identity, officials said. They were trying to determine how the mistake occurred.

The defendants, all U.S. citizens, sometimes arranged to load the drugs onto planes in Costa Rica, Panama and Venezuela. Once the shipments arrived in Miami, they allegedly unloaded them and helped send the drugs to undercover agents in Baltimore, Dallas, Nashville, Tenn., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, First Assistant U.S. Atty. Tom Mulvihill said.

San Diego

African elephant birth is first in 20 years

One of seven African elephants brought to the Wild Animal Park from Swaziland last year gave birth Monday to a 250-pound male calf, the first birth of an African elephant here in two decades.

Ndlulamitsi, which means “taller than trees” in the Siswati language, gave birth with little difficulty and no intervention by zoo veterinarians or keepers.

The calf was standing within an hour and nursing soon thereafter. Its father is thought to be a bull killed by hunters in Swaziland after it killed a rhinoceros.

Despite a lawsuit by animal rights groups, seven African elephants were brought to the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park and four to the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Fla., in August. Each zoo received one pregnant female.

Zoo officials say the elephants are needed to reverse the decline of the African elephant population in North American zoos. Their arrival marked the first time in 15 years that U.S. zoos had been allowed to import elephants taken from the wild.

Above, the baby elephant takes its first steps Monday.