New York City

Captured tiger, alligator sent to Ohio refuge

A tiger and an alligator found in a Manhattan apartment were sent to an Ohio wildlife preserve Sunday while their owner recovered from bite wounds inflicted by the more than 400-pound cat.

Police said Antoine Yates, 31, would face reckless endangerment charges after he gets out of a hospital in Philadelphia, where he fled. He was listed in good condition.

A team of animal control officers, police and Bronx Zoo workers removed the animals from Yates’ fifth-floor apartment in a Harlem housing project on Saturday.

The tiger and the 5-foot-long alligator, both in good condition, were taken first to a local shelter, then to a Long Island animal sanctuary and then to Ohio, Artope said.

Iowa

A tiger is seen lounging in a Harlem apartment in this New York Police Department video image before the animal was tranquilized and removed. Authorities moved the tiger and a 5-foot alligator from the apartment Saturday and sent them to an Ohio refuge Sunday.

Clark trails rivals in crucial state

For all his high-wattage candidacy, Wesley Clark lags far behind his Democratic presidential rivals in the months of organizing and hours of handshaking that it takes to win the Iowa caucuses.

The state’s Jan. 19 caucuses, the first test for Democrats in the hunt for the nomination, present a formidable challenge for any candidate, let alone Clark, who entered the race only last month.

In enlisting Iowans willing to commit to his cause, Clark trails his more established rivals.

Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri won the Iowa caucuses in his unsuccessful White House bid in 1988 and still has the contacts throughout the state. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina earned good will when he spent nearly $200,000 in campaign cash to help elect Iowa Democrats in the last election.

Maryland

Service honors fallen U.S. firefighters

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said firefighters were heroes and many were too modest to admit it during his keynote address to a crowd of 5,000 on Saturday at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Park in Emmitsburg.

“It takes courage to plunge into a burning building when everybody else is running out,” Ridge said.

The Baltimore Sun reported families from 36 states attended the ceremony commemorating the nations’ firefighters who died in the line of duty in 2002 and some earlier years.

Families received a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol and a rose pulled from a Maltese cross, the firefighters’ badge of honor.

Sunday marked the return of the ceremony to Maryland. Last year 347 New York firefighters who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were commemorated in the MCI Center in Washington.

Atlanta

Churchgoer kills mother, minister, herself

A woman opened fire at an Atlanta church before services started Sunday morning, killing her mother and the minister before committing suicide.

Congregants of Turner Monumental AME Church said Shelia W. Chaney Wilson, 43, was agitated when she came to the church, in the Kirkwood neighborhood on the city’s east side.

Wilson apparently shot the Rev. Johnny Clyde Reynolds after he greeted her and was walking away with his back to her, said Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. John Quigley. Police believe Wilson then shot Jennie Mae Robinson once in the head before turning the gun on herself.

Geraldine Andrews, the pastor’s daughter-in-law and a friend of Wilson’s family, said Robinson recently took her daughter out of a mental health facility.

Colorado

Skydiver dies after hitting bridge

A skydiver attempting a stunt was killed Sunday when he hit a 1,000-foot-high bridge and fell onto the rocks below, police said.

Dwain Weston, 30, died following the inaugural Go Fast Games, in which he and other parachutists had jumped off the 1,053-foot-high Royal Gorge Bridge, said Heather Hill, a vice president of event sponsor Go Fast Sports & Beverage Co.

Weston, of Australia, had jumped from an airplane with another parachutist. They were supposed to free fall until they reached the bridge, at which point Weston was to go above the bridge and the other athlete would go under it.

Weston, who was traveling an estimated 100 mph, miscalculated his distance from the bridge, the world’s highest suspension bridge. He struck a railing and fell onto a rock face roughly 300 feet from the bottom of the gorge.

Washington, D.C.

Government to roll out new vehicle rollover test

After years of using a dry, mathematical formula to predict rollover risk, the government is adding a wheel-squealing road test intended to give consumers more information about a vehicle’s handling capabilities.

Automakers say the road test will reward the best-handling vehicles in each class by highlighting performance measures the formula could not assess. One example is stability control, a system that applies brakes to specific tires and decelerates if it senses a driver is veering off course.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the government’s auto safety agency, is considering two different road tests and will announce its decision Tuesday at its test facility in Ohio. In the future, the government’s five-star rating system for rollover risk will factor in both road tests results and the mathematical approach.

San Jose, Calif.

New poll favors ouster of Davis

California voters polled as new allegations were surfacing last week about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s treatment of women still favored the Republican actor over the front-running Democrat by a slim margin and supported recalling Gov. Gray Davis.

The Knight Ridder poll, released late Saturday, found voters favored removing Davis, 54 percent to 41 percent.

The poll surveyed 1,000 California voters by telephone and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.