BALTIC SHIP DISASTER CLAIMS 823 LIVES

A Sweden-bound ferry that sank yesterday in the Baltic Sea killing over 800 people had been declared unseaworthy by inspectors just a day earlier. Swedish inspectors had examined the ferry in Tallinn, Estonia right before it set sail Tuesday and criticized the seals on the cargo door. No word yet on why the ferry was let out of the docks, but an investigation into one of the worst peacetime sea disasters in history continues. Most of the people on board were Swedes returning from an Estonian vacation. The tally so far: 823 dead, 126 rescued. There's little hope for the remaining 15; no one is expected to survive for more than a few hours in the 50-degree waters.

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RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
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