Nation briefs 6/11/05

Man who ran into children given home confinement

WOBURN, Mass. -- A man with a prosthetic leg was sentenced Friday to a year of home confinement for plowing into a crowd outside his grandson's elementary school with his car last October, injuring 12 people. "I'm as devastated as I've ever been in my entire life. I wish I could take it back," said 66-year-old Enrico Caruso, who was convicted in April of negligent driving. Caruso had just picked up his grandson at the school outside Boston, when his car hopped the curb, pinning children and adults against a concrete wall. Five people were seriously hurt, including a 5-year-old who lost a leg.

Archdiocese settles abuse claims for $21.2 million

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Archdiocese of San Francisco agreed Friday to settle 15 pending lawsuits involving allegations of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests for $21.2 million, the church said. Under the settlement brokered by a retired judge, the archdiocese will pay out $6.6 million, with the rest coming from its insurers. Several other cases have gone to trial. "During the course of the recent trials and settlement discussions, we have heard the victims' anger and grief over the impact that the abuse has had on their lives and the lives of their families and friends," said San Francisco Archbishop William Levada.

Mine collapse kills one worker in Pennsylvania

PITTSBURGH -- A coal miner was killed when the roof collapsed Friday about two miles inside a western Pennsylvania mine, a coroner said. Workers recovered the body of the 26-year-old victim from beneath rubble in the Tracy Lynne Mine about 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Armstrong County Coroner Robert Bower said. The miner was not immediately identified. He was wearing a tracking device that let co-workers know he was in distress, officials said.

Fish researcher wins World Food Prize

DES MOINES, Iowa -- An Indian researcher who has helped feed more than 1 million people in Asia and Africa through new fish farming methods has been awarded the 2005 World Food Prize. Modadugu V. Gupta, research coordinator for the Penang, Malaysia-based WorldFish Center, will get a $250,000 prize in a ceremony Oct. 13 at the state Capitol, officials announced Friday. Gupta, 65, a native of Bapatla, India, has worked for three decades to develop ways to use abandoned pools, roadside ditches and other small bodies of water to harvest fish for food and income.

-- From wire reports