In brief: Body found during hunt for passenger

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A woman’s body has been found during a search in frigid Alaska waters for a cruise ship passenger believed to have fallen overboard.

The Coast Guard said the search for the missing passenger is continuing until the body is positively identified.

The 45-year-old woman was reported missing by a friend Monday morning when the Holland America ship Zaandam was in Glacier Bay National Park about 75 miles northwest of Juneau. The woman was last seen hours earlier, when the vessel was near Douglas Island.

Her name and hometown weren’t immediately released, but the Coast Guard said she is from Washington state.

Groups want input in lynx habitat suit

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Six environmental groups announced Monday they have filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed by snowmobilers challenging the federal government’s designation of land in six states as critical habitat for Canada lynx.

The groups want to make sure U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Cheyenne gets all the information he needs and doesn’t hear just one side of the case, said Tim Preso, an attorney for the groups.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in February designated 39,000 square miles in six states – Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Washington and Wyoming – as critical habitat for the threatened Canada lynx. The Wyoming State Snowmobile Association and Washington State Snowmobile Association sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the expanded designation. The groups seeking to intervene are Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Northwest, Friends of the Wild Swan, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Lands Council.

Separately, four environmental groups filed suit in U.S. District Court in Missoula, in May, saying not enough lynx habitat was designated.

Jackson’s mother granted custody

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson’s mother was granted permanent custody of the singer’s three children Monday, putting an end to one of the court battles that had been brewing since the pop star’s death in June.

Los Angeles Superior Court judge Mitchell Beckloff approved the agreement reached last week by attorneys for Katherine Jackson and Debbie Rowe, mother of the two older children, in which the children will be raised by their grandmother while Rowe keeps visitation and legal parental rights.

The late pop icon had said in his 2002 will that his mother should care for Prince Michael Jr., 12, Paris Michael Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II, 7.

Turbulence rocks Rio-Houston plane

MIAMI – Some passengers were snoozing while others snacked when the first turbulence rattled Continental Flight 128 over the Atlantic. Suddenly, the jetliner began to plunge and shake violently, hurling passengers over seatbacks and slamming them against luggage bins.

The Boeing 767 made an emergency landing in Miami early Monday so at least 26 injured, four seriously, could receive medical help.

The plane landed in Miami at 5:30 a.m. Fourteen people were taken to Miami-area hospitals and were treated.