EAGAN, Minn. -- A smoke alarm summoned firefighters to a school in the middle of the night, but when they arrived the flames already had been put out. Dory took care of it.

Dory is a fish, a Betta kept in a vase on a desk in a third-grade classroom at Trinity Lone Oak Lutheran School.

A forgotten candle started a small fire on the desk on Jan. 24, setting off the smoke alarm and shattering the fish bowl, spilling enough water to put out the flames.

Firefighters found a few embers still glowing on the desk -- and Dory still alive in a puddle.

"It was certainly looking distinctly unhappy," firefighter Al Taylor said of the little fish.

Firefighters put Dory in a new container, and now the children in the class are excited about their little hero, said teacher Linda Krienke.

"Each of them wrote a story from the fish's point of view, how his Friday night went. He saw the fire, and then he got real hot and then his vase broke and he fell on the floor and the fireman came in and saved him."

The room was heavily damaged by smoke, so the students and their little mascot were moved to the school music room.

Dory, named for the sidekick who helps find a kidnapped fish in the movie "Finding Nemo," is "quite a survivor," Krienke said.

Nursing home fire in Scotland kills 10, injures seven

Associated Press

UDDINGSTON, Scotland -- Fire broke out at a southern Scottish nursing home early Saturday, killing 10 residents and injuring seven others, the fire service said.

It was one of the deadliest disasters at a British nursing home since the government began regulating the industry in the 1960s. Officials were still investigating the cause.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair issued messages of sympathy.

At least 40 people, many frail and ill, were in the RosePark residence just south of Glasgow when the small blaze broke out shortly before 5 a.m., the Strathclyde Fire Brigade said. Spokesman Jeff Ord said the fire appeared to have started in a cupboard.

Chief Superintendent Tom Buchan, divisional fire commander for North Lanarkshire, said the fire caused only minor damage to the building.

"Indeed, if you see the building it is impossible to detect there has been any signs of fire at all," he said. "It appears that the smoke has made its way along a residential area … so the smoke was able to enter their bedrooms where they were sleeping."

Police intially said 11 people had died but later lowered the number to 10, citing a miscommunication between agencies.

"The thoughts of the entire country will be with the local community at this very difficult time," Blair said in a statement issued by his Downing Street office.

Worried relatives gathered at a nearby police station seeking information about patients. Those who were not injured were moved to nearby nursing homes.

The 43-bed Rosepark home serves short- and long-term patients and also provides day care and care for the terminally ill and mentally ill people.

A spokeswoman for the Care Commission, a government regulatory body, said the home was last inspected on Nov. 17 and raised no fire safety concerns.

The owners, Tom and Anne Balmer, said "our staff and ourselves are shattered by this loss of life. We consider all our residents as part of our family and many have been with us for a number of years. We too are shocked and grieving."

River barge sinks in northwestern Congo; United Nations says 200 missing.

Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo -- Nearly 200 people were missing after a barge caught fire and sank in a river in northwestern Congo, the United Nations said Saturday.

At least 301 of the nearly 500 people aboard the barge survived Monday's accident on the Congo River near the town of Lukelela, said Alexandre Essome, spokesman for the U.N. Mission in Congo in the northwestern city of Mbandaka. One person was confirmed dead and at least one other suffered severe burns, he said.

"We don't know what happened to the 200 who are missing," Essome told The Associated Press by telephone. "According to survivors, they could have returned to (the capital) Kinshasa or Mbandaka … but it's also possible that the death toll will rise."

News of such tragedies often travels slowly in Congo because much of the vast country is comprised of jungles, dirt roads and villages with no communications or electricity.

The fire started after a technician trying to repair a broken motor inadvertently set off a spark near a fuel barrel, Essome said.

The blaze spread quickly because most of the vessel was made of wood, forcing panicked passengers to jump into the Congo River and survivors to swim to shore.

The fire destroyed almost all the merchandise aboard, which included salt, food, fuel and live goats belonging to small Congolese traders.

"The villagers said they saw at least … six bodies floating in the river, but we couldn't verify that," Essome said.

The U.N. Mission in Congo on Friday dispatched two patrol boats and a helicopter to look for survivors and distribute emergency medical supplies, water and blankets, Essome said.

Lukelela, a village on the border with Republic of Congo, is about 250 miles northwest of Kinshasa. The village has no radios or telephones, Essome said.

The boat sank on an uninhabited part of the river, and survivors walked several hours to Lukelela, the nearest town, to call for help.

The ship's owner said the vessel was believed to be carrying 500 people when the tragedy occurred.

The United Nations said in a statement the barge was traveling from Makoti Mpoko in Republic of Congo and was headed north up the Congo river.

House explodes in West Texas, killing four, including three children

Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas -- A man and three children were killed in a late-night house explosion as a woman pulled from the burning home tried to go back in to rescue them, according to witnesses.

Two other adults and a child were wounded in Friday's blast, and investigators were checking early Saturday to see if a gas leak may have been at fault.

"You could see the flames coming out of the roof through all the openings, all of the openings of the house. The windows, the doors," Maria De Santiago, a neighbor, told the El Paso Times in Saturday's editions.

The dead were listed as children aged 4, 6 and 12, along with their father. Fire officials said an 8-year-old boy, a 35-year-old woman and a 55-year-old woman were sent to hospitals with burns.

De Santiago, 40, said a woman who was pulled out of the burning home attempted to get back inside as neighbors tried to hold her back.

"She was yelling, 'Los niInos, los niInos' ('the children')," said De Santiago, who lives across the street.

She said a man rushed into the house and came out burned.

Several nearby houses were ordered evacuated by firefighters. But by early Saturday, residents were allowed to return to their homes. Utility employees cut off natural gas to the property, fire officials said.

'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek escapes injury in car crash in California

Associated Press

TEMPLETON -- "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek escaped injury when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel of his pickup truck, sideswiped a string of mailboxes and sailed over an embankment into a ditch, authorities said.

Trebek, 63, was driving alone on a rural road Friday and his truck was airborne for about 40 feet, California Highway Patrol Officer Scott Koolman said.

Trebek owns and manages Creston Farms, a horse breeding and training farm about 10 miles southeast of Templeton on the central coast. An employee there said he wasn't aware of the accident.

"I don't know how he's doing because I haven't heard anything about it," farm manager Art Mercado said.

A message left after business hours for "Jeopardy!" senior producer Rocky Schmidt was not immediately returned.

The Canadian-born Trebek has been host of the popular quiz show "Jeopardy!" since 1984. He also hosts the annual National Geographic Bee.

Stolen violin kept as evidence for nine years ordered back to owner's son in Japan

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- A valuable 150-year-old violin stolen from a Japanese man in 1994 and kept as evidence for a trial that never materialized must be turned over to the man's son, a judge has ruled.

State Supreme Court Justice Lewis B. Stone, in an order made public Thursday, gave the Police Department's property clerk 15 days to give the 1850 instrument to Munehiro Okada, a violin dealer in Osaka.

The order ends the legal tug-of-war for the instrument, crafted by Joseph Rocca of Cremona, Italy, and -- according to Okada's lawyer, Ira Finkelstein -- worth about $140,000 in 1994.

Finkelstein said Sojiro Okada, his client's father, sent two violins to the United States to be sold. One instrument was the Rocca; the other a contemporary violin.

In March 1994, the violins were snatched from a New York dealer's car -- but were recovered nine months later when the alleged thief tried to sell the instruments to undercover police. The indicted suspect, however, disappeared after posting bail.

Attempts by Sojiro Okada to get the instruments back were unsuccessful, and after he died Jan. 1, 1999, his son took up the fight.

The Manhattan district attorney had opposed handing over the instruments to Okada because he had not been officially declared the owner -- until Stone's ruling. A spokeswoman said the violins would now be relinquished, and that Finkelstein is expected to agree to produce them if they're ever needed as evidence.