News briefs

Taiwanese construction and rescue workers try to salvage what theycan from an apartment building that partially collapsed in Sunday'sdeadly earthquake.

Taiwan hit again

after deadly quake

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Two moderate aftershocks shook eastern Taiwan andtriggered landslides today, a day after a powerful earthquake senttwo cranes crashing down from the 60th floor of a building underconstruction, killing five workers.

Today's quakes measured 4.8 and 4.5 in magnitude and were centeredat sea about six miles off Ilan, a coastal town 90 miles southeast ofTaipei, the capital, the Central Weather Bureau said. No injurieswere reported in the landslides, police said.

They were among more than 100 aftershocks registered followingSunday's quake, which the bureau said had a magnitude of 6.8. TheU.S. Geological Survey estimated it at 7.1.

Sunday's quake injured a total of about 220 people across theisland. An 8-year-old boy was in a coma after being hit in the headby a falling rock in the eastern coastal city of Hualien, but mostother injuries were minor, the Disaster Control Center reported.

Woman accused

in killing kills self

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. - A woman accused of poisoning her husband witha horse tranquilizer last year and burying his body in a Californiavineyard hanged herself in a jail cell, authorities said.

Laren Sims, 36, had been held without bail in the Hernando Countyjail since her arrest March 18 in Destin. She was found hanging froma braided bed sheet early Saturday morning in an apparent suicide,and died Sunday, Hernando County sheriff's Capt. Alan Arick said onSunday.

Several days before her death, Sims wrote a three-page confessiondetailing how she and a 21-year-old secretary from her husband'sCalifornia law firm killed Larry McNabney and then buried his body,police said.

Royal family, nation

mourns Queen Mother

LONDON - The coffin of the Queen Mother Elizabeth rested today ina small stone chapel at Windsor Castle where the royal familyprivately mourned the beloved matriarch before she is taken to lie instate in London.

Artillery pieces thundered 41-gun salutes in a dozen locationsaround the country and in the colony of Gibraltar in honor of KingGeorge VI's widow, who died at her Windsor home Saturday afternoon,aged 101.

In London's Hyde Park, crowds of onlookers watched as a horseartillery group fired a first shot from the 13-pound guns at noon, tobe followed - here and in the 11 other locations - by one shot eachminute.

Flags flew at half-staff and thousands of admirers of theenduringly popular former queen signed condolence books that wereopened Sunday at royal palaces and homes around the country.

Bouquets of bright spring flowers, with fond messages attached,were placed at St. James's Palace and the adjacent Clarence House,which had been the Queen Mother's London home since her husband'sdeath in 1952 and the accession of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.