NATIONAL BRIEFS

ARIZONA: Motorist, 84, rescued after 5 days

There was a moment when Henry Morello, 84, began to lose hope, stuck as he was for five days with his car in a ditch in the desert. He drank windshield wiper fluid after he got thirsty, used car mats to stay warm and even read a car manual from cover to cover to pass time. Then, he heard a knock on a window from a hiker, and suddenly his long ordeal was over. "I just kissed him," Morello said. "He looked like an angel to me." He spoke at a hospital news conference Tuesday about making a wrong turn while driving home Feb. 7 from a favorite restaurant in Cave Creek in the desert north of Phoenix. Doctors said Morello, a diabetic, arrived in good condition considering what he'd been through.

FLORIDA: SUV kills Dalai Lama's nephew

The Dalai Lama's nephew was smiling, radiating energy as he tackled the first leg of a 300-mile walk to promote Tibet's independence from China. He insisted on finishing the last two miles on his own, even as darkness fell. "For the cause," Jigme K. Norbu said, as he had on so many similar journeys before. Norbu was alone on a dark coastal highway Monday when he was struck and killed by an SUV. Authorities said it appeared to be an accident, that the driver, Keith R. O'Dell, 31, of Palm Coast, swerved but couldn't avoid Norbu. O'Dell and his 5-year-old son were not hurt. Norbu, 45, lived in Bloomington, Ind., where his father had taught at Indiana University and he owned a restaurant that served Tibetan and Indian cuisine.

HAWAII: Civil unions vote delayed

The State Senate is delaying a final vote on same-sex civil unions for a day. The body had been poised Tuesday to pass the legislation and send it to the governor, but Judiciary Committee chairman Clayton Hee proposed the delay to make sure there was adequate public notice. The measure had passed the House on Friday. Hawaii would become the seventh state to grant essentially the same rights of marriage to same-sex couples without authorizing marriage itself.