In the Nation

NEW YORK - Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. cofounder and CEO, whose recovery from pancreatic cancer appeared less certain when he had to take medical leave in January, received a liver transplant two months ago but is recovering well, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

The newspaper did not reveal a source for the report, which comes as Jobs, 54, is expected back in his day-to-day duties at the company shortly. CNBC said it had confirmed the Journal's account, which said the transplant had been performed in Tennessee.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told the Associated Press he had no comment. Dowling reiterated what has become Apple's standard line about the CEO's health, that "Steve continues to look forward to returning to Apple at the end of June, and there is nothing further to say."

Jobs disclosed in August 2004 that he had been diagnosed with - and cured of - a rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. - AP

CONCORD, N.H. - One of the original signed prints of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out at photographers has been sold by a New Hampshire auction house for $74,324.

Bobby Livingston, of RRAuction.com in Amherst, says the picture was taken in 1951 after a 72d-birthday celebration for the physicist.

Einstein had nine prints made. He signed the print that was auctioned on Thursday and gave it to journalist Howard K. Smith.

David Waxman of Great Neck, N.Y., is the new owner. - AP

ROCKFORD, Ill. - Federal investigators began collecting evidence yesterday after railroad tank cars holding thousands of gallons of highly flammable ethanol derailed and exploded in flames, killing a 41-year-old woman as she tried to run to safety from a car stopped at a crossing.

Three other people from the same car escaped with severe burns. Hundreds of people were evacuated from homes near the explosion.

Eighteen tank cars, all filled with ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, derailed Friday on the edge of Rockford, about 80 miles northwest of Chicago.

The wreckage burned through the night, but the fire was dying down yesterday afternoon. - AP

A moderate earthquake jolted part of central California's San Luis Obispo County early yesterday. County Sgt. Steve Himmelrich said there were no reports of damage or injury.

A man accused of dressing up as his dead mother to collect her Social Security and rent subsidies is blaming the crime on an impersonator. Thomas Parkin told the New York Post in a jailhouse interview that he wasn't the person captured on security cameras dressed in a wig and his mother's clothing.

An ammonia leak yesterday at a poultry-processing plant in North Carolina killed one person and injured three others, authorities said. The leak occurred at the Mountaire Farms plant in Robeson County.