In the Nation

CALIFORNIA

Brain-dead girl's

kin seek transfer

The family of Jahi McMath, 13, who was declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy, wants to transfer her to a nursing home willing to care for her even though doctors have said she is beyond recovery, a lawyer said Thursday.

Before the nursing home can accept her as a patient, however, doctors at Children's Hospital Oakland need to surgically insert breathing and feeding tubes that would allow the new facility to keep her body functioning, the lawyer, Christopher Dolan, said.

Dolan said the facility is in the San Francisco Bay Area and is not equipped to perform surgeries. "We are trying to find somebody who will see her other than a dead piece of meat and will treat her," said Dolan, who is representing Jahi's mother.

A judge this week gave the hospital permission to remove the girl's ventilator after 5 p.m. Monday so the mother had time to appeal. - AP

FLORIDA

Divers' bodies found

A father and son who went diving Wednesday with new equipment the boy got as a Christmas present have been found dead in an underwater cave at a north Florida wildlife refuge. The Hernando County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that Holly King called authorities after her fiancé, Darrin Spivey, 35, and his son, Dillon Sanchez, 15, didn't return home after a planned dive in the 300-foot deep Eagle Nest Sink cave about an hour and a half north of Tampa. - AP

NEW YORK

Victim, 3, mourned

The mother of a 3-year-old thrown to his death from the roof of a 52-story New York City building has said farewell to him at a somber funeral Mass. Nearly 100 people filled a Russian Orthodox church Thursday for the funeral of Kirill Kanarikov. The Daily News reported his mother, Svetlana Kanarikov, wept, fixed his hair, and gave him one last kiss. Her estranged husband, Dmitriy Kanarikov, threw their son to his death Sunday then jumped to his death. - AP