BOSTON, May 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., appeared to be in good shape Saturday after being rushed to a Boston hospital, a spokeswoman for his family said.

The 76-year-old senator was "conscious, talking and joking with family," the spokeswoman told The New York Times. His wife, Victoria, his children and his niece, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, were reported to be with him.

Kennedy went to Cape Cod Hospital Saturday morning after feeling ill at his home in Hyannisport. He was then moved by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital.

Kennedy's primary care physician, Dr. Larry Ronan of Massachusetts General Hospital, issued a statement Saturday saying preliminary tests determined Kennedy had not suffered a stroke "and is not in any immediate danger. He's resting comfortably, and watching the Red Sox game with his family."

Ronan said Kennedy would undergo further evaluation to determine the cause of the seizure.

"Sen. Kennedy is resting comfortably, and it is unlikely we will know anything more for the next 48 hours," Kennedy's office said in a statement shortly after he was hospitalized.

Kennedy underwent surgery last October to clear his carotid artery to remove any potential threat of a stroke and his colleagues said he had been recovering nicely.

Train derailment forces evacuation

LAFAYETTE, La., May 17 (UPI) -- Everyone within a mile of a derailed train in Lafayette, La., was evacuated Saturday when two cars began leaking hydrochloric acid, police said.

More than 3,000 people were instructed to evacuate, and were warned they would be out of their homes and businesses for at least 48 hours, CNN reported. Residents were taken out of a nursing home.

A temporary shelter was set up at a local high school.

Six cars left the track at about 2:30 a.m. about 60 miles west of Baton Rouge. Lt. Craig Stansbury of the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office said police went door-to-door to tell everyone they had to leave.

People living somewhat farther away from the crash site were warned to keep windows closed and to turn off their air conditioning.

3 people found dead in suburban N.J. house

TENAFLY, N.J., May 17 (UPI) -- Three people found dead in a home in a quiet New Jersey suburb were homicide victims, investigators said Saturday.

The bodies were found Friday afternoon in Tenafly by a relative of one of the victims, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported. Police said the victims were an elderly woman, her grown son and an unrelated elderly man.

"We do not believe this was a random homicide," Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.

Molinelli said the victims appeared to have been dead for six or seven days. The bodies were on the house's second floor, one in an office and the other two in bedrooms.

The discovery shocked neighbors in a quiet suburb in eastern Bergen County.

"It's a quiet, lovely community. Things like this don't happen in Tenafly. Isn't that the joke? It can happen anywhere," Cathy McCauley told NY1 News.

Molinelli said all three victims are believed to have lived in the house.

U.S. food aid to North Korea resumes

WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- U.S. officials say food aid to North Korea has resumed after a two-year suspension in the wake of a new agreement to improve monitoring of its distribution.

The Bush administration announced plans Friday to ship 500,000 metric tons of food to North Korea in the next year, with the first shipment set for next month, The Washington Times reported. The administration has satisfied its concerns about whether the aid would reach its intended destination of North Koreans in need, the newspaper said.

"The two sides have agreed on terms for a substantial improvement in monitoring and access in order to allow for confirmation of receipt by the intended recipients," the U.S. Agency for International Development said in a statement.

The talks to resume food aid came in conjunction with efforts to control North Korea's nuclear program, but administration officials insisted the two issues were not tied together, the Times said -- adding that USAID officials said about 400,000 metric tons of food will go to the U.N. World Food Program for distribution, while the remainder will be handled by non-governmental organizations.