DUBLIN, Ireland — Bales of a record haul of cocaine spilled from a smuggling boat that capsized off the coast of Ireland are washing up on the shores of County Cork, officials said Tuesday.

Police made the discovery accidentally when one of the suspected smugglers swam ashore Monday and reported that a colleague was still in the water off the southern Irish coast. A search turned up the missing smuggler and a flotilla of floating cocaine bundles.

Police Superintendent Tony Quilter said the cocaine haul already retrieved was estimated to exceed 1.5 tons and was worth $145 million — a record for Ireland.

North Korea: Positive signals

North Korea is prepared to cooperate with the U.N. agency overseeing the shutdown of the country's nuclear program, according to a report made available Tuesday to The Associated Press.

The confidential four-page report said North Korea has agreed to provide International Atomic Energy Agency experts with needed technical information, access and other help needed to shut down North Korea's plutonium-producing Yongbyon nuclear facility.

The report will be discussed by the agency's 35-nation board and is expected to be approved as early as Monday, paving the way for the beginning of the IAEA mission overseeing the shutdown and eventual dismantling of the Yongbyon facility.

Nepal: Goddess no more

KATMANDU — A 10-year-old Nepalese girl was stripped of her title as a living goddess because she traveled overseas to promote a documentary about the centuries-old tradition, an official said Tuesday.

Sajani Shakya had her status revoked because she broke with tradition by leaving the country, said Jaiprasad Regmi, chief of the government trust that manages the affairs of the living goddesses.

Sajani is among several "Kumaris," or living goddesses, in Nepal, and as one of the kingdom's top three, is forbidden from leaving the country. However, last month she went to the United States and other countries to promote a British documentary about the living goddesses of the Katmandu Valley. She is to return to Nepal this week.

Venezuela: Hospitals plan

CARACAS — President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday his government will nationalize Venezuela's privately owned hospitals and clinics if they fail to reduce health care costs.

"If the owners of the private clinics don't want to obey the laws, then the private clinics will be nationalized," Chavez said in a nationally televised speech. "They will become part of the public health service."

Venezuela has a two-tiered health system in which wealthier, insured patients often can afford prompter, better treatment at private hospitals.

"This is the evil of capitalism," Chavez said of the health care costs at private clinics. "We have to regulate this progressively, transforming the savage capitalist market into a market of solidarity."