By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          MIAMI -- A 5-year-old Cuban boy and two adults who floated to
          Florida on inner tubes after their boat sank in the Atlantic Ocean
          will be allowed to stay in the United States, an official with the Border
          Patrol said on Friday.

          The boy, Elian Gonzalez, was picked up by fishermen on Thursday
          morning, shortly after a man and a woman washed up on the beach at
          Key Biscayne.

          The authorities have recovered the bodies of at least seven people who
          drowned after the boat sank on Tuesday, and three other passengers are
          missing.

          The two adults told Coast Guard officials that the group had left Cuba on
          Sunday.

          The boy, whose mother was among those who drowned, was released
          from the hospital where he had been treated for dehydration and minor
          cuts.

          Relatives told a television station, WPLG in Miami, that they would be
          taking care of Elian.

          "God wanted him here for freedom," said a cousin, Marilysis Gonzalez.
          "And he's here, and he will get it."

          Elian, along with Arianne Horta, 22, and Nivaldo Fernandez-Ferra, 33,
          who remained hospitalized, "would be offered the opportunity to reside
          here in the United States," said Mike Sheehy, a deputy chief with the
          United States Border Patrol. "There is no provision to remove Cuban
          nationals to Cuba."

          Sheehy said the group was being smuggled into the United States.

          "We believe that an individual in the United States took a boat to Cuba
          to pick them up," he said. "We believe that individual is one of the
          deceased."

          A Coast Guard petty officer, Silvia Olvera, said searchers had recovered
          six bodies from the waves in the Fort Pierce-St. Lucie area by this
          evening. A seventh body was found on Thursday, off Fort Lauderdale.