Natural-gas leak caused explosion at meat plant

Natural-gas leak caused explosion at meat plant

GARNER, N.C. — An explosion that killed three workers at a North Carolina Slim Jim plant was caused by a natural-gas leak that ignited in a room housing vacuum pumps for sealing the snacks, authorities said Saturday.

It will now be up to state and federal workplace investigators to determine how the leak happened and what caused it to ignite in Tuesday’s blast at the ConAgra Foods Inc. plant in Garner, said Earl Woodham, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

ATF agents believe the gas was sparked by a piece of equipment such as a fan motor or thermostat, but Woodham said another cause, such as static electricity, couldn’t be ruled out.

Complaint filed over taco

CINCINNATI — A Hindu father from Ohio has filed a complaint with the Justice Department claiming his son was forced to eat a beef taco in the school cafeteria.

Ashish Gandhi says the taco incident occurred at the Academy of World Languages, a public magnet school in Cincinnati. Eating beef is considered a sacrilege to Hindus.

Cincinnati Public Schools attorney Gary Winters told investigators the boy chose the taco himself, and the employee who gave it to him was unaware of his dietary restrictions.

Gandhi, who moved to the U.S. from India in 2007, calls the taco meal an “intentional act of religious bigotry.” He filed a separate complaint claiming the school has refused to offer his son services for students who don’t speak English.

Six Flags seeks Chapter 11

NEW YORK — The amusement-park company Six Flags is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it needs to reorganize and shed $1.8 billion of debt.

Mark Shapiro, the New York-based company’s chief executive officer, says the move won’t affect the operation of its 20 theme parks in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Six Flags says it actually had a great year in 2008. It saw 25 million visitors and posted record revenues. But executives are trying to lighten a $2.4 billion debt load that they say is unsustainable.

Libyan leader invites expelled Italians to return

ROME — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Saturday invited the Italians he expelled in 1970 to come back to visit or work in his country.

Gadhafi, who threw some 20,000 Italians out to punish Rome for its 1911-41 colonial rule, met with about 100 of them on the last day of his visit to Italy.

Participants told The Associated Press that Gadhafi claimed he “saved” the Italians by expelling them because others in the Libyan leadership wanted to imprison them in camps similar to those used by Italy’s Fascist regime, which deported and killed thousands in the colony before World War II to put down a revolt.

Bear encounters increase

HARLAN, Ky. — With black bear populations rising, run-ins with humans have become almost commonplace — more than 15,000 in the past year in states east of the Mississippi River, according to a survey of state wildlife agencies.

Canadian bear researcher Hank Hristienko, who conducted the survey in January, found that 18 Eastern states were seeing more encounters with bears.

The U.S. bear population more than doubled between 1989 and 2006, rising from 165,000 to more than 350,000, according to The International Association of Bear Research and Management, a bear conservation nonprofit that takes a periodic census of the animals.

Obama follows old ways on ambassadorships

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama promised change, but he’s following one time-honored tradition: doling out plum ambassadorships to friends and big-money party donors.

So far, Obama’s contributors and friends have been awarded with plum posts in Canada, France, England, Japan, South Africa, Ireland, the Bahamas, Denmark, Argentina and the Vatican.

The Obama administration says that all of its appointees are qualified, but critics say the jobs should go to career diplomats instead of party loyalists.

“It is the last vestige of the spoils system,” said Ronald Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

According to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics, Obama has rewarded some of his largest fundraisers and donors with posts abroad.

Combined dispatches