Before gas explosion, worker pierced pipe

Before gas explosion, worker pierced pipe

springfield, mass.

A natural-gas explosion that injured 18 people and damaged 42 buildings in Springfield’s entertainment district was blamed Sunday on a utility worker who accidentally punctured a high-pressure pipeline while looking for a leak.

State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said the Friday night blast in one of New England’s largest cities was caused by “human error.” He didn’t name the Columbia Gas Co. worker who pierced the pipe while responding to reports of a gas leak.

The worker damaged the underground pipe while using a metal tool to locate the source of the leak, Coan said.

Egypt’s foes grow more entrenched

cairo

Supporters and opponents of Egypt’s president Sunday grew more entrenched in their potentially destabilizing battle over the Islamist leader’s move to assume near absolute powers, with neither side appearing willing to back down as the stock market plunged amid the fresh turmoil.

The standoff poses one of the hardest tests for the nation’s liberal and secular opposition since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster nearly two years ago.

Failure to sustain protests and eventually force Mohammed Morsi to loosen control could consign it to long-term irrelevance.

Clashes spilled onto the streets for a third day since the president issued edicts that make him immune to oversight of any kind.

A teenager was killed and at least 40 people were wounded, according to security officials.

Suicide blasts kill 11

kaduna, nigeria

Twin suicide car bombs exploded Sunday at a church inside one of Nigeria’s top military bases, killing at least 11 people and wounding another 30 in an embarrassing attack showing the continued insecurity that haunts Africa’s most- populous nation.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but suspicion immediately fell on the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, whose suicide bombers target Sunday worship services in what has become a weekly macabre routine in Nigeria.

19 bodies found in Mexico border state

ciudad juarez, mexico

Nineteen bodies have been discovered in Mexico’s northern border state of Chihuahua, officials reported Sunday, including 11 apparently long-dead men found in mass graves and eight others who were tortured and killed in recent days.

The state prosecutor’s office for missing people said 11 bodies were found in Ejido Jesus Carranza, near the U.S. border about 25 miles from Ciudad Juarez.

Officials said the male victims were apparently buried two years ago.

Prosecutors said that officials had found eight bodies along a road near Rosales, about 120 miles southwest of Ojinaga, Texas.

The agency said the men apparently were kidnapped Friday and were discovered Saturday. It said they had been shot in the head after being tortured.

Syrian rebels capture air base

beirut

Syrian rebels captured a helicopter base just outside Damascus Sunday in what an activist called a “blow to the morale of the regime” near President Bashar Assad’s seat of power, while the bombardment of a village near the capital killed at least eight children.

Activists said the children were killed when Syrian warplanes bombed the village of Deir al-Asafir just outside the Damascus.

Associated Press