24 die in gas blasts in large Taiwan city

24 die in gas blasts in large Taiwan city

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan

At least 24 people were killed and 271 others injured when several underground gas explosions ripped through Taiwan’s second-largest city overnight, hurling concrete through the air and blasting long trenches in the streets, authorities said today.

The series of explosions about midnight Thursday and early today struck a district where several petrochemical companies operate pipelines alongside the sewer system in Kaohsiung, a southwestern port with 2.8 million people.

Complaint: Man put needles in meat

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill.

A 68-year-old Illinois man was jailed without bond Thursday after being accused by federal prosecutors of inserting sewing needles into a packaged meat “just for the hell of it” at a grocery store in his hometown for more than a year.

The criminal complaint filed Wednesday against Ronald Avers said one buyer of boneless chuck roast at the Shop ‘n Save store in Belleville just east of St. Louis later bit into one of the needles, and a needle slipped into a steak stuck another customer.

SuperValu Inc., the Minnesota-based corporate parent of the Shop ‘n Save chain, stressed that none of the cases resulted in serious injury, and that the alleged tampering was isolated to only the meat section of one store.

Sudanese woman who faced death over faith is in US

MANCHESTER, N.H.

A Sudanese woman who refused to recant her Christian faith in the face of a death sentence arrived Thursday in the United States, where she was welcomed first by the mayor of Philadelphia as a “world freedom fighter” and later by cheering supporters waving American flags in New Hampshire.

Meriam Ibrahim flew from Rome to Philadelphia with her husband and two children, en route to Manchester, where her husband has family and where they will make their new home. Her husband, Daniel Wani, his face streaked with tears, briefly thanked New Hampshire’s Sudanese community on his family’s behalf and said he appreciated the outpouring of support.

Review: CIA spied on Senate

WASHINGTON

The CIA’s insistence that it did not spy on its Senate overseers collapsed Thursday with the release of a stark report by the agency’s internal watchdog documenting improper computer surveillance and obstructionist behavior by CIA officers.

Five agency employees — two lawyers and three computer specialists— improperly accessed Senate intelligence committee computers earlier this year in a dispute over interrogation documents, according to a summary of a CIA inspector general report describing the results of an internal investigation. Then, despite CIA Director John Brennan ordering a halt to that operation, the CIA’s office of security began an unauthorized investigation that led it to review the emails of Senate staffers and search them for key words.

Damaged bridge partially reopens

DOVER, Del.

Delaware transportation officials on Thursday partially reopened a bridge on a key East Coast interstate that was closed in early June because several supporting columns were tilting.

The southbound lanes of the Interstate 495 bridge over the Christina River were reopened shortly before 5 p.m., about a month earlier than expected.

The northbound lanes are expected to reopen by Labor Day.

Associated Press