SOUTH

14 BELIEVED DEAD IN EXPLOSION AT TEXAS REFINERY

TEXAS CITY, Texas – A thunderous explosion tore through a BP oil refinery yesterday, shooting flames and billowing smoke into the sky and showering the area with ash and chunks of charred metal. At least 14 were believed dead and more than 100 were injured.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately known. Workers were searching through rubble for survivors or bodies last night, several hours after the 1:20 p.m. blast. An undetermined number of workers were unaccounted for; most of the injured suffered broken bones, cuts, concussions, and other injuries.

Refinery manager Don Parus said BP was waiting on an official death toll confirmation from the medical examiner’s office, but added, “it’s my deep regret that we believe we have 14 losses of life.”

The blast left a gaping hole in the earth, mangled nearby offices, and was so powerful that witnesses said it rattled homes as far as five miles away. Cars and trucks in an employee parking lot were coated with soot and debris.

“It was real scary. Have you ever heard the thunder real loud? It was like 10 times that,” said plant worker Charles Gregory, who was with several co-workers inside a trailer tank when the floor started rumbling.

– Associated Press

DRIVER CONVICTED IN NATION’S DEADLIEST HUMAN SMUGGLING ATTEMPT

HOUSTON – A truck driver accused in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed into his sweltering tractor-trailer was convicted yesterday of smuggling but was spared the death penalty.

The 2003 journey was the deadliest human smuggling attempt in American history. Tyrone Williams, 34, was convicted on 38 counts of transporting illegal immigrants. But because the jury could not agree on whether he bears direct responsibility for the deaths, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore took the death penalty off the table.

The judge also declared a mistrial on 20 counts of conspiracy and harboring after the jury deadlocked on those charges. One of those charges also carried the death penalty. Prosecutors said during the nine-day trial that Williams was paid $7,500 by a smuggling ring to transport more than 70 illegal immigrants from Harlingen to Houston in May 2003. The refrigeration unit on Williams’s trailer was not turned on for the trip, and authorities said temperatures inside reached 173 degrees.

Survivors testified that as the heat in the trailer became unbearable, the immigrants took off their sweat-drenched clothes and crowded around holes they punched in the truck so they could breathe. They also kicked out a signal light to try to get the attention of passing motorists.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

ARMY EXPECTS RECRUITING TO SLUMP WASHINGTON – The Army expects to miss its recruiting goals this month and next and is working on a revised sales pitch appealing to the patriotism of parents, Army secretary, Francis Harvey, said yesterday. Whether that boosts enlistment numbers or not, Mr. Harvey said he sees no chance of a military draft.

“The ‘D’ word is the farthest thing from my mind,” the former defense company executive told a Pentagon news conference, his first since becoming the Army’s top civilian official last November. Because of the military manpower strains caused by simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some in Congress have raised the possibility of reinstituting the draft, although there is a strong consensus against it among Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and the military chiefs.

This is the first time America has been in a sustained period of combat since the all-volunteer force was introduced in 1973. The Air Force and Navy, which have relatively smaller roles in Iraq and Afghanistan, have no recruiting problems, but the Army and Marines are hard-pressed. The Army missed its recruiting goal for February by 27%, and that was the first time it had missed a monthly goal since May 2000. The last time it missed its full-year goal was 1999.

– Associated Press

EAST

FUGITIVE ARRESTED 20 YEARS AFTER ESCAPE BOSTON – In Massachusetts, he is a twice-convicted murderer who vanished after escaping from prison. In Illinois, he is a poet and anti-war protester devoted to his local Unitarian church.

The two lives of Norman Porter crumbled in Chicago on Tuesday, when undercover police investigators arrested the man who 20 years ago fled from justice here and built a new life in Chicago. “He had us all fooled,” said C.J. Laity, who knew Porter from poetry readings. “I’ve known him for many, many years. Obviously, I didn’t know him as well as I thought.”

Porter waived extradition at a hearing yesterday morning in Cook County Circuit Court and was expected to return to Massachusetts by the end of the day. Porter’s whereabouts have been a mystery to police since he walked away from a prerelease center in Walpole in December 1985. Ever since his escape, he has been at the top of the Massachusetts State Police’s “Most Wanted” list.

In 1960, at age 21, Porter shot and killed John Pigott, a 22-year-old store clerk, during a robbery of a clothing store.

– Associated Press