Explosion derails train, injuring 25 in India's northeast
Associated Press
GAUHATI, India - An explosion derailed seven coaches of a passenger train in India's remote northeast yesterday, injuring at least 25 people, railway officials said.
No one claimed responsibility for the explosion, but authorities said they believed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Boroland was responsible. The Democratic Front and another group, the United Liberation Front of Assam, have been fighting for an independent homeland in Assam since 1979.
"The area is a stronghold of outlawed National Democratic Front of Boroland and we definitely suspect the outfit to be behind the attack," said Hiren Nath, superintendent of police of Bongaigaon district, 125 miles west of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state.
One coach caught fire after passengers had disembarked, Nath said. The Northeast Express from New Delhi was heading for Gauhati.
Of the 25 injured, three were seriously hurt, according to a rail official in Gauhati who refused to give his name. The Press Trust of India had reported 100 people were injured, but railway officials said that number was too high.
The separatists in Assam accuse the Indian government of exploiting their region's rich timber, oil and other natural resources while neglecting the local economy. In 1996, the Bodo Liberation Tiger rebels blew up an express train in Assam state, killing 33 passengers.
Two students killed by tornadoes in Maryland; several university buildings damaged
Associated Press
COLLEGE PARK, MD. - Students and school officials sorted through wreckage yesterday at the University of Maryland, where tornadoes killed two sisters, both students. At least 50 people were injured there and elsewhere in the Washington suburbs.
A 78-year-old volunteer firefighter collapsed and died after helping with the damage. The father of the dead sisters was among the injured.
Several buildings were damaged by the tornadoes that struck late Monday afternoon and mobile homes containing offices were destroyed. Debris, overturned cars and trees were strewn across the campus.
More than 100 cars had shattered windows or had been smashed into other vehicles.
Student Insley Schaden tried to determine if she could get her car out from between two others. Most of her car's windows were broken, but she said she thought she could salvage it, unlike a nearby vehicle that had been ripped in half.
"You see this wiry thing and it's actually a Jeep," Schaden said.
Gov. Parris Glendening, who once taught at the university, toured the area on yesterday. He had declared a state of emergency on Monday.
"Where that touched down, it could have been much worse in loss of life and injury," Glendening said yesterday.
The tornado's wind speed likely ranged between 158 and 206 mph, said John Margraf of the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. The governor's office said it was Maryland's worst tornado in 75 years.
Roughly 22,000 business and residential customers lost power, said Potomac Electric Power Co. and Baltimore Gas and Electric.
Two tornadoes touched down in the area about 10 minutes apart late Monday afternoon, part of a storm system that stretched along the East Coast, the National Weather Service said. At least one funnel cloud was visible from Washington.
Police chemist accused of shoddy work in criminal cases in Oklahoma fired
Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY - An embattled police chemist was fired yesterday for allegedly performing shoddy work and giving false or misleading testimony in criminal cases, including some in which she helped send men to death row.
Joyce Gilchrist was dismissed by Chief of Police M.T. Berry, who said the decision was based on the recommendations of an administrative panel that heard testimony about Gilchrist's alleged misconduct.
A statement from Berry's office said reasons for firing Gilchrist "include laboratory mismanagement, criticism from court challenges and flawed casework analysis." Berry said her termination was effective yesterday.
Gilchrist, whose work is being investigated by the FBI and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, has been on paid administrative leave from the Police Department since February, earning a base salary of $59,528.
She faces allegations in an undetermined number of criminal cases. Hundreds of her cases are being re-examined.
"This is just the first step in Joyce Gilchrist's long, long fall," said Jack Dempsey Pointer, president of the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, who has been critical of Gilchrist and the Police Department's forensic laboratory.
Telephone calls to Gilchrist and her attorney, Melvin Hall, were not immediately returned.
No criminal charges have been filed, but Pointer has said he Gilchrist to be investigated by a state grand jury impaneled by Attorney General Drew Edmondson. A spokesman for Edmondson, Gerald Adams, declined to comment on the grand jury's investigative agenda.
