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Tanker explodes with 27 aboard

CHINCOTEAGUE, Va. - A tanker carrying industrial ethanol exploded and sank about 50 miles off the Virginia coast Saturday night, the Coast Guard said. At least two of the 27 crew members aboard were killed, and rescue crews were still searching for 19 others.

Six crew members rescued were in critical condition, said Lt. Chris Shaffer of Ocean City, Md., Emergency Services.

The 570-foot tanker flying a Singapore flag made an emergency call just after 6 p.m., saying there had been an explosion on board, said Petty Officer Stacey Pardini of the Coast Guard Atlantic area in Portsmouth, Va.

The explosion occurred after a fire started on the deck of the ship, Shaffer said. He said 19 people remained missing as of 9:45 p.m.

Three helicopters, three Coast Guard boats and a C-130 plane were searching for survivors.

"When the rescue divers got on the scene the fuel tanker was on fire, sinking, and there were people in the water," Shaffer said. He said the six people that the Coast Guard recovered were taken to Norfolk Sentara General Hospital and were in critical condition.

Pardini said those rescued from the tanker, which had been headed from New York to Houston, were taken to hospitals in Maryland and Virginia.

Robert Wocubik, a patient care supervisor at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, Md., near Ocean City, said that one man involved in the accident died at the hospital and that two rescue divers were treated there for minor injuries.

Wocubik declined to provide specifics, but added, "We are prepared to take more injured."

BOSTON - Households earning less than $40,000 annually will not be required to contribute to the cost of their children attending Harvard as part of the university's new initiative to reach out to students from low- and moderate-income families.

Through the initiative, announced Saturday, Harvard also will reduce the contributions expected of families earning between $40,000 and $60,000 and intensify its efforts to recruit talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It will set aside an additional $2-million to cover the expanded financial aid commitment.

"We want to send the strongest possible message that Harvard is open to talented students from all economic backgrounds," university president Lawrence H. Summers said in the announcement. Summers is scheduled to address the American Council on Education's annual meeting in Miami today.

TAYLORSVILLE, Miss. - Investigators searching for a family of three who disappeared on Valentine's Day detained one of their relatives Saturday and searched his property in southern Mississippi.

Earnest Lee Hargon, an adopted cousin of the missing family, was in custody and was being questioned, said Warren Strain, a state Highway Patrol spokesman.

There has been no trace of Michael and Rebecca Hargon and their 4-year-old son, James Patrick, since Feb. 14. Lawmen reported finding blood and spent bullet casings at the family's home, but no signs of forced entry.

HAYWARD, Calif. - The California Highway Patrol is investigating a series of possible sniper shootings on a freeway east of San Francisco over the past week, a spokesman said Saturday.

No serious injuries have been reported but bullet holes were found in some vehicles.

The rear window of one motorist's vehicle exploded Friday afternoon as she was driving westbound on Interstate 580 in Castro Valley.

The driver, Barbara Price, 47, of Alameda, pulled off the freeway and called for help. She suffered minor cuts and scratches from flying glass, police said.

Five similar incidents occurred within a 90-minute period Monday evening on the section of the freeway that connects San Leandro and Dublin, CHP spokesman Wayne Ziese said Saturday.

Bullet holes were found in the passenger sides of several vehicles.

Authorities say that two people who planned to pick up packages containing 140 pounds of marijuana at Buffalo Niagara International Airport instead mistakenly grabbed boxes packed with dry ice that contained body parts, including a pulmonary valve on its way to an Ontario hospital for a transplant operation.

The pair's packages were left on an airport luggage conveyor belt, unclaimed.

Then the hospitals called, wondering where their arteries and veins were. The airport police checked the unclaimed packages and found the marijuana.

Then the pair made a second mistake: They returned to the airport and tried to trade the body parts for their original packages.

Tabatha Bracken, 27, a Canadian citizen, and Dalvan Robinson, 42, of New York were arrested by Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

"I would think that they may have had a better chance of winning the lottery than something like this occurring," said DEA agent John Bryfonski.