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Nation in brief

14 workers injured in N.C. plant explosion

By wire services
Published February 1, 2006

MORGANTON, N.C. - An explosion at a chemical plant Tuesday injured 14 workers and set off a fire that spewed thick black smoke, leading to the temporary evacuation of nearby residents, officials said.

Two of the workers were seriously injured, plant vice president Randy Cox said.

Windows were blown out as much as a third of a mile away, and a house across the street from the plant was moved off its foundation.

The fire was mostly extinguished by midafternoon and all workers at the Synthron Inc. plant were accounted for. The cause of the blast hadn't been determined, police Capt. Ronnie Rector said.

State water and air quality officials were at the site, monitoring conditions and checking to see whether runoff into creeks posed any threat to the nearby Catawba River, the source of drinking water for much of central North Carolina and South Carolina.

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton raised $21.4-million last year for her re-election campaign in New York and has $17-million in cash on hand, totals driven in part by her front-runner reputation if she decides to pursue the presidency in 2008.

The former first lady collected $6-million from 56,899 donors in the final three months of 2005, bringing her total to more than $21-million for the year, according to reports filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

She spent about $9.3-million, leaving her with $17,101,626 and no major opposition in her bid for a second Senate term.

New York Republicans have struggled to mount a serious challenge to Clinton, and recent polls show her more than 25 points ahead of her nearest GOP rival.

Former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, one of two lesser-known Republicans challenging Clinton, raised $571,000 in the final three months of 2005 and ended the year with $243,000 in cash on hand.

Other Senate incumbents and their challengers nearly matched each other dollar for dollar in fundraising for this year's competitive races, with Republicans fighting to hold their majority against determined Democrats.

The Senate breakdown is 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one independent.

WASHINGTON - Attorneys for Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff urged a court Tuesday to force a prosecutor to turn over CIA records indicating whether former operative Valerie Plame's employment was classified, saying the answer isn't clear.

The defense team for Lewis "Scooter" Libby also asked that the court require Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to turn over any informal assessments conducted by the CIA to determine whether the leak of Plame's identity in July 2003 damaged national security or agency operations.

Libby was indicted in October on five counts of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice in the course of Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak of Plame's identity to the media. The indictment charges that Libby lied to investigators when he said he did not provide information about Plame to two reporters and when he said he learned about Plame from a third, NBC's Tim Russert.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A civil liberties group sued AT&T Inc. on Tuesday for its alleged role in helping the National Security Agency spy on the phone calls and other communications of U.S. citizens without warrants.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, seeks to stop the surveillance program that started shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks. It also seeks billions of dollars in damages.

[Last modified February 1, 2006, 01:04:14]