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Nation in brief

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 20, 2006

New York

More remains found near ground zero

Human remains that appeared to be from World Trade Center victims were found by utility workers in a manhole at the northern edge of the site, a Port Authority official said Thursday.

A Consolidated Edison crew doing excavation of the manhole at street level found the remains, some as big as arm or leg bones, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Con Ed said it entered the site Wednesday to remove material from two manholes that had been damaged and abandoned after the 2001 collapse of the twin towers.

Crews hauled the excavated materials to a work center more than a mile away, as is customary, Con Edison said.

On Thursday morning, a contractor working for the Port Authority realized the materials contained remains, Con Edison spokesman Chris Olert said, and the medical examiner's office was contacted.

Five years after 2,749 people died in the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks, families of about 1,150 victims still do not know whether their loved ones' remains were recovered.

Yaphank, N.Y.

Police: Disabled man abused with tool

A mentally disabled handyman was hospitalized after two teenagers sexually brutalized him with a plumbing snake at the Long Island bowling alley where he worked, police said Thursday.

One of the attackers, who had been bullying the victim for several years, twisted the plumbing tool so far into his rectum that it had to be removed with a surgical procedure, police said. The 21-year-old man was reported in stable condition.

"This was a cruel and sadistic crime with no other purpose but to torture another human being," Suffolk County police Commissioner Richard Dormer said.

Steven Rodriguez, 19, and Michael Lunsford, 17, were arrested this week on charges of aggravated sexual abuse, punishable by 25 years in prison. Rodriguez was jailed on $200,000 bail, Lunsford on $500,000.

A call to Lunsford's attorney's office went unanswered. It was not immediately clear who represented Rodriguez.

The victim was accosted in the bathroom of the bowling alley, held down by one of the teenagers and sodomized with the plumbing tool by the other in the Sunday night attack, Dormer said. A plumbing snake is used to unclog drains.

Chillicothe, Ohio

Escaped murder suspect recaptured

Cheering residents took to the streets Thursday as police returned an inmate who escaped from jail almost three months ago while held on charges of killing a police officer.

A tip led police to John W. Parsons, who was found sleeping in a storage shack where he may have been living for a while. Parsons, in good health, was arrested without incident.

The shack, in a woods near a lumberyard, was less than 2 miles from the downtown county jail he escaped from July 29.

Police, without giving details, said it was clear Parsons had help. The investigation continues into those links.

Parsons is accused of killing Chillicothe Officer Larry Cox, 44, in April 2005.

Fulton, Ky.

Chemical spill forces evacuation; 2 treated

A railroad tanker spewing hydrochloric acid forced evacuations Thursday in parts of this town along the Tennessee line as emergency workers struggled to contain the leak.

More than 150 homes were evacuated, along with two schools and a seed company, Fulton City Manager Kenney Etherton said.

Two people complaining of headaches and a burning sensation were treated and released from a hospital.

Canadian National Railroad, which owns the train, said the inner liner of the tanker failed, letting the chemical eat through the outer shell of the car.

Associated Press

[Last modified October 20, 2006, 05:44:39]