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Pipeline sealed after 44,500 gallons leak

By TIMES WIRES
Published January 1, 2007

HOUSTON

Divers sealed a broken oil pipeline Sunday after about 44,500 gallons leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said.

The weeklong spill about 30 miles south of Galveston was expected to have minimal effect on the environment. The oil continued to move away from land Sunday and was quickly dispersing, the Coast Guard said.

A portion of the High Island Pipeline System ruptured Dec. 24. Plains All American Pipeline LP of Houston shut down the line after detecting a pressure loss.

It was too early to say when the line would be repaired or how much the damage will cost, the company said.

Elsewhere

CHICAGO: Two masked gunmen wounded six men at a party early Sunday on the South Side, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. All victims were in good or stable condition and no one had been arrested Sunday night, she said.

WASHINGTON: Scientists said Sunday that they used genetic engineering techniques to produce the first cattle that may be incapable of getting mad cow disease. The animals, which lack a gene crucial to the disease's progression, were not designed for use as food. They were created so human pharmaceuticals can be made in their blood without danger that those products get contaminated with the infectious agent that causes mad cow.

TODDLER WANDERS ONTO HIGHWAY

Drivers swerved cars and trucks into other lanes to avoid a 3-year-old boy, wearing only a diaper and T-shirt, who was playing along a busy highway after wandering from home while his mother slept, police said. Some motorists stopped along Interstate 465 on the city's west side Saturday to take care of the boy until officers arrived, the Indiana State Police said.

The boy, Damon Dyer, was unscathed as at least a half-dozen cars and a semitrailer truck swerved into other lanes to avoid him. Police said they traced the toddler to a nearby apartment complex, where they found his mother, Nancy Dyer, asleep in a filthy apartment and his 2-year-old sister eating spaghetti off the floor. Dyer, 33, was arrested on two counts of child neglect and remained in custody Sunday, officials said.

Senior state Trooper Cedric Merritt said that when Dyer was told what happened, she responded, "Oh, he got out again."

[Last modified January 1, 2007, 00:18:52]