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of roughly 80 damaged homes after the blast Wednesday night at West Fertilizer Co. that killed 14 and injured 200 more. The blast scarred a four-to-five block radius that included a nursing home, an apartment building and a school.
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River flooding continues in Midwest, with several towns expected to see crests Sunday
• CLARKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) -- An all-too-familiar springtime ritual played out around the nation's heartland through the weekend as volunteers, National Guardsmen and even prison inmates joined together in an effort to ward off fast-rising floodwaters.
• Dire flooding situations dotted at least six Midwestern states following torrential rains this past week that dumped up to 7 inches in some locations. Record flooding was possible in some places as dozens of rivers overflowed their banks.
• The floods and flash floods forced evacuations, closed roads, swamped hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland and shut down much of the upper Mississippi River to barge traffic. Even two Mississippi River bridges were closed.
• Several Mississippi River towns north of St. Louis were expected to see crests sometime Sunday, including hard-hit Clarksville, Mo.
• Volunteers in the tiny community have worked endlessly since Wednesday to build a makeshift sandbag levee that seemed to be holding as the crest-- expected to be 11 feet above flood stage -- approached. Even prisoners from far-away Jefferson City were brought in to help.
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China turns the tables and criticizes the US for its own human rights record
• BEIJING (AP) -- China slammed the human rights record of the United States in response to Washington's report on rights around the world, saying that U.S. military operations have infringed on rights abroad and that political donations at home have thwarted the country's democracy.
• The report released Sunday in China -- which defines human rights primarily in terms of improving living conditions for its 1.3 billion people-- also cited gun violence in the U.S. among its examples of human rights violations, saying it was a serious threat to the lives and safety of America's citizens.
• The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2012 said the U.S. govern (Continued on page 30)
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