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• SITTWE, Myanmar (AP) -- A massive evacuation to clear low-lying camps ahead of a cyclone has run into a potentially deadly snag: Many members of the displaced Rohingya minority living there have refused to leave because they don't trust Myanmar authorities.
• Around 140,000 people -- mostly Rohingya -- have been living in cramped tents and makeshift shelters in Rakhine state since last year, when two outbreaks of sectarian violence between the Muslim minority and ethnic Rahkine Buddhists forced many Rohingya from their homes. Nearly half those displaced are in coastal areas considered highly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding from Cyclone Mahasen, which is expected to make landfall early Friday.
• Outside the state capital of Sittwe on Wednesday, one community of several hundred Rohingya refused to budge, despite coaxing from soldiers.
• "When we told them the storm was coming, they didn't believe us," said army Lt. Lin Lin. "They're still refusing to move."
• Inside the camp, cycle rickshaw driver U Kyaung Wa said his people were tired of being ordered around by Myanmar authorities. First, he said, they were moved into the camps because their houses were destroyed after last year's violence.
• ___
Firefighters at scene of Texas explosion focused on toxic gases rather than risk of huge blast
• WEST, Texas (AP) -- When they saw 30-foot flames licking the sky inside a massive fertilizer plant, firefighters in this tiny Texas town rushed to evacuate nearby buildings and raced to spray water on tanks of chemicals, hoping to prevent a catastrophe.
• They didn't know, and probably could not imagine, that the plant would soon explode into a deadly fireball and lay waste to much of the community. Instead, they were more concerned with preventing toxic gas from leaking out of the facility and drifting into nearby homes.
• Four weeks after the blinding blast, investigators have yet to announce not only what started the fire and touched off the explosion, but precisely what happened in (Continued on page 28)
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