Thursday,  March 13, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 240 • 25 of 32

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Searchers go through rubble of 2 NY buildings where 6 killed in gas explosion

• NEW YORK (AP) -- Under the bright glare of generator-powered floodlights, rescue workers using back hoes and a bulldozer tried to clear through mountains of broken bricks and splintered wood early Thursday as they searched for any additional victims still buried from an explosion that demolished two Manhattan apartment buildings and killed at least 6 people. Meanwhile, questions swirled about the gas leak that triggered the blast and whether complaints about gas odors had been ignored.
• The explosion Wednesday morning injured more than 60 people, with searchers still trying to locate others a day later. At the site on Park Avenue and 116th Street, thermal imaging cameras were being used to identify heat spots -- bodies or pockets of fire. Three victims were found between midnight Wednesday and early Thursday.
• "This is a difficult job, a challenging job," Fire Department spokesman Jim Long said. He said it was "a very terrible and traumatic scene."
• Searches of the street were completed Wednesday evening and no victims had been found there, city officials said. Workers initially were hampered from fully accessing the building space because of a sinkhole caused by a subsurface water main break. The weather also posed a challenge, with temperatures dropping into the 20s and rain falling, but workers planned to be at the site through Thursday.
• The fiery blast erupted at about 9:30 a.m., around 15 minutes after a neighboring resident reported smelling gas, authorities said. The Con Edison utility said it immediately sent workers to check out the report, but they didn't arrive until it was too late.
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Police: 2 dead after driver crashes through South By Southwest festival barricades, hits them

• AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A man and woman were killed early Thursday after a suspected drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street, police said.
• Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said 23 others were injured, five critically, in the

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