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Donna Petrey got a call just after 8 a.m. Wednesday from her son, telling her the chemical plant across the street had sprung a leak. “I grabbed my 7-year-old grandson, Hunter, and our dog, Oreo, and put them in the car,” she said. At the end of the driveway, she glanced left and was stunned. "It looked like a huge cotton ball. It was so thick, you couldn’t see anything through it,” said Petrey, 50, who lives across from Tanner Industries, just south of Swansea in Lexington County. Petrey didn’t know it, but a motorist already had driven into that...

An oil tank exploded at a chemical plant in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's restive Xinjiang region, on Sunday morning, the official Xinhua News Agency reported quoting firefighters. No casualties have been reported so far and the cause is being investigated, the report said. The explosion occurred around 10 a.m. at a refinery of China National Petroleum Corp. in northern Urumqi, Xinhua quoted city firefighters as saying.

Experts blame psychosomatic reaction for sickness of thousands near chemical plants, residents disagree Experts on Thursday ruled out the possibility of chemical pollution as the cause for amass illness that hospitalized 161 people in northeast China's Jilin Province. Several thousands of people have developed symptoms of headache,nausea, muscle fatigue and seizures since April 23 after inhaling an irritant gas since April 23 in an industrial park in Jilin City,Jilin province. All of them were workers of Jilin Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. (JCF) and residents around the company. A total of 161 people were hospitalized, 11 of whom had been released...

Spooner, WI -- A large explosion and fire at a chemical plant in Spooner, Wisconsin has injured at least 2 people. Witnesses say, several area fire departments are on the scene at the Cortec Corporation plant. The Spooner Health System tells KARE 11 the hospital is treating two people from the plant. Their conditions were not immediately made available. The Wisconsin State Patrol said it did not know the cause of the 8:43 a.m. explosion at the plant owned by St. Paul, Minnesota-based Cortec Corporation. Cortec vice president Anna Vignetti said the injuries are believed to be first- or second-degree...

Paul Pillar Speaks, Again The latest CIA attack on the Bush administration is nothing new. by Stephen F. Hayes 02/10/2006 4:15:00 PM IN A BREATHLESS front-page, above-the-fold article in today's Washington Post, Walter Pincus reports that a former senior CIA official named Paul Pillar accuses the Bush administration of "misusing" intelligence to take the country to war in Iraq. According to the Post account, Pillar uses a forthcoming article in Foreign Affairs to claim that the Bush administration "politicized" the intelligence on Iraq. Bush administration policymakers did this subtly, Pillar says, by repeatedly asking the CIA questions about Iraq, its...

<p>Satellite pix show that three chemical facilities in Iraq - Fullujah I, II and III - wrecked in the 1991 Gulf War are back in business.</p> <p>August 19, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - These mysterious chemical factories northwest of Baghdad are a major reason the Bush administration thinks war with Iraq is inevitable.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called for government regulation of chemical plant security on Tuesday but said the industry should come up with its own protective measures, to be verified by private auditors. ... Congress is considering legislation for federal regulation of the nation's 15,000 privately operated chemical facilities, which counterterror experts have warned are at the top of the list of likely terror targets. ... The leading bill, by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Connecticut, would give Homeland Security authority to shut down plants that fail to submit acceptable security plans. Large chemical corporations...

Another river is poisoned as city waits for water By Hamish McDonald Herald Correspondent in Beijing and agencies November 26, 2005 ANOTHER chemical plant has exploded in China, spewing toxic benzene into the water supply of a central region as authorities in the country's north-east struggle to protect millions of people from an earlier spill. The blast on Thursday at the Yingte Chemical Co in Dianjiang, part of the huge Chongqing municipality straddling the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, killed one worker and forced the evacuation of 6000 nearby residents and the closure of schools. People in the area...

Jetliner just crashed in suburban Detroit (west) No details yet. Homes are being evacuated.

LONDON, Dec. 3 - The BBC, Britain's public service broadcaster, acknowledged Friday that it had been tricked into broadcasting an interview with a man pretending to be a spokesman for Dow Chemical, who claimed that the company had taken the blame for the disaster in Bhopal, India, in 1984. The hoax, contradicting Dow Chemical's rejection of any responsibility, came on the 20th anniversary of the catastrophe, when waves of lethal gas escaped from a chemical plant in Bhopal, in central India, killing more than 3,500 people and injuring thousands more. At the time, the plant was owned by the Union...

French connection armed Saddam By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES The United States stood by for years as supposed allies helped its enemies obtain the world's most dangerous weapons, reveals Bill Gertz, defense and national security reporter for The Washington Times, in the new book "Treachery" (Crown Forum). In this excerpt, he details France's persistence in arming Saddam Hussein. First of three excerpts New intelligence revealing how long France continued to supply and arm Saddam Hussein's regime infuriated U.S. officials as the nation prepared for military action against Iraq. The intelligence reports showing French assistance to Saddam ongoing in the...

Breaking - KTRK just broke in with a report that an explosion was heard at the Bayer plant in Baytown, TX. Not seeing anything on their website, or any others... Developing... Probably just an accident, they happen round here...

HOMELAND INSECURITYTexas plant guard sticks to storyMan shot near port facility says FBI doesn't believe him Posted: January 28, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com The guard shot at a chemical plant near a Texas port is sticking to his story about a Mideast gunman, but he says the FBI doesn't believe him. The shooting in Freeport at a BASF ammonia depot occurred late Friday night in a muddy lot outside the plant. Robert House was working security when he said he noticed a suspect in a white pickup truck taking pictures of the facility's lights. House says when he confronted the...

<p>NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Two chemical plants on the outskirts of Baghdad might provide evidence that Iraq has been developing chemical weapons and long-range ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. resolutions, according to Indian court documents and experts on Iraq's military programs.</p>

11:00CDT - 14 Aug 2002 Haz-Mat Release Reported South of St. Louis, MO Jefferson County, Missouri (EmergencyNet News) -- A large hazardous materials release has been reported and is on-going at this hour near Festus, MO. The incident is at a chemical plant and a large yellow gas plume is visible in video being shown from the scene. The leaking substance, which appears to be heavier than air, has not been identified, and emergency services personnel are said to be evacuating the area as a precaution. Local emergency officials said that several people had been taken to a local hospital...

<p>COPPERHILL, Tenn. (AP) -- Months before terrorists attacked America, two Middle Eastern men landed a small plane at an airstrip in the Appalachian foothills after getting a look at a nearby river and a huge chemical plant.</p> <p>Danny Whitener, a 48-year-old junk car dealer who was alone tending his plane when the strangers arrived, is convinced one of the men was Mohamed Atta, whom authorities believe was the ringleader of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings.</p>