GAS LEAK THAT LED TO FIRE IN CALIFORNIA IS CAPPED: OAKLAND (AP) — Officials say a gas main leak that led to an underground fire in Oakland and forced the evacuation of several homes has been capped. No injuries were reported.
Fire officials told the Oakland Tribune (http://bit.ly/J38926) the line was capped Tuesday, about three hours after the leak was reported.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesman Jason King told KRON4-TV the utility responded to the scene and found a 4-inch plastic gas main had ruptured.
At one point television news footage showed flames coming from below the roadway. The fire was near homes located several blocks from Interstate 580.
7TH WOMAN ACCUSES CALIF. OFFICER OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: WOODLAND (AP) — A seventh woman is alleging she was sexually assaulted by a West Sacramento police officer while he was on duty.
The Sacramento Bee reports the 30-year-old woman has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Sergio Alvarez of forced copulation and sodomy during two separate attacks between May and September of last year.
The suit declares that Alvarez engaged in "sexually predatory conduct." The officer's attorney declined to comment Monday.
In March Alvarez entered not guilty pleas to 35 counts including rape, sodomy, oral copulation and kidnapping.
The 38-year-old Alvarez is accused of assaulting the six other women after stopping them late at night or early in the morning while on patrol between October 2011 and September 2012.
A five-month investigation began after a woman reported to another officer that she had been sexually assaulted by a uniformed policeman.
NTSB HEARING ON SF CRASH POSTPONED UNTIL WEDNESDAY: WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board has rescheduled for Wednesday its hearing into the crash-landing of an Asiana jet at San Francisco International Airport that left three Chinese teens dead.
The hearing was originally scheduled as a two-day series of panels Tuesday and Wednesday, but it was postponed due to wintry weather. It will now be consolidated into a single day, starting at 8:30 a.m. at NTSB headquarters.
The safety board wants to examine whether the Korean airline's pilots were overly reliant on the Boeing 777's computer systems when they approached too low and slow before striking a seawall and tumbling across the runway in July.
The board said the hearing will focus on "pilot awareness in a highly automated aircraft." There are also plans to review the emergency response.
Three teenage girls were killed. One died during the crash, a second was run over by a fire truck on the tarmac, and a third died at San Francisco General Hospital. More than 150 of the 307 people aboard the flight were injured.
