In other news

September 4, 1996
Web posted at: 9:20 p.m. EDT

Jury to deliberate further in plane terror trial

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The jury in the trial of three men accused of plotting to bomb U.S. airliners over the Pacific Ocean last year completed its second full day of deliberations Wednesday by asking for several more exhibits.

The panel asked for, among other things, a chemical dictionary and a Time magazine featuring a cover story on international terrorism, allegedly found in a Manila apartment vacated by lead defendant Ramzi Yousef.

Yousef faces an additional charge for allegedly planting a bomb aboard a Philippine Air Lines 747 in 1994. The bomb went off during a flight to Tokyo, killing a Japanese passenger.

Yousef is also accused of masterminding the 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Center, and goes on trial in that case after the current trial ends.

• Jury deliberations draw near in airline bomb plot case - August 29

Alcohol, drugs ruled out in Union Lake drownings

UNION, South Carolina (CNN) -- Toxicology tests ruled out alcohol and drugs as possible factors in the drownings of seven people in the same lake where Susan Smith murdered her sons in 1994, authorities said Wednesday.

The tests showed an insignificant blood alcohol level and no sign of drugs in the body of Tim Phillips, who was driving the Chevrolet Suburban that rolled into the lake Saturday, according to Union County Sheriff Howard Wells.

Investigators are still pursuing the possibility of mechanical failure as a cause of the accident. Phillips' vehicle received significant transmission repairs before the accident, the sheriff said.

Phillips, 26, his three daughters and another child were in the vehicle when it rolled into John D. Long Lake. Phillips' wife and a friend also drowned after trying to rescue them.

• Police search for cause of lake drowning - September 3
• CNN Year in Review - Susan Smith Trial

Two North Carolina men indicted in church threats

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two North Carolina men were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday for allegedly making racist threats against two African-American churches in Charlotte.

The indictment alleges the men left the threatening messages recorded at the China Grove AME Zion church and the Home of Prayer Congregation on separate occasions last spring. Neither church was burned.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval Patrick credited the National Task Force on Violence Against Churches with helping to bring about the indictments.

Zachary Pearson, 21, and Jarrod Starnes, 20, of Charlotte, if convicted, each face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

• Former KKK member allegedly vowed to burn church again - August 20

Related sites:

• African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church information
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Fire and EMS Information Network

Winds dust hundreds of farm workers with toxins

BAKERSFIELD, California (CNN) -- Winds exposed some 300 farm workers to toxic insecticides Wednesday after a crop duster sprayed chemicals nearby, according to a Kern County Fire spokesman.

The workers were picking grapes at the Sun Pacific Vineyard, about 10 miles northeast of Bakersfield, when the crop duster sprayed an adjacent cotton field.

The workers were exposed to the chemicals Danitrol and Lorsban, both of which can cause respiratory, skin, and eye irritations, said Kern County Fire Capt. David Goodell.

Some workers were treated on site, while 21 people were taken to hospitals. Three pregnant women were among those exposed, authorities said.

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