Nation Digest
Study points to health effects of air pollution

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In the longest study to date of pollution's impact on developing lungs, University of Southern California researchers followed 1,759 children raised in communities around Los Angeles — some very polluted, some not — for eight years.

They found about 8 percent of 18-year-olds had lung capacity less than 80 percent of normal, compared with about 1.5 percent of those in communities with the least pollution.

The effects were the same for boys and girls, and whether or not the children had asthma or smoked. The study is in today's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Las Vegas

Monorail closed again after disk breaks loose

The Las Vegas monorail was closed one day after it reopened when a piece of a train's undercarriage fell off yesterday and landed on a busy street.

No one was injured when a slip disk — similar to a large washer — came loose and fell about 25 feet to the pavement, monorail spokesman Todd Walker said. The 6-inch disk weighing one to two pounds first struck a power rail, causing electrical arcing but no serious damage to the track.

The monorail had reopened Tuesday after being closed for six days following a Sept. 1 incident in which a 60-pound wheel fell off one of the trains. Nobody was hurt. The wheel apparently was installed improperly at an assembly plant.

The $650 million private venture began operating in July.

Washington
 
Three accused of running Arab smuggling ring

Three people have been charged with operating a smuggling ring that transported more than 200 illegal immigrants from the Middle East to the United States.

A federal grand jury indictment unsealed yesterday in Washington said the smugglers used an Arab-language magazine in the Detroit area and a travel agency in Jordan to recruit clients from Iraq and Jordan. In exchange for thousands of dollars, the alleged conspirators would provide visas allowing entry into a South American country, the indictment said. From there, the immigrants would be brought to the United States in exchange for even more money.

The five-count indictment charged three Iraqi-born, naturalized U.S. citizens who live in Sterling Heights, Mich.: Neeran Hakim Zaia, 50; Basima Sesi, 59; and Basil Yousif Denha, 54. They were arrested yesterday. There was no indication in the indictment that the case was related to terrorism.

Little Torch Key, Fla.

Tanker crash closes U.S. Hwy. 1 for hours

A tanker truck ran off a highway, down an embankment and into shallow ocean water yesterday, leaking fuel and closing the only road through the Florida Keys for several hours.

The spill was not believed to be significant, Coast Guard Lt. Dan Silvestro said. The truck was hauling 3,000 gallons of gasoline, but most of the fuel was believed to still be in the tanker.

Traffic backed up on both sides of U.S. Highway 1 as authorities decided to keep a half-mile stretch closed for about four hours, entirely blocking access to the lower Keys.

The driver, whose name was not released, was sent to a hospital with minor injuries.