4 policemen fired by commissioner

In a remarkably quick action, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey on Monday fired four police officers and disciplined four others for taking part in a dramatic videotaped beating of three shooting suspects that cast the department in an embarrassing light.

Two weeks after a television news helicopter captured police officers apprehending the three suspects amid a flurry of kicks and punches, Ramsey and Mayor Nutter moved to impose discipline, and to send a message to the public and the Police Department that misconduct will not be tolerated.

"All of us, as law-enforcement officers, have to understand that, unlike criminals on the street, we have rules that we have to abide by. We have policies. We have procedures," said Ramsey, who took over the department in January.

San Diego

14 workers hurt at construction site

An explosion rocked a Hilton hotel under construction Monday, injuring 14 workers, five of them critically, authorities said.

Three of the five in critical condition were in a hospital burn unit, fire-department spokesman Maurice Luque said. Nine other victims had serious to minor injuries, authorities said.

Some workers were burned and others were injured by flying debris, Luque said. The building did not burn after the explosion, which Luque said appeared to be accidental.

San Diego Deputy Fire-Rescue Chief Perry Peake said the blast occurred in an area of the building containing gas, electric and other utilities and that it appears to have been caused by a mechanical failure.

Granite, Okla.

Prison melee leaves 2 dead, 13 injured

More than a dozen inmates attacked each other with makeshift weapons at the Oklahoma State Reformatory on Monday, leaving two dead and 13 others injured in the melee, officials said.

Fights broke out about 12:30 p.m. in recreation yards of two of the medium-security prison's six housing units, said Jerry Massie, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

Most of the injured suffered cuts and stab wounds, and the entire incident was over in about five minutes, he said.

No guards or prison staff were injured.

Hackensack, N.J.

Diary leads police to murder suspect

Authorities who charged a man with murdering three people in a New Jersey house said Monday they were led to the suspect by a meticulous diary kept by one of the victims.

Han Il Kim's diary put his friend Kang-Hyuk Choi in the house over the last days Kim, his mother and his uncle were alive, Bergen County prosecutor Frank Puccio said. Choi was arrested in Commerce, Calif., on Sunday, about two weeks after the deaths but less than two days after the decomposing bodies were found.

Choi, 32, of Valley Stream, N.Y., fled the crime scene in Kim's BMW with at least $30,000 in cash and credit cards in Kim's name, authorities said. Before taking a flight to Los Angeles, Choi was treated for injuries suffered when his victims tried to fight him off, Puccio said.

Seattle Times news services