TRAIN DERAILS, SPILLING CHEMICALS.(News)

Byline: P-I news services

TEXAS -- A train hauling chemicals derailed in a heavily wooded area near Magnolia yesterday, causing some cars to leak toxic chemicals, police said. No one was injured. Twenty-one cars on an 84-car Burlington Northern Santa Fe train derailed. The cause was not known.

Authorities constructed a makeshift roadway to the train. When they reached the site after 12 hours, they found that about 11,000 gallons of acetic anhydride and 23,000 gallons of No. 2 ethylhexyl acrylate had spilled. Both chemicals can irritate skin, eyes and the respiratory system.

EPA officials said the spill did not pose a threat to residents. Some of the 70 homeowners living nearby evacuated voluntarily but all had returned home late yesterday, authorities said.

Officer charged in traffic deaths

NEW YORK - A van driven by a drunken off-duty police officer hit and killed a pregnant woman, her young son and her teenage sister, and the woman's baby died soon after being delivered alive, officials said.

Maria Herrera, 24, who was eight months pregnant, died after she was hospitalized Saturday night. Doctors delivered her baby boy after the accident, but he died yesterday morning.

Herrera's sister, 16-year-old Dilcia Pena, died at the scene. Herrera's 4-year-old son, Andy, died about an hour later at the hospital. They were crossing the street to visit the sisters' parents when they were hit by a van.

The officer, Joseph Gray, was arrested at the scene, Detective Eugene Canapi said. Gray, a 15-year veteran, was charged with drunken driving, manslaughter, reckless endangerment and reckless driving, Canapi said. Gray was also suspended from the force.

Warning on `Code Red II' worm

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Computer security experts warned yesterday of the spread of a new, destructive worm that is similar to "Code Red," which infected computers around the world last week.

The new worm, dubbed "Code Red II," moves faster than Code Red but can still be stopped by downloading a software patch for some Microsoft operating systems.

Code Red II attacks the same Internet-connected computers that were vulnerable to Code Red in the same fashion. Instead of just defacing Web sites and trying to spread itself, however, the new worm leaves a "back door" open on infected computers.

Web-site administrators running Microsoft Windows NT and 2000 operating systems, along with the Internet Information Services software, should download Microsoft's patch from the company's Web site. Users running Windows 95, 98 or Me are not vulnerable.

ELSEWHERE

FLORIDA - Seven astronauts and cosmonauts arrived yesterday for this week's launch of space shuttle Discovery on a mission to deliver a fresh crew to the international space station. NASA, meanwhile, hoped to wrap up a weekend survey of booster-rocket fuel injectors without having to delay Thursday's liftoff.