US officials to investigate San Francisco gas explosion

SAN FRANCISCO – The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate a natural gas explosion on a San Francisco street that sent flames into the sky for hours and damaged five buildings, an official said Thursday. NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said an eight-person team will travel to San Francisco. The agency investigates blasts on pipelines because they transport oil and natural gas, which it oversees. City officials said a crew digging on a street to install fiber-optic wires cut a natural gas line. No one was injured.

MOSCOW – Another U.s.-russian nuclear pact is in danger after the U.S. move to withdraw from a Cold War-era arms control treaty, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov charged that the U.S. refusal to negotiate an extension to the New Start treaty signals Washington’s intention to let it expire in 2021. He warned that time is running out to save the pact. U.S. Undersecretary of State Andrea Thompson told reporters there is enough time to discuss the treaty’s extension.

GENEVA – A U.N. human rights expert said Thursday that Saudi Arabia undermined Turkey’s efforts to investigate the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which she described as a “brutal and premeditated killing” planned and carried out by Saudi officials. Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, made her assessment Thursday after visiting Turkey. Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. His remains have not been found.

VATICAN CITY – The largest association of religious sisters in the United States called Thursday for an overhaul of the male-led leadership structure of the Catholic Church, after Pope Francis publicly acknowledged the problem of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious also appealed for reporting guidelines to be established so abused nuns “are met with compassion and are offered safety.” Francis acknowledged this week that clergy abuse of nuns was a problem.