Triplets perish in house fire; mother, 2-year-old girl survive

UNITY, Maine - As neighbors stood by weeping, firefighters recovered the bodies of 7-year-old triplets who died in a house fire yesterday afternoon.

Unity Fire Chief Dennis Turner identified the triplets as Josh, Marcus and Brydon Freyer. Their mother, Carmen Freyer, 28, was hospitalized in good condition after escaping with her 2-year-old daughter.

Waldo County Sheriff Robert Jones, 48 - former chief of the Unity Fire Department - collapsed at the scene of the blaze and died in a hospital.

Neighbor Todd Converse helped save the 2-year-old girl after hearing Freyer calling for help. He ran into a smoke-filled, glass-enclosed porch in the back of the house.

"I saw two little feet, and I grabbed her," he said. The diaper-clad child was covered with soot, he said, but was unharmed.

Neighbors said the boys' father, Kurt Freyer, was out of state driving a tractor-trailer.

Oil company fined $35 million, largest civil pollution penalty

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency today imposed $35 million in fines and penalties against Koch Industries as part of a settlement over contamination of lakes and streams in six states.

The civil penalty is the largest ever levied against a single company in connection with violation of an environmental law, officials said. (The much larger fines against Exxon for the 1989 tanker disaster in Alaska involved criminal penalties.)

The settlement stems from allegations that Koch had more than 300 oil spills from its pipelines and other oil operations, resulting in 3 million gallons of crude oil pouring into lakes and streams in violation of the Clean Water Act. The spills occurred in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Missouri.

The Wichita, Kan.-based company said in a statement that leaks had been reduced by 90 percent since 1990 and that when leaks occur it is committed "to clean them up quickly and completely."

Oklahoma, Texas executes 2 murderers by injection

McALESTER, Okla. - A man who strangled five people in 1984 was executed by injection today.

Gary Alan Walker, 46, was executed for the murder of his first victim, 63-year-old Eddie Cash.

Meanwhile, a man who strangled a woman and child who lived next door to him was put to death yesterday in Huntsville, Texas.

Earl Carl Heiselbetz Jr., 48, was executed by injection for the 1991 killings of Rena Rogers and her 2-year-old daughter, Jacy.

Clinton proposes tax incentive for filing return electronically

WASHINGTON - President Clinton will ask Congress this year to create a tax credit of up to $10 for people who file federal income taxes electronically.

Among the reasons millions of people cite in continuing to file tax returns on paper is the fee that often accompanies electronic filing compared with the low cost of a 33-cent postage stamp.