CBS-Dallas
Study Links Texas Quakes To Gas Drilling

WASHINGTON (AP) — With real-time monitors, scientists have linked a swarm of small earthquakes west of Fort Worth, Texas, to nearby natural gas wells and wastewater injection.

In 84 days from November 2013 to January 2014, the area around Azle, Texas, shook with 27 magnitude 2 or greater earthquakes, while scientists at Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survey monitored the shaking. It's an area that had no recorded quakes for 150 years on faults that "have been inactive for hundreds of millions of years," said SMU geophysicist Matthew Hornbach.

When the volume of injections decreased significantly, so did the shaking.

The scientists concluded that removing saltwater from the wells in the gas production process and then injecting that wastewater back underground "represent the most likely cause" for the swarm of quakes, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

The scientists determined this based on where and when the earthquakes happened; computer models that track pressure changes; and company data from nearby wells. Hornbach said the timing and location of the quakes correlates better to the drilling and injection than any other possible reason.

"There appears to be little doubt about the conclusion that the earthquakes were in fact induced," USGS seismologist Susan Hough, who wasn't part of the study team, said in an email. "There's almost an abundance of smoking guns in this case."

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This handout photo, taken Jan. 16, 2014, provided by Southern Methodist University, shows Remi Oldha …

This adds to other studies that linked injecting wastewater from energy wells to a tremendous jump in earthquakes in Oklahoma and southern Kansas, where there have been more than 950 magnitude 2 or higher quakes so far this year, according to the USGS.

On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Geological Society said it is "very likely" that most of the earthquakes that have shaken the state in recent years have been triggered by the subsurface injection of wastewater from oil and natural gas drilling operations. The society released a statement following an investigation into dozens of earthquakes recorded in central and north-central Oklahoma.

Unlike other research that linked quakes to the injection of wastewater, the SMU study also sees a secondary link in another part of the drilling process, when massive amounts of brine is taking out of the ground with the gas, said study co-author William Ellsworth of the USGS. Removing the saltwater changes the underground pressure, Hornbach said.

But the deep injection of the wastes still is the principle culprit, Ellsworth said. The controversial method of hydraulic fracturing or fracking, even though that may be used in the drilling, is not physically causing the shakes, he said.

The findings come amid heightened debate over oil and gas regulations, including efforts in some communities to ban drilling. In Texas, lawmakers are considering bills that would limit cities' abilities to do so.

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Workers use hoses to to empty fluid out of their tractor trailers into a holding tank, at right, at …

The Texas Railroad Commission, the state's oil and gas regulator, hired its first seismologist last year to investigate potential links between quakes and fracking after Azle residents asked the agency to halt oil and gas activities. The seismologist has not offered any conclusions.

Meanwhile, SMU seismologists are still examining the cause of ongoing earthquakes in suburban Dallas. In February, researchers released preliminary results that showed a narrow fault line extending from Irving to West Texas. Researchers previously identified disposal wells as the source of seismic activity at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

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Online:

Nature Communications: www.nature.com/naturecommunications

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Associated Press writers Emily Schmall in Fort Worth, Texas, and Tim Talley in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Associated Press Videos
Police: Still Don't Know How Suspect Died in MD

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Justice Department said Tuesday it has opened a civil rights investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a fatal spinal-cord injury under mysterious circumstances after he was handcuffed and put in the back of a police van.

After the probe was announced, at least 1,000 people gathered at a previously planned rally at the site of Gray's arrest. Protesters marched to a police station a couple of blocks away, chanting and holding signs that read "Black Lives Matter" and "No Justice, No Peace" — slogans that have come to embody what demonstrators believe is widespread mistreatment of blacks by police.

Pricilla Jackson carried a sign reading, "Convict Freddie's killers," that listed the names of the six officers suspended with pay while local authorities and the U.S. Justice Department investigate the death. Jackson, who is black, said she wants Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to know that she and others have been brutalized by police.

"They're hurting us when they throw us to the ground and kick us and punch us," said Jackson, 53.

At least one activist was detained when he jumped past police barriers.

Gray's mother, Gloria Darden, was overcome with grief and carried away at one point by several men, writhing and sobbing uncontrollably, her face obscured by a hood and dark glasses. The crowd parted to let her through. Another female family member collapsed in tears and was also helped away.

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Edward Brown speaks at a protest outside City Hall about Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Monday, April 20 …

As the sun fell, some protesters lit candles and the demonstration peacefully dispersed. More protests were planned for later in the week.

Gray, 25, was taken into custody April 12 after police "made eye contact" with him and another man in an area known for drug activity, police said. Gray was handcuffed and put in a transport van. At some point during his roughly 30-minute ride, the van was stopped and Gray's legs were shackled when an officer felt he was becoming "irate," police said.

Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said that Gray asked for an inhaler, and then several times asked for medical care. He was eventually rushed to a hospital.

Gray died Sunday — a week after his arrest — of what police described as "a significant spinal injury."

Exactly how he was injured and what happened in the van is not known.

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William Stewart, a friend of Freddie Gray, protests outside City Hall in Baltimore, Monday, April 20 …

Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said investigators are "gathering information to determine whether any prosecutable civil rights violation occurred."

It's not uncommon for federal investigators to look into allegations of excessive police force. Justice Department investigations in the last year include probes into the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri — a case that resulted in no charges against the officer — and an ongoing review of a police chokehold death of a New York City man.

There's a high threshold for bringing federal civil rights charges against police officers in such cases. Federal investigators must show an officer willfully deprived a person of his or her civil rights by using more force than the law allows, a standard that's challenging in rapidly unfolding confrontations in which snap judgments are made.

The mayor said she welcomed the Justice Department probe.

"Whenever a police force conducts an internal investigation, there are always appropriate questions of transparency and impartiality," she said. "My goal has always been to get answers to the questions so many of us are still asking with regards to Mr. Gray's death."

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Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, center, speaks to the media at a news conference on the death …

In the Baltimore case, the six suspended officers have been on the force anywhere from three years to 18 years.

According to court documents, Officer Garrett Miller accused Gray of carrying a switchblade, which was discovered in Gray's pocket after he was stopped.

The other suspended officers were identified as:

— Lt. Brian Rice, 41, with the department since 1997.

— Sgt. Alicia White, 30, with the department since 2010.

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Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake speaks to the media at a news conference on the death of Freddie Gray …

— Officer Caesar Goodson, 45, who has been there since 1999.

— Officers William Porter and Edward Nero, who along with Miller, all joined in 2012.

Kim Deachilla, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, said a law firm that contracts with the union is representing them.

The officers' specific roles in the arrest were not released by city officials. Bystander video of the arrest shows officers on bicycles, in patrol cars and outside the transport van.

The lawyer for Gray's family said he believes the police had no reason to stop him.

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The Rev. Cortly "C.D." Witherspoon, front left, president of the Baltimore City chapter of …

"Running while black is not probable cause. Felony running doesn't exist, and you can't arrest someone for looking you in the eye," attorney Billy Murphy said.

Batts said the reason for Gray's stop is "a question we have to dig into."

Harold Perry, 73, a retired small businessman who is nearly blind, said he heard the arrest through his bedroom window. A young man was screaming "You're hurting me! Get your knee off my back," Perry said.

He said he also heard the young man say, "I'm an asthmatic."

In the bystander video, Gray is screaming, but it's not clear what he is saying.

At a news conference Monday, officials vowed transparency and pledged to hold those found responsible accountable. Batts said the investigation will be completed by May 1 and the results will be sent to the state attorney's office to determine whether criminal charges will be filed. Batts also said he is ordering that police review and rewrite "effective immediately" its policies on moving prisoners and providing them with medical attention.

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Tucker reported from Washington.

Associated Press Videos
Raw: MD Rally Held As Probe Is Announced

BALTIMORE (AP) — Amid tears and cries for justice, demonstrators poured into the streets of Baltimore carrying signs emblazoned with the name of a man who died from a spinal injury he suffered while in police custody. Tuesday's demonstration marked the beginning of a week of protests and rallies planned across the city.

The Justice Department said earlier in the day that it has opened a civil rights investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a fatal spinal-cord injury under mysterious circumstances after he was handcuffed and put in the back of a police van.

At the site of Gray's arrest, more than a thousand demonstrators gathered to remember Gray, who friends and relatives say was kind, funny and generous, and call for police reform.

"I want this to be a sign to the Baltimore Police Department that this is not an act of surrender," said Pastor Jamal Bryant of the Empowerment Temple, one of the rally's organizers, as he called on those in the crowd to raise their hands. "It's a sign of strength, of one unity and one commitment that we will not rest until we get justice for Freddie Gray.

"The world is watching," Bryant said. "The world is watching, and the world needs to see that black Baltimore is unified."

Gray was taken into custody April 12 after police "made eye contact" with him and another man in an area known for drug activity, police said, and both men started running. Gray was handcuffed and put in a transport van. At some point during his roughly 30-minute ride, the van was stopped and Gray's legs were shackled when an officer felt he was becoming "irate," police said.

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Protesters sit outside the Baltimore Police Department's Western District police station at the …

Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said Gray asked for an inhaler and then several times asked for medical care. He was eventually rushed to a hospital.

Gray died Sunday — a week after his arrest — of what police described as "a significant spinal injury."

Exactly how he was injured and what happened in the van is still not known.

Demonstrators called for answers, accountability and a change to how they say people in inner-city Baltimore are treated by officers patrolling the neighborhood.

Pricilla Jackson carried a sign reading, "Convict Freddie's killers," that listed the names of the six officers suspended with pay while local and federal authorities investigate the death. Jackson, who is black, said she wants Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to know that she and others have been brutalized by police.

"They're hurting us when they throw us to the ground and kick us and punch us," said Jackson, 53.

As night began to fall, the crowd gathered outside of the Western District station house and held candles in front of banners that read, "Black Lives Matter, Stop Police Terror."

"How many of you have a Freddie Gray in your family?" shouted one demonstrator at a line of police officers outside of the station. "How many of you have lost a child, a brother?"

Another demonstration is planned for Wednesday evening at the site of Gray's arrest, and on Thursday protesters are expected to gather outside City Hall.

Paris (AFP) - An IT student allegedly planning a church attack in France has been arrested, the country's interior minister said Wednesday, just over three months after Paris was hit by a jihadist killing spree.

In a baffling series of events, the 24-year-old Franco-Algerian -- known to intelligence services for wanting to fight in Syria alongside jihadists -- was detained Sunday in Paris after he himself called police over a bullet injury to his leg.

"Several war weapons, hand guns, ammunition, bullet-proof vests and computer and telephone hardware" were subsequently found at his home and in his car, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters.

His DNA was later found in the car of a young mother from northern France who died in mysterious circumstances over the weekend near Paris.

Cazeneuve told reporters that apart from the weapons, police had also discovered detailed research "clearly establishing that the person was planning to commit an imminent attack against one or two churches".

- Haphazard, chance arrest -

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French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said police had also discovered a cache of weapons when t …

"Sunday morning, this attack was foiled."

The arrest comes more than three months after Islamic extremists went on a three-day killing spree in and around Paris, leaving 17 people dead.

The January 7-9 attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine, a policewoman and a Jewish supermarket sent shockwaves around the world, and prompted several reforms in France including controversial new spy laws that are currently being debated in parliament.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls reiterated government warnings that the country was facing an "unprecedented terrorist threat".

"Terrorists are targeting France to divide us and our response must of course be to protect citizens but also to rally together, unite and to be hugely determined faced with this terrorist threat," he said on French television.

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France has been on a heightened state of alert since the terror attacks in January 2015 (AFP Photo/K …

The attack was foiled by chance after the suspect called police on Sunday morning, saying he was injured, according to police sources, who asked to remain anonymous.

They found him with a bullet in the leg, and he described being wounded during a settling of scores.

Investigators do not exclude that he may have injured himself.

They followed traces of blood left by the suspect and found his car, where they discovered part of the "arsenal" described by Cazeneuve.

Then they searched his home in southeast Paris and found the incriminating research on his computer.

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French Prime Minister Manuel Valls gives a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on April …

Several members of his entourage and family have since been detained, some of whom sympathise with radical Islam, the sources said.

During their investigations, police then discovered the suspect's DNA in the car of Aurelie Chatelain, an unemployed dance enthusiast, who was found dead over the weekend in Villejuif near Paris -- the town where the churches were targeted, according to a police source.

But the suspect's alleged link to the death was not clear.

- Mystery murder link -

Chatelain's body was discovered on Sunday morning in her car. She had been shot three times.

The 32-year-old mother had just come to the area from northern France to take a pilates training course and had written of how happy she was to be there on her Facebook page on Saturday evening.

Some nine hours later, her body was discovered by passers-by as smoke poured out of the car from an overheating laptop.

A judicial source told AFP Sunday that investigators were open to all possibilities.

But Chatelain's distraught father, Jean-Luc, told AFP Monday that the mother of five-year-old Juliette had no enemies.

"The father of the little girl... and my daughter have been separated for several years but they got along fine," he said.

Cazeneuve promised Wednesday that the probe would determine why Chatelain was killed, and reiterated that the country was faced with an "unprecedented terrorist threat".

Hundreds of French nationals have left France to join jihadist ranks in Iraq and Syria, where they represent almost half the number of European fighters present, according to a report released this month by the upper house Senate.

Authorities are concerned that these nationals will come back and commit attacks on home turf.

France thwarts 'imminent attack' on churches

A 24-year-old IT student with an arsenal of heavy weapons is arrested in Paris.
Also suspected in woman's death

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban said Wednesday their spring offensive in Afghanistan will begin this week, the first time the insurgents' annual campaign against the Afghan government will take place without NATO troops on the battlefield.

In past years, spring and the melting of snow on the mountains along the border with Pakistan marked a significant upsurge in the fighting between the Taliban and NATO forces along with their local allies. This fighting season, the insurgents will face just Afghan forces after the withdrawal of most international combat troops at the end of last year.

A Taliban statement, which was emailed to media, said the offensive — dubbed "Azm" or perseverance in Dari and Arabic — will begin on Friday. It added that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban call themselves, is "determined to prolong the ongoing jihad," or holy war.

The statement also said that under U.S. leadership, the "crusaders" will maintain "control of our land and space" through security agreements with the Afghan government. The agreements allow NATO and the U.S. to keep a limited number of non-combat troops in Afghanistan to train and assist Afghan forces in their fight against the insurgency.

"For the complete liberation of our beloved homeland from the yoke of foreign occupation and for the implementation of Islamic rule throughout the country, the Islamic Emirate is determined to prolong the ongoing jihad against the foreign invaders as well as their internal stooges," the Taliban said.

In recent weeks, attacks in the north and east of the country have intensified in the build-up to the warm weather fighting season. The insurgents can be expected to fight until snow falls on the Hindu Kush, when the militants return to the mountains. Fighting even stops in many places for meals and prayers.

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Afghan security personals inspect the site of roadside bomb explosion in Behsood district of Jalalab …

But after more than a decade of war, the Taliban appear no closer to their goal of overthrowing the Kabul government.

This has opened up an opportunity for what is perceived to be an affiliate of the Islamic State group, which already controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, to establish a small presence in Afghanistan. The development has alarmed many Afghans, including influential warlord Ismail Khan, former governor of western Herat province, who called on President Ashraf Ghani to improve security and kickstart a moribund economy to avoid a war with an IS offshoot.

Afghan forces have been fighting local Taliban in southern Helmand province for more than two months now, hoping to dislodge them from one of their bastions ahead of the spring offensive. Fighting has been fierce as the insurgents seek to protect supply lines for men, guns and drugs that provide a major source of their funding. Helmand's opium crop accounts for most of the world's heroin supply.

Despite the nascent IS presence, the Taliban also appear to be spreading their own influence to areas where they have not had a significant presence in the past. In northern Samangan province, police said that a firefight broke out late on Tuesday when they surrounded a house where Taliban fighters were holding a meeting.

Sediq Azizi, spokesman for the provincial governor, said Afghan security forces killed a Taliban commander identified as Mullah Bashir along with four other insurgents. One policeman was killed, he said, and another two were wounded. Bashir's mother was also wounded, he said.

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Afghan security forces work at the site of a bombing in Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesd …

In eastern Nagharhar province, where the Taliban have long been active, Ahamd Zia Abdulazai, spokesman for the provincial governor, said that a prosecutor and his driver were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Behsud district.

On Tuesday, a bomb blast near a police station in the southern city of Kandahar killed three people and wounded 17, while a separate bomb killed one person and wounded five in the north, in Kunduz province. Kandahar province is the heartland of the Taliban insurgency — and the city was the capital of the extremists' government from 1996-2001.

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Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this story.

Follow Lynne O'Donnell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lynnekodonnell