April 16, 2003

Federal investigators say commercial tenant and New York City share responsibility for explosion that ripped apart Chelsea loft building last spring, injuring dozens of people; tenant, Kaltech Industries Group, sign-making company, stored and mixed hazardous chemicals in basement without adequate safety training for its workers and also without proper permits, and city monitored chemical inventory poorly; blast reviewed; photo (M)

Ford Motor Co says Taurus will be phased out in middle of decade and three new vehicles Ford is developing will replace it; Five Hundred, large Audi-like sedan, and Freestyle, combination sport utility vehicle and station wagon that shares similar European styling and will replace Taurus wagon, will go on sale beginning next year; Ford will release first pictures of Futura, midsize car aimed at Honda Accord and Toyota Camry at press preview of New York International Auto Show this week; Futura will be introduced in 2005 and will offer hybrid version that supplements its gas engine with electric power; Ford president Steve Lyons says Taurus will retire following launch of Futura; graph; photos (M)

Statistics compiled by New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services show that in certain counties of New Jersey in 2001, nearly one in five children who were placed in what state officials considered thier most promising foster homes nonetheless wound up abused or seriously neglected; rates of abuse, in financially pressed counties surrounding Newark, are some 30 times what national experts say is tolerable for any child welfare system; statistics show that some 6 percent of those children abused or neglected in 2001 by very parents who were in line to adopt them (M)

Horse owner Mike Gill, whose stable is most successful in victories and money earned in US, is alienating competing stables who either do not believe he operates on level or want to keep him from dominating industry; photos (M)

Iraqis are exercising their new right to complain, which was denied them during Pres Saddam Hussein's rule, and are directing those complaints against Americans; blame Americans for looting and ongoing lack of everything from electricity to firm sense of order, and they say they do not want long-term US military occupation; there is no sense that complaints are degenerating into violence or unwillingness to cooperate with Americans; right to complain is accompanied by other rights long suppressed under Hussein, particularly rights of Shiites, who are increasingly active, some demanding Islamic state and providing civilian militias to keep order; photos; map (M)