In brief: Ruptured pipeline was badly corroded

Los Angeles – A pipeline rupture that spilled an estimated 101,000 gallons of crude oil near Santa Barbara last month occurred along a badly corroded section that had worn away to a fraction of an inch in thickness, federal regulators disclosed Wednesday.

The preliminary findings released by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration point to a possible cause of the May 19 spill that blackened popular beaches and created a 9-mile slick in the Pacific Ocean.

The agency said investigators found corrosion at the break site had degraded the pipe wall thickness to 1/16 of an inch, and that there was a 6-inch opening near the bottom of the pipe.

Tourist bus crashes into semi; 3 dead

Tobyhanna, Pa. – A charter bus taking Italian tourists to Niagara Falls collided with a tractor-trailer Wednesday morning on an eastern Pennsylvania highway, killing the bus driver and two others on the bus and leaving four people in critical condition, authorities said.

The crash occurred on Interstate 380 in the Pocono Mountain region as the bus, which departed from New York, was about a quarter of the way to its first destination.

Harvard alum gives $400 million gift

Boston – Harvard has received its biggest gift in school history – a $400 million donation from Wall Street hedge fund billionaire and alumnus John Paulson, the university said Wednesday.

The endowment from Paulson will support the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which has led technology breakthroughs and is planning to expand, the university said.

Paulson is a 1980 graduate of Harvard Business School and is founder and president of investment management firm Paulson & Co. He started the company with $2 million in 1994, and it now manages more than $19 billion. Paulson built his fortune in part by betting against subprime mortgage bonds as the U.S. housing market veered toward collapse in 2007.