In brief: Gas explosion injures six

FAIRBORN, Ohio – A house exploded in western Ohio on Saturday, sending six people, including three young children, to hospitals with burns and leaving one person missing, officials said.

Work was being done on the duplex’s water line when the gas line was struck and ruptured, causing the explosion, Fairborn Fire Marshal Carl Day said. It is unclear whether anyone died in the blast.

Four juveniles were among the injured: three children, ages 1, 3 and 5, as well as a teenager.

Jones wins Oscar for film career

LOS ANGELES – The first Academy Award of the season went to James Earl Jones Saturday night.

The actor received an honorary Oscar for his long film career. Sir Ben Kingsley presented Jones with the award in London’s Wyndham Theater.

Dick Smith and Oprah Winfrey were on hand at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ third annual Governors Awards in Los Angeles to receive their statuettes. Smith won for a long film career and Winfrey for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

The Academy Awards will be held Feb. 26.

Cancer activist Lauder dies

NEW YORK – Pink was Evelyn Lauder’s color.

In 1992, Lauder worked with her friend Alexandra Penney, the former editor-in-chief of Self magazine, to create the pink ribbon campaign for breast cancer awareness. That grew into fundraising products, congressional designation of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month and $330 million in donations to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which Lauder also started.

Lauder died Saturday at her Manhattan home from complications of nongenetic ovarian cancer. She was 75.

Navy ship Evers is christened

SAN DIEGO – The widow of Medgar Evers broke a bottle of champagne against the hull of a new Navy ship that has been named in honor of the slain civil rights leader.

Myrlie Evers was among a thousand people who attended the christening of the USNS Medgar Evers in San Diego on Saturday.

The 689-foot cargo ship will deliver food, ammunition, fuel and other provisions to Navy combat ships at sea.

The vessel was built in San Diego by General Dynamics NASSCO.

Medgar Evers, a World War II veteran and field secretary for the NAACP, was shot to death in 1963.