World

OKLAHOMA CITY - At least two tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma and another hit Arkansas yesterday as a powerful storm system moved through the middle of the country. At least one injury was reported when a home was hit in rural western Arkansas. The National Weather Service reported two tornadoes on the ground near Perkins and Ripley in north central Oklahoma and another west of Oden, Ark. Arkansas Emergency Management spokesman Tommy Jackson said first responders were having trouble reaching the destroyed home because a number of trees were blocking the road.

GLOUCESTER COUNTY College beat Century (Minn.) College, 16-4, to win the national title in the NJCAA Division III Junior College World Series last night in Tyler, Texas. GCC, coached by Mike Dickson, was undefeated in the double-elimination tournament and finished the season with 49-3 record. Narciso Crook (Trenton High) hit a three-run homer and Eric Frain (Archbishop Ryan) was 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored for the winners.

Toronto mayor: Not resigning TORONTO - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford defiantly declared Thursday that he had no intention of resigning despite the steady exodus of staffers from his office amid a scandal over reports of a video that purportedly shows him smoking crack cocaine. Two more key Ford aides quit Thursday: Brian Johnston, the mayor's policy adviser on council relations, and Kia Nejatian, his executive assistant. The mayor has lost five staff members since the furor over the video erupted last week.

LEONARD AND ALLEN are Philadelphia gun boys. Leonard bought a .32 Beretta for $500 on the street so he could settle the score with a teenager who threatened to kill him. Allen was shot six times on a packed playground while home on a weekend pass from a Delaware County reform school for juvenile delinquents. He lost a lung and flatlined twice. Leonard and Allen hear two sets of voices: their moms, street workers, probation officers and teachers who want to save them from death or prison; and their friends, without jobs or hope, who coax them to get "in the game.

If all you know, or think you know, of Alice Walker is The Color Purple - either the 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel or the 1985 Steven Spielberg film - it might be time to find out what she's been up to since. Not that she's been hiding or kicking back. Walker, who will read from her work at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Free Library of Philadelphia, has two books out at once: The Cushion in the Road (New Press, 366 pp., $26.95), a collection of essays, reviews, public letters, and opinion pieces; and The World Will Follow Joy (New Press, 192 pp., $21.95)