MEXICO, Mo. (AP) — Officials are investigating the cause of a gas pipeline explosion during the weekend in central Missouri.

The pipeline owned by Dallas-based Panhandle Eastern Pipeline ruptured Sunday morning along Missouri 15 about 1 mile north of Mexico in Audrain County.

Little Dixie Fire Protection District Fire Chief Steve Gentry said his crews weren’t able to battle the blaze when they first arrived because the flames were so intense.

No injuries were reported.

The highway was closed for several hours while debris blown into the air by the explosion was cleared.

JACKSON COUNTY — The Kansas Highway Patrol is investigating the second of two accidents that damaged a Kansas sheriff’s deputy’s vehicle and sent a teen driver to the hospital.

Just after 1p.m. Sunday, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office received a report of an injury accident north of 198th Road on U.S. 75 involving a 2016 Ram 1500 pickup truck driven by Michelle Holmes, 33, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and a 2016 Volvo semi-tractor and trailer driven by Ryan Love, 40, of Clarksville, Tennessee, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.

The pickup truck merged into the semi’s lane striking the front of the tractor.

Holmes was transported by EMS to the Holton Community Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A Jackson County Sheriff’s Deputy who was on the scene investigating the accident when a northbound 2000 Ford Taurus rear-ended the deputy’s patrol vehicle, according to Morse.

The patrol vehicle wasn’t occupied at the time of the accident. The deputy was able to warn the semi driver who was also out of his vehicle to take cover when he observed the Taurus approaching the scene.

The driver of the Taurus, Emily R. Howard, 17, of Topeka was transported by EMS to Holton Community Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The deputy and others at the scene were not injured.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Many universities in Kansas are seeing a drop in the number of enrolled international students, which education leaders said hurts campuses’ cultural diversity and school finances.

The number of international students enrolled in Kansas Board of Regents colleges has declined by more than 11 percent since 2015, or roughly 1,560 students.

Many of the affected schools already face limited state funding and declining enrollments, which is compounded by the lost revenue from international students who pay out-of-state tuition, often live on campus and contribute to local economies.

International students account for a roughly $260 million economic impact in Kansas, supporting about 2,500 jobs, according to data from the nonprofit NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

“These are 600 fewer students paying out-of-state tuition coming to our university,” said Charles Taber, provost of Kansas State University. “That’s millions of dollars of revenue loss.”

Chuck Olcese, director of international support services at the University of Kansas, acknowledged that money often leads conversations about a decrease in the number of international students. But Olcese said “the more guiding factor is the ability to make an international environment for students from Kansas or wherever they’re coming from across the U.S.”

About 70 percent of University of Kansas students may not have met someone from another country nor had any serious interaction with another culture, Olcese said.

Many school leaders have attributed the decline in the number of international students coming to Kansas to the perception that the country is increasingly unwelcoming to immigrants, pointing to issues such as President Donald Trump’s travel ban .

“The travel bans that came out right after the Trump presidency took effect and children being separated from parents at the borders, these all make international news in big ways, and just kind of underscores an unwelcome feeling,” Olcese said.

He said it’s difficult to imagine any profession that isn’t being affected by these issues.

“If you’ve done your whole education in a very isolated environment without interacting with someone who thinks different culturally than you, you’re really at a disadvantage,” Olcese said.

FULTON, Mo. (AP) — A mid-Missouri museum honoring Winston Churchill will launch its 50th anniversary celebration Tuesday with an art exhibit featuring the work of roughly 4,000 students.

Officials with America’s National Churchill Museum on the campus at Westminster College in Fulton say the art was inspired by the words of Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech. The longtime British prime minister delivered the speech at Westminster in 1946, the phrase “Iron Curtain” describing the separation of Eastern Europe that was under Soviet Union rule.

The artwork was painted by students from the Fulton area, along with Westminster faculty, staff and students. The exhibit is titled the “Special Relationship Project,” a nod to a phrase also coined by Churchill in the 1946 speech to describe the alliance between Great Britain and the U.S

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has issued a rare order directing the Brown County District to sentence a sex abuse offender for a third time, saying the man was a victim of “judicial vindictiveness.”

County District Judge John Weingart sentenced defendant Wyatt Brown to 30 years in prison for aggravated sodomy. Brown’s lawyers appealed the sentence, saying it was incorrectly articulated. The Supreme Court agreed and ordered a resentencing.

Weingart responded by adding one year to Brown’s sentence after the victim’s family said they were traumatized by an appellate process forcing them to relive the crime.

Smith’s attorneys appealed again. The Supreme Court ruled Friday that Weingart effectively punished Brown for exercising his right to appeal, and ordered him to be sentenced for a third time.