ATLANTA — Federal officials have not yet identified the cause of a salmonella outbreak striking almost 400 people in 42 states, but state officials in Minnesota said Friday they believe peanut butter may be involved. Eleven victims are in Washington state. On Friday, the Minnesota Department of Health said preliminary testing found salmonella bacteria in a container of King Nut peanut butter. The tests have not linked it to the type of salmonella in the national outbreak, but additional results are expected next week. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that 399 cases have been confirmed nationally, with about one in five of victims hospitalized.
D.C.: Carrier-pilot investigation
A Navy review board has recommended that the Pentagon continue investigating what happened to a fighter pilot who was the first American lost in the Persian Gulf War almost 20 years ago, saying it’s not yet time to close the case. The board made the recommendation Thursday after four days of hearings, according to a family representative of missing Capt. Michael “Scott” Speicher. Speicher has been missing since 1991, when his carrier-based FA-18 Hornet was shot down in Iraq on the first night of the Persian Gulf War.
Judge rules against Bush on logs
A federal judge on Friday rejected the Bush administration’s latest attempt to keep secret the identities of White House visitors and declared that the government illegally deleted Secret Service computer records. The U.S. District judge concluded that the deletions took place before October 2004 when the Secret Service transferred large numbers of entry and exit logs to the White House and then deleted copies of them. The deletions ceased after the archivist to the United States instructed the Secret Service to stop the practice.
Inaugural tickets sell very quickly
Tickets for the inaugural parade? Gone in 60 seconds. The Presidential Inaugural Committee put 5,000 tickets on sale Friday at 1 p.m. and they sold out in less than a minute, with 94 percent purchased online and the rest by phone, a Ticketmaster spokesman said. “It was a blazingly fast on-sale,” he said of the tickets, priced at $25 apiece for bleacher seats. Nearly matching the record sale time was how quickly the tickets could be found on eBay, where one seller had listed the price for three tickets at $1,199.
Massachusetts: Fire truck death
A Boston Fire Department ladder truck coming down a hill plowed through an intersection Friday and crashed into a high-rise apartment building, killing one firefighter and seriously injuring a second. Dozens of firefighters bowed their heads and held their helmets over their hearts as they created a pathway for the body of one firefighter — covered in a black body bag on a stretcher — to be carried from the wreckage and put into an ambulance. Four firefighters were among the injured.
California: Airport firearms arrest
A motorist with 30 handguns, seven rifles and fully loaded ammunition magazines in his pickup truck has been arrested at Los Angeles International Airport. An airport spokeswoman said the truck was stopped Friday by airport police officers at an entrance to the passenger terminals area. She said the man was arrested for investigation of weapons transportation violations. Airport police said there’s no indication the man was out to do any harm at the airport. He was apparently picking someone up.
Afghanistan: Bomb kills 3 soldiers
A homemade bomb killed three U.S. soldiers in the southeastern province of Zabol on Friday, less than 24 hours after two American soldiers died in a suicide bombing at a busy produce market in neighboring Kandahar province, officials said. The five deaths brought to 637 the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the extremist Taliban regime in late 2001, according to monitoring groups. More than 400 soldiers from other coalition forces have also been killed.
Pakistan: Biden meets with leaders
Vice President-elect Joe Biden on Friday met with Pakistani leaders during an Asian trip meant to show the new administration’s interest in the troubled region. Biden and South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham met with President Asif Ali Zadari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Meh- mood Qureshi, aides said. The bipartisan pair also discussed counterterrorism, counterinsurgency and the economy with interior adviser Rehman Malik and Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani.
India: Strike sparks fuel shortages
A three-day-old strike by about 55,000 white-collar workers at state-run oil companies has caused a severe fuel shortage in India, leaving nearly 60 percent of gas pumps dry and delaying flights, officials said Friday. The office workers at the companies, including the Indian Oil Corporation and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., are demanding salary hikes, the Press Trust of India said. Many are in management and supervisory roles that keep the fuel supply chain running. More than 150 flights were reportedly delayed across the country on Thursday because of the delay in refueling aircraft.
From Herald news services
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