Hormel Foods 3rd-quarter profit falls 25 minutes ago

Hormel Foods 3rd-quarter profit falls 25 minutes ago



AUSTIN, Minn. - Hormel Foods Corp. said Thursday its fiscal third-quarter profit fell 4 percent year-over-year, due to weakness in its chunk chicken and Chi-Chi's sauce businesses, but the company reaffirmed guidance for the fourth-quarter and full year.

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Net income declined to $57.4 million, or 41 cents per share, from $59.6 million, or 43 cents per share, a year ago.

Sales totaled $1.52 billion, up from $1.41 billion in the 2006 period.

Profit was in line with the revised forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, and sales just beat Wall Street's $1.5 billion consensus estimate. Earlier this month the company lowered its profit outlook from an estimated range of 42 cents to 48 cents per share to a range of 40 cents to 42 cents per share.

"The higher-than-expected input costs within the grocery products segment pressured profitability more than we anticipated. This caused the company to fall short of the original expectations for the quarter," said Jeffrey M. Ettinger, chairman, president and chief executive.

The company said it saw distribution gains and sales growth from its Hormel Compleats microwave trays, but part of this growth was offset by weakness in its chunk chicken and Chi-Chi's sauce businesses.

Hormel said it still expects to see higher input costs continue into the fourth quarter, but reaffirmed its previous profit outlook for the fourth quarter and full year. The company forecasts quarterly earnings of 62 cents to 68 cents per share, compared with analysts' 64-cent average estimate, and $2.06 to $2.12 per share for the full year.

Analysts are predicting full-year profit of $2.08 per share.

Also Thursday, Hormel announced it had acquired privately-held Burke Corp., a manufacturer and marketer of pizza-toppings, meatballs, Mexican meat fillings and breakfast meats, for about $110 million.

Net sales of $125 million are anticipated from Burke, and Hormel expects the deal to be accretive to its fiscal 2008 earnings.

Puffer fish sold as salmon kills 15 2 hours, 30 minutes ago

Puffer fish sold as salmon kills 15 2 hours, 30 minutes ago



BANGKOK, Thailand - Unscrupulous vendors in Thailand have been selling meat of the deadly puffer fish disguised as salmon, causing the deaths of more than 15 people over the past three years, a doctor said Thursday.

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Although banned since 2002, puffer fish continues to be sold in large quantities at local markets and restaurants, said Narin Hiransuthikul of Bangkok's Chulalonkorn University Hospital.

"Some sellers dye the meat of puffer fish and make it look like salmon which is very dangerous," Narin said.

Narin said over the past three years more than 15 people have died and about 115 were hospitalized from eating the fish.

The ovaries, liver and intestines of the puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can "produce rapid and violent death."

The fish is called fugu in Japan, where it is consumed by thrill-seeking Japanese gourmets for whom the risk of poisoning adds piquancy.

Every year, there are reports of people dying or falling sick in Asia from eating puffer fish. Eating the fish can cause paralysis, vomiting, heart failure and death.

Rangers set records in 30-3 rout By The Associated Press

Rangers set records in 30-3 rout By The Associated Press
1 hour, 4 minutes ago



The Texas Rangers rounded the bases at a dizzying pace and became the first team in 110 years to score 30 runs in a game, setting an American League record Wednesday in a 30-3 rout of the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

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"That was ridiculous. I have never been in anything like that in my life," said Jarrod Saltalamacchia, one of two Texas players who homered twice and drove in seven runs.

It was the ninth time a major league team scored 30 runs, the first since the Chicago Colts set the major league mark in a 36-7 rout of Louisville in a National League game on June 28, 1897, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Hours after announcing manager Dave Trembley would return for the 2008 season, the Orioles absorbed the most one-sided defeat in franchise history and set a team record for hits allowed (29).

And that was just Game 1 of a doubleheader.

Trailing 3-0 in the opener, the last-place Rangers at last did something right. They scored five runs in the fourth inning, nine runs in the sixth, 10 in the eighth and six more in the ninth.

"This is something freaky. You won't see anything like this again for a long, long time. I am glad I was on this end of it," said Marlon Byrd, who hit one of two Texas grand slams.

The Rangers kept right on hitting in the nightcap, too, although at a decidedly tamer pace. Travis Metcalf drove in four runs and Texas used a three-run eighth for a 9-7 victory.

With the sweep, the Rangers set an AL record for runs in a doubleheader, surpassing the 36 scored by Detroit in 1937.

"What am I going to remember about today? Thirty runs scored in one game and having to play another one after that," Texas second baseman Ian Kinsler said. "It was a very strange day."

In other AL games, it was: New York 8, Los Angeles 2; Tampa Bay 2, Boston 1; Cleveland 11, Detroit 8; Minnesota 8, Seattle 4; Oakland 4, Toronto 1; and Kansas City 7, Chicago 6.

Travis Metcalf hit the other grand slam for the Rangers after being called up from the minors earlier in the day. Saltalamacchia and Ramon Vazquez, the bottom two batters in Texas' lineup, each homered twice and finished with seven RBIs.

David Murphy had five of Texas' 29 hits, the most by a major league team since Milwaukee had 31 in a 22-2 victory over Toronto on Aug. 28, 1992, according to Elias.

The Rangers totaled 28 runs in their previous nine games, including two runs on seven hits in their last two. Texas set a team record for runs in a doubleheader — before the second game even started.

"I knew we'd get the bats going, but I never expected anything like this," manager Ron Washington said. "When the faucet is on, you want it to stay on. You never want to cut it off."

Daniel Cabrera (9-13) took the loss, giving up six runs and nine hits in five-plus innings.

Winning pitcher Kason Gabbard (6-1) allowed three runs in six innings.

Even with the one-sided score, Wes Littleton earned his second major league save by pitching three scoreless innings.

Yankees 8, Angels 2

At Anaheim, Calif., Andy Pettitte tossed seven strong innings to win his fifth consecutive start and New York salvaged the finale of a three-game series.

Pettitte (11-7) beat John Lackey (15-8) and came to the rescue for the Yankees yet again, one night after the Angels roughed up New York's pitching staff in an 18-9 rout highlighted by Garret Anderson's 10 RBIs.

The victory was Joe Torre's 1,150th as New York manager, surpassing Casey Stengel for sole possession of second place on the franchise list behind Joe McCarthy (1,460).

Bobby Abreu homered for the Yankees, who moved within five games of AL East leader Boston. They're 1 1/2 back of Seattle in the wild-card race. The AL West-leading Angels remained two games in front of the Mariners.

Devil Rays 2, Red Sox 1

At St. Petersburg, Fla., B.J. Upton hit a two-run homer and Tampa Bay beat Daisuke Matsuzaka (13-10) for the third time this season. Edwin Jackson (4-12) allowed one run in six innings.

Al Reyes retired Jason Varitek with two on for his 19th save in 21 opportunities. The Red Sox stranded 14 runners and fell to 9-3 against the Devil Rays this season.

Indians 11, Tigers 8

At Detroit, Franklin Gutierrez hit a three-run homer and Cleveland beat Justin Verlander (13-5) to increase its AL Central lead to 1 1/2 games over the Tigers. The Indians overcame homers by Carlos Guillen, Magglio Ordonez and Marcus Thames.

Gary Sheffield will be out of Detroit's lineup for at least the rest of the current homestand because of a sore right shoulder that has bothered him for more than a month.

Twins 8, Mariners 4

At Minneapolis, Michael Cuddyer's grand slam fueled a seven-run first inning against Miguel Batista (13-9), and the Twins ended Seattle's five-game winning streak.

Carlos Silva (10-12), who entered with the second-worst run support among AL starters, cruised with the big lead and completed seven innings for his first victory this month.

Athletics 4, Blue Jays 1

At Toronto, Esteban Loaiza (1-0) came off the disabled list and won his season debut, outpitching A.J. Burnett (7-7) to help Oakland finish a three-game sweep.

The Athletics (64-64) have won four straight and eight of 10 to reach .500 for the first time since the All-Star break. Alan Embree earned his 16th save.

Royals 7, White Sox 6

At Chicago, Billy Butler homered and drove in three runs for the Royals, who ended a three-game skid and kept the White Sox from completing their first series sweep at home since last August against Detroit.

Brian Bannister (10-7) won for the fifth time in seven starts and lowered his ERA to 3.28, eighth-best in the AL. Kansas City struck early against struggling Jose Contreras (6-16).

Playwright fights for Congolese women By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer

Playwright fights for Congolese women By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 23, 5:35 AM ET



NEW YORK - Eve Ensler has just returned from hell. That's how the author of "The Vagina Monologues" describes her trip to Congo, where thousands of women have been sexually attacked and mutilated in the African nation's civil war.

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The 54-year-old playwright has joined with the United Nations in a campaign against what a U.N. expert called the worst violence against women in the world.

"In Congo, you're talking about a situation where Africans are hurting Africans, black people are hurting black people," Ensler told The Associated Press in an interview from Italy. "And it's harder to make people care. People say, 'Oh, it's just Africa.' And nobody is held accountable."

She spent weeks at the Panzi Hospital in the city of Bukavu, in eastern Congo, where Dr. Denis Mukwege is helping to repair the broken bodies of war victims. The hospital sees about 3,500 women a year suffering fistula and other severe genital injuries.

A U.N. human rights expert said last month that the sexual atrocities in Congo's volatile province of South Kivu extend "far beyond rape" and include sexual slavery, forced incest and cannibalism.

From Geneva, Yakin Erturk called the situation the worst she had ever seen as the global body's special investigator for violence against women. She blamed Uganda-backed militias that occupy Congo's Ituri region, as well as the nation's armed forces and national police.

Erturk will report her findings in September to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

"How do I tell you of girls as young as 9 raped by gangs of soldiers, of women whose insides were blown apart by rifle blasts and whose bodies now leak uncontrollable streams of urine and feces?" Ensler asks in an article in the September issue of Glamour magazine.

The International Criminal Court in the Hague is now considering indictments in connection with the atrocities. The court's probe started in 2004, instigated by Congo's president, Joseph Kabila.

Ensler is asking people to write letters to Kabila, demanding that he take stronger action to stop the attacks. Hundreds of letters already have arrived at the United Nations, which is forwarding them to the African leader, Ensler said.

She is working to raise both awareness and funds for the women through the United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict and through V-Day, a global movement she founded to stop violence against women and girls.

V-Day was inspired by the overwhelming audience response to "The Vagina Monologues," an award-winning play in which actors share anecdotes about their bodies that reveal heartbreaking and hilarious glimpses of their souls.

The V-Day movement has raised over $40 million in the past decade, funding thousands of community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Kenya, Egypt and Iraq, as well as the United States.

The money Ensler helps raise for Congo will go to Panzi hospital and to establish a safe haven called "City of Joy."

Her journey to Congo in May was inspired by a conversation she had with Mukwege last December in New York, where he spoke about his work — "sewing up women's vaginas as fast as the mad militiamen are ripping them apart," as Ensler describes it.

Their friendship "began with my rusty French and his limited English," she wrote. "It began with the quiet anguish in his bloodshot eyes, eyes that seemed to me to be bleeding from the horrors he'd witnessed."

___

Letters for Congo president: U.N. Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, P.O. Box 3862, New York, N.Y. 10163

Donations for Panzi Hospital: http://www.vday.org

No prescription? No problem online By TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer

No prescription? No problem online By TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 11 minutes ago



CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Drug shipments from illegal online pharmacies were once so frequent in Appalachia that delivery companies had to add trucks to their routes.

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Police have cracked down on such deliveries, but are still confronted by a booming global network of so-called rogue pharmacies operating online.

For people addicted to prescription medications like the painkiller hydrocodone — sold mostly as Vicodin — the days of "doctor shopping" are over, as long as they have Internet access. With the help of unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists, hundreds of Web sites dispense prescription narcotics to customers in exchange for nothing more than a credit card number.

Even as law enforcement agencies and state governments respond, rogue pharmacies continue to grow, filling hundreds of prescriptions a day, according to a recent study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, which reported the additional parcel delivery trucks in southeastern Kentucky, says about 95 percent of products sold by online pharmacies are controlled substances. By comparison, controlled substances amount to roughly 11 percent of the dosages dispensed by legitimate pharmacies.

The DEA found that 34 rogue pharmacies dispensed more than 98.5 million dosage units of hydrocodone products last year — enough to give 410,000 patients a one-month supply.

Pharmacist Don Perdue has seen customers who run out of prescription refills turn to illegal online pharmacies.

"This is a major problem," said Perdue, chairman of the West Virginia House of Delegates' Health and Human Resources Committee, who wants to see federal law changed to make it easier to shut down illicit pharmacies.

Congress is considering legislation that would clarify federal law on Internet pharmacies and increase penalties for selling pharmaceuticals to minors.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in May, Joseph Rannazzisi, deputy assistant director of the DEA's Office of Diversion Control, described how rogue pharmacies commonly work.

The Web sites approach doctors, often those who are in debt or retired and are seeking extra income. The doctors write prescriptions after they review online questionnaires filled out by customers. They are usually paid between $10 and $25 for each prescription.

The sites approach small pharmacies and persuade them to fill the prescription and ship the pharmaceuticals to the customers. The Web sites target pharmacies struggling to make ends meet, and usually pay an additional fee on top of the cost of the medication.

Prescription drugs can legally be ordered online, but rogue pharmacies ignore the rules that legitimate pharmacies follow, like requiring a doctor-patient relationship and getting a certification from state boards. The difference between legitimate and rogue pharmacies can be confusing.

To make the distinction clearer, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy has created a voluntary verification process for online pharmacies to establish that they comply with the law and only ship prescriptions to patients who have been examined by doctors.

So far, 13 sites have received verification, including those by Walgreen Co. and CVS Caremark Corp.

In May, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse identified 581 Web sites that offer controlled prescription drugs, compared with 492 in 2004.

Both the center and the DEA say it's impossible to know exactly how many such sites there are, with estimates ranging from a few hundred to more than 1,400.

"These Web sites come and go very quickly," said Susan Foster, vice president of policy research and analysis at the center. "They could be up one day and operating under a different URL the next day."

Most of the sites identified by the center were so-called portal sites, which don't directly sell drugs. They lead browsers to anchor sites, where the drugs are sold.

The study identified 187 anchor sites. Of those, 157 did not require a prescription.

Experts warn that the sites are dangerous not only because they can be used to feed addictions, but because customers often don't know what they're getting. Ninety-one of the anchor sites identified by the center were located outside the United States, where there are often different safety standards for medicine.

"You have no idea what you're getting from these places," DEA spokeswoman Rogene Waite said. "It's just a very dangerous business."

Linda Surks of South Brunswick, N.J., knows better than most how dangerous rogue pharmacies can be.

She lost her 19-year-old son, Jason, three years ago when he overdosed on prescription medication he ordered from a Web pharmacy based in Mexico. His family had no idea he had been taking the drugs, since he didn't have prescriptions.

"One of the first questions they asked us in the emergency room was whether he was on any medications, and we said he wasn't," Surks said.

Some states have passed laws aimed at blocking the importation of pharmaceuticals from rogue Web sites.

All pharmacies shipping drugs to West Virginia and Kentucky have to be registered with those states' Board of Pharmacy. Some rogue pharmacies carry disclaimers saying they won't ship to those states.

Last year, West Virginia State Police intercepted hundreds of packages shipped to the cities of Huntington, Charleston, Beckley, Logan and Lewisburg, Cpl. M.T. Smith said.

But as more rogue pharmacies shift from a cash-on-delivery model to relying on credit cards, such seizures have become rare.

Since the passage of a 2005 law banning the importation of drugs from unlicensed online pharmacies, the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation has seized more than $1.5 million worth of controlled pharmaceuticals.

Other states passing laws to address online pharmacies include Idaho, Wisconsin, Arkansas and Texas, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Stock futures point to higher open By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer

Stock futures point to higher open By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer
17 minutes ago



NEW YORK - Stock futures pointed to a higher opening Thursday, with some investors relieved that troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. will receive a $2 billion capital infusion to help contain its problems.

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Bank of America Corp. announced late Wednesday it will invest the money in the nation's largest mortgage lender to help it better weather problems in the global credit markets. The investment was seen as a way to not only prop up Countrywide, but also prevent any further losses at the mortgage lender from hurting the underlying economy.

The move may reassure investors that the mortgage and credit crisis is easing, although a number of major banks and home lenders continue to face difficulties. On Wednesday, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said it would close its BNC Mortgage unit and slash 1,200 jobs; HSBC Holdings PLC and Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. also said they would eliminate jobs.

U.S. stocks rose Wednesday, lifting the Dow Jones industrials 145 points after Bank of America, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, and Wachovia Corp. said they borrowed money from the Federal Reserve to help reassure markets. Borrowing money from the central bank is usually seen as a negative action by banks, but the move was designed to bolster the financial system after the Fed cut its discount rate last week.

Dow futures expiring in September rose 55, or 0.39 percent, to 13,330, while Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 8.60, or 0.59 percent, to 1,477.50. Nasdaq 100 index futures added 11.50, or 0.59 percent, to 1,956.50.

Growing investor confidence was reflected Thursday in big gains overseas markets. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.04 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 1.03 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 1.06 percent. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 2.61 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 2.77 percent.

In economic news, the Commerce Department releases its monthly measure of durable goods orders. Durable goods orders are anticipated to have risen 1.0 percent in July, a slightly smaller jump than the increase in June.

Investors were also looking ahead to Friday's report from the Commerce Department on new home sales and prices.

The weekly Fed report on bank borrowing from its "discount window" will be released after the market closes. It will garner more attention than usual as the data will show other financial institutions that took advantage of central bank loans.

Turkey and pork processor Hormel Foods Corp. said fiscal third-quarter profit fell 4 percent due to weakness in its chunk chicken and Chi-Chi's sauce businesses, but it reaffirmed guidance for the fourth-quarter and full year.

After the closing bell, earnings reports from retailers including Gap Inc., Aeropostale Inc. and Bebe Stores Inc. will be closely watched as another snapshot of consumer spending.

Oil prices rose 39 cents to $69.65 in premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude prices have fallen after it appeared there was no major damage to oil rigs as Hurricane Dean pushed through Mexico.

Bombers target Afghan police chief By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer

Bombers target Afghan police chief By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 1 minute ago



KABUL, Afghanistan - Insurgents detonated a roadside bomb next to a convoy carrying the police chief in Afghanistan's violence-plagued Helmand province on Thursday, killing three civilians and wounding 13 others.

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The blast in the southern province, which supplies much of the opium used in the world's heroin trade, followed an attack Wednesday that killed two Canadian soldiers and wounded a radio journalist.

The bomb was triggered by remote control in the town of Gereshk when Helmand police chief Mohammad Hussein passed by in a convoy of several cars, said Hussein, who was not hurt in the attack. Five of the injured were in critical condition, he said.

Also on Thursday, a German engineer kidnapped by Taliban insurgents more than a month ago was shown pleading for help in a videotape broadcast on a local television station. The man, who identified himself as Rudolf Blechschmidt, was shown lying on a black rug, clutching his chest and coughing.

"I am a prisoner of the Taliban," he said. "We live in the mountains, very high in a very bad condition, please help us.

"The Taliban try to negotiate with the Afghan government but the government not talk with the Taliban and the Taliban tried to get in connection with the embassy to release us. But if the time is over, they want kill us," said Blechschmidt, speaking in broken English.

The video was broadcast on privately owned Tolo TV. The station did not say how it obtained the footage, and there was no indication of when it was shot.

Blechschmidt is one of two German engineers and five Afghans taken hostage on July 18 in Wardak province in central Afghanistan. The other German was found dead of gunshot wounds on July 21, while one of the Afghans managed to escape. The captors have demanded in the past that Germany withdraw its troops from the country.

The German Foreign Ministry in Berlin said it was examining the content of the video.

Abductions have become a key insurgent tactic in recent months in trying to destabilize the country, targeting both Afghan officials and foreigners helping with reconstruction efforts. A group of 23 South Korean aid workers were taken hostage last month. Two of the Koreans were killed, two were released and the rest remain captive.

Violence in Afghanistan is currently running at its highest level since U.S.-led forces invaded the country in 2001 to oust the hard-line Islamic Taliban rulers who were accused of harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11 attacks.

On Wednesday, the Canadian soldiers were traveling in an armored vehicle that was hit by a roadside bomb in Zhari district of Kandahar province, NATO Brig. Gen. Guy Laroche told reporters at Kandahar Airfield.

Wednesday's casualties — who were from Quebec province's Royal 22nd Regiment — bring to 69 the number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002. Canada has about 2,300 soldiers in the country, mainly operating in Kandahar province, the former Taliban stronghold.

The Afghan mission is unpopular in the French-speaking province and rising casualties have cost Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government support there. Harper has said Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan will not be extended beyond 2009 without a consensus in Parliament.

Dean downgraded to tropical depression By RICHARD JACOBSEN, Associated Press Writer

Dean downgraded to tropical depression By RICHARD JACOBSEN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 22 minutes ago



POZA RICA, Mexico - A weakening Dean dumped heavy rains across central Mexico, drenching mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland after slamming into the nation's Gulf Coast as a Category 2 hurricane.

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In the storm-lashed city of Poza Rica, neighbors banded together to clear the streets of fallen trees with axes and machetes, while workers began reconnecting downed power lines. Dean killed 20 people in the Caribbean but there were no reported deaths so far in Mexico.

"We have emerged in good shape because of our organization, because of our precautions," said Veracruz Gov. Fidel Herrera, while touring hurricane-battered coastal towns. "Now we enter the difficult phase of reconstruction and aid."

The National Hurricane Center in Miami downgraded Dean to a tropical depression late Wednesday and predicted it would dissipate Thursday as it passed over Mexico's high mountains. But with up to 20 inches of rain expected to fall, authorities worried there could still be floods or mudslides.

The mountain ranges near Mexico's coast are dotted with villages connected by precarious roads and susceptible to disaster. A rainstorm in 1999 caused floods that killed at least 350 people.

Dean slammed into Mexico for the second time in as many days Wednesday with top sustained winds of 100 mph. Its center hit the tourism and fishing town of Tecolutla. The wide storm's hurricane-force winds lashed at a 60-mile stretch of the Mexican coast in Veracruz state.

As it pushed inland, Poza Rica, located 30 miles from Tecolutla, became the area's command center, and hundreds of people remained in shelters there late Wednesday.

Maria Patricia Perez, a 40-year-old merchant in Poza Rica, had the tin roof ripped completely off her house. "We were afraid it would knock down everything," she said.

Exhausted residents described helping one another battle Dean's rains and winds.

Shopkeeper Joel Cruz's house was left without electricity or telephone lines after a 30-year-old pine tree gave way, but it could have been worse.

Amid the howling winds, his neighbors helped him tie ropes around the tree and they were able to direct its fall away from his home. They also managed to move two cars away just before the giant tree came down.

"It was an adventure we survived," the 30-year-old Cruz said.

Late Wednesday, Poza Rica residents took stock of the damage — and agreed it could have been much worse.

"A lot of homes were left without roofs," said Mariano Gutierrez, head of Civil Defense in Poza Rica. "Many trees fell on public streets and on houses. There are many fallen signs. But so far, thank God, we don't have anything serious."

At 11 p.m. EDT, Dean was about 95 miles northwest of Mexico City and was heading westward at near 21 mph.

Dean hit the mainland as a Category 2 storm after regaining some of the force it unleashed on the Yucatan. Its first strike on the peninsula Tuesday as a Category 5 tempest with 165 mph winds was the third most intense Atlantic hurricane ever to make landfall.

Mexico had suspended offshore oil production and shut down its only nuclear power plant as tens of thousands headed for higher ground. The state oil company said there was no known damage to any of its production facilities on shore or in the Gulf of Mexico.

Producers of corn and sugar cane likely suffered heavy losses in Veracruz, a key agricultural state. Coffee plantations at higher elevations also were threatened by the heavy rains, industry officials said.

Although Dean swept over Yucatan as a rare Category 5 hurricane, which is capable of causing catastrophic damage, the storm's top winds were relatively narrow and appeared to hit just one town: the cruise ship port of Majahual.

The few people who had not evacuated Majahual fled ahead of the storm. Dean demolished hundreds of houses, crumpled steel girders, splintered wooden structures and washed away parts of concrete dock that transformed what once was a sleepy fishing village into a top cruise ship destination.

Information still was sparse about dozens of inland Mayan Indian communities where people living in stick huts rode out the storm. President Felipe Calderon flew over Yucatan to survey damage Wednesday.

Greatly weakened from its trip across the peninsula, Dean moved across the southern Gulf of Mexico, home to 100 oil platforms, three major oil-exporting ports and the Cantarell oil field, Mexico's most productive. All offshore production was halted ahead of the storm, reducing daily production by 2.7 million barrels of oil and 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

But Pemex said its offshore platforms and loading facilities would emerge without major damage.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Watson and Paul Kiernan in Mexico City, Mark Stevenson in Majahual and John Pain in Miami contributed to this report.

Puffer fish sold as salmon kills 15 2 hours, 22 minutes ago

Puffer fish sold as salmon kills 15 2 hours, 22 minutes ago



BANGKOK, Thailand - Unscrupulous vendors in Thailand have been selling meat of the deadly puffer fish disguised as salmon, causing the deaths of more than 15 people over the past three years, a doctor said Thursday.

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Although banned since 2002, puffer fish continues to be sold in large quantities at local markets and restaurants, said Narin Hiransuthikul of Bangkok's Chulalonkorn University Hospital.

"Some sellers dye the meat of puffer fish and make it look like salmon which is very dangerous," Narin said.

Narin said over the past three years more than 15 people have died and about 115 were hospitalized from eating the fish.

The ovaries, liver and intestines of the puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can "produce rapid and violent death."

The fish is called fugu in Japan, where it is consumed by thrill-seeking Japanese gourmets for whom the risk of poisoning adds piquancy.

Every year, there are reports of people dying or falling sick in Asia from eating puffer fish. Eating the fish can cause paralysis, vomiting, heart failure and death.

Pakistani court rules Sharif can return 44 minutes ago

Pakistani court rules Sharif can return 44 minutes ago



ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif can return home after seven years in exile, the chief of the Supreme Court said.

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Sharif, who was overthrown by army chief General Pervez Musharraf in a 1999 coup, has vowed to oppose President Musharraf's bid for another term in office.

"They have an inalienable right to come back and stay in the country," Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry told the court, referring to Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who is also a politician and was exiled with his brother in 2000.

Report will be critical of Iraq leader 20 minutes ago

Report will be critical of Iraq leader 20 minutes ago



NEW YORK - A new assessment on Iraq may shed some negative light on Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The New York Times is reporting on its Web site that U.S. intelligence agencies will issue a new assessment Thursday expressing doubt about al-Maliki's ability to end the violence that's tearing his country apart.

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The assessment will also reportedly show doubt in the fledgling government's ability to meet benchmarks toward achieving political unity. The Times' story cites unidentified officials.

It comes just a day after President Bush scrambled to show his support for the embattled Iraqi leader. Bush called him a "good man with a difficult job," after expressing frustration with the ongoing political tensions in Iraq.

In just a few weeks, the administration is due to present a crucial report to Congress on progress in Iraq, including steps toward political reconciliation. Democrats and some Republicans are pressing to start the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

The president maintains that the buildup of U.S. forces in militant strongholds is showing results.