OHIO

OHIO
Longaberger layoffs
NEWARK -- Basket-maker Longaberger Co. is closing several gift shops and restaurants near its eastern Ohio plants until early March.
Fewer than 50 employees, most of them part time, will be laid off for that period. The closings will take effect next week.
The stores and restaurants, near Longaberger's manufacturing plants in Dresden and Frazeysburg, do little business in the winter, Longaberger spokeswoman Bonnie Fowler said.
"We are really looking at every opportunity to operate as efficiently as possible," Fowler said.
The company, based in Newark, furloughed about 650 workers for six weeks last fall. The privately held company employed 8,300 people in 2000 but now has about 4,300 workers.
NATION
Comair back on track
HEBRON, Ky. -- Comair's normal flight schedule resumed Wednesday, after a computer failure that the airline said forced it to cancel all of its flights nationwide on Christmas, the company said.
Comair, based at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, has gradually been restoring service since the weekend, operating 10 percent of its flight schedule Sunday and nearly 75 percent of its flights Tuesday.
The airline operates about 1,100 daily flights, serves 119 cities and carries an average of 30,000 passengers each day. Comair is owned by Delta Air Lines.
New cattle policy
WASHINGTON -- More than 19 months after a mad cow scare closed U.S. borders to Canadian cattle, the United States said Wednesday it will allow limited imports beginning in March.
The new policy will permit imports of cattle younger than 30 months and certain other animals and products from Canada, which the Agriculture Department said has effective measures to prevent and detect bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
The department said the ruling, which will take effect March 7, came after determining Canada is a "minimal-risk region," the first country recognized as such.
The American dream
WASHINGTON -- Sales of previously owned homes in November posted their best month on record as low mortgage rates enticed buyers to live the American dream.
The National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that sales, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, totaled an all-time monthly high of 6.94 million units, representing a 2.7 percent increase from October's pace.
While some other recent reports raised questions as to whether the high-flying housing market might be losing a bit of altitude, Wednesday's report suggested the sector is still humming along.
"So far, the stars have been aligned" for the housing market, said David Lereah, the association's chief economist, referring to low mortgage rates, good demand and a solid economic recovery.
WORLD
Oil prices increase
Oil prices surged nearly $2 a barrel Wednesday after two bombings in the capital of Saudi Arabia and after the U.S. government reported that winter fuel supplies shrank last week.
Light crude for February delivery rose $1.87, or 4.4 percent, to settle at $43.64 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
While down considerably from the October peak above $55 a barrel, crude futures are 33 percent more expensive than a year ago, contributing to higher prices for gasoline, heating oil and other fuels.
Vindicator wire services