EXPLOSION, FIRE AT PLANT INJURES THREE EMPLOYEES

Explosion, fire at plantinjures three employees
NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. -- An explosion and fire at an Abbott Laboratories manufacturing site early Saturday sent three employees to the hospital, company and fire officials said.
The explosion happened around 2:15 a.m. in a processing area at the facility in suburban North Chicago, according to the North Chicago Fire Department.
Officials were investigating the blaze, which was extinguished a few hours later and did not spread beyond the processing area.
Fire officials would not comment on a possible cause.
Three employees were taken to hospitals and two were released, said Abbott spokesman Chris Bona. The third employee, a security guard, suffered burns and was airlifted to Loyola University Medical Center, where he was in critical but stable condition.
The North Chicago-based company makes medical products and pharmaceuticals, including the AIDS drug Norvir.
Pork recalled because itcould have microchip in it
SIOUX CENTER, Iowa -- More than a thousand pounds of pork processed at a Sioux Center meatpacking plant was recalled Saturday because a microchip could be embedded in the meat.
The Sioux-Preme Packing Co. recalled 110 pork shoulder butts -- about 1,100 pounds of meat -- that could contain the metal devices used to measure scientific data in hogs.
The animals, processed Sept. 10, were part of a research herd that had been sent to slaughter without the proper notification that they had the chips implanted, said Sioux-Preme Vice President Jim Malek.
"These hogs had gotten into the delivery at our harvest plant in Sioux Center without any notification or declaration that they carried this device," he said.
The meat had been sent to processors in Colorado, Iowa and Mexico. None of the meat appeared to have reached consumers, Malek said.
Recipients were notified to return meat, which will either be reinspected and cleared for use or destroyed, Malek said.
Anti-Japan protest
BEIJING -- China allowed a brief protest outside the Japanese Embassy and sounded sirens in dozens of cities Saturday to mark the anniversary of Japan's 1931 invasion amid official unease at Tokyo's new diplomatic and military ambitions.
The official commemorations were the biggest to date and come at a time of rising anti-Japanese sentiment, stoked by a communist government that regards Japan as its rival for regional superpower status.
In Beijing, police let 20 protesters gather outside the Japanese Embassy. The demonstrators held banners opposing Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and its claim to a disputed island chain.
"The Chinese people who have fully suffered the wounds of Japanese militarism must strain every nerve to be vigilant!" one protester, Zhang Jianyong, said through a loudspeaker.
Uzbek militant sought
WANA, Pakistan -- A top Uzbek rebel leader wanted by authorities in his home country might be hiding in the tense tribal region that forms the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani general said Saturday.
Tahir Yuldash, political leader of the rebel Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was wounded in March when the army raided a suspected Al-Qaida hideout on the outskirts of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, said Army Maj. Gen. Niaz Khattak.
But Yuldash managed to escape along with hundreds of other militants.
"Yes, Tahir Yuldash might be hiding here, and we have some information about it," Khattak, who is responsible for military operations in the North and South Waziristan tribal regions, told reporters in Wana.
Courtroom outburst
CONYERS, Ga. -- The son of a former governor and senator was sentenced to 20 days in jail for threatening his relatives during a land dispute, going so far as to tell them from the witness stand, "I do wish you were all dead."
A judge also ordered Herman "Gene" Talmadge Jr., son of the late Herman Talmadge, to complete an anger management course.
Talmadge was accused of threatening his late brother's children and their mother in July over a lawsuit involving the division of a 217-acre property east of Atlanta.
His niece, Elizabeth Talmadge, testified that her uncle made threats against her, including saying, "I'm going to take you out of the picture."
At Thursday's hearing, Herman Talmadge Jr. denied saying that, but later admitted during testimony that he was seeing a psychiatrist and "takes stuff" to keep him from snapping at his children.
Associated Press