Firefighters in Greece battle last major blaze

Firefighters in Greece
battle last major blaze

KATO KOTYLI, Greece — Firefighters battled their last major blaze in southern Greece on Thursday after a week of forest fires killed 64 people and cost the country at least $1.6 billion, prompting a vast relief effort. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who faces a close race for re-election in less than three weeks, promised to rebuild all homes destroyed by the fires through a disaster relief fund made up of state and private contributions. He said homeless families would initially get prefabricated homes. Initial government estimates indicate at least 1,500 homes were gutted in the southern Peloponnese peninsula and on the island of Evia, just north of Athens. But there are concerns that figure could double. At least 4,000 people were left homeless — a number that could also double. “It is our duty to restore what has been lost, and it is our duty to future generations to restore the environment that has been lost,” Karamanlis said. “The state will rebuild lost homes.”

Thompson to announce
candidacy for president

DES MOINES, Iowa — Republican Fred Thompson will officially launch his presidential bid Thursday in a Webcast on his campaign site, followed by a five-day tour of early primary states. “I believe that there are millions of Americans who know that our security and prosperity are at risk if we don’t address the challenges of our time; the global threat of terrorism, taxes and spending that will bankrupt future generations, and a government that can’t seem to get the most basic responsibilities right for its citizens,” the former Tennessee senator and “Law & Order” actor said in a statement Thursday that laid out themes of his campaign. Thompson, 65, is vying to be seen as the most consistent mainstream conservative in the race. Aides disclosed details about how he will formally enter the race in a conference call with supporters.

Advocates call for more
protection of food supply

FRESNO, Calif. — Consumer advocates and some lawmakers say that a Salinas Valley company’s recall of spinach because of a salmonella scare shows that the federal government must do more to protect the nation’s food supply, but industry officials call it proof that their voluntary regulations are working. Metz Fresh, a King City-based grower and shipper, recalled 8,000 cartons of fresh spinach Wednesday after salmonella was found during a routine test of spinach it was processing for shipment. More than 90 percent of the possibly contaminated cartons never reached stores, company spokesman Greg Larson said. California’s leafy greens industry adopted the voluntary regulations last year after a fatal E. coli outbreak, but advocates said a national, mandatory inspection and testing program overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is needed. “Eight thousand cartons left the plant for distribution in the U.S. That’s 8,000 too many,” said Jean Halloran, a food safety expert with Consumers Union. “At this point, we are relying on the leafy green industry to police itself.”

Second set of triplets
born to Ohio couple

CINCINNATI — Already the proud parents of triplets, Victoria and Tim Lasita had decided they wanted to have “one more.” “I guess we should have been more specific and said one more child, not one more set,” said Victoria, 39, who delivered the couple’s second set of triplets Wednesday after 34 weeks of pregnancy. The Lasitas conceived both sets of triplets naturally, without fertility treatments. “Holy smokes. Do you know what the odds of that are?” said Dr. Glen E. Hofmann, medical director of the Bethesda Center for Reproductive Health and Fertility. The answer: about one in 8,000 for a woman to have triplets naturally, and about one in 64 million of her repeating the feat, according to Hofmann and Dr. Sherif G. Awadalla, medical director of the Institute for Reproductive Health in Cincinnati.

Boston firefighters killed
in blaze at restaurant

BOSTON — Fire broke out in a restaurant ceiling and smoldered above diners and employees for an hour or more before erupting, killing two firefighters and injuring 10 who became disoriented, officials said Thursday. A paramedic was also injured, but no employees or customers were harmed in Wednesday night’s four-alarm fire at the one-story Tai Ho restaurant. The blaze also damaged a block of businesses. When workers first saw the fire, they quickly evacuated the restaurant and called 911. But while the fire smoldered unnoticed in a grease-filled crawl space above the drop ceiling, toxic and flammable gases had collected, Fire Chief Kevin MacCurtain said, and what looked at first like a routine fire quickly turned deadly.

Associated Press