Toy retailers struggle to comply with guidelines

Toy retailers struggle to comply with guidelines

NEW YORK — Toy stores across the country scrambled Monday to abide by tough new lead and chemical standards for toys that go into effect today.

Many toy sellers pulled questionable items off their shelves after a judge last week nixed a delay that would have given them a 12-month reprieve. The abrupt change and the lack of guidelines has left many retailers bewildered.

At The Toy Store in Atlanta, owner Denis Hofstetter was pulling about 5 percent of his inventory off the shelf Monday just because he isn’t certain whether or not the toys conform to the regulations.

“It’s a great law that’s being implemented terribly,” said Hofstetter, 34.

Last summer, Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which imposed tough standards for lead and certain chemicals, called phthalates, in products for children age 12 and under.

Poland puts blame for beheading on Pakistan

WARSAW, Poland — Poland promised Monday to issue international arrest warrants for Taliban militants after the apparent beheading of a Polish engineer in Pakistan, and officials charged that elements within the Pakistani government shared blame for the killing.

Pakistan’s top diplomat in Poland firmly rejected the accusation that some members of the Islamabad government are sympathetic to Islamic extremists, saying his country is snarled in a bitter fight with terrorist groups that is killing many of its own.

Without a body, Polish authorities were not able to officially confirm the death of Piotr Stanczak, but they said a seven-minute video purporting to show the 42-year-old’s slaying appeared authentic. Copies of the video were delivered to journalists in Pakistan on Sunday.

Judges order the release of thousands of prisoners

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A special panel of federal judges tentatively ruled Monday that California must release tens of thousands of inmates to relieve overcrowding.

The judges said no other solution will improve conditions so poor that inmates die regularly of suicides or lack of proper care.

The panel said it wanted the state to present a plan to trim the population in two to three years.

“There are simply too many prisoners for the existing capacity,” they wrote. “Evidence offered at trial was overwhelmingly to the effect that overcrowding is the primary cause of the unconstitutional conditions that have been found to exist in the California prisons.”

The state can change parole and other policies to cut the population of its 33 adult prisons without endangering the public, the judges said.

Suspicious letter sent to Sen. Specter not a danger

PITTSBURGH — The U.S. Postal Service says a suspicious letter sent to Sen. Arlen Specter’s Pittsburgh office is not dangerous.

The letter containing a white powdery substance was received Monday at Specter’s office in downtown Pittsburgh.

Specter’s office says a staffer opened the suspicious letter at about noon. Pittsburgh police, the FBI and a hazardous materials team responded to the call about the powdery substance. The U.S. Postal Service says the substance turned out to be a food product.

Specter’s staff was not evacuated during the three-hour incident.

The postal service says the FBI is leading the investigation into the incident.

Hard-liners expected to have edge in Israeli election

JERUSALEM — Israel’s election has suddenly become too close to call, though hard-liners are expected to have a clear edge in the horse trading that is sure to follow today’s vote.

The fractious coalition government likely to emerge could complicate efforts to create a Palestinian state and pose big challenges for President Barack Obama, who has made achieving Middle East peace a top priority.

The race pits former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes giving up land in the name of peace, against Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a centrist who hopes to become the country’s first female leader in nearly 40 years.

For months, opinion polls have predicted a decisive victory by Netanyahu’s Likud Party. But new polls released over the weekend showed Livni’s Kadima Party closing the gap. Neither is expected to get more than 30 seats in the 120-seat parliament, however, meaning the winner will have to form a coalition with smaller parties.

Associated Press