Putin meets with Russian agents

Putin meets with Russian agents

FOROS, Ukraine

Vladimir Putin says he met with the Russian spies who were expelled from the United States, joining them in singing an unofficial KGB anthem and promising them good jobs and a bright future back in their homeland.

Russia’s prime minister said late Saturday he recently got together with the 10 sleeper agents, without saying when or where. The agents were deported from the U.S. earlier this month in the biggest spy scandal since the Cold War.

Iowa flood damage

MONTICELLO, Iowa

Flooding from the Maquoketa River after the Lake Delhi dam failed has damaged dozens of homes and businesses, causing millions of dollars in damage in Monticello, officials said Sunday.

The Lake Delhi dam in eastern Iowa failed Saturday as rising floodwater from the Maquoketa River ate a 30-foot-wide hole in it. Areas below the dam, including in Hopkinton and Monticello were evacuated.

Chavez threatens to halt oil sales to US

CARACAS, Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez threatened Sunday to halt oil sales to the United States if Venezuela is attacked by its U.S.-allied neighbor Colombia.

Chavez said during a speech to thousands of supporters that if there were an “armed aggression against Venezuela” from Colombia backed by the U.S., “we would suspend shipments of oil” to the United States, which is the top buyer of oil from the South American country.

P&G cat-food recall

CINCINNATI

Consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble Co. said Sunday it is voluntarily recalling two lots of Iams-brand prescription renal dry cat food because it could be contaminated with salmonella.

The products are available by prescription through veterinary clinics.

No illnesses have been reported, but an FDA analysis identified positive results on two lots of Iams Veterinary Formulas Feline Renal 5.5 lbs: numbers 01384174B4 0 19014 21405 1 and 01384174B2 0 19014 21405 1. Codes are found in the lower right corner on the back of the bag.

Anyone owning the food should throw it out.

Crash victims misidentified

PHOENIX

The families of a young woman who died in an Arizona traffic crash and another who suffered severe injuries mourned the wrong woman for nearly a week because of a mix-up by authorities, The Arizona Republic reported Sunday.

All last week, friends stood vigil at a Phoenix hospital thinking 21-year-old Marlena Cantu was in critical condition. At the same time, they mourned 19-year-old Abby Guerra, who they thought had died in the same car crash July 18.

On Saturday, family and friends learned it was actually Cantu who died and Guerra who was in the hospital with a brain injury, broken back, collapsed lung and other injuries.

Probe begins into Love Parade deaths

DUISBURG, Germany

State prosecutors in the German city of Duisburg began investigating Sunday the circumstances that led to the deaths of at least 19 people and hundreds of injuries at Saturday’s Love Parade music festival, officials said.

The deaths occurred as thousands of people pressed into an access tunnel for the event, which attracted 1.4 million visitors. Panic broke out as the tunnel became overfilled, leaving the victims crushed and trampled to death.

Word emerged Sunday that firefighters and police officers had warned the city about the inadequacy of the location where the festival took place.

Combined dispatches