Iowa plant drops horse-slaughter plan

Iowa plant drops horse-slaughter plan

ALBUQURQUE, N.M.

An Iowa company is dropping plans to slaughter horses in the wake of a federal judge’s ruling that temporarily banned the practice as part of a lawsuit filed by animal welfare groups, a company executive said Tuesday.

Responsible Transportation, which owns a slaughterhouse in Sigourney, Iowa, was one of two companies that had secured federal permits for horse slaughter. But the Iowa company’s president, Keaton Walker, told The Associated Press that his firm cannot afford to wait for more court deliberations and was turning its focus to cattle.

The other company with a federal permit, Valley Meat Co. of Roswell, N.M., was “still prepared to stay the course,” company attorney Blain Dunn said.

Mexico, US work to jail drug lord again

MEXICO CITY

Mexican and U.S. officials say they’re working to put a freed drug lord back behind bars although there is no sign the U.S. has taken formal legal steps to seize Rafael Caro Quintero.

Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Jose Antonio Meade told reporters Tuesday that Mexican officials are seeking to reverse an appeals court’s decision last week that freed Caro Quintero for purported procedural errors in the original prosecution.

Caro Quintero was 28 years into a 40-year sentence for helping orchestrate the 1985 killing of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. He has disappeared from the public eye since his release.

Booker, Lonegan win NJ primaries

TRENTON, N.J.

A rising star in the Democratic Party and a Republican former mayor won their parties’ primaries Tuesday to set up a campaign of political and stylistic contrasts as they seek to fill the final 15 months of the term of the late U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker defeated three experienced politicians — U.S. Reps. Rush Holt and Frank Pallone and state Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver — in a Democratic primary that may have been more competitive had the field been less crowded.

In the Republican primary, former Bogota mayor Steve Lonegan won handily over Franklin Township physician Alieta Eck, who never had run for office before.

Man takes poison after conviction

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.

An Alabama businessman convicted on a child-sex charge died after he apparently swallowed poison after the reading of the verdict, a medical official said Tuesday.

William Thomas Moore Jr., 42, was being booked into jail in Tuscaloosa on Monday when he told officers he had swallowed a cyanide pill, said Travis Parker, emergency medical chief for the Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue Service. Moore was dead before rescuers a few blocks away could arrive.

Moore faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the conviction.

Indian sub catches fire, sinks in port

NEW DELHI

An Indian navy submarine has caught fire after an explosion and sunk at a port in Mumbai.

Navy spokesman Narendra Vispute said efforts were being made to ascertain the safety of about 18 navy personnel on the diesel- powered submarine.

It submerged at its berth in the naval dockyard early today with only a portion visible above the surface.

He said an explosion on the submarine caused a major fire. The cause is being investigated.

Associated Press