Ukraine peace talks lead to buffer zone

Ukraine peace talks lead to buffer zone

MINSK, Belarus

Negotiators in Ukrainian peace talks agreed early today to create a buffer zone to separate government troops and pro-Russia militants and withdraw heavy weapons and foreign fighters to ensure a stable truce in eastern Ukraine.

The deal reached by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the Moscow-backed rebels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe marks an effort to add substance to a cease-fire agreement that was signed Sept. 5 but has frequently been broken by clashes.

The memorandum signed after hours of talks that dragged late into the night says that the conflicting parties should stay strictly where they were Friday and make no attempts to advance.

3 guilty in case of tainted peanuts

ALBANY, Ga.

A federal jury convicted the owner of a peanut plant and two others Friday in a salmonella outbreak that prompted one of the largest U.S. food recalls ever, sickened hundreds across the country and was linked to several deaths.

Experts say the seven-week trial in Albany, Ga., marked the first time corporate executives and plant workers were tried in a food- poisoning case.

Former Peanut Corp. of America owner Stewart Parnell was convicted on numerous counts including conspiracy, wire fraud and obstruction of justice related to shipping tainted peanut butter to customers and faking results of lab tests intended to screen for salmonella. His brother, Michael Parnell, also was found guilty on multiple charges related to the false lab results but was acquitted of actually shipping salmonella-tainted food.

The jury also found Mary Wilkerson, the plant’s quality-assurance manager, guilty of obstruction of justice for hiding information about the plant’s salmonella problems from investigator. But Wilkerson was acquitted on one of two obstruction counts she faced.

700 babies may have been exposed to TB

EL PASO, Texas

More than 700 infants may have been exposed to tuberculosis at an El Paso hospital over the past year by an employee recently diagnosed with the illness, health officials said Friday.

The employee, who worked in the nursery at Providence Memorial Hospital, tested positive Aug. 25 and was placed on leave, but she may have exposed infants and about 40 other hospital workers starting in September 2013, said Dr. Hector Ocaranza, the health authority for El Paso County.

The bacteria that cause TB can lay dormant for months or even years before they grow and cause an active case of the disease, according to the El Paso Department of Public Health. The bacterial infection is spread through the air when someone sick with TB coughs or sneezes.

Mexico struggles to restore order

MEXICO CITY

Authorities struggled Friday to restore services and calm residents five days after Hurricane Odile knocked out power, water and phone service along the Baja Peninsula, sparking widespread looting in the resort area of Los Cabos.

Federal officials said 200 electricity workers were deployed in the affected area of Baja California Sur state. Power and water had been restored to only about 20 percent of customers in the twin resort cities of Los Cabos.

Interior Secretary Miguel Osorio Chong said more than 8,000 federal troops and police had arrived since Monday, after hundreds of stores were looted of food, water and other goods.

Associated Press