Blue Bell recalls all of its products

Blue Bell recalls all of its products

BRENHAM, Texas

Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries is recalling all of its products on the market after two samplings of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream tested positive for listeriosis.

Blue Bell’s chief executive Paul Kruse said in a statement Monday night that the company “can’t say with certainty” how the bacteria was introduced to the manufacturing line.

The company last month issued its first recall after ice cream contaminated with listeriosis was linked to three deaths at a Kansas hospital. Five others in Kansas and Texas were sickened with the disease.

The foodborne illness was tracked to a production line in Brenham, Texas, and later to a second line in Broken Arrow, Okla.

Durst trial put off

NEW ORLEANS

Jailed real-estate heir Robert Durst’s trial on a federal weapons charge has been postponed from June to September.

U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan set the date for Sept. 21 on Monday. Durst is charged with possessing a firearm after a felony conviction.

Durst’s attorneys asked for a delay Friday, saying the government is still working on its requests for pretrial information.

Pulitzers announced

NEW YORK

The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., won the Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday for an examination of the deadly toll of domestic violence, while The New York Times collected three awards and the Los Angeles Times two.

The Seattle Times staff took the breaking-news award for its coverage of a mudslide that killed 43 people and its exploration of whether the disaster could have been prevented.

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal both won investigative reporting prizes, the Times for an examination of lobbyists’ influence on state attorneys general, the Journal for detailing fraud and waste in the Medicare payment system.

Woman sentenced in 6 babies’ deaths

PROVO, Utah

A mother who killed six of her newborn babies and hid their bodies in her garage was sentenced to up to life in prison Monday at an emotional hearing in which a prosecutor depicted her as an “incredibly indifferent and callous” murderer.

The judge imposed a sentence against Megan Huntsman that went beyond what was called for in a plea deal because he was so repelled by the killings. Judge Darold McDade said that he heard about the case before it came to his courtroom and hoped it wouldn’t be assigned to him.

S. Korean premier offers to resign

SEOUL, South Korea

South Korea’s prime minister has offered to resign amid a bribery scandal about two months after he took up the country’s No. 2 post, officials said today, in the latest political crisis to hit President Park Geun-hye.

Lee Wan Koo has been at the center of a corruption scandal that flared after a businessman killed himself earlier this month, leaving a memo listing the names of high-profile figures he claimed to have bribed.

Businessman Sung Wan-jong told a local daily before his death he gave 30 million won ($27,390) to Lee in 2013.

Lee has denied the allegation, but he has seen growing calls to resign after South Korea’s media have continuously reported possible evidences that indicate his ties with Sung.

Lee’s office said today he conveyed his resignation offer Monday to President Park Geun-hye, who was in Peru as part of a four-nation overseas trip.

Associated Press