Green onions get blame for hepatitis A outbreak

BEAVER, Pa. -- The largest outbreak of hepatitis A in the nation's history is being blamed on green onions from Mexico. Of the nearly 600 cases -- three fatal -- traced to a Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant, almost all involved the imported onions, either in salsa or two particular entrees, Pennsylvania and federal health officials said Friday. But how the scallions became tainted remains unclear.

Calif. requires receipts by electronic vote machines

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Voting in California will have a paper trail starting in 2006. The secretary of state said Friday electronic voting machines must provide paper receipts to voters by that time, giving voters in the most populous state an unprecedented form of verification. Stricter requirements for testing and auditing of the software used to record and tabulate votes was also introduced.

Senate OKs wider probes into business records

WASHINGTON -- The FBI gets expanded powers to investigate businesses through an intelligence bill passed by Congress Friday and awaiting the president's signature. The bill funding 2004 intelligence programs at an estimated $40 billion allows federal investigators to demand financial records without court approval from businesses that deal in large amounts of cash, such as casinos, car dealerships.

Legal blocks to culling forests lifted by Congress

WASHINGTON -- Congress approved legislation Friday that lawmakers said would reduce the risk of wildfires in national forests by speeding removal of overgrown brush and diseased trees, especially near homes and towns. The measure would limit appeals and environmental reviews so that forest-thinning can be completed within months rather than years.

Alternative reactor work stopped in N. Korea

NEW YORK -- The United States, South Korea, Japan and the European Union decided Friday to suspend construction of two nuclear reactors in North Korea, which is suspected of secretly developing atomic weapons. The four are members of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization executive board, which had been building the light-water reactors under a 1994 deal. The light-water reactors, difficult to adapt to nuclear weapons production, were meant to replace three North Korean reactors that can make weapons-grade plutonium.

Inmate released on bail because of DNA testing

GETTYSBURG, Pa. -- A man behind bars for 16 years for rape and murder was released Friday based on new DNA evidence. Barry Laughman had been serving a life sentence for raping and killing an 85-year-old woman, but a newspaper, The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, said that it tracked down the DNA samples from semen found at the scene, and that a new set of laboratory tests excluded Laughman as the source. However, Laughman will remain under house arrest and monitoring pending a new trial.

Moderate, left religious groups form opposition

WASHINGTON -- Religious groups from the left and moderate are forming the Clergy Leadership Network to counter religious conservatives who back President Bush for re-election. The network's initial budget is $300,000 to $400,000, and plans involve helping churches, temples and mosques develop voter registration programs, starting get-out-the-vote drives and airing issue ads, said the Rev. Albert Pennybacker.

Review: Pulitzer winner didn't downplay famine

NEW YORK -- The 1932 Pulitzer Prize awarded to a New York Times reporter accused of deliberately ignoring the forced famine in the Ukraine will not be revoked, an administrator for the journalism awards said Friday. The late Walter Duranty's reports intentionally made no mention of the 1932-1933 forced famine in the Ukraine that killed as many as 7 million people, Ukrainian groups have complained. The inquiry by a Pulitzer subcommittee began in August.

-- From wire reports