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Cherryvale bomb suspect gets 35 years

A 24-year-old who admired Osama bin Laden was sentenced to 35 years in prison Tuesday for plotting to use hand grenades to attack a mall jammed with Christmas shoppers as part of what he saw as violent Islamic jihad.

Security officials plan to combat threat of the lone terrorist

The "lone terrorist" individual, self-radicalised and not connected to any group, forms a new potential threat, according to senior Whitehall security sources who are drawing up a new strategy to counter what they say is the continuing serious threat of attacks.

Illegal cattle trade funding terror

LUCKNOW: What has for past several years appeared an innocuous even if an illegal side ‘‘business’’, namely cattle trade, could be a source of terror funding, say top UP government officials. A substantial part of the Rs 15,000 crore illegal trade is being funnelled to fund terror, officials said.

Fire breaks out at Georgia ConAgra plant

Snippets: Omaha-based ConAgra Foods Inc. said a fire at the company's Peter Pan plant in southwest Georgia will not affect production of peanut butter.

Production at the Sylvester plant, which makes all of the company's Peter Pan peanut butter, was halted for six months in 2007 after a salmonella outbreak was traced to the factory. Shipments resumed in August 2007 with ConAgra assurances that the problem was resolved and the peanut butter was safe.

Lawyer says meat poses e-coli risk

After a major outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 in the early 1990s, the federal government moved to regulate the meat industry but only partially succeeded, he said. A compromise was made, involving the "intact cut of meat rule."

According to this rule, he said, hamburger can't be sold if it contains E. coli 0157:H7. But so-called "intact cuts" of meat, such as tri-tip, can be sold containing the bacteria. The rationale for the rule is that hamburger will be squeezed into patties, and contaminated meat on the outside might end up in the middle of the burger, where it might not be cooked long enough to kill any bacteria. But with solid meat, the thinking goes, any bacteria will remain on the outside and definitely be killed in cooking.

In fact, things don't work that way, Marler said, because some intact cuts get contaminated by being tenderized with needles, and some solid meat is turned into hamburger after it leaves the packing plant.

Marler said this policy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is "indefensible" and must be changed. But change seems unlikely because the beef industry's lobby is so powerful....