Record number died in ’04 ATV accidents
An estimated 740 people, a record, died in all-terrain- vehicle accidents last year, the government said Thursday as it took a step toward oversight of the vehicles.
The estimated toll, which includes 470 documented cases, compares with an estimated 617 deaths in 2003 and estimates of between 538 and 599 annual deaths in the previous three years, according to a report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday.
Also, an all-time high of at least 136,100 people went to the hospital last year for injuries involving the four-wheel cycles that have a wide seat and low stand, and a third of those hurt were younger than 16.
Weakening Tammy
soaks south Georgia
Tropical Storm Tammy turned subdivisions into lagoons and soaked the port city of Brunswick, Ga., with more than 4 inches of rain before weakening to a tropical depression Thursday.
Ankle-deep water seeped into at least two dozen homes, and Tammy’s winds felled trees and power lines in southeast Georgia.
Tammy came ashore as a weak tropical storm late Wednesday near the Florida state line. By Thursday afternoon, the depression was spreading moderate rain across Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and the Carolinas. Isolated tornadoes were possible.
Late-turning leaves
disappointing tourists
The calendar says October, but the weather is screaming summer to millions of northern New England trees that have yet to expose their vivid autumnal colors.
Visitors are pouring in to the region for the traditional Columbus Day weekend peak of the fall foliage season, but instead of pinks, purples, reds and golds, there is a lot of green across the landscape.
Because of warm, sunny weather across New England lately, it is taking a week to a month longer than usual for the leaves to change color.
Leaves change color mainly in response to how much sunlight trees get, so as long as the sun keeps shining, trees will continue producing chlorophyll, the chemical that keeps leaves green.
Toll from mudslides,
rains passes 200
The death toll from five days of pounding rains in Central America and Mexico jumped to more than 200 Thursday after rescue workers recovered at least 40 bodies from a landslide in Guatemala.
Officials expected the death toll to rise even more as they searched for more than 150 others who were missing following the massive landslide in Solola, a town close to the freshwater reserve of Lake Atitlan.
The recovery of the bodies pushed the death toll in the entire region to 211.
Ousted Fujimori says
he’ll run again in Peru
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, living in Japan as a fugitive from criminal charges, announced he would run for president in Peru’s upcoming election, the Kyodo News agency reported Thursday.
Peru’s ambassador to Japan said the ousted leader would be arrested the moment he returned to the South American country. Fujimori fled his homeland in November 2000 as his government crumbled amid a corruption scandal.
N. Ireland Protestants
make fresh demands
The Democratic Unionists, Northern Ireland’s dominant Protestant party, presented a long list of demands Thursday to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, their price for opening negotiations on power-sharing with Sinn Fein.
The talks with Blair were the first since disarmament officials confirmed Sept. 26 that the Irish Republican Army had surrendered its weapons stockpiles.
