USA
Dell Inc., the world's largest maker of personal computers, announced a recall of lithium-ion batteries used in 4.1 million Dell notebook models shipped between April 1, 2004, and July 18 of this year. The company, which is based in Round Rock, Texas, said that in "rare cases" the Sony batteries may short-circuit and overheat, possibly causing fires. The recall was negotiated with the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, which called it the largest recall in agency history.
PepsiCo Inc. announced that Indra Nooyi, the chief financial officer of the soft-drink and snacks company, would become chief executive officer, beginning Oct. 1. Nooyi has been with Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo since 1994 and now joins an elite group of 11 women to run Fortune 500 companies. Her predecessor, Steven Reinemund, is retiring.
The Producer Price Index, which measures wholesale prices, rose a mere 0.1 percent in July, the smallest rate since February, the Labor Department said Tuesday. A drop in food prices offset climbing energy costs. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy, fell 0.3 percent.
The FBI said Monday that there is no imminent terrorist threat to the Mackinac Bridge, which links upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan, and that they had no information tying three Palestinian-Americans arrested for suspicious activities to any known plots. The men, who live in Texas, had taken numerous photographs of the bridge and were found with about 1,000 cellphones, which can be used to detonate explosives, in their van. The men say they want to resell the phones.
A study of 15 states with term limits for state senators and representatives found no significant increase in the numbers of women or minorities between 1995 and 2004, according to findings released by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Where diversity gains were made, the report suggests, demographic trends, not term limits, were mainly responsible.
Airport X-ray machines cannot detect explosive liquids and gels even though it's now mandatory for airline passengers to have their shoes checked by such equipment, according to a Homeland Security report obtained by the Associated Press. A Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said the procedure is used "to mitigate a variety of threats," including potential weapons.
NASA said videotapes from the first moon landing in 1969 aren't lost but that a year-long archival search has yet to locate the footage. Once it's located, NASA hopes to use digital processing to produce sharper images of the event.
