NPR 2008-07-18（在线收听）

The Food and Drug Administration has lifted its warning on eating fresh tomatoes. Officials say the salmonella outbreak is still ongoing, but varieties of tomatoes on the market now have been given the all-clear. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports.

 FDA officials say farms producing tomatoes that may have led to illnesses early on in the salmonella outbreak are no longer harvesting or shipping product. Therefore, they say consumers may eat all types of tomatoes they find in their local grocery stores. The warnings on fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers, however, remain in place, as does the investigation into the source of the bacteria. The FDA has dispatched a team to Mexico to investigate one packing facility that handles both jalapeno and serrano peppers. CDC officials say the intensity of the outbreak appears to be waning with the trend towards a decrease in the number of cases being reported. A total of 1,200 people have gotten sick since the outbreak began in mid-April. And more than 200 have been hospitalized. Allison Aubrey, NPR News, Washington.

 Mourners today buried the second of two Israeli soldiers whose bodies were returned in a  prisoner exchange with Lebanon. The casket of the soldier was draped with a blue and white Israeli flag in a military cemetery at Haifa. Meanwhile, Israel, in exchange for the soldiers, returned the remains of some 200 captured Arab fighters. NPR's Ivan Watson has more from Beirut.

 Thousands of people are lining the streets here at the gateway to Beirut, throwing rice and flowers at passing trucks loaded with scores of flag-draped coffins. These contain the bodies of Lebanese and Palestinian fighters, uh, who were handed over by Israel as part of a prisoner exchange this week. The bodies are receiving a hero's welcome, the crowd here are waving the flags of Lebanon and of, uh, the Palestinian flag and of numerous Palestinian parties which were once much stronger in the 1970s and 80s, which now have a fraction of the strength that they had in earlier days. NPR's Ivan Watson in Beirut, Lebanon.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft testifying before members of  Congress today disavowed the now-defunct legal reasoning used to justify interrogation techniques of terrorism suspects critics have described as harsh. However, in his first testimony under oath since leaving office three years ago, he defended the White House. Ashcroft told members of the House Judiciary Committee he also does not consider waterboarding, at least as described by intelligence officials, to be torture. “As described by the CIA's interrogation methods that waterboarding did not constitute torture, I think those are valid conclusions. I don’t think I could under oath say that I've never had a second thought about it.” Ashcroft also told lawmakers he believes interrogators who follow the Justice Department’s guidelines in good faith can not be prosecuted.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 207 points, closing at 11,446. The S&P 500 was up.

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Officials in Texas today have signed off on what will be the nation's largest wind power project. Government officials in the Lone Star State giving the preliminary nod to a plan that would call for the construction of billions of dollars worth of new transmission lines that would transport wind-generated electricity from West Texas to urban areas of the state. Electric customers in the state are expected to bear much of the cost of the 4.9-billion-dollar project, paying about four billion dollars or four dollars more a month on their electric bills. Texas already generates around 5,000 mega-watts of electricity using wind power, that's more than any other state.

 The pilots union for US Airways has filed complaints with the Federal Aviation Administration, accusing the airline of pressuring pilots to use less fuel than they feel is safe in order to save money. Arizona Public Radio's Gillian Ferris Kohl reports.

 Eight pilots who requested an extra 10 to 15 minutes’ worth of fuel were sent to training sessions. Some pilots say this was a punitive action that could put their licenses in jeopardy. US Airways has been trying to cut expenses because of the rising cost of jet fuel. But pilots and their union say carrying less fuel is not the answer. FAA regulations require aircraft to carry enough fuel to reach their destination and an alternate destination plus an extra 45 minutes’ worth of fuel. An FAA spokeswoman says the agency has been monitoring reports of minimum fuel loads, but so far sees no violation of regulations by US Airways. The US Airways pilots union took out a full page ad this week in USA Today. It accuses the airline of, what it calls, “a program of intimidation to pressure pilots to reduce fuel loads”. For NPR New, I'm Gillian Ferris Kohl in Flagstaff.