WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal safety officials are announcing a recall of window blinds and shades after the strangling death of a young child and a close call for a second.

The recall involves nearly 700,000 IKEA and Green Mountain Vista blinds and shades.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says a 1-year-old girl from Greenwich, Conn., was strangled when she got caught in the inner cord of an IKEA Roman blinds set that was hanging over her playpen. IKEA sold the blinds at stores nationwide between July 2005 and this past June. They can be returned to any IKEA store for a refund.

The agency also received a report of a 2-year-old girl from Bristol, Conn., who nearly strangled on the beaded-chain loop hanging from a set of Green Mountain Vista shades. The girl's older brother saved her.

The shades are insulated blackout roller shades and insulated Roman shades sold by a number of stores and catalogs. Green Mountain Vista says owners should check to see if a tension device is attached to the chain loop. If not, the company is offering a free repair kit and installation instructions.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted: 10:20am EST November 20, 2008

ATLANTA (AP) -- A restaurant industry spokeswoman says a new study linking obesity and fast-food ads is based on old information.

At issue is a study suggesting that banning fast-food ads on TV could reduce the number of obese young children by 18 percent. The number of obese older kids could drop by 14 percent.

The study is based in part on several years of government survey data from the late 1990s. A spokeswoman for the National Council of Chain Restaurants says restaurant menus have changed a lot since then, including healthier options.

She also argues that parents -- not kids -- have control over most of a family's food spending.

The study is being published this month in the Journal of Law & Economics.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted: 1:49pm EST November 20, 2008

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Workers at New Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport are getting a crash course on how to keep their cool.

It coincides with the fast-approaching holiday travel season, when stressed air travelers are even more likely to hurl epithets or even luggage at harried employees.

Trainer Tom Murphy leads the workers into role playing scenarios and tells them to remember that people who blow up at them when flights are delayed or bags are lost are usually "not bad people."

In one role-play sequence, an employee played a customer who needed to make a connection for a family reunion in Chicago. Another played a ticket agent whose shift was nearing an end and who had an after-hours appointment to get to. The message was that sloughing the traveler off to another agent would just make him angrier.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted: 6:30pm EST November 19, 2008

ATLANTA (AP) -- UPS Inc. expects its busiest day overall for shipping packages this year will be Dec. 18.

For the first time since it went public in 1999, the Atlanta-based company is forecasting how many packages it will ship that day. United Parcel Service also will not project how many seasonal employees it will hire this year to help it through the holiday shipping season that runs from Thanksgiving until Christmas.

The decision was prompted by weak October retail sales and the uncertainty of the upcoming holiday season amid the worst financial crisis to hit the U.S. in decades.

Last year, UPS, the world's largest shipping carrier, delivered more than 22 million packages on its peak shipping day, which was Dec. 19, and it hired about 60,000 seasonal employees.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted: 10:26am EST November 18, 2008

CHICAGO (AP) -- A large study has shown the dietary supplement ginkgo didn't help prevent dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Extracts from ginkgo tree leaves have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, but earlier research on ginkgo and memory showed mixed results. Proponents claim gingko protects the brain by preventing the buildup of an Alzheimer's-related protein or by preventing cell-damaging oxidative stress.

To test the theories, researchers recruited more than 3,000 people, ages 75 and older. Half were randomly assigned to take 120 milligrams of ginkgo biloba twice a day. The others took identical dummy pills.

After six years, dementia had been diagnosed at a similar rate in both groups. Researchers noted a similar rate of Alzheimer's disease. The leader of the federally funded study said he doesn't think ginkgo "has a future as a powerful anti-dementia drug."

The study appears in tomorrow's Journal of the American Medical Association.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted: 5:20pm EST November 18, 2008