Eatery outbreaks tied to sick workers
Federal health officials say people who worked with food while sick or contagious were linked to about 40 percent of food poisoning outbreaks from restaurants with a known cause between 2017 and 2019.
Norovirus and salmonella were the most common causes of 800 outbreaks tied to 875 restaurants reported by about 25 state and local health departments.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say about 48 million people a year in the U.S. are sickened by foodborne illness.
PRISTINA, Kosovo — NATO will send 700 more troops to northern Kosovo to help quell violent protests after clashes with ethnic Serbs there left 30 international soldiers wounded, the alliance announced Tuesday.
The latest violence in the region has stirred fear of a renewal of the 199899 conflict in Kosovo that claimed more than 10,000 lives, left more than 1 million people homeless and resulted in a NATO peacekeeping mission that has lasted nearly a quarter of a century.
The clashes grew out of a confrontation that unfolded last week after ethnic Albanian officials elected in votes overwhelmingly boycotted by Serbs entered municipal buildings to take office. When Serbs tried to block them, Kosovo police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
More violence followed on Monday when Serbs clashed with police and NATO peacekeepers.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said an additional reserve battalion would be put on high readiness in case additional troops are needed.
“These are prudent steps,” said Stoltenberg, who made the announcement in Oslo after talks with the Norwegian prime minister.
The NATO-led peacekeeping mission in the region is known as KFOR and currently consists of almost 3,800 troops.
Also Tuesday, KFOR’s multinational peacekeepers used metal fences and barbed-wire barriers to reinforce positions in a northern town that has become a hot spot. The troops sealed off the municipal building in Zvecan, where unrest on Monday sent tensions soaring.
A former province of Serbia, Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence is not recognized by Belgrade. Ethnic Albanians make up most of the population, but Kosovo has a restive Serb minority in the north of the country bordering Serbia.
Stoltenberg condemned the violence and warned that NATO troops would “take all necessary actions to maintain a safe and secure environment for all citizens in Kosovo.”
He urged both sides to refrain from “further irresponsible behavior” and to return to EU-backed talks on improving relations.
The United States and most European Union nations have recognized Kosovo’s independence from Serbia while Russia and China have sided with Belgrade. China on Tuesday expressed its support for Serbia’s efforts to “safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and Moscow has repeatedly criticized Western policies in the dispute.
A drone attack that targeted Moscow on Tuesday exposed glaring breaches in its air defenses and underlined the capital’s vulnerability as more Russian soil comes under fire amid expectations of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The attack, which lightly damaged three apartment buildings, angered Russia’s hawks, who scathingly criticized President Vladimir Putin and the military brass for failing to protect the heart of Kremlin power more than 310 miles from the front line.
Five of the eight drones that took part in the raid were shot down, the Defense Ministry said, while three others were jammed and forced to veer off course. Some Russian media and bloggers alleged a larger number of drones were involved, but those claims couldn’t be verified.
The attack followed a May 3 drone strike on the Kremlin that lightly damaged the roof of the palace that includes one of Putin’s official residences. Other drones have crashed near Moscow in what Russian authorities described as botched Ukrainian attempts to attack the city and infrastructure facilities in the suburbs. Last week, the Russian border region of Belgorod was the target of one of the most serious cross-border raids since the war began, with two far-right pro-Ukrainian paramilitary groups claiming responsibility. Officials in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar near annexed Crimea said two drones struck there Friday, damaging residential buildings. The attacks also drew calls for bolstering Russia’s borders.
Ukrainian authorities rejoiced over Tuesday’s drone attack but customarily avoided a claim of responsibility, a response similar to what they said after previous attacks on Russian territory.
In a sarcastic tweet, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that “even artificial intelligence is already smarter and more far-sighted than the Russian military and political leadership.”
The Russian military pummeled the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and other cities with cruise missiles and exploding drones for the past three nights, a significant spike in such attacks that have been regularly launched since October. The
Ukrainian military said it shot down most of the missiles and remained coy about reporting damage from the strikes.
Putin cast the attack on Moscow as a Ukrainian attempt to intimidate its residents. He said Moscow’s air defenses worked as expected, but admitted that protecting a huge city is a daunting task.
“It’s clear what needs to be done to beef up air defenses, and we will do it,” he added.
Military watchers said the drones used in the attack were relatively crude and cheap but could have a range of over 620 miles. They predicted more could follow.
Some of the drones seen flying toward Moscow were the Ukrainian-made UJ-22s, capable of carrying explosives; others spotted in the skies near Moscow were similarly small vehicles.
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies International Security Program, noted that part of the reason why drones could make it all the way to Moscow undetected was because Russian air defenses are mostly focused on fending off attacks by more sophisticated weapons.