■ United States
Frito-Lay says school at fault
A dead mouse that a student found inside a bag of potato chips he bought at lunch likely chewed its way into the bag after the chips were delivered to the school, a Frito-Lay spokeswoman said on Monday. An eighth-grader found the mouse last Wednesday. At the time, school officials said his claim appeared credible. The bag and the mouse were sent to Frito-Lay headquarters in Texas, where employees found a "chew hole" they believe the mouse made to get into the bag, company spokeswoman Aurora Gonzalez said. An independent veterinary pathologist concluded the mouse had been dead from one to three days before the student found it, Gonzalez said. The bag had been delivered to the school six days earlier.
■ United States
Court blocks execution
The day before his scheduled execution, a US appeals court ruled to block Ohio from putting to death a man who killed a woman, cut her up and scattered her remains across two states. Prison workers still prepared for the execution of Kenneth Biros, 48, because the state appealed to the US Supreme Court seeking a ruling to allow the lethal injection. The appeals court said Biros should be able to continue appealing a lawsuit with other inmates arguing that Ohio's method of lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. Other executions have been delayed in the past year because of the lethal injection lawsuit.
■ United States
Baby's death a mystery
A partially mummified baby, apparently born in the 1950s and found by a woman cleaning out her dead parents' storage unit in Florida died of an "undetermined" cause, a coroner said. The unidentified boy was found in January, wrapped in a Jan. 9, 1957, edition of the New York Daily News and stuffed inside a small suitcase that was inside a larger suitcase. "We don't know what the cause and the manner of death is with the child," Palm Beach County Medical Examiner Michael Bell said on Monday. "We have no way of knowing whether the child was stillborn or born alive."
■ United States
Group protests donation
An anti-smoking group has called on the US National Slavery Museum in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to return a donation from tobacco giant Philip Morris USA, saying the firm targets children "for another form of slavery." Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, sent a letter to the museum's executive director last week, saying association with the nation's largest cigarette manufacturer would counter the museum's goal to become an educational tool for children. The museum, which is pursuing a US$165 million capital campaign, does not plan to return the donation, spokesman Matt Langan said.
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