current events

CHICAGO (AP) - The odds of obesity appear stacked against black and Hispanic children starting even before birth, provocative new research suggests.

The findings help explain disproportionately high obesity rates in minority children. Family income is often a factor, but so are cultural customs and beliefs, the study authors said.

NEW YORK (AP) - Mixed reports Monday on manufacturing, construction and personal income and spending made clear that the economy is enjoying modest growth even though the recovery remains fragile.

Manufacturing output expanded in February for a seventh straight month. Factory output has provided one of the few areas of strength for the economy. Still, the growth in manufacturing activity slowed compared with January and fell short of economists' expectations.

CONCEPCION, Chile (AP) - Rescuers found signs of life in a quake-toppled building on Monday as the world offered aid to victims of a catastrophe that killed more than 700 people. Troops and police cracking down on looters arrested dozens of people for violating a curfew.

"We are confronting an emergency without parallel in Chile's history," Bachelet declared Sunday, a day after the magnitude-8.8 quake - one of the biggest in centuries - killed at least 708 people and destroyed or badly damaged 500,000 homes.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama strongly signaled that Democrats will move forward on a health care overhaul with or without Republicans, preparing his party for a fight whose political outcome will rest with voters in November.

Delivering his closing argument at a 7-1/2-hour televised policy marathon Thursday, Obama told Republicans he welcomes their ideas - even ones Democrats don't like - but they must fit into his framework for a broad health care remake that would cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans.

That's the deal.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A moment on the lips, forever on the hips? A bad figure is hardly the worst of it. Eating a lot of fat, especially the kind that's in cookies and pastries, can significantly raise the risk of stroke for women over 50, a large new study finds.

We already know that diets rich in fat, particularly artery-clogging trans fat, are bad for the heart and the waistline.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The president of Toyota's operations aplogized for the company's handling of safety issues Tuesday while insisting that electronic problems did not contribute to sudden acceleration of its cars. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued that such a possibility could not be ruled out.

Toyota's James Lentz and LaHood presented differing views in prepared testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's innvestigative panel, the first of three congressioal panels holding hearings on Toyota's problems.

NEW YORK (AP) - A monthly poll shows consumers' confidence took a surprisingly sharp fall in February amid rising job worries. The decline ends three straight months of improvement and raises concerns about the economic recovery.

The Conference Board says its Consumer Confidence Index fell almost 11 points to 46 in February, down from a revised 56.5 in January. Analysts were expecting only a slight decrease to 55.

CHICAGO (AP) - When 4-year-old Eric Stavros Adler choked to death on a piece of hot dog, his anguished mother never dreamed that the popular kids' food could be so dangerous.

Some food makers including Oscar Mayer have warning labels about choking, but not nearly enough, says Joan Stavros Adler, Eric's mom.

The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. The nation's largest pediatricians group is calling for sweeping changes in the way food is designed and labeled to minimize children's chances for choking.