USA

Compiled from wire service reports by Ross Atkin

from the December 1, 2008 edition

Police studied surveillance videos at a Valley Stream, N.Y., Wal-Mart store over the weekend, hoping to identify some of the 2,000 bargain-hunting shoppers who stampeded into the store over a temporary employee, who was killed. Authorities said bringing criminal charges would be difficult given the "utter chaos." At least four other people were injured at the store 20 miles east of Manhattan.

President Bush pledged full US support for India Saturday as it investigates the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (Bombay)that killed 174 people, including six Americans. Meanwhile, the State Department warned Americans traveling in India to keep a low profile.

Nationwide, 350,000 illegal immigrants were deported during the first nine months of this year, double the number during the same period in 2004, according to federal immigration data. Officials said it could take years to know whether the deportations, which affect less than 3 percent of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, are an effective deterrent.

Despite spending $20 billion on fighting bioterrorism since 9/11, the US must greatly increase efforts to prevent dangerous pathogens from falling into the wrong hands, according to a draft of a congressionally authorized report obtained by The Washington Post. The report, due out this week, says the technology exists for terrorists to make synthetic substances resistant to ordinary vaccines and antibiotics.

Visits to the nation's national forests during the past four years dropped 13 percent from the period 2000 to 2003, according to the US Forest Service. The agency cites rising gas prices and an increasingly urban and aging population as contributing factors. The decline also parallels the closing of trails and campgrounds, and the presence of more noisy off-road vehicles.

Baby formula with 1 part per million or less of melamine is safe, the Food and Drug Administration said of its newly announced threshold for the industrial chemical that has raised health concerns.

In its latest effort to survive the global financial crisis, Citigroup Inc. plans to sell its trust banking operation in Japan, media sources reported Sunday. The subsidiary is valued at about $417 milllion.