German farm in deadly E. coli outbreak to reopen (AP)

BERLIN � German authorities say a farm involved in a deadly E. coli outbreak is being cleared to reopen following thorough testing and the removal of all fenugreek seeds � considered the likely source.

The outbreak was traced in early June to the vegetable sprout farm at Bienenbuettel, south of Hamburg. European authorities later said one batch of fenugreek seeds from Egypt was probably the source of the bacterial outbreak that killed 53 people � 51 in Germany, and one each in Sweden and the U.S.

The state agriculture ministry in Lower Saxony said Thursday that there is no further need to keep the farm closed after negative tests on all employees and possible sources of infection there. It said all stocks of fenugreek seeds were removed from the farm.

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Movies companies snuff on-screen smoking (AP)

ATLANTA � A new study shows three film companies have drastically reduced smoking from their movies aimed at children and teens.

The three companies have in recent years adopted policies to cut on-screen tobacco use. Over the past five years, scenes involving tobacco dropped from an average of 23 to one per film and most of their youth movies had no smoking at all.

At companies without policies, the decline was less � from an average of 18 to 10 incidents per film.

In all top-grossing movies, the researchers said Thursday that smoking continued to drop last year.

Studies suggest that movies influence early decisions about smoking. Experts say the more times average teens see smoking on film, the higher the odds they will try tobacco.

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