Washington, D.C.: Car seat belt use rises; motorcycle helmet use falls

More motorists are buckling their seat belts than ever before but the number of motorcyclists wearing helmets has plummeted, a government study showed Tuesday.

Seat belt use reached 75 percent this year, the highest level since national surveys began in 1994, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Officials there credited the trend in part to education and enforcement efforts.

Motorcycle helmet usage has dropped nearly 14 percent since 2000, when the last survey was taken, the agency said. State laws requiring helmet use unraveled after 1995, when Congress repealed incentives for states to require motorcyclists to wear head protection.

The NHTSA estimates that in a crash, helmets reduce the likelihood of a fatality by 29 percent.

Washington, D.C.: U.S. to fingerprint, photograph foreigners

U.S. immigration inspectors today will begin fingerprinting and photographing certain foreign travelers from any country whom they deem potential terrorists.

The expanded scrutiny at airports, seaports and border crossings is the first step in an ambitious effort to track all foreigners, using a biometric database, as they enter and exit the United States by 2005.

The program will begin today at three airports around the country the government will not say which three and is expected to be functioning at all ports of entry by Oct. 1.

Florida: FBI finishes anthrax search

Federal investigators completed their search Tuesday of the former headquarters of American Media Inc. in Boca Raton after scouring the building for 12 days looking for clues in last year’s anthrax attack.

Hundreds of samples were collected from the quarantined building, but investigators would not say whether they found the source of the anthrax that fatally infected photo editor Robert Stevens last fall. Stevens was the first of five people to die nationwide in the bioterror attacks.

After the Oct. 7 quarantine, American Media moved its headquarters to offices nearby to publish its six supermarket tabloids, including the National Enquirer.

Jerusalem: ‘Bin Laden’ lighters, weapons intended for Palestinians

Israel announced on Tuesday the seizure of shipping containers headed for the Palestinian Authority with cigarette lighters depicting Osama bin Laden and weapons.

The containers, marked “toys,” were found during a random customs check at Israel’s port in Ashdod in June, according to a government statement. Instead of toys, the containers carried guns, binoculars and cigarette lighters depicting bin Laden alongside the World Trade Center as airplanes slam into the towers.

Israel decided to time the disclosure with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

“The planned distribution of these lighters in the Palestinian Authority was designed to be yet another expression of support for the terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaida,” the government statement said.