Name of Product: Rechargeable, lithium-ion batteries used in ThinkPad notebook computers

Units: About 168,500 battery packs (an additional 357,500 battery packs were sold worldwide).

Battery Distributor: Lenovo (United States) Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C. and International Business Machines Corp., of Armonk, N.Y.

Battery Manufacturer: Sony Energy Devices Corp., of Japan

Hazard: These lithium-ion batteries can cause overheating, posing a fire hazard to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: Lenovo has received one confirmed report of a battery overheating and causing a fire that damaged the notebook computer. The incident, which occurred within an airport terminal as the user was boarding an airplane, caused enough smoking and sparking that a fire extinguisher was used to put it out. There was minor property damage and no injuries were reported.

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This statement is current as of October 6, 2006

Update

To date, 199 cases of illness due to E. coli O157:H7 infection have been reported to CDC, including 31 cases of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), 102 hospitalizations and three deaths. The first death was an elderly woman in Wisconsin. The second death of a two-year-old in Idaho and the third death of an elderly woman in Nebraska were confirmed by CDC today as posted at http://www.cdc.gov/foodborne/ecolispinach/100606.htm.

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On October 8, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) became aware that The Nunes Company, Inc., of Salinas, California initiated a voluntary recall of green leaf lettuce distributed under the Foxy brand.  The company reported to FDA that it initiated the recall because of E.coli contamination of water used to irrigate the lettuce plants in the field during growing. At this time, there has been no determination of whether the E. coli found is O157:H7—the highly infectious type that can cause life-threatening foodborne illness in humans—or the more common, generally harmless strains of E. coli that usually do not cause disease. Further, there has been no known human illness linked to this recall.

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Seller to Pay More Than $100,000 in Civil Penalties

An insulation seller will pay a $104,257 civil penalty to settle charges that it made false and misleading performance claims about its insulation product known as “The Barrier.” The settlement prohibits the company and owner from making false and misleading claims and violating the Federal Trade Commission’s R-value Rule.

The R-value is a measure of an insulation’s resistance to heat flow: the higher the R-value, the greater the insulating power. The FTC’s R-value Rule requires home insulation industry members to provide R-value information based on the results of standard tests. Using the required R-value information, consumers can improve the energy efficiency of their homes by purchasing the right amount of insulation. Misleading advertising about R-values hurts the ability of consumers to make informed purchasing decisions.

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Settlement Bars Defendants From Pretexting and Selling Consumers’ Phone Records; Defendants Will Give Up Ill-Gotten Gains

An Internet business that advertised and sold consumers’ phone records and records of credit card accounts to third parties has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated federal law. The settlement bars the defendants from obtaining or selling consumers’ confidential phone and credit account records unless authorized by law or court order’ and requires that they give up the money they made selling phone records in the past.

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Qchex, an Internet-based check creation and delivery service, has agreed to a temporary restraining order to halt its unfair business practices. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court, the Federal Trade Commission charged that Qchex creates and sends checks drawn on any bank account identified by a Qchex customer without verifying that the customer has authority to write checks drawn on that account. As a result, con artists have used the Qchex service to draw checks on bank accounts that belong to others. According to the FTC, Qchex’s practices have harmed both innocent account holders whose bank accounts have been debited, and individuals and businesses who received fraudulent Qchex checks as payment for goods and services. The agency alleges the practices violate federal law, and has asked the court to order a permanent halt to the illegal operation, and to order the defendants to give up their ill-gotten gains. (more…)

Results of Surf with 60 Partners Searching Print, Internet, Radio, and TV for Deceptive Advertising Targeting Hispanics

The Federal Trade Commission has sent letters to 166 advertisers and 77 media outlets warning them that their advertisements targeting Hispanics are potentially deceptive. The ads were spotted during a one-day surf of Spanish-language newspaper, magazine, Internet, radio, and television advertisements by 60 partners around the United States and Latin America, coordinated by the FTC.

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This Travel Warning for Sudan reminds U.S. citizens of the continued threat of terrorism in Sudan and notes restrictions on travel by American citizens outside Khartoum.  This supersedes the Travel Warning issued for Sudan on August 31, 2006.

The Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens against all travel to Sudan, particularly in the Darfur area where there is a continuing buildup of Government and rebel military forces and where violence has increased significantly, and to remind travelers that the U.S. Government has received indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests in Sudan.  Terrorist actions may include suicide operations, bombings, or kidnappings.  U.S. citizens should be aware of the risk of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in public places, which include tourist sites and locations where westerners are known to congregate, and commercial operations associated with U.S. or Western interests.  As physical security remains high at official facilities, terrorists may turn towards softer targets, such as residential compounds.

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This Travel Warning is being issued to remind U.S. citizens that the potential for a terrorist attack or civil disturbance still exists, despite the fact that there have been no violent incidents in Uzbekistan since May 2005.  Visas are difficult for American citizens to obtain and are often valid for a single entry of very limited duration.  The Department of State continues to urge Americans in Uzbekistan to exercise extreme caution.   This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning of April 7, 2006. (more…)

This Public Announcement reminds American citizens traveling or living in Russia that there remains a heightened potential for terrorist actions, including attacks against civilians.  This situation is likely to continue for some time.  This supersedes the Public Announcement of April 4, 2006 and expires on March 31, 2007.

Acts of terrorism including bombings and hostage taking have occurred in Russia over the last several years.  Bombings have occurred at Russian government buildings, hotels, tourist sites, markets, entertainment venues, schools, residential complexes, and on public transportation including the subway and scheduled commercial air flights.  Hostage taking incidents have included a raid in 2004 on a school that resulted in horrific losses of life of children, teachers, and parents.  In October 2005, 200-300 gunmen attacked police and military facilities in a city in the North Caucasus region.

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