Nation in brief

Tuna sandwich may cut Alzheimer's risk

CHICAGO - Older people who eat fish at least once a week may cut their risk of Alzheimer's by more than half, a study suggests.

Researchers found that people 65 and older who had fish once a week had a 60 percent lower risk of Alzheimer's than those who never or rarely ate fish. The meals included tuna sandwiches, fish sticks and shellfish; the amounts eaten were not specified.

"This is very promising, but it's very early and really we need to have a lot more studies," said lead researcher Martha Clare Morris of Chicago's Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center.

The researchers found an association between eating fish and a reduced risk of Alzheimer's even after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity and risk factors like heart disease.

The study was published Monday in the Archives of Neurology. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Rachelle Doody, professor of neurology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, questioned the new study's conclusion.

She said it is not known whether those people who had a reduced risk had eaten fish most of their lives, and whether other dietary habits had an influence. Also, those studied were asked to recall their diets nearly two years later on average, Doody said.

NEW YORK - A federal judge threw out the NAACP's case against the gun industry Monday, despite finding that the manufacturers have put the public at risk with careless marketing practices.

Affirming a jury verdict in favor of the gunmakers, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein ruled that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People failed to show, as required by law, that its members were uniquely harmed.

CRAWFORD, Texas - Democrats are launching a television ad that accuses President Bush of misleading Americans on the nuclear threat from Iraq.

Republicans urged broadcasters not to carry the ad, set to be aired initially Monday in Madison, Wis., then elsewhere; they called it "deliberately false and misleading."

The video shows Bush saying, "Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

The ad continues: "But now we find out it wasn't true.

Republicans claim the ad improperly quotes Bush because his entire statement was: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

RESCUERS SAVE SEA TURTLE: In a rare successful rescue, a 600-pound sea turtle was hauled back into the ocean after it washed up on a Cape Cod beach, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium said Monday. The six-foot leatherback was found on a beach Friday. It took seven people using two stretchers, ordinarily used to rescue dolphins, to push the massive turtle back into the Atlantic.

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